#it’s a real Pokémon adjacent post

[flicks-random-stuff]

She’s a bit of a gamer

[mariodreemurr]

Intro / Pinned Post!

“They laugh at me because I’m different. I laugh at them because they’re all the same.” –Kurt Cobain

Greetings, fellow humans! …Er, hey, everyone! Welcome to my all-purpose blog! Here, you’ll find all my Tumblr posts, including various art pieces, reblogs, and selfshipping stuff! So, without further ado, allow me to introduce myself. (This post may change over time!!)

Mario / Marma / Marm

22 y/o (there’s no NSFW/suggestive stuff here, but please be mindful before interacting)

AMAB Paraboy (He/They)

Bi-xenosexual (meaning, I am a bisexual who is exclusively attracted to sapient nonhumans)

Furry / alienkin (The last 2 names I gave for myself are names for my aliensona! I might post him someday.)

Selfshipper / fictolover (I do NOT use my aliensona for selfshipping. I consider him a separate character.)

INFP 4w5 so/sx 469 (4w5-6w5-9w8)

Hobbies / Interests (including media)

NOTE: Me having an interest in or having F/Os from a certain media DOES NOT MEAN THAT I CONDONE THE CREATOR’S ACTIONS, IF APPLICABLE!! Also, I don’t consider myself to be in these fandoms, if applicable. I’m just a fan!

90s alternative / grunge music

The Amazing Digital Circus

Beastars

Chikn Nuggit

Drawing & writing

The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Hazbin Hotel / Helluva Boss

Heavy metal, especially alternative metal (which includes funk metal, nu metal and rap metal)

Invader Zim

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (especially Part 3)

Kitty Is Not a Cat (please please PLEASE interact if you are also a fan of this!!! I want to meet more people who enjoy the show)

Nintendo, especially Super Mario, Kirby & Pokémon (up to and including Gen 7)

Personality types, most notably MBTI & Enneagrams

Pizza Tower

Statistics & data science

Trivia Crack / Triviatopia

Undertale / Deltarune / Undertale Yellow

BYF

I am autistic, which makes it very hard for me to interact with people sometimes. At times, I say things that I don’t truly mean, so please be patient with me. In addition, please say what you mean whenever you talk to me, as I often take things very literally.

I have very bad social anxiety, and I often delay responses simply because I’m shy and/or I don’t know what to say that won’t offend other people.

DNI (may change over time)

Anti-selfship, anti-furry

Proshippers/comshippers/darkshippers (including neutrals, anti-antis, and “proship safe” blogs)

MAPs & adjacent, adults who selfship with minors, incest shippers, zoos

Selfshippers who ship themselves with real people (fictional characters played by irl people/actors are fine)

Biphobes / those that engage in bisexual erasure

Homophobes, LGBTphobes, TERFs & other bigots

Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss hatedom

If none of these apply to you, go under the cut for more!

Now that you’re still here, it’s time for the fun stuff!

(NOTE: As long as you truly respect them, I am 100% comfortable with sharing ANY AND ALL of my romantic & platonic F/Os!!!)

My F/O lists may change over time.

💖 (One and Only) Romantic F/O 💖

My one and only romantic F/O is Petal, one of the 16 (!) main characters of Kitty Is Not a Cat, an obscure Australian cartoon that aired from 2018 to 2020.

The show centers around the adventures and experiences of a human orphan girl named Kitty, who really wants to be a cat. One day, she encounters a mansion where 15 talking, musical cats live. Initially reluctant, the cats eventually agree to take care of her and accept her as one of their own. It is a very wholesome and underrated show, and I highly recommend thar you check it out!

But enough about the show, let’s talk about Petal!

Petal is a cat (of no specific breed) with purplish gray fur, including dark “chest fur.” She also wears a black collar.

Petal is considered the “mother” of the cats; she is protective of them and loves looking after everyone, especially Kitty. Petal is also very kind, caring, and enthusiastic to a fault…so much so that the other cats have gotten annoyed at her sometimes. Despite her kind and gentle nature, she knows when enough is enough, and is willing to put her foot down if it means justice.

Petal’s motherly nature makes her quite intelligent for a cat. But she still has done some pretty derpy things at times. For example, there was one episode in which she confused a play Kitty put on as fact instead of fiction, and she joined the other cats in searching for buried treasure outside the mansion. In another episode (and one of my personal favorite ones), Kitty built a big plastic playhouse outside the mansion, and Petal and the other cats got the idea that she was moving out. This made her and the other cats very sad, and they in turn “visited” her in an absolutely hilarious sequence of events.

