#it was hard to pick out favorites because i have quite a few pokemon im obsessed with. more than this

[atlurantis]

[creativewhizkid]

twisty pokérot hours here are some of my fav pokémon from each region BECAUSE no one asked :3 /pos

whoopsie a WHOLE BUNCH of rambling under cut !!

kanto:

wartortle!!! my boy!!! his design slaps SO HARD and is honestly one of the best middle stage starters. everyday i weep for the scrapped og blastoise design that looked a lot more like him :(

johto:

i honestly cannot pick between typhlosion, scizor and ampharos… typhlosion is one of my favorite starters ever, i don’t really care about how he and the other gen 2 starters are under designed. i love my angry honey badger echidna freak <3

scizor is just like. peak character design to me. shes like scyther walked into hot topic and came out a girlboss. i love the underrated bug type and bugs in general and scizor really held the candle for the best bug type for a long time (for me atleast)

ampharos omgggg ampharos… honestly the entire mareep line is so cute to me!! i love how it goes from an unsheared sheep, to half sheared, and then to fully sheared. also ampharos has the “bean bag body type” pokemon design trope that i love, all pokemon with this body type (ex: goodra, dragonite, flygon ) are all so huggable and cute to me!! i NEED an ampharos irl NOW!!! 🤬🤬🤬 /pos

hoenn:

maybe a basic answer but THE ENTIRE MUDKIP LINE!!! YES I DO LIKE MUDKIPS /ref

yes this includes marshtomp ily marshtomp and most of all SWAMPERT!!

mudkip is one of the cutest starters EVER and choosing one in a gen 3 game is THE CORRECT CHOICE. i chose mudkip and i named her skipp and we quite literally single-handedly obliterated every single trainer battle, gym leader and the elite four + steven stone together. swampert has one of the best typings in the games ( water + ground ) so she only had ONE weakness and was IMMUNE to electricity 😭 poor wattson

she REALLY cemented my love for the entire mudkip line oaosufjfoighhh i love my mudfish salamander axolotl so much!

i will admit it took me like. a few days of playing ruby and looking at fanart to get used to marshtomp’s design but i can say with certainty that i love marshtomp as much as mudkip and swampert <3

sinnoh:

GLISCOR 👹👹👹

i love bats so much and gliscor is not an exception. one of the best new evolutions design wise, and i just love the cheeky personality it radiates. i caught one in platinum and named it uzi after uzi from murder drones <3

it was the evolution gligar NEEDED and thank lord it got it because gliscor is amazing and i want one irl. also kinda unrelated but i was baffled when i learned that this mf is 6’07’’?? hello???

honourable mentions also go to gastrodon <3 (specifically east sea form)

unova:

man i feel so bad for the gen 5 games plus it’s pokémon cuz the anime gave it such a bad rep 😭 yeah i agree the anime was kinda eh BUT THE GAMES AND GEN 5 POKÉMON ARE GREAT OK?? i have a lot of favs but im gonna have to go with reuniclus !!

when it comes to my taste in pokémon i don’t really care about their stats or competitive stuff, i mainly judge them based off of their design. so you can imagine when i saw reuniclus plus it’s pre-evolutions i instantly fell in love. he’s??? so silly??? HELLO??? who knew a pokémon based off of my average biology class lecture would make me go HDJDHEJWHWHEHEHEHEEHIEAWWWWW 🥹🥹 so much

kalos:

gif quality is awful but GOODRA AND ITS PRE-EVOLUTIONS ARE ACTUALLY MY FAVOURITE POKEMON OF ALL TIME !! <3

i was watching the xy anime... i was watching the ash vs clemont battle... i saw ash's goodra do it's silly little splashes while using its rain dance in the gif above... i don't think i've ever " AWWWWW'D " louder in my life???

i cannot put into words HOW MUCH I LOVE GOODRA!! it's FAT it's a DRAGON it's a SLUG it loves HUGS it's TALL it's FRIENDLY and it's ALSO CUTE?? AND A PSEUDO-LEGENDARY??? PEAK POKÉMON!! i just look at goodra fanart daily just to make my heart melt CUZ I LOVE THIS FAT SLIME DRAGON SO MUCHAWGFWJFWAHB

BEST dragon type CUTEST dragon type BEST pseudo-legend BEST POKÉMON EVER I'M RIGHT YOURE WRONG !!! /HJ /LH

alola:

i have two favs... the rowlet line (mainly decidueye) and lurantis!! i'll talk about decidueye first

pokémon sun was actually the first pokémon game i've ever played!! i really wish i played the earlier games sooner but i was more of a pokémon anime kid growing up... sigh... atleast now i've been playing more games <3

anyways decidueye!! rowlet was actually my first ever starter! i loved the beach ball owl so much! i don't remember much about my first couple of playthroughs of sun (i dont think i ever got to evolve my starter beyond a dartrix) but ever since i got into pokémon again and absorbed so much info into my brain i've concluded that decidueye is actually amazing

i LOVE archers. i LOVE owls. i LOVE characters with hoods/cloaks/capes. i HAD to love decidueye. plus it's typing ( grass / ghost ) is actually so cool?? it's just such a well designed and well thought-out pokémon

lurantis omg lurantis... they could never make me hate you lurantis...

it's. literally. SO CUTE!! if a pokémon is cute enough to me i am GOING to like it automatically. additionally i love how it's based off of the real life orchid mantis!! irl orchid mantis' are basically pink mantis' that look like flowers, particularly orchids to hide themselves in plain view to ambush their prey. cool, right?

well, with lurantis, it's a pure grass type, not a bug type. the reason that is is because lurantis is actually a flower, particularly an orchid, that looks like a mantis, to fit in with other bug types since grass types are weak to bugs. i really love that!! i also just love lurantis' design in general🥺

galar:

even though gen 8 is my least favourite generation (i don't hate it, it's just that i love the others more) i do have a fav! while i do like pokémon such as dragapult, corviknight, frosmoth, grapploct, etc, centiskorch is 100% my favourite!! i love bugs in general and a fire centipede is honestly just super cool. it's design is awesome as heck and it's gigantamax form is one of my favourites, even though it just gets super long :3 also the name centiskorch is so cool

hisui:

surprise surprise my fav hisui mon is hisuian typhlosion!! legends arceus really took one of my fav pokémon and made him stoned and girlypop huh /pop

again. with. the. amazing! fire/ghost! typing! it works SO well with typhlosion somehow. hisuian typhlosion's design didn't change much from johtonian typhlosion's but it still slaps SO HARD. the darker purple works so well with the fire collar pattern it has arounds its neck and i love how they gave him eyeshadow!! just an amazing mon all around <3

paldea:

it's a tie between ceruledge and tatsugiri!! i'll talk about ceruledge first <3

look at my baby coughing like a smoker <3

i've said this a lot already in regards to the others on this list but one of the biggest reasons i fell in love with ceruledge when i saw it for the first time is because of its design!! ghost/fire is such a cool typing (that skeledirge also has <3) and despite ceruledge and it's counterpart armarouge being more on the humanoid side, unlike other pokémon who are also in the same boat they don't look uncanny to me at all!! ceruledge is just so cool with its colour palette and the BLUE/PURPLE FLAME SWORDS?!!!??? HELLO!?? that it's difficult NOT to like it!! ily ceruledge

the contrast between tatsugiri and ceruledge is kinda funny

anyways i bloody adore this ONE FOOT TALL sushi fish so much. i love how in its stretchy form its glaring at me like it knows what i have done /hj

i dont know?? why i?? love him so much??? he's literally just a grumpy sushi fish who changes colours... he's my favourite boyfailure!! he's so cute and tiny!!!

anyways this has been twisty pokérot hours goodnight tristate area <3

[startistdoodles]

I need quick advice,what should be my last member when replaying bdsp,here is my current team,excluding the member i want to replace,thanatos the absol:

Voodoo the misdreavus(very much the mvp right now,defeated fantina’s mismagius after a quick thunder wave,and all of barry’s team in the last battle with him,which makes me glad since it and its evolución are my favorite pokemon)

Coronette the magnezone

Terra the tor terra

Contraversy the toxicroak(at first a temporary member but now if I don’t want overlap with lucario i need a fighting type

Shinjin the togetic(spent all of yesterday trying to get her to love me,suceded after several happines guides)

And thats it,im doing iron island right now to evolve shinji,got any recomendaciones for a new member to replace absol?

Ohhh I’d be happy to help! I’ll offer a couple ideas, and you can pick which one fits your team the best :)

Steelix - Offers a counter against Ice-types that your Torterra is 4x weak to. Steel is also a good type to have on most teams anyways, because its typing resists most other types and also provides an immunity to sandstorms and the poison status. Its ground type does overlap with Torterra, though.

Weavile - It’s a bit of a glass cannon, but its speed and attack are really good and its Dark typing provides it with a counter against Ghost types that may threaten your Misdreavus as well as Psychic types that threaten your Toxicroak. As long as it’s not put up against any fighting types, it makes for some good coverage.

Luxray - Luxray is a staple in any Sinnoh team I make, as its electric typing comes in handy during many battles, especially Team Galactic, which consist of a lot of Golbats. It only has one weakness (Ground) which is kind of uncommon in Sinnoh. The only trouble it may have is against Bertha in the Elite Four and Cynthia’s Garchomp.

Milotic/Gyarados - I think a good water-type is always a good staple on any team, as they’re good against quite a few common types. Milotic is more preferable to me as it has really good bulk and can last a long time if you pair it with Aqua Ring or Recover. But I understand Milotic is really hard to obtain, so Gyarados would be a good second choice. It’s got high attacking power and a great movepool of strong water and dark type moves.

Hope these help you fill out that last slot in your party ^^ I think any one of them would be a good fit!

[baddyzarc]

4a/7 Ruins: Legend of the Dragons

1 2 3 x 4b 5 6 7  

Mizael’s legend is juicy but also confusing. Like, there is a big massive plot hole in his story. like this thing is a pulsating zit,, I’ll get to it later on and how it contradicts the show, but I considered it when making this. 

Also the entire thing is is like 6000 words long with a lot of pictures so im splitting this thing up, the “read under” thing wasnt workin properly

Mizael is one of the more developed Emperors out of the group. He has a strong rivalry with Kaito, and he faces off against him in his quest to be the strongest Dragon Tamer (whatever that means, idk pokemon master). This leads to the development of not only himself and Kaito, but also an expansion on the lore of Zexal itself.

His ruins are located somewhere in the mountainous region of China. However, this location is also an illusion created by Jinlon, since it disappeared at the end of the arc—similar to Nasch and Merag’s underwater ruins —as opposed to the other tangible locations. Similar to Spartan City being based off of real-life Rome, Mizael’s ruins are based on a real place in China. 