And yet, despite not fully understanding things sometimes (in particular, human culture and behavior), she does her absolute best to be as kind and respectful about them as possible. This kind of support is exactly what I need in life.

And this is our ship!

(This commission was done by @/sheepie-self-ships!)

Our ship name is AltMetal! Every post about this ship, whether it is an art or writing piece, will be tagged with this.

There’s not really much more to say here, other than the fact that I love her so goddamn much. If you want more content of this selfship, follow this blog, which includes gushes and whatnot!

Queerplatonic F/Os

Petal is my only romantic F/O, but I also have a handful of queerplatonic F/Os. Even though they’re not romantic, I still very much care for them. They are:

Adam (Hazbin Hotel)

Jax (The Amazing Digital Circus)

Meow Skulls (Fortnite)

Sallie May (Helluva Boss)

Familial F/Os

I also have 6 familial F/Os. They are:

Kirby (Kirby series) - Son

Tito (Trivia Crack / Triviatopia, but esp. the latter) - Son

Haru (Beastars) - Daughter

Mandy (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) - Daughter

Toriel (Undertale) - Mother

Asriel Dreemurr (Undertale) - Brother

Platonic F/Os

Lastly, I have several platonic F/Os. They are:

Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel)

Ankha (Animal Crossing)

Barbie Wire (Helluva Boss)

Cheeta (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

Foghorn Leghorn (Looney Tunes)

Ginsburg (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

Grim (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy)

Happy (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

All of I.M.P. (Helluva Boss)

Jean Pierre Polnareff (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Johnny Cage (Mortal Kombat, esp. his MK1 incarnation)

Part 3 Joseph Joestar (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Legoshi (Beastars)

Miley (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

Ming (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

The Nazz (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

Noriaki Kakyoin (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Schnitzel (Chowder)

Sidon (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)

Sir Pentious (Hazbin Hotel)

Spook (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

Starlo (Undertale Yellow)

Thorn (Kitty Is Not a Cat)

And that’s pretty much it for this post! Hope to see y’all around in the future!

(NOTE: I will use this image below instead of DNI tags from now on as a way to not clutter the tags. Since this is my first DNI list, this probably won’t be a permanent image, as it may change over time. To keep myself safe from proshitters, I will put “proshippers DNI” at the end of my posts.)

Proship/comship DNI.

[pokemon-academy-official]

Welcome to the Pokémon Academy!

Originally operating in Viridian City in West Kanto and Violet City in Central Johto, the Pokémon Academy has grown to teach individuals of any age across regions about Pokémon. Whether it be breeding, care, training, battling, or competing in contests, Pokémon can be surprising! We strive to reach all of our students at their level, teaching concepts from the very basics of type effectiveness to how to properly care for a specific Pokémon, to what exactly the numbers in your Pokédex actually mean.

In this Rotomblr blog, we will occasionally share information on a specific topic, such as what a Pokémon's "level" is, or the unusual occurrences near Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town in East Kanto.

Feel free to send an ask for us to cover a specific topic!

We ask that you please keep discussion civil and appropriate for all ages. Thank you for your understanding, and we hope to be able to teach each and every one of you something new!

OOC in orange.

This blog is a work of fiction.

I can't promise I will post regularly, or for very long, but it seems like a bit of fun.

Different Rotomblr blogs have different rules about how Pokémon work, so please don't take any posts here too strongly as gospel. I'm just a guy that likes Pokémon.

This blog's canon sticks very closely to the mainline games' logic, lore, and history. Others games that closely line up (such as the Colosseum and Ranger games) and the anime are also considered. Additionally:

Events of the games have occurred, but may not be public knowledge.

Pokémon and animals both coexist.

Pokémon are generally slightly more intelligent than smart animals (such as cats dogs and birds)

The Pokémon Academy is a worldwide organization, but Naranja-Uva and Blueberry Academies are separate entities. They all consider each other "sister institutions."

The Pokémon Leagues of different regions are different organizations, but very closely affiliated. The Pokémon Academy works closely with many of them.

Tags, apart from `#rotomblr`, `#pokemon irl`, and `-h` (used in posts with updates from me), are in-universe.

INTERACTION RULES

DO:

Send (anon or non-anon!) asks about topics you'd like me to cover! May not respond if it isn't related to Pokémon, but I'll try to make a connection wherever I can!

Reblog! Interact! This blog isn't a story based one so I won't be going through arcs or anything but Absol-utely (sorry...) interact IC!

Disagree! This blog will be open to discussion so long as it remains civil. That said I personally won't be hurt if your character gets mad and says something hurtful. I just won't respond :shrug:

DON'T:

Any NSFW, particularly "Pokephilia" or anything adjacent. This blog will treat Pokémon as more intelligent than animals but that does not imply ability to consent. I'm not debating you on this.