When I saw these rocky formations, I got kinda excited because these are some of my favorite geologic sites in the world. 

For those unaware, this area is called the Tianzi Mountains; they are located in Zhangjiajie in the Hunan Province of China. The one in Zexal is much less detailed, but the geography is uncannily similar; I am certain that Mizael’s ruins are located in these mountains.

Tianzi Mountain is a famous tourist attraction known for being tranquil and beautiful, lush greenery and fog rolling about. If you must know, the enviroments in Avatar Blue People was inspired by this space. Its tranquility is a fitting place for Mizael’s Mythyrian Number: “Number 46: Ethereal Dragon Dragluon”. 

Furthmore, to compare more of the geology, the bottom of these peaks are made of limestone. Limestone is a type of rock that tends to form caves in it (due to weathering and erosion, you know), so this information fits in rather nicely when Kaito said he explored the caves around the region. 

And a really cool easter egg about this site from that fact is that one of the caves near Tianzi Mountain is the Huanglong Cave, also known as the Yellow Dragon Cave. It’s not certain that Kaito was in this cave when he found the tablet (he probably went into a random cave for all we know), but you know who is a yellow dragon living around Tianzi Mountain? Jinlon the Golden Dragon, the Guardian of the Mizael’s ruins.

This bit of geography may also explain the origins of Mizael, but I’ll get to this information later on after I explain the story of his ruins, the Legends of the Dragons.

The Legends of the Dragons is told to us by Jinlon and Mizael. The original tale is easy enough to understand with a few things that do not line up. 

Long ago, Mizael was a young child living in a desert village. The village was attacked by marauders, resulting in the slaughter of everyone, including his parents. Mizael witnessed the events, and in terror, he fled into the desert. 

After wandering the vast desert for presumably a day or so, he collapsed in exhaustion. On the verge of death, he was rescued by a large, yellow dragon named Jinlon. 

Their souls resonated with each other, and with their strengths, they kept the peace of the land somewhere in the mountains of China.

 One day, a natural disaster struck that killed masses of innocent people. 

A wandering shaman blamed the disaster on Jinlon, prompting the people to call for the death of the dragon. Mizael tried to protect Jinlon, but the people refused to listen. They demanded that Mizael slay his companion if he wanted to prove his herodom. Instead, Mizael offered his own life in exchange for the life of Jinlon. Unfortunately, since the scuffle weakened the strength of the village, a neighboring army attacked them. Mizael and Jinlon were pierced by a “hundred of thousands of arrows” and died in each other’s grasp. The entire village was wiped out and erased from history. 

In the subsequent set of information, it is revealed that the shaman was Don Thousand in disguise, and he orchestrated the event in order to kill Mizael as the people he swore to protect turned on him. Before Mizael died, Don Thousand embedded an Over-Hundred Number into his heart. This filled him with hate and despair, sealing his fate as a Barian Emperor. 

Jinlon also revealed that when he died, the Mythyrian Number revived his soul so that he could protect the land. 

This implication is fascinating since Jinlon is the only one that directly states how he became the Guardian, and if that’s true, it may explain why individuals who were closest to the Emperors (like Mach, Ponta, and maybe the prince) became the Guardians, and in some cases fusing with the Mythyrian Number itself. 

I wanna state that the Guardian and the Mythyrian Number are two different beings posing as the same entity (in most cases). It’s confusing, but it’s like Ponta’s situation. Ponta represents the Mythyrian Number “Veteran Tanuki Sandayu” as well as being its Guardian in the context of the episode, but he has the option to opt out of representing the Mythyrian Number whenever he wants. The Mythyrian Number still exists with or without Ponta. He is a vehicle for the Mythyrian Number to have a duelist. This is kinda similar to the Zexal Morphs too. As Zexal Morphs, the glowing figure we see is not a single person; it is both Yuma and Astral combined as a single person. Saying Zexal I is Yuma isn’t necessarily wrong, but it isn’t completely right either. Likewise, the Mythyrian Number “picks” a Guardian after the Emperor died to become infused in it, and this pick is likely to have a strong connection to the Emperors’ past and can aid them in their journey to break Don Thousand’s curse (except Vector, but he has a unique situation). 

That said, I wanna pick apart that plot point I was talking about. 

This scene right here kinda screws me up HARD. Mizael is in the desert, dying. A card manifests in Mizael hands, and then Jinlon shows up. 

BUT what we know from the Ruins episodes is that Jinlon was not a Number until the point of his death, so when he appeared to Mizael, he was just a regular dragon, NOT a Number Monster. This card in Mizael’s hand has nothing to do with Jinlon at all, but since it showed up before Jinlon, it implies that Jinlon IS this card. This means the show is wrong in that it said Jinlon became the Mythyrian Number at the time of his death, OR he was a Mythyrian Number all along. Either way, it’s a plot hole.

My only explanation is that the entity that gave Mizael this card is not the same person as Jinlon. They just happened to come across the same dying child and take him in around the same time. My only evidence of this is that Vector’s card floated onto him almost like divine intervention, or the fact that we don’t know where Gilag and Alito obtained their Mythyrian Numbers from; they just had them their entire lives. Incredibly iffy, and a big plot hole.

For simplicity sake, I’m going to go with the story that Jinlon was a normal dragon who became a Mythyrian Number/Guardian when he died. 

But moving past this, let’s talk about one of the most obscure discussions I could talk about. And it has everything to do with this image right here: 

This is a pot of food Jinlon makes at the start of Mizael’s ruins arc. So when I first saw this image, I didn’t think much of it until I saw the delectable mushrooms on the separate sides of the pot. Now, I’m quite a dumbass person, but I am rather fond of mushrooms, and I recognize the mushrooms he uses. 

The one on the right side is called an Enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes). It is native to Eastern Asia and used in a lot of Chinese and Japanese cuisine. 

The one on the left side is called the king oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii). It is native to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. 

What I also noticed here is that this yellow, flabby thing on the left side is dried bean curd, which is a byproduct of tofu production. And what do you know, tofu first originated from China. 

The other objects in the broth are unrecognizable to me, but I thought, “Was Jinlon making food that represents him and Mizael?” Jinlon is from China—I assume, as he uses a lot of imagery of the Chinese Dragon—while Mizael is maybe from China, maybe not, as the show does not explicitly state where he originates from. 

My evidence for the “maybe not” part comes from a long string of flimsy evidence that I found in my efforts to find where Mizael originated from. Take all of this with a grain of salt and if anyone can interpret these better than I can (bc anthropology is my weaker point and I’ve fallen into a three day rabbit hole trying to sort this out before saying it's almost impossible without a proper time-frame) please do share because I am genuinely interested in this.

My only source is to analyze the geography. My first piece of concrete evidence is that Mizael and Jinlon lived in Tianzi Mountain prior to their deaths. Mizael also lived and fled into a desert area prior to meeting Jinlon. Modern China has two prominent deserts in it—the Gobi Desert and the Taklamakan Desert—so it is likely that he lived around one of these regions. These two pieces of evidence gives us an idea of how Mizael and Jinlon traveled. Since Mizael met a divine, mythical creature, I also assume that he had no issue getting out of the desert.

My proposal is that he lived within either the Gobi desert or the Taklamakan desert, and then he traveled out of there before winding up in Tianzi Mountain where he lived with Jinlon and the villagers before his death. 

So based on this, Mizael may have originated either from modern day Mongolia, Central Asia, or China depending on if his village was located within the desert (near an oasis or something similar) or at the very outskirts of the desert. Not only that, I did some research on the prevalence of blond hair and blue eyes in past Asians in order to pinpoint his genetics (and yes, this is yugioh, rainbow hair galore, but Mizael has reasonable colors OKAY). Blue eyes originated along the Black Sea around 6,000-10,000 years from a mutation in a single individual. 

From here, it spread into the rest of the world. On the other hand, blond hair appeared multiple times in multiple places in human evolution, so in the sense of pinpointing where Mizael came from, it isn’t as nearly as informative.

The Black Sea is right there.

So youre like, wow how did blue eyes end up in China, that’s so far. Humans move and they move a lot. I can see how centuries (possibly thousands of years) of migration and interbreeding will result in a Mizael. However, this also shows that it is highly likely that the ancestors with the blue eyes moved into Mongolia or the Central Asia area from the Black Sea, which is more evidence that Mizael could’ve lived in one of those regions before traveling deep into China. And because humans bring their culture as they travel, maybe the king oyster mushrooms from the Black Sea/Middle East area also traveled with them. 

And before I tumble into this rabbit hole, I want to note that the people of Mizael’s village here have green, blue, and pink hair. Okay moving on. 

As I finish this section of the piece, I want to note the last possible theory of Mizael’s origin. My last bit of evidence is partially about the mushrooms. Which is silly evidence, but bear with me. So in Ancient China (200BC to 20AD), there was a small town known as the Liqian City (now known as Zhelaizhai) located on the edge of the Gobi Desert. This town was famous for having high frequencies of individuals with blue/green eyes and blond/light hair. Now one such explanation for this is the “Lost Romans Myth”. Yes, myth. Since this topic has been debunked among anthropologists, historians, archeologists, biologists on how these genes got here, I need to be a little careful here since I don’t want to propagate a legend as fact. 

The myth goes that lost Roman soldiers from a nearby battle settled in the area and integrated into the local population, giving rise to higher frequencies of that blond-blue trait than in the surrounding area. Geneticists have debunked this (as in, the blond and blue eyes did not come via Roman ancestry), but it could be possible that the Zexal writers found out about Liqian City and thought it was a neat story to integrate into the plot. The mushrooms come in because the king oyster mushroom is native to the regions around the Mediterraneum Sea, so if the writers accepted the “Lost Romans Myth” as a fact, they may be saying that Mizael is Chinese with ancestral roots as a Roman person. The phenotypes match, the town was in a desert, and this location is a lot closer to the Tianzi Mountains than the previous two locations. 

Or maybe he just has blond hair and blue eyes just because god is a giant gecko. This is the show who has historical figures with eggplant hair and a green mohawk so,,,,

im gonna talk about the Dragons and the Ruins Duel now. 

The Ruins Duel features prominent callbacks to the Legend of the Dragons as well as expanding on the character of not only Mizael but also his counterpart, Kaito Tenjo.

Starting with the cards: 

So one of my favorite cards of the duel is this one with a Mizael-looking fellow getting murked by a bunch of arrows. I don’t know why, that’s just really funny to me, that Kaito has this in his deck. Like, bro

Another notable card is “Book of Moon”.