Bigotry. At all. I'm not cool with it, the in-universe runner of the blog isn't cool with it. You'll get blocked, for real.

Thanks for reading!

<3 -h

[liauditore]

Cub and Pearl would both be competitive trainers 100%

Gem and Stress would be contest coordinators and have the cutest sparkliest pokemon in the world. (Your stress line up is on point)

False would be champion of the elite four but I’m not sure what type. False fans would need to help me out on that one-feels lazy to say fighting or steel type.

Etho would be the trainer for the first gym and have ghost type/dark type mons that look the coolest and most “ninja-like” (kill him) plus one really silly looking one. He’d get the shedinja after the post game level up.

Iskall would have a really fucking irritating set of normal type mons to battle and be the trainer for the eighth gym. His higher level team would be all slakoths fuck you man

Keralis would have like three of the Pokémon that evolve into sexy furrybait

Xb would just have three magikarps

(also your skizz lineup is so real. The lillipup made me chuckle)

LOVE THESE.

For my AU I purposefully made it so that none of them are "serious" trainers (because pokemon in day to day living was more in line with what I wanted to explore) but yeah in a context where that was an option, Pearl and Cub would absolutely reach for the sky. I think Jevin would too but eventually chill and settle down into being a gym leader instead.

Gem as a coordinator is so real but I also do think she would start vibrating violently on the spot if she was bested in a battle. Her uber-competitive nature won't let her rest!! I can see her having contests as her main thing but don't be fooled those pokemon have tighter training regimes than navy seals and she will DESTROY YOU no matter what you're challenging her in.

Since Gem and Pearl have been on my mind and I have a tendency to main characterify Pearl in a lot of these I love the idea of like. Pearl being mainly a trainer and Gem being mainly a coordinator but because Pearl really likes to learn new things and Gem is the world's sweatiest sweat they end up rubbing off on eachother and Pearl learns to be a coordinator on the side cus of Gem and Gem's passion for battle only becoming stronger from the fact that she can never seem to defeat Pearl.

Anyway Stress as a coordinator is so true I can see her being someone very well-respected as a veteran in the contest scene, probably gets invited as a judge just as much as she competes.

For False I can see her either being flying for her aviator theme or dragon because of my personal cynthia-inspired design bias. Alternatively the thought of False in Lusamine's outfit just crossed my mind and I would love to see her with a Bewear.

THE ETHO AND TEAM CANADA THING IS SO CUTE I LOVE THAT SO MUCH. My personal headcanon for my Etho in this AU is that he's an ex gym leader/e4/champion and has now gone into retirement so the thought of Beef and Pause witnessing essentially his entire career is so. augh I might steal that idea.

I love the Iskall section LMAO that one I might yoink as well or just some other really annoying team. I also like the idea of him having gulpin idk why it just makes sense to me and I think it'd be his little buddy and he'd take it on adventures and talk to it like his kid. Also like the idea of him having mons adjacent to Stress, like she has a smoochum and he has an elekid/magby or something (or alternatively, a wailord for the skitty)

The Keralis team is so funny cus I have him down as just having like. a pack of whismur that follow him around everything. and now I'm just imagining a mass of whismur + one lopunny like when farmers get an alpaca to look after sheep.

Xb being that one trainer in every game with 6 magikarp 😭😭 I'd like to think one of them has evolved and he either somehow hasn't noticed or just doesn't care that much and still treats it like a little guy. and everyone who comes over is terrified because holyyy fuckwhen did that thing get big.and he's just like what that's just fish 3

[nekropsii]

Rate of real original posting is gonna be down a lot. Looking like about once a week. Trying to keep my queue filled but I can’t make promises on consistency. Experiencing a mental health episode and am under watch again about it, so that’s priority right now. Sovereignstuck development is also a bit delayed because of this.

I’m going to be okay, just going through a bad patch mentally at the moment. It happens to the best of us.

I’m sure waiting on a Sovereignstuck upd8 this long has sucked a little bit for all the fans out there, lol. Panel work is still happening, the next upd8 is in progress, it’s just at a bit of a crawl at the moment. I’m kind of in productivity jail right now- I’m not really allowed to work or do anything that may stress me out during this, so… It’s mostly just animation that’s able to get taken care of right now, since I’m not the guy who handles the animation in Sovereignstuck. (That honor goes to the ever-talented @santostrife.)