“Book of Moon” is one of the older cards (debuting during the DM era) used in Zexal. Old cards are seldom used, so when they’re present, they usually have some subtext to go along with it. Although it has nothing to say within this episode, it may be a sneaky foreshadow to the famous Moon Duel where Kaito Tenjo fucking eats shit loses his life on the Moon. 

Of the duel itself, it follows a similar theme to the Legend of the Dragons. “Number 46: Ethereal Dragon Dragluon” has the anime effect that makes it unable to be targeted for attacks or by card effects if there is another dragon on your field. In order to destroy Dragluon, you must get rid of the dragons that protect it. 

This is quite similar to how Mizael refused to let the people harm Jinlon, even going as far as to kill himself to protect his dragon. Seeing as the theme shows up again, it shows that this idea is a core element in Mizael’s story.

And I think it’s fair to say that Mizael has an interesting bond to dragons—for a good reason. 

He is a character who absolutely hates humans.

And this isn’t appear to be the common consensus throughout the Emperors. Despite acting as though they were superior, Alito and Gilag were fawning over humans and their culture. Durbe did not care about humans; he only wanted to protect Barian World. And Vector 

Mizael is an outlier. He is utterly appalled and disgusted by the fleshbags. But after considering his backstory, his hatred comes from a reasonable place. 

Mizael witnessed the slaughter of his village by humans. He saw firsthand the horrors of humanity, and as a child that young, it left a traumatic imprint on him. Going back to how I think the Emperors retain most of their personalities from their original past life, an event this intense is likely to carry over into his life as a Barian Emperor. Mizael may have forgotten why he couldn’t trust humans, but his spirit remembers. Without the memories of being a human, Mizael’s distrust manifested into hatred.

And had it not been for Jinlon, a dragon, Mizael would’ve died in the desert. He trusts dragons because they were there for him in his time of need, when humans left him scarred and afraid. These events molded him into a person who connects deeply to the dragons rather than his human brethren. His ability to sense their spirit, and his strong passion for the goodness in all dragons stem from this event. I don’t think it's far-fetched that Mizael considers himself a dragon at heart underneath his human or Barian body, and remember, in terms of “Number 46: Ethereal Dragon Dragluon”, it is other Dragons that protect Dragluon.

Mizael loves his dragons. He is a character who exclusively uses Dragon monsters in his deck. He doesn’t see them as tools to use but allies to cherish and grow alongside with. Part of me thinks that’s why Tachyon Dragon was chilling in some cave in Barian World when we first met it. 

This goes into the whole “duel spirits, monsters are alive” thing that is used in nearly all of the shows, so I won't talk about it. The takeaway here is that Mizael does not leave his dragon inside its card. He allows Tachyon Dragon to roam Barian World on its own freewill, and only when he requires its strength, he finds it and challenges it. If he can overcome it, proving that he is still worthy of Tachyon Dragon’s power, it will help him. Judging by his mannerism, this occurs very often. Despite being described as arrogant and prideful, he doesn’t leave his Tachyon Dragon locked away in its card for all of eternity. (Also, there is a scene where he threatens to feed Vector to Tachyon Dragon; this is likely Mizael snapping at Vector for being a Clown, but the idea that Mizael “feeds” and cares for his dragons is nice)

Kaito once asks Mizael, the master of the Galaxy-Eyes, why he himself bears such “bleak eyes”, or eyes that are world-weary and tired and empty. And as the scene transitions into a flashback of his childhood, we find out that this bleakness stems from his distrust in humanity. 

Although he has given up on humans, Mizael is a person who simply cannot turn his back on his dragons. He will die before he lets his dragons fall. (And I think it’s a thing of beauty that Mizael learns to have some faith in humans after this duel, but that’s for later.) 

The effects of “Number 46: Ethereal Dragon Dragluon” shows this entire side of Mizael. It also brings out the same side in Kaito, who is a reflection of Mizael in many similar and opposite ways. 

Mizael and Kaito are both Dragon Tamers, or Galaxy-Eyes Masters. They are tamers with different goals, yet they are not too far off from each other. 

Like in the Legend of the Dragons, when tasked with the destruction of his “Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon” or give it to Jinlon (which translates to victory or loss respectively), Kaito behaves similar to Mizael. He would rather risk losing the duel than destroy his dragon, inadvertently proving Jinlon’s point.

These similarities and how Jinlon connects to both Mizael and Kaito goes much deeper than this duel. 

So let’s head to the Moon. 

[red-sterling]

thanks for answering!! i hope you don't mind if i send more charas...how about green and/or lillie?

fhgjkfdg aw yea thank u!! hopefully this doesn’t publish before i’m done typing lol

also this definitely needs a readmore bc i got emotional abt Green oops

Green

favorite thing about them

first of all: the fact that Green canonically has a rivals to best friends arc with Red fills me with so much joy and YES they are on their alolan honeymoon you cannot convince me otherwise

okay like. gen 1 Green just perfectly encompasses what it’s like to be a ten year old in a way? like ofc he’s written like a kid bc he is a kid, but i feel like the writing on him just feels so genuine as compared to some of the other 10 yr old rivals you get in other regions. even though he’s kinda a brat at the start, he kinda eases up a bit as you go along your journey and starts giving you progressively nicer/more praise-y end lines when you beat him (going from “i picked the wrong pokémon!” to “so, you are ready for boss rocket!”) but still retains this childlike rivalry and competitiveness and i love that about him

and like. fucking beating him at the Indigo League still completely breaks my heart because even after he did become the champion at age 10 the first thing that happens is you beat him and Prof Oak just yells at him for being bad at things and like. ow. 

this is why i headcanon that Red actually took awhile longer to get to Green like please. please give my boy a chance to be happy and proud

also Red was caught up with Team Rocket anyway so i imagine he must’ve fallen a little behind at some point? anyway

the development on him across regions is so choice!!! he’s so much more mellow and even kinda melancholic when you find him in gsc/hgss, like he’s calmed down over a few years and he obviously misses Red so much but like, it’s clear that Red is kinda the reason Green does settle down and he seems to have worked on his character and become a nicer person - and he still has that sassy flair to him! he’s just got that gradual slope from asshole rival to kinda aloof gym leader to friendly/sassy battle legend and aaaaa i love my boy so MUCH

also huge point: he’s so fucking driven??? he’s got the most drive and the most passion for battles/pokémon in general out of all the rivals i feel. he’s only closely matched by Silver, but Silver seems to be more aggressive than passionate, and somewhat out of necessity too (like, Giovanni abandoned him what was he to do), whereas Green just really like. he genuinely just cares so much about battles and about pokémon in general! he literally calls you in hgss and just rants about how many different kinds of pokémon there are in the world!!!

also in Alola he’s like???? just so sweet?????? he congratulates you and is like hey you’re really strong lets battle like!!!!!!!!! supportive boy!!!!! he has come so far over so many generations and i cry

also on Four Island when you play frlg he legitimately says “Be smelling ya!” when he leaves and how do you not love this idiot

least favorite thing about them

i mean. while i get that you beat Green right after he becomes the champion in the kanto games i feel like there should’ve been more pomp and circumstance for him and i’ll never forgive gamefreak for giving this boy his dream, then making you rip it away from him, and then watching his own gramps yell at him for fucking up like. again it’s that drive, i get why Red keeps such good pace w Green but i just feel like he worked so hard and he deserved so much better than that

also while i’m very biased towards him bc Big Emotions, i feel like if i knew this boy irl who was constantly i’m so great and you’re a loser i would probably punch him eventually lmao. in theory it’s kinda endearing but as a real person that’d be grating 

favorite line

on one hand, “smell ya later” is so fucking iconic, but on the other - 

“I’m Blue. Man, this guy called Red brought me down in a heartbeat. I haven’t seen him in a long time…I wonder where he is and what he’s up to… Come to think of it, you look a little bit like Red. Yeah, you do. Just…Just a little bit. Whatever…”

my namelessshipping heart

ALSO NOT CANON BUT GREEN RANTING TO YOU ABOUT RED AND GETTING SO DISTRACTED THAT HE FORGETS TO GIVE YOU THE POKÉDEX????? BIG GAY

brOTP

for long elaborate headcanon reasons, i see him as being a good brotp with Kris - i headcanon her as also being really driven the way Green is, but more quiet about it, she’s kinda a good balance to him and they probably do pokemon research together. i also feel like she kept him sane while Red was still missing/before they found him on a fuckin mountain

OTP

do i really need to tell you that i’m 100% namelessshipping

like they perfectly balance each other. Green has all this energy and all this spunk and Red is just like… so opposite of him y'know? he’s quiet and he’s more measured in his behavior i feel, he doesn’t really rush into things as much, and yet they both really just took Kanto by storm when they were kids, and i like how they have this foil dynamic and are both still so successful? they’re so different and they complement each other in that way, and they both find success in their own ways

like one of the reasons i hate that Green’s championship gets undersold so much is that he did beat you to the punch, and he has been one step ahead of you, and there’s so much passion there and it’s so loud - and yet you as Red are just as driven, you take down Team Rocket, you’re always right on his tail, so close but not quite there, you’re the only one who can keep up with him and you’re the only one he cares enough about to slow down for

so like. idk with even all my headcanons about namelessshipping aside (and i can infodump those another day lol), i feel like the in-game representation of them just works. they just work so well together, they balance each other without ever holding each other back, and there’s something really beautiful about that in a relationship y'know

…..i feel bad abt not putting as much infodump about isshushipping now but oh well

nOTP

i don’t really have a notp with him? i kinda like. i basically just do namelessshipping, but i don’t get a visceral eugh when i see other ships with him, just kinda a well it’s not nameless so i’ll be on my way. idek what other ships w him are popular?? i’ve been in nameless hell since 2012 so 

random headcanon

while Red is still living on Mount Silver, Green is not coping well with having him so far away, and so Green massively overworks himself to the point that he keeps just not being in his gym sometimes bc he’s bouncing between the gym, training multiple teams, pokémon research, and ofc going to visit Red whenever he can. this leads him to be kinda temperamental after he’s been working on 2 hours of sleep a day for like a week until he just has an emotional meltdown and crashes, and then he gets right back into it because he has no self preservation

…….. nicer headcanon; Red can only cook two (2) foods, so Green cooks all the food for them when they move in together. he has attempted to teach Red how to cook, but Red pretends not to understand so Green will keep making him food. Green knows Red is faking it and doesn’t call him out bc he thinks it’s cute

unpopular opinion

look i’ve played through classic red version a few times and when i say he wasn’t that much of a jerk, i do genuinely mean he was not that much of a jerk. he’s like ten. ten year olds are just Like That. i guess this isn’t too unpopular anymore but it was Back In The Day and in some parts of the fandom he’s still seen as a jerk and like Bro He Is Ten In RGB/FRLG cut him some slack

also genuinely unpopular - Green is taller than Red. i know namelessshipping has fallen into the bara Red and twink Green trope but i refuse to let go of tall Green/short Red fuckin fight me why dont you

song i associate with them

a lot of the Pray For The Wicked album by Panic! at the Disco gives me Green vibes, more for the sound than for lyrics necessarily, but for some reason Roaring 20s just like. has the sound of Green to me. it’s somewhere between flamboyant pride and underlying insecurity that i think really encapsulates Green (or at least his subtext)

favorite picture of them

i genuinely love his let’s go concept art he’s such a sweet good boy?? 

and for the life of me i cannot find the op source on this but this is my fave pic of Green/namelessshipping in general that i’ve had saved since like 2012 maybe???

yeah if anyone can help me source that i’d appreciate it bc reverse image search only brings me to pinterest and random wattpad links :/

update: source seems to be the artist くる (pixiv id=982894) on pixiv, even though the original post got taken down (ty anon!)

Lillie

favorite thing about them

by now i guess you know im a sucker for character development, but i think they did a really good job with her!! i feel like her turn is a bit more in moments than it is with Green, who gradually evolves (lol) over the course of Kanto/all the gens overall. you see more discrete moments where Lillie starts to shift and gain confidence in herself and i am so proud of her ???? like the way she gets excited when she sees Olivia doin’ her z-move stuff, she starts buying her own clothes and getting ahead of you, etc etc

and like, she still has moments where she’s scared, there’s still some fundamental Lillie in there yknow? you don’t lose any of that softness that characterizes Lillie, she just like… she gets better, she develops without losing her Lillie vibe and i love that abt her. she overcomes a lot of the shit she had to deal with when she was stuck with Lusamine, she stands up to Lusamine eventually, and ghfdkjsg gah she’s a sweet gorl i love and appreciate her

also like. the writing on her backstory is so subtle in-universe. like yeah she literally looks like Lusamine’s daughter and you see her in the opening cutscene leaving Aether, but as the protagonist - like as Selene lets say, there’s little hints about where Lillie came from, and if you suspend your disbelief and put yourself in the pc’s shoes, there’s subtly to her character arc that i like 

also like. when she changes her outfit and starts being more protagonist-y, like more confident and kinda bubbly instead of shy??? love that shit it’s so cute can i have custody of this child pls

least favorite thing about them

i like. sometimes feel like she’s too soft of a character for me to really get into? like i love her and Hau, they’re sweet good friends, but i tend to personally gravitate towards characters that create a little more tension (ie Green and N)

(though on that note, Hau can be kinda savage. he just calls Faba out and sarcastically calls Gladion “a ray of sunshine” at some point i think?? Lillie is just very tender and i will support her forever, but i think that also makes her almost too soft to keep me fixated on her yknow. it’s not even a flaw in her character but just not something i fawn over as much)

favorite line

“I’m so glad I got to meet everyone. I’m so glad I got to meet you.”

like that ending kills me but that line almost feels like. I Feel That So Much like i feel so happy to have met all these new characters and to have played these games, and i feel like some of the player’s energy and enjoyment of the game is channeled into this last line of hers 

also GET IN THE BAG

brOTP

probably her and Hau?? idk, i don’t have a specific brotp for her but i like her just hangin around w the other Alola kids, so like her, Hau, Gladion, and the protag kids. they’d raise hell together and Lillie continues to be the only one with some impulse control

(Gladion also has some impulse control but keeps getting annoyed by Hau and so he gets dragged into their nonsense anyway)

OTP

Selene and Lillie is. Good. idk what the ship name is but it’s canon

nOTP

i dont even know if people ship her with Gladion but incest is a big no-no in my house

random headcanon

when she goes to Kanto, i bet she’d pick Bulbasaur as a starter if she was given the opportunity - and if not, she’d probably catch a wild Vulpix 

unpopular opinion

idk if have any unpopular opinions for her?? 

song i associate with them

i have no reason to associate this with her but the Rainy Day theme from acgc just. has a vibe about it. i think a lot of ac music feels like it suits her

favorite picture of them

i found this art of her through a lofi remix of her theme awhile back and it’s so pleasing to look at? her hair is nice and the colors are so warm n happy gjhkfdgf

if you read this far, congratulations!!! and i’m sorry

[garmabxy-a]

TAGGED BY: stolen BABEYYYY TAGGING:  the girl reading this 😳

GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  MUN.

NAME:   haru NICKNAME:  freddy   FACECLAIM:   serena from pokemon PRONOUNS:    she/her HEIGHT:    im baby. 5′3″ BIRTHDAY:   may 18 AESTHETIC:    floral, dripping ink, ghosts, horror, black/purple  LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO:   ....found my way by oh hush. i really like the ending song to the ninjago movie. please listen to it  FAVORITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN:  lloyd is definitely up there now! i also really enjoy writing rex dangervest from the lego movie, haru from tsuritama, mike schmidt from five nights at freddy’s.... tony from don’t hug me i’m scared... mugman from cuphead, and oswald the lucky rabbit are some of my favorite muses to write, along with lloyd! 

GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT.

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE:  i watched the lego ninjago movie while at a friend’s house because he wanted to put on some lego movies for us to watch when i realized LEGO was my special interest. i immediately gained an attachment to lloyd and decided to check out the show shortly after getting home, and now ninjago’s taken over my life, and my love for lloyd grows stronger each passing second. 

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVORITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE: there is SO MUCH. even though ninjago is a show aimed towards kids and you can only go so far with how the characters are treated, lloyd obviously goes through SO much. i’m super interested in delving more into that, and delving more into his insecurities and trauma because...lord. Lets face it. with everything lloyd’s been through in canon, he’s definitely got some trauma up his sleeve. it’s really hard to pick just a few things about lloyd that i love about him because if i have to be honest. i love fucking everything about him. even the flaws. 

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING: music helps me the most when it comes to writing! i have specific playlists i listen to when writing for certain muses. if you’re curious about lloyd’s, his playlist can be found right here! 

FAVORITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS:   .....i love angst. KSJDNGJH but i think my favorite types of threads are just...Comfort threads that delve more into fluff later on in the thread. i’m also a big sucker for argument threads or just. Conflict in general, I always find those the most fun to write out. 

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE: it’s been a hot minute since i last played a child. even though lloyd is in the body of an older teenager, he practically skipped out on his childhood -- literally. i’m not sure if i’m getting the essence of him being a child right- and not only that, but lloyd is.... quite literally the face of ninjago. main character’s aren’t exactly my forte, although they’re fun-- lloyd is a character who gets the MOST screentime out of all the ninja, and i worry constantly that i may not be doing him justice, y’feel?? other than that, i’m having a blast playing him, though! 

[longdistancelovesux]

06/09/2020

Dear Elliott.

*sigh* it starts with some psychedelic mushrooms, an emotional trip and a very vivd dream .

iv read quite a bit on psilocybin and its effects on mood , mainly depression. since this year has been one dick punch after another, iv been feeling really defeated, and decided to eat a bunch of mushrooms. the up was fun , i watched t.v. and laughed alot .

as i balance out ,i always want to listen to music and retreat to the familiar cave of my imagination. when high on shrooms i see a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes with my eyes shut . when i add music , the colors and shapes " dance" in a way .

at first it was great , pretty colors , bumping tunes, feeling happy . then it wasn't great .. all of a sudden i saw.. you . when i closed my eyes id see flashes of your smile , the face you made when you first saw me again in your car , over and over. it caught me off guard but i decided to lean into it, clearly there's something here that needs to be addressed.

i played songs from our past and revisited messages we shared , pictures i saved and memories i haven't touched in months, asked myself some hard questions. i laughed and cried and cried some more , mostly it was just crying ...as i sat on the floor of my bedroom , drenched in tears and bong water (opps ..) i think i finally got to see the full extent of the damage this year has caused. it seemed to get me in all the right places , critical hits across the bord . Now what i was feelings was not sadness , or heart break , not betrayal , anger or any negative emotion. to my surprise i felt gratitude , i felt relief .

me from 6 months ago was numb , alive , but not living . making unhealthy dissicions. on auto pilot . no passions , no tears , minimal laughing , just ...living. work , eat , sleep , repeat.

it took you coming back into my life and the time freeze of a global pandemic to blast me out of my "funk" and remind me who i am . wake up Amanda!

..even though we aren't talking , and in many ways you feel further away NOW then you EVER have before , i felt deep gratitude for our situation too. for the love i carry , for the longing i feel , the sleep iv lost , the few razor sharp memoies i hold tightly to my chest.

You came back ..after 8 years of almost nothing , you arose from the ashes of our past like a phoenix and for a second or two, i got to love you again , a privilege i have mourned many times over. how could i not be thankful for such a blessing . with this blessing you also gave me a dream , a goal , a light at the end of my tunnel , a model , a standard , somthing to live by . because of you im not going to settle for "good enough" anymore , because of you i want passion , i want laughter that makes me cry , i want adventure and mystery , i want vulnerability and friendship . i want YOU and everything you offer , i want the way you make me feel , i want the magic you bring to the world, the peace you offer, the tension between us... and if by some sad fate , we never get to try , i can still die happy knowing i love a person as fantasic as you .

After hours of emotional upheaval i finally went to sleep and had this beautiful, shockingly real dream .

you and i are in a tattoo studio, the walls are mint green and there is a red headed women tattooing your sholder . i sit excitedly beside you , watching your face when i ask you how it feels . you tell me it feels hot, but not bad . we are getting matching tattoos . we decided to choose our two favorite pokemon , and pose them hugging eachother , to pay tribuate to us .

next we are standing infront of a large mirror , admiring our new ink , mine is placed on my rib cage , near my heart ( PPSSHH thats so me..being all sentimental ) we both seem happy with our work , i never get to see what the actual tattoos look like . for some reason i payed for both our tattoos, then it ends with us sitting around a fire together in my backyard ( dream realities are fucked lol ) .i woke up and immidently started to cry , not many dreams have felt as real as that one .

iv been thinking about it the past few days and i want to get that tattoo after all . obviously you wouldn't get one too , but you and i are certainly worth immortalizing on my flesh and who knows? , It could be therapeutic.

so with your consent i humbly request you pick a pokemon to represent yourself on my body forever . please. it would mean alot to me.