I might crosspost something here now and then. Who knows, though. I’m doing a lot of gaming adjacent stuff lately to help deal with everything, so my gaming blog’s the best place for all that if you’re interested. ( @ammoknightsofficial ) Lot of Nintendo, but specifically a lot of Pikmin and Pokémon at the moment.

Thank you all for your patience.

[imminent-danger-came]

Unhinged Anon back again, and YES!!! GIVE ME THE SANDY-MK TRAINING ARC! He’s already taken to collecting mentors/parental figures like Pokémon, why not add Sandy into the mix? Especially if that OG Sandy theory is real because like… MK is due for the mother of all identity crises next season. We all know it. The writing’s been on the wall for over a season now, in glowing gold letters that keep spelling out ‘pain’. 

And you know who’d be a great candidate to help him work through that? SOMEONE WHO’S ALREADY HAD TO COME TO TERMS WITH THEIR OWN TERRIFYING POTENTIAL TO CAUSE HARM. SOMEONE WHO LIVED THROUGH THE ‘I’M A MONSTER WHO CAN DO NOTHING BUT HURT OTHERS’ PHASE, BUT MADE IT TO THE OTHER SIDE AND FOUND SOME SEMBLANCE OF PEACE WITH HIMSELF! LET THESE TWO INTERACT MORE, PLEASE!

*ahem* Anyways, good points made by you, and a very interesting theory that I can’t imagine being wrong now that you’ve pointed out that Zhu Bajie was in Sandy’s PTSD flashbacks. 

But circling back to MK’s incoming identity crisis and that murderer adjacent thing from a few asks ago because I had a Horrible thought: Remember how Macaque started calling MK ‘Misery Kid’ during S4E9&10? What if someone, almost certainly an enemy trying to mess with his head, decided to do that too. Only they call him ‘Murder Kid’ instead, and it sends him spiraling hard. 

Or, even worse thought: What if MK gives himself that label. Bonus points if he calls himself this in front of Wukong, because he was the only other person who was there for Azure’s final moments and really saw everything that led up to them, which in MK’s mind means he must agree that MK deserves that label, at least to some degree.  

…Anyways, I’m gonna just cry on the brink of madness here (like always). Hope you’re having a wonderful day!

I barely have legible thoughts for this ask, I read "Murder Kid" and then I just started uncontrollably sobbing. Yanked to the precipice of madness by Unhinged Anon.

BUT ANYWAYS THAT'S WHAT I'M SAYING.

SANDY'S PAST ARC AND MK'S CURRENT ONE ARE COLLIDING AT FULL SPEED, AND I NEED ME SOME PAYOFF. This line from Show Me the Monster lives in my head rent free everyday:

Sandy: “But you were too WEAK to be who you truly are! I am a monster! That’s what the world wants me to be, so that’s what I’m gonna give ‘em!”

(Bonus parallels post from April)

Who you truly are? Being a monster? What the world expects from you vs what you expect from yourself? IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER BABY.

And. Ougghghgh. Murder Kid. MK giving himself that label would be delightfully terrible. I imagine it could EASILY be someone else calling him that, and then MK having a breakdown about it later in front of Wukong and the gang, a la 4x08.

[professors-polycule]

this blog is no longer active

Greetings!

This is the UNOFFICIAL blog of the Marawhetu University of Pokémon Science (MUPS)! I will keep this brief for the moment, because I'm not sure what to say right now.

My name is Professor Musa and i will be running this blog. At least i hope so, because i cannot say how much time i have at any given moment. Being director of the head of the University does that, i hope you understand. My partners will possibly be featured quite frequently as our research is adjacent in many aspects!

The Polycule: Musa (signing posts with 🍌), Cocos (signing posts with 🥥), Agonis (signing posts with 🌳), Kōwhai (signing posts with 🌸)

MUPS Mega-Stone Giveaway!

Adopt your Hybrid-Pokémon today!

Rhyperior-Aggron & Aggron

Ask games (open):

About Pokémon in general

About our own Pokémon

About Work

About the Professors

MUPS PO-Box

OOC under the cut!

// Hi, hello. I run this blog as a side blog, so I'll like and follow from my main @fire-water-grass-core . I also run @koffing-time, you probably know me from there, honestly. If you need to adress me (the player/mun), I'm okay with any pronouns, and if you need a name you can call me Kama, Nox or Cheese. (And please exuse me if i sound harsh sometimes, or ask stupid questions)

First: this is obviously a Pokemon irl rp blog. As I and the people I'll mostly interact with will pretend that Pokémon are real, this is a blanket #unreality warning. I'll usually tag with at least one of the following three tags: #pokemon irl, #pkmn irl or #pokeblogging. I will NOT tag everything with #unreality.