[gengarnips-fr]

Drunk Lair Review: Feliciano

HI FIRST OF ALL CRTIICAL ROLE IS MY LIFE AND I WOULD DIE FOR VOX MACHINA SO THANKS FOR MAKING ME CRY AGAIN LOOKING AT YOUR LAIR @shinyflareon also pokemon is my life so thanks youve taken every fandom that i lvoe and i love you thanks

Also Vax, Grog, and Scanlan were my faves. I cried when the shit with Tiberius went down.... I cant wait to see what Mercer cooks up for this next campaign!!!! And, as much as I could write about Vax and Vex for as long as I live, I want to pick some of your other dragons to discuss! I actually have Vex and Vax siblings of my own but that’s my little secret ;)

First off, we need to talk about Aria. Your Progenitor, im thinking? Shes a Gen 1 Tundra with some GOOD ASS COLORS HOLY SMOKES. Cornflower/Navy/Sapphire is NO JOKE. If you ever do gene her, I want to see how she turns out! Because she has great potential! I also think that her apparel is dynamite perfection and I adore it. It accentuates her blues without being overwhelming. And im also a slut for the flame apparel. Or the ghost apparel. Whatever they called it when it was released. Its still some of my favorite shit. And you paired it so well with the twilight oracle guise! I didn’t realize it fit so well! I LOVE IT. I don’t know what direction you want to take with her lore (or even if you do anything lore wise) but I could see her being a really powerful mage matriarch, especially with that cool ass apparel!

Next is Rainier, who (even for me, choosing two tundras? Holy shit look at me being diverse I swear to god I don’t usually pick so many of the same species and yet look) stole my heart in one beat. I looked at him and knew he was a knight and a boy I could trust. Like a Jon Snow figure. Like whenever I hear Rainier, I think of Dragon Age Inquisition! I don’t know if you’ve played any of those games but holy shite I see you with the Blackwall reference. Like, he’s blackwall, but young, and sexy. Maybe. HES WHATEVER YOU WANT HIM TO BE. I see that he’s Aria’s son so I totally endorse the Knight-enchanter message. He could even be a mage! I just got the knight vibes from the DAI reference. IN ANY CASE, another great use of apparel because I love silks and the white mage’s coat pairs nicely!!

Alright now we’re getting into some bright ass, beautiful ass territory. Lyca is super hot fire, love her, id date her. Maybe. Gold is so AMAZING, especially with Poison and Toxin. I love black and gold. Together. On a dragon. And in life. Any huge contrast that looks good has an A in my book. And again, this apparel choice? Phenomenal. Now Lyca as a name sounds short for Lycan, so a potential werewolf in the ranks would stir up some drama ;D but if youre not into that, she would also be a wonderful clan beauty or clan healer or something. Just with that Light flight for some clan lore? I love it. I think I have a Gen 1 somewhere in my lair that’s the clan “beauty”, as in she’s famous for being beautiful and has many suitors across the land. And then I absolutely destroyed her face literally in her lore, so now she wears a mask. Im a sucker for great tragedy.

Okay now we’re getting to some spicy gals. Nightclaw has the most excellent use of the healer’s apparel that ive seen. And im not being dramatic out of alcohol or anything. I’m serious. She has the best apparel use ive seen with black and orange. Again, the contrast is so powerful and wonderful. I LOVE FIRE IM A FIRE CLAN IM SORRY. I haven’t used the healer’s apparel yet, even though in my lore (headcannons lets be honest) I have at least two or three clan healers. So I need to get gud is really what im saying. You NAILED IT. As a fire clan I endorse this message and I want a fierce wildclaw lady to sew me up and tell me I did a good job in the arena. MAKE HER STRONG AND GOOD.

For the last dragon, I actually had a hard time choosing, because I love what you did with so many of your dragons, but I decided to choose an unexpected candidate! I really like Kirunai, surprisingly enough. I’m not a huge water clan, OBVIOUSLY, but I adore how his accent works with his colors. It makes me want to try and find a dragon just like him to have for myself. And if I covet someone elses dragon, then I think that’s a success. Look at that OPAL. OPAL IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE GENES THANKS. I don’t care if its expensive. Because its wonderful and it can save any tert. Also abyss just owns my heart. I love abyss and I love darker colors that make a statement. I’d love to see some lore about him where hes a deep sea fisherman or hes some sort of water mage. Something that really seals the deal. WHAT IF HES A MER-DRAGON?? WHO KNOWS im sure you have plenty of ideas, but hey. Just know youre doing good and your lair is so cute I love it!!!

Thank you so much for sharing your lair and I loved everyone! Like I said, it was hard to choose, because I found quite a few dragons that I sincerely enjoyed. Take care and have fun :D

[nodaudaboutitt]

(gaming asks) 5, 12, 19, 29, 34, 46, 63 :D

5. Game with the best soundtrack?Im not sure about the “best” but ill tell you some of the ones i like quite a bitThe soundtrack for Banjo Kazooie, that stuff has been in my head on and off ever since i played those games (specifically spiral mountain), I also really dig the soundtracks of Wave Race 64, Star Wars Shadows of the Empire, the halo franchise, DOOM (2016) and i think the gen 3 pokemon games (those trumputting songs were just wow), theres plenty more i really enjoy but i cant think of them off the top of my head12. Most bizarre game you’ve ever played?I think the first 2 lost planet games were pretty wacky, especially 2 which i loved the hell out of. But most bizarre would probably have to be ninja gaiden 2, i had literally no clue what the fuck was going on or why and holy shit it was a hard game, i never ended up finishing it but it was really weird like o.O19. Hardest game you’ve ever played?i reckon the original metro 2033 is pretty high on the list of hardest games ive played, love the game but i literally had to take breaks of a few weeks because of how difficult some of the levels were, although the sequel and remaster i can play fine so im not too sure tbh I remember i used to have so much trouble with guitar hero when i was younger too, think it was the hand eye coordination or something but yeah ahaha29. Watch cutscenes or skip them?I think it depends on how invested in the story i am, but for the most part i will watch them, even when replaying a game for the 6th time34. Favorite male npc?Theres so many though ;-;Mainly really like Gideon and Price from call of duty, i also really like SOAP Mactavish and Ulman but you play soap in the first game and ulman in a short dlc so iunno if they count?46. Always, sometimes, or never use subtitles?Always, sure its a little annoying when i want nice screenshots but i tend to miss things so subtitles can be really helpful, that and some games have more than just english so subtitles can help thereBut overall yeah, i just like to have subtitles on

63. What’s a game that has inspired you?SWBF2, FOR THE CHANCELLORahaha but nah i guess seriously i would probably pick the metro franchise and the dishonored games (although im kinda unsure on the sequel at the moment) just from a design and such perspective, theyre really interesting and they both really stuck with me so theyre kind of inspiring in that theyre the sorts of games i enjoy and part of what made me want to major in game designThanks for the questions buddy :D

[endlessparty-blog1]

list of RP favourites and least favourites !  tagged by: stolen from @fortunasua​

first name: gabe

favorite fcs to play: i don’t use icons much anymore and when i did, i never had a favorite. i just pick up muses that i think i can help flesh out a little.

favorite ship you’ve ever had:��ships with @filumessentia​ / @xanadere and @fortunasua​ , @kunori​ , @valkya​ , @helmsplit​ / @gamedrowned​ / @chickenwuss​ , and my bf @jihykims​. these blogs are all over the place but the muns are my favs to ship with in every fandom i’m in. i know if i wanted to write something romance i will have a blast with them, regardless of the characters we play.

favorite fandom you’ve been in: pokemon!! i keep going back. started up my protag calem again the other night. shameless plug. i also have much fun in the jojo fandom.

favorite song to give you muse: this is embarrassing but higurashi ost lol

least favorite fcs to play/play against: youtubers... i never rp with a yter blog but... i really dont see the appeal.

least favorite rp experience: forced nsfw but also. people like. not talking to me beforehand and then taking something from my about page and running with it. like for example a few years back i had a poke oc who was a part of the Lost Parents Club and someone made a blog for his mother and tried to rp with me. like im flattered u like my character that much but damn send me a message or SOMETHING do you know how weird it is to randomly get an ask or a stater from ur ocs dead mother. wtf. also that same oc got straight up stolen but they used him under a “crack” version i mean like i wasnt too offended but it wasn’t a great experience to see ur oc being misconstrued for the lols and u dont even know the person whos doing it

least favorite genre of writing: i like to write everything. i can tell you my favorite genere is adventure / romance / horror hybrid. i guess boring tropes like.. i dont know. i don’t really like highschool aus. private school / college is cool to me but highschool is so zzz....

least favorite fandom you’ve been in: my relationship with pokemon is complicated. also the ib fandom was wild but thats because when i joined it was mixed in with f/naf and like.... the f/naf rp.... i was only there for like 3 weeks but there are Stories to be Told...

least favorite thing people assume about your character:  LOL I DONT FEEL COMFORTABLE ANSWERING THIS FOR SOME REASON i guess it bothers me that people say she didn’t get help when she went to therapy for about 3 weeks and quit. like obviously its not the type of help she needed but at the same time it’s not like it wasn't addressed idk 

other characters you’d like to play:  i play 707 and i also play saeran on LINE sometimes... if i were to pick up another m/ysmes muse it would probably be some version of the mc or i’d make an oc. 

muse preferences

females / males / canons / ocs / corrupted / good / live action / animated / human / supernatural / other species / hopeless romantic / averse to love / younger (15-25) / older (25+) / easy for you to relate to / hard for you to relate to.

plot ideas

accidentally married / affairs / age gaps / angst / apocalypse / arranged marriage / boarding school / college roommates / criminals / enemies to lovers / enemies with benefits / exes / fake relationship / fluff / forbidden relationship / friends with benefits / online relationships / pregnancy / prison / professor/student / road trips / rich kids / royalty / smut / supernatural / toxic relationships.

possible triggers in plots you’re okay with

abuse / bdsm / daddy kink / drinking / drugs / dub-con / gore / incest / kidnapping / murder / non-con / prostitution / stepcest / stockholm syndrome / torture.

italics are conditional, strikeout is a no. both means i’m okay with mentions of/allusions to, but i’d rather not actually rp the mentioned content.

[sunshineofthegroup]

Diet Coke & Ray, a Raywood fic

Ryan didn’t have favorites, but he had Diet Coke, and he had Ray.  (read on ao3)

Everyone seemed to realize Ryan didn’t have particularly strong pulls towards a ‘favorite’ thing separately, but they all came to the same conclusion eventually.  fahc Raywood, fluff, ignore that Christmas was ages ago, based on the fact that Ryan gets annoyed if you ask him what his favorite anything is, ~6k aka much longer than I intended sorry, (also juggey because who doesn’t have those feels at this point) ((also also im not sorry for all the run on sentences and overuse of the word observant))

*

Michael pulled Ryan’s name for Secret Santa and threatened to rage quit Christmas immediately after seeing the name.  Fortunately Geoff was the only person in the room at the time, because Michael had immediately begged, “Can I switch with Ray?” and Geoff had frowned at him, beginning a Dad Lecture™ about honor and responsibility.  That’s when Michael knew he was screwed.

What the fuck did Ryan even like?  Besides murder?  Michael slowly realized he knew the least about Ryan than anyone in the crew.  Ryan was out with Ray four nights a week doing jobs. The other nights, he was on the couch with Gavin, Jeremy, and Ray playing any pretty much any video game. Geoff and Jack knew everything there was to know about the crew and Los Santos.  Michael didn’t know shit.  Michael was fucked.

Even though Geoff had strictly forbidden Michael from seeking help from anyone else (even the B-team! What kind of bullshit rule was that??), Michael still thought maybe Ray would accidentally (or not) let something slip about what Ryan might want for Christmas.  Everyone knew Ray and Ryan were the closest of anyone, and Ray and Michael were good friends, right?

“So, you know this whole ‘secret santa’ thing?” Michael asked.

“Yeah?” Ray responded, not looking up from (surprisingly) not pokemon, but cleaning his sniper rifle.

“Did you get the whole lecture about not talking to anyone about it?”

“Yeah,” Ray agreed. “Geoff gave me the whole thing after I pulled mine and started bitching about it.”

“I wish I’d gotten you instead, I know exactly what I’d get you,” Michael sighed.

“What’s that?” Ray asked, laughing a little in anticipation.

“Weed and lube, disguised in a bouquet of red roses,” Michael replied.

“Both things I could use,” Ray agreed.  “I’d get you a basket of grenades with a brand new elite xbox controller in the bottom of it.”

“Dude, that’d be sweet,” Michael agreed.

“Personalized to say ‘will you marry me’,” Ray joked.

“Don’t be fucking gay,” Michael replied, but he didn’t mean it.  

“The grenades, not the controller,” Ray explained.  Michael laughed, hard.

“Too bad we didn’t get each other?”

“Gav would be so easy,” Ray continued.  “Anything with gold paint slapped on it.”

“And for Geoff, you’d just have to get him booze,” Michael agreed.  Ray hummed in agreement.

“Ryan is so sure I picked him, he’s been dropping incredibly non-subtle hints about everything he wants for two weeks,” Ray complained.  “Every time we go into a store, ‘Boy, wouldn’t I be disappointed if I got this for Christmas’.”

“You’re not going to get him something anyway?” Michael asked.

“No?  That’s not how secret santa works,” Ray frowned.

“Yeah, but it’s you guys,” Michael shrugged.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know, you’re kind of a Big Deal.”

“I’m pretty sure I understand the rules of Secret Santa, dude,” Ray said.  “Plus, even if I had picked him, I’d just print him out a meme and put it in a card.  That’s the way it works with me and him.”

Needless to say, that conversation didn’t help Michael in the slightest.  What did you get for someone who only expressed vague interests and never favorites?

*

Jack was taking inventory of the cupboards and refrigerator, because as the self-proclaimed resident Mom, she’d put herself in charge of trying to make the Lads eat healthier. They were going to get heart disease before they turned 30 at the rate they kept consuming fast food.  One cupboard at the top left was labeled ‘Ryan’ (with a tiny ‘also Ray’ scribbled underneath it).  She’d never been in that one, as it wasn’t her business what Ryan was eating, but she opened it anyway.  The contents were very predictable.  Half a dozen cans of diet coke, a partially eaten bag of Flipz, and a few packages of ramen that Jack were pretty sure had belonged to Ray when he’d moved in and had been there ever since.  The rest of the cupboard was completely empty.  It’d be a nice gesture in the spirit of Christmas and general camaraderie to fill it up for him, right?  What did Ryan even like?

Jack closed the cupboard and continued inventorying the kitchen, but when she’d finished and was headed out, she still had a big question mark next to Ryan’s name on her pad of paper.  She sighed, knowing the solution to the problem.  Jack pulled out her phone to text Ray.  She knew he was in the penthouse somewhere, but it was a big place and he knew how to hide.  It took five minutes for Ray to stump into the kitchen, annoyed.

“What’s up?” he asked, wiping sleep out of his eyes.  It was 1 in the afternoon.

“You’re coming grocery shopping with me,” Jack announced.

“Why?  I don’t know how to cook,” Ray said.

“You don’t get out enough,” Jack told him, grabbing her wallet and stuffing it in her pocket before picking up the keys to the blue Entity XF she loved.  “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

“Your definition of fun is warped,” Ray muttered, but followed her into the elevator anyway.

Jack’s suspicions that Ray would know exactly what to get for Ryan proved correct, even without prompting, as Ray kept wandering back to Jack and the cart with items from halfway across the store, saying things like “Rye loves this type of soup,” or “Can I get these chocolates?  I’ll split them with Ryan”.  The variety of items seemed so random that even Jack couldn’t keep track of the things Ray would bring.

*

Jeremy was the newest to the crew, so it didn’t surprise him how much he didn’t know about Ryan.  He’d been outside of the crew for a long time, watching them pull off jobs on the TV and wishing he could be as awesome as he thought they were.  Occasionally Jeremy would catch Weasel News’ live broadcasts of the police chasing them around town.  The Vagabond would always charge straight into danger and emerge laughing almost satanically.  Any stray officers that he hadn’t caught in his initial explosion would be sniped by BrownMan, across the street, hidden on a rooftop.  What a dynamic duo.

When Jeremy actually got into the crew, through a series of happy accidents (not actually involving Bob Ross), he was over the moon, but it was about a thousand times more terrifying than he ever expected it would be.  Ryan lurked with his skull mask on in dark corners of the penthouse at 4am, Michael got angry and chucked bombs off the balcony at least twice a week, and the sheer amount of inside jokes he only vaguely understood was just overwhelming.

The Lads constantly teased him that if he messed up a heist, Geoff was going to kick him out (even though Geoff assured him that wasn’t true).  There was an almost constant onslaught of practical jokes, mostly from the Lads, but Ryan as well.  Then finally, one night, they actually full-on pretended to kidnap him – well, actually did kidnap him – and brought him to a remote location in South Los Santos.  After thoroughly scaring the shit out of him, the Lads inducted him as one of their own.  He’d made it.

“Plus, we think Ray is going to leave the Lads to join the R&R Connection full time,” Michael had joked.

Still, after somehow winning the approval of the Lads, Geoff, and #1 Mom Jack Pattillo, Jeremy was still at a loss as to how to even start a conversation with Ryan.  Sure, they played video games together and became battle buddies, but what kind of things did Ryan do for fun… besides murder? What movies did he like to watch? Was he secretly a giant weeb? SuperFan Jeremy Dooley really wanted to know.

“You know Ryan, right?” Jeremy asked Ray.

“I’m sensing a trend,” Ray said, side-eyeing his accomplice.  They were both in an unmarked SUV that Ray was driving away from a quick burglary at a gas station Geoff had put them up to as a diversion for the real burglary at the liquor store.  They were supposed to lead the cops around for a while, and car chases without grenade launchers were boring.

“What?”

“Why has everyone been asking me what I know about Ryan lately?” Ray asked.  “It’s really weird.  Just ask him yourself.”

“Gav said not to ask Ryan questions,” Jeremy confessed.  

“Don’t ask him questions that make him want to put your head on a spike, simple,” Ray shrugged.

This information was not helpful to Jeremy.

*

Gavin had a habit of asking inane questions, and unfortunately Geoff had a habit of indulging him in them.  Gavin always seemed to have an infinite number of questions preloaded at any given time, ready to shoot them at unsuspecting individuals.  

But Gavin didn’t ask questions to Ryan.  Not since The Incident™.

Ryan hadn’t been with the crew for too long at that point, maybe a few months, and he’d been politely answering Gavin’s questions up to that point, but for some reason, he snapped on this one, and he wasn’t even a part of the original question.

It was something about flipping a coin, and the original premise was that if you correctly called the coin flip, you could have sex with anyone you wanted for the rest of your life, but if you didn’t, then you had to have sex with Bam Bam Bigelow.  By the way, he died in 2007, but for this hypothetical, he would be resurrected.  And you get three coin flips to correctly call it.  Which is pretty decent odds.  Ryan got pulled in halfway through for his math skills, probably misheard or misinterpreted the question, and it turned into a debate that lasted months. Both Ryan and Gavin could easily be provoked with just the words, “but if you flip a coin three times…” and no one wanted to listen to them both insist they were right anymore.

One of the most iconic questions ever asked was that if Ryan was given some kind of astronomical amount of money, would he kill Ray every morning for the rest of their lives if there was a 100% chance that Ray would respawn good as new 20 minutes later. Ryan had responded with, “I hope you guys don’t mind waking up to gunshots,” and Ray had walked in at that point. Gavin had explained the whole premise to him, appalled for Ryan’s sanity and their relationship if Ryan would kill Ray every single day for the rest of their lives for money.  Ray had snorted and replied with, “he better take that money, and he better fuckin split it with me.  You gonna pay up, or?”  And Gavin didn’t ask questions about the pair of them anymore.  

Ray and Ryan had been a duo before they’d joined Fake AH, bringing the crew from three members up to five (then Michael had come along after).  No one ever questioned their relationship or the nature of it.  In fact, Gavin was the only one who had ever gotten close, and he didn’t understand these two apparent sociopaths, yet with such a deep bond between them.  He accepted pretty early on that asking questions to the pair of them was only going to scare him.  

(That’s not even to mention the time Gavin asked Ryan if, hypothetically, he could take all of Geoff’s money by touching Geoff’s penis with his lips, and every single person in the penthouse immediately agreed without hesitation, and Geoff started locking his bedroom door.)

Gavin would say he knew three things about Ryan, for sure, which were 1, that he would not hesitate to murder a crewmate for money, 2, he became very mingey when asked questions, and 3, he was shite at probabilities.

“Gav, c’mon, you gotta know something,” Michael whined.  “What the hell do you get a guy for secret santa?”

“I dunno, boi,” Gavin said, scuffing his trainers on the pavement, or whatever dumb British words he was constantly trying to pass off as real.  “I wish I got someone easy like Geoff.”

“Yeah, fucking so do I!” Michael agreed.  “Who’d you get?”

“I can’t say,” Gavin said.

“Did you get the bullshit lecture too?  I gave up on that.  Ray wouldn’t help me out, you gotta be able to give me something,” Michael begged.

“Give him three coins,” Ray suggested through their comms, reminding the two of them that Ray and Jeremy could hear their entire conversation.

“Shut up,” Michael snapped. “Are we ready for this or what?”

“Yeah, on three,” Jeremy agreed.

“Wait, on three or after three?” Gavin asked.

“On three, Jesus, he just said,” Ray rolled his eyes.

“I’m going now,” Michael shot back, chucking a bomb at the building.

*

Geoff was the leader of the crew, and therefore he knew everything there was to know about his crew, or at least he liked to think.  In truth, he didn’t know much more about Ryan than anyone else did.  He did his research, though, before hiring the pair of them.  Because BrownMan and Vagabond had always been a double act, hadn’t they?

R&R had a pretty slick gimmick running for them.  A sniper and a total wild card?  They could do anything together.  The first time Geoff had noticed they were anything other than a pair of hooligans running around doing petty theft, he’d actually accidentally been a witness to one of their crimes.  

It was genius.  Ryan casually opened the door of a shop, one shot from a suppressed sniper rifle a safe distance away, and suddenly there he was in an empty store with the cops none the wiser.  By the time police arrived on the scene, Ryan had cracked the registers (and sometimes the safe) for the money, and both of them were en route to their next location.  There were 20 stores in LS that kept cash (most had gone to credit only because of the high crime rates), and R&R hit every single one of them.

Geoff had been casually staking a joint for a heist from a nearby roof when he’d seen them do it. Just pull of a job in one bullet. He had to have them.  Who were they?

Considering the sheer amount of intel LSPD had on them, the fuzz sure did know absolutely nothing true or useful whatsoever.  Every time they’d hauled R&R in for questioning, they’d never gotten an English word out of Ryan, and Ray generally spoke only in memes and refused to refer to officers by their real names, instead assigning each of them a new name that sometimes changed three times in a conversation.  Not a single one of their crimes could ever have been pinned to either of them, mostly because fiery explosions tend to conceal evidence fairly well.

So when Geoff finally devised a plan to approach R&R with the intent of asking (bribing) them to join Fake AH, he wasn’t surprised to find out that they were totally different from what he’d expected.  Well, Ray was almost exactly what he’d expected.  Barely out of his teens, total memelord, only owns one pair of sneakers… Gavin would love him.  Ryan was still a total wild card.  He was charming but nerdy.  His eyes seemed to say ‘you are safe here’ but crackled with murder.  His body language seemed to say ‘yes you called this meeting and I am compliant’ but also ‘you are the one being interrogated here Geoffrey’. Ray did 90% of the talking in their meeting and 0% of the paying attention.  Geoff and Ryan stood over the counter in the Fake’s penthouse (it took a lot of convincing – a few hundred grand worth of convincing – to get them to agree to a meeting in the penthouse) talking business while Ray sat on the couch playing on his DS seemingly not giving a fuck about the meeting at all, yet answering every question intuitively as though he was trying to ace some kind of verbal SAT test.  Jack was casually in the kitchen cooking dinner as Geoff’s backup.  (Geoff wanted them to feel comfortable, but not too comfortable, and Jack was an intimidating woman when she wanted to be – but only when or if she wanted to be.)

What did Geoff learn about R&R in that meeting?  Nothing. Absolutely nothing.  They were an amazing duo, and they were going to rise to the top with or without Fake AH.  But Geoff really wanted it to be with Fake AH.  So what does Geoff Ramsey do when he has a problem?  He throws money at it.  And they accepted.  

And that’s the story of how Geoff Ramsey is the leader of his crew, but still knows next to nothing about Ryan Haywood.

*

“You can stop dropping hints, Rye, I didn’t get you for secret santa,” Ray finally burst out, exasperated, as his phone received yet another casual ‘Ryan wants you to see this product!’ email.  “I got Jack.”

“You can’t tell who you got, that’s cheating!” Ryan exclaimed.  “What about honor and responsibility?”

“Boy, Geoff really ran that one into the ground, didn’t he?” Ray rolled his eyes.  “What the hell do I get for Jack?”

“Get her a gift card to Ponsonby’s or Pampered Chef or something,” Ryan suggested.  “OR!  You could carefully construct some kind of message spelled out on the ground such that you can only see it from a helicopter!  That’s creative!”

“That’s a lot of work,” Ray whined, scrolling through all the emails Ryan had sent him to that point of things he wanted for Christmas.

“It would show you really care.”

“Do you ever think about, maybe, opening up to the rest of the crew, telling them literally any factoid about yourself?” Ray asked.

“I tell them stuff about me all the time, it’s not my fault they don’t listen,” Ryan said.

“I mean, yeah, I know,” Ray agreed. “It’s just… people have really started to notice how little they really know about you in the last few weeks.  Do you think you could just walk around the living room and talk really loudly about what kinds of food you like or something?  I don’t want to go grocery shopping again.”

“I guess so…” Ryan agreed.

*

“What’s this?” Michael frowned at the gift-wrapped box Ray had shoved into his hands.  “It’s fuckin heavy.”

“That is what I got you to give to Ryan for Christmas.  You’re welcome,” Ray replied, walking away before Michael could protest any further. Leaving Michael’s room for Jack’s, Ray knocked and was allowed entry.

“What’s up Ray?” Jack asked, looking up from her computer screen where she was diligently researching the available vehicle mods for the upcoming releases.

“Your real present is under the tree, but I got you something extra… from Ryan,” Ray said, holding out an envelope addressed to her.  She frowned at him, taking it and opening it, unfolding the paper inside. “It’s Ryan’s grocery list.  I know that’s why you asked me to go with you. No one genuinely enjoys my company enough to invite me out with them.  I get it.  I’m more approachable than he is.  I know that.”

“Come on, Ray, that’s not true, I had a really good time when we went out,” Jack replied.

“Well… either way,” Ray shrugged.  “I know it’s a long list, but he doesn’t really have favorites, so… you know.”

“Thank you,” Jack said. “I’m honestly touched that you’d think to get this for me.  I wish I had something for you.”

“Again, your real present is under the tree,” Ray reaffirmed.  “You just, uh, keep being the cool Crew Mom™ and I’ll see you later.” He ran from her room before he could be any more awkward.  Jeremy’s room was next on his list of places to visit.  Lil J was, predictably, watching YouTube when Ray walked in.  Lil J didn’t get knocks.  Lil J got walked in on.  Lil J was not really done with being hazed yet.  “Hey.”

“Hey!” Jeremy replied. “What’s up Ray?  Am I late for something?  Lads Heist?  Shopping Montage?  Are you here to kill me?”

“You know how we were on that job the other day, and you asked about Ryan?” Ray asked.

“I didn’t mean it, please don’t kill me,” Jeremy said, eyes very wide.

“You’re new, and I sorta get that, but – please, I am definitely not going to kill you,” Ray said. Jeremy visibly relaxed. “Today.”  Jeremy tensed slightly again.  Ray laughed.  “Ryan likes talking to people.  He loves to tell stories about his childhood back in Georgia.  Ask him anything you want to know.  Seriously.  He’ll tell you.  And if he doesn’t want to answer a question, he’ll tell you.  He’s not going to threaten you with bodily harm or kill you over a few questions.  You’re not Gavin.”  Jeremy laughed nervously.  “Plus, don’t tell the others, but I think you’re his favorite.”

“Ryan doesn’t have favorites,” Jeremy replied.

“Well… he has Diet Coke,” Ray said.  

“And you.”

“What?  No,” Ray deflected.  “I mean, yeah, we’ve been together a long time, but we’re just crewmates. We look out for each other.”

“Okay, sure,” Jeremy laughed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ray asked, frowning.

“If that’s your story, then sure,” Jeremy continued to laugh.  “Sure, there’s nothing going on with you and Ryan.”

“What do you think is going on with me and Ryan?” Ray asked, continuing his confusion.

“You’re… you know…” Jeremy said, starting to get confused.  He’d thought this was another one of the Lads hazing things, but Ray really didn’t seem to know what was going on.  “…a couple.”

“A couple of what?” Ray asked.  Jeremy stared at him.

“No, like…  a couple.  Are you two not… like, half-married?”

Ray stared. Shocked.  Shook.  What was going on?  Did everyone think he and Ryan were… dating?  Fucking? In Love?  Ray didn’t even reply to Jeremy, just walked out of his room and back to his and Ryan’s.

“We share a room,” Ray said to Ryan, who was sitting on the bed reading.

“Yes,” Ryan agreed, confused.  “We always have.  Are you okay?”

“We share a room, we go out together four times a week, we have a combined cupboard in the kitchen, we’re always paired together on heists, and above anyone else in the crew, we’d defend each other with our lives,” Ray said, still shook.  He was aware of Ryan’s presence in the room, but didn’t have the mental capacity to focus his eyes so everything in the room was sort of blurry.

“Are you okay?” Ryan repeated.

“I… I don’t know?  My life is crashing down.  I think I need help,” Ray said, walking forward to the bed and crawling next to Ryan.  Ryan put an arm around him, pulling him to his chest, and continued reading his book, knowing Ray needed to just breathe and calm down for a bit.  Ray actually ended up falling asleep with his head on Ryan’s chest, as he so often did.  When he woke up, he blinked, confused, cracked his neck, and started looking around.

“Feeling better?” Ryan asked.

“Yeah… I just… It was weird,” Ray said.  “It’s like… I guess I should have known the rest of the crew thinks we’re, like, in  super gay love or whatever.”

“Oh, yeah, they do think that,” Ryan agreed.  “After two years, I don’t know what it says about us or them that they still think that.”

“To be fair, we share a room, go out together four nights a week, and defend each other with our lives,” Ray commented.

“Yeah, but… I don’t know,” Ryan shrugged.

“That must be why everyone thinks the joke about me saving my virginity for the day you can actually fuck an xbox is so funny,” Ray finally put together.

“Yeah,” Ryan agreed.

“Are you in super gay love with me?” Ray asked.  Ryan shrugged.

“I wouldn’t want to screw up what we have,” he replied.

“What if I did?  Want to,” Ray almost tripped over his sentence.

Ryan kissed him in response, ducking his head to meet Ray’s, as Ray was still leaning on him.

“Oh, it’s ruined now,” Ray said sarcastically when Ryan pulled away, even going so far as to dramatically start leaving the bed.  “I’m moving in with Michael.”  Ryan laughed and pulled him tighter to him.  Ray put his head back on Ryan’s chest and smiled.

“Merry Christmas,” Ryan said quietly.

“Christmas isn’t for like four days,” Ray replied.

“Yeah, but I have your present right here,” Ryan said, pulling a small red box with a bow on it from the nightstand.

“Oh?  You got me for secret santa?  And you didn’t even have to ask anyone what to get me, I bet. Lucky,” Ray said, taking the box from Ryan and popping it open.  Immediately, Ray stopped talking.  It was a necklace with two charms, a red rose and a black skull.  Objectively, it was pretty badass, and Ray totally would have accepted it any day, said ‘sweet necklace, bro’ and worn it every day for the rest of his life.  But since the whole Ordeal Of Thirty Seconds Ago™, he wasn’t even sure what to say.  

BrownMan and Vagabond had been partners in crime for six years.  Four before Fake AH, and two with Fake AH.  The red rose and the black skull had been graffitied on the walls of Los Santos together for six years.  It was something they sometimes joked about, like getting friendship bracelets or matching tattoos or something.  They’d considered starting a crew for a couple weeks once, and Ryan had created them a crew logo with the images easily.

Ray and Ryan, though? It should have been weird, shouldn’t it? To take their relationship from basically platonic  to romantic? But it really wasn’t.  It felt like… why haven’t we been doing this for six years?  It felt like… maybe we have been in super gay love for six years and we’re both idiots?

“I do love you,” Ray told Ryan as Ryan put Ray’s necklace on for him.  “Maybe I always have.”

“Isn’t that kind of cliché?” Ryan asked.  

“Yeah, you know that clichéd story of two fucking murderers being partners for six years and finally realizing they were in Super Gay Love™ the whole time,” Ray said sarcastically. “Yeah, a total cliché.  Every single Lifetime movie.  People are bored of hearing about it.”

“You don’t always have to point out how wrong I am,” Ryan told him.  “You can let some of them go.”

“Never have, never will,” Ray said stubbornly.

*

Geoff liked to think he was fairly observant.  No one else would ever tell him any differently.  (They wouldn’t dare.)

When Ray and Ryan sprinted into the kitchen on Christmas morning to get some of the enormous breakfast Jack had cooked, Geoff couldn’t say there was anything different about them. Ray had showed his necklace off a few days before, saying Ryan just couldn’t wait for Christmas day to give it to him, and blushing.  

Ryan bumped Ray purposefully out of the way of the fridge with his hip, grinning.  Ray blushed.  Ray blushed? Did Ray blush?  Was that a thing Ray did?  Then he pouted.  Ray pouted? Did Ray pout?  Was that a thing that Ray did?  Ryan laughed and pressed a kiss into Ray’s hair.  Ray blushed again.  Maybe blushing was something Ray did do?

Wait, did Ryan always kiss Ray’s hair?  Everyone knew they were a couple, but there was little to no actual evidence of them putting on public displays of affection.  

Geoff Ramsey was very observant.  He observed this.  And he came to this conclusion:  Ray Narvaez Jr, like many other humans, blushes, pouts, and gets hair kisses.

After breakfast, the crew each opened their gifts, with the exception of Ray, who sat in Ryan’s lap, as usual, and played with his necklace with a dumb grin on his face.

Jack opened her gift from Ray, it was a sweet vintage record player she’d pointed out in the window of an antique shop once while they were on a heist.  Ray and Ryan had been out enjoying the Christmas lights and fake snow, when they walked past the store and Ray remembered she’d said she wished she had one.  So he and Ryan had immediately held up the shop and taken it.  Who the fuck paid for stuff if they didn’t have to?

Jack’s gift was for Geoff. She’d gotten him three bottles of very expensive whiskey and a set of glasses with his initials engraved on them. “If any of you motherfuckers breaks one of these glasses, I’ll punch you in the dick,” Geoff warned the rest of the crew.  Michael made a joke about how Geoff should really keep the pleasure of breaking the glasses for himself.  Geoff threw a punch at him and Michael ducked.  The punch hit Gavin, and everyone laughed.

Geoff had drawn Jeremy, and known exactly what to get him.  (Because Geoff is very observant.  Obviously.) Jeremy was very pleased with his gift, four colors of neon hair dye, a package of gold star stickers, a bright green remote control toy monster truck, and a keychain with two things on it: a pewter cutout of the state of Massachusetts and a key to a Grotti X80 Proto, painted in Jeremy’s favorite ‘Rimmy Tim’ colors.  Michael screamed in protest.  “Welcome to the big leagues, Lil J,” Geoff said.

Even though that was clearly the big winner at the gathering, Jeremy presented his gift to Gavin hastily before excusing himself from the action around the coffee table to play with his remote control monster truck.  He’d gotten him a few different gold tone makeup things that Gavin had seen various advertisements for and whined about wanting for two straight weeks. Gavin gushed in all of his non-real British words about how great Jeremy was for ten straight minutes before Jack cut him off and made him present his gift.

Gavin had gotten Michael. They’d been best friends for so long, anyone would think Gavin would know exactly what Michael would want, but he hadn’t had a clue.  Weapons and bombs were too simple.  He didn’t need a new car, not since Geoff had bought him the chrome Adder (and therefore really had no room to complain about Jeremy’s new car, besides the fact that X80s were twice as expensive as Adders).  What did you get your best friend for Christmas?

“Gav, this box is empty,” Michael told him.

“Yeah, I couldn’t fit it,” Gavin said.  Michael frowned at him.

“Okay…” Michael said with a shrug.  “Where is it?”

“Oh, um… Dammit, hang on,” Gavin pulled his phone out of his pocket and started tapping away. Everyone was perplexed.  There was a knock on the penthouse door.  Everyone but Gavin could be seen trying to subtly count how many of them were already there, thus trying to figure out who was at the door.  “You may want to get that, boi,” Gavin threw out, still texting.

Michael, perplexed, put his empty box down on the coffeetable, got up from the couch and jogged up the few stairs to the penthouse door.  Throwing open the door, he saw –

“Lindsay.”

“Ayo,” Lindsay and Gavin said almost at the same time.

“You’re here,” Michael said, shocked.  “Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”  He hugged her tightly, still standing in the doorway.

“As it turns out, breaking someone out of prison is harder than it looks on paper,” Gavin told the rest of the crew.  Lindsay had been in federal lockup for months on a (mostly factual) counterfeiting charge. Of all the things the feds were going to get on the Fakes, of course it was a fucking counterfeiting charge.  Instead of keeping her in Los Santos where the crew could easily have broken her out, they’d taken her to Washington, and every attempt at hacking even the security system at the place they were holding her had resulted in a completely fried computer on the Fakes’ end.  Michael had pretty much given up all hope of ever seeing her again, and that wasn’t something you lost easily.

“How the fuck did you do that?!” Geoff asked Gavin, voice cracking in his shock.  Gavin just gave Geoff a smug look of ‘do not try to one-up me for the best present of the year, Geoffrey’.  Michael and Lindsay were still hugging in the doorway, having a whispered conversation no one else could hear but everyone assumed it was something like ‘I love you so much don’t you fucking dare ever get arrested again I’m so sorry I couldn’t get you out we tried so hard linds I love you never leave me again’.

“Only one gift left, lads, who’s it for?” Gavin changed the subject.

“It’s from Michael to Ryan,” Ray said, sliding onto the couch from Ryan’s lap so he could retrieve his present.  “I’m guessing he won’t care if he’s not here to see you open it.”  Ryan picked up the box to put it on his lap.

“It’s heavy,” he commented. Ray nodded, rolling his eyes. Ryan pulled the paper off and started laughing.  The box was a 24 pack of Diet Coke.  Nothing else, just that.  “Wow, this is the best present anyone could get me.  Seriously.  It’s perfect.”

“No one knows what to get you!  You don’t have favorites!” Ray exclaimed.

“Diet Coke!” Ryan protested.

“Yeah, Diet Coke and Ray, that’s all anyone knows about you,” Geoff said.  “I’m fine with it.  The longer I don’t know what’s going on in your head, the longer I can continue sleeping at night.”

Michael and Lindsay finally joined the rest of them in the living room, but not willing to separate themselves, as they sat down on either side of Gavin still holding hands.

“Thanks boi,” Michael said to Gavin.  Gavin just nodded.  He already knew Michael was grateful.  No thanks required.  It’s not like he’d worked on it double triple extra overtime for a month.  Michael spotted the case of Diet Coke still in Ryan’s lap.  “Really, Ray, Ryan’s entire life story at your disposal and Diet Coke was in that box?  I could have fucking come up with that.  Last time I trust you to do anything.”

Everyone started sending accusatory looks and phrases at Ray for helping Michael cheat at secret santa.

“Really?  I’m the one who gets yelled at for cheating at secret santa?” Ray asked.  “Geoff had to call Gavin and ask him about, and I quote, ‘Rimothy Timothy’ colors. Jack had Jeremy help her steal that whiskey.  I’m willing to bet Gavin didn’t fucking break Lindsay out of prison without a substantial amount of help.  Ryan gave me this necklace four fucking days ago.  Michael was the one who begged me to help him, but no, I’m the one getting the blame.  Sure, fine.”

“It’s a great present and it doesn’t matter if it came from you or Michael,” Ryan told him.  “And you keep me out of this.  I 3D printed that necklace myself.”

“When are you guys gonna get married already?” Gavin asked them with a frown.

“Yeah, Matt and Trevor started a bet about Ryan proposing for Christmas,” Jeremy said.

“Shh, that’s New Year’s,” Ryan joked.

“Christ,” Ray declared. “At least take me to dinner first.” The joke confused everyone else in the room, but Ryan laughed, pulling Ray back into his lap, the Diet Coke banished to the floor.  “Okay, maybe I’ll settle for delivery.”

Geoff Ramsey prided himself in being a very observant man.  When Geoff Ramsey observed something, it was observed.  Boom. Immediately.  Nothing gets by Geoff.  Except, apparently, Gavin breaking Lindsay out of prison, and the fact that Geoff couldn’t for the life of him name one other time he’d ever seen Ray and Ryan actually kiss.  He knew they must have, he had memories of it, but they were probably clouded over with alcohol or something that was preventing him from accessing them.

Geoff knew.  He’d observed it.  It had been observed.  Maybe he sometimes forgot stupid shit like who the fuck Rimmy Tim was, or where he left his car keys, but he knew exactly three things about Ryan Haywood:  1, Gavin was absolutely not allowed to ask him questions anymore, 2, Ryan was on this earth to drink diet coke and kick ass (watch out when he runs out of diet coke), and 3, Ryan Haywood, the Mad King, would ride or die for that punkass sniper with the pink guns and checkerboard vans.