Second: this blog is a place for both my fake region "Marawhetu" as well as an outlet for headcanons that don't really fit on Koffing-Time. This Fake Region is still WIP and it's made for a TTRPG, so don't expect actual fakemons because i will probably not make many (if any) of those. Instead, i'll keep to hybrids (see Musa's intro), regional variants or convergent evolutions. Posts about the region specifically will be tagged with #marawhetu lore.

Third: i won't go too much into detail on my tags and interactions and stuff here. I will basically use the same format as on @koffing-time, read the pinned post there and you're good to go :)

[hasellia]

People are looking at my Eevee evolution mechanic post, so here's a bunch more stuff I would do if I could make a ROM hack (keep in mind I never finished SwSh, PLA or SV).

(Pokémon with a + next to their name indicate changes are relevant to immediately adjacent evolutions.)

Type Matchups and mechanics

Ice resist: Ground, Dragon

Fairy weakness: Bug

Bug resist: Fairy

Psychic resist: Fairy

Psychic types are immune to moves with increased priority, except for those boosted by tailwind.

Stealth rocks is now Spikes for Pokémon immune to ground moves.

Applied abilities and typing

Cacturn + and Sudowoodo + now have access to infiltrator. (They look like stand ins)

Corsola is now Rock/Grass with the dry skin ability. (Rain/water give hp, Sun/fire takes hp. Good thing it's a rock type! Also coral bleaching).

Seviper now has the Merciless ability to counteract Zangoose and reflect real viper hunting strategies. (Merciless = more damage if opponent is poisoned).

Seismitoad + now has Liquid Ooze (curse ye Cane Toads).

Gogoat + is now Grass / Normal with access to Rock Head ability.

Probopass + is now Rock/Electric type with Minus.

Persian + are now Normal / Steel types.

Meganium now has access to the Grassy Surge ability.

Rampardos + now has access to Rock Head (I know it does nothing for them competitively, but let me dream).

Bastiodon is now 3.6 m or 11'10" tall (I know no one cares but come on, it's like THE WALL Pokémon based on a ceratopsian no less, why is it so short?)

Pumpkaboo and Gourgeist now have access to Flash Fire.

Plus ability now draws in Steel type moves, making the holder immune and raising their def stat when a steel move is used on the field.

Minus now prevents steel type moves from being played and raises the holder's speed when one is used. When Pokemon with Plus and Minus are on the field, the two abilities cancel out.

Shuppet + now has access to Synchronise, which now makes the holder immune to the effects of status while still under being the status condition. (Makes Hex more powerful and makes thematic sense).

Bulletproof: Immune to Moves with Priority, Mega Launcher boosted moves and Self-Destruct Moves. (Tirtouga +, Binacle +)

New Abilities

Archeops is now monorock and the new ability Liftoff, making it a secondary flying type after using or being hit by a flying move. Physical moves and roost/rest resets this condition. Animations also reflect whether Archeops is flying.

Aeronaught: Boost speed when hit by a flying type moves. Immunity to Flying type moves. (Jumpfluff, Driftbllim, Mienfoo, Hawlucha)

Hydrophobic: Boost speed when hit by a water type move, with immunity. (Anorith +, Surskit +)

Bulletproof: Immune to Moves with Priority, Mega Launcher boosted moves and Self-Destruct Moves. (Tirtouga +, Binacle +)

And that's all I got for now.

[rachelkaser]

2022 Games in Review: My favorite customizable avatars (of me)

Several games of 2022 had character creators. I made myself in each one. How different do they all look?

With many games I’ve played in the past, I would make an effort to create a unique character, someone with a name, story, and appearance all their own. However, in 2022, I made most of them into variations of myself, in appearance and name. I tried not to cheat, but to get as close to my real appearance as possible -- I even included glasses were I could, as I wear those quite often.

I could tell you that it was part of some experiment or longterm project . . . honestly, I just got lazy. Every time I entered character creation, I just made a version of myself (with one exception) because it was easier. That means that, by the time I was done playing my games of 2022, I had several versions of me off on adventures. Now I want to compare and contrast how they look.

“Why?” I hear you ask. Because it’s interesting to see the differences in style across the different genres of games? Because it’s instructive to stretch the limits of what these games are capable of to best represent our true selves? Why not?

These are in no particular order, except the one at the very bottom, which is basically an honorable mention.

Disney Dreamlight Valley: My time as a Disney kid/adult

Disney Dreamlight Valley was surprisingly good as these games go. I thought it was just going to be a cheap cash-grab title banking on Disney’s good-but-increasingly-overused name. But no, it’s actually a somewhat charming life sim where you, the player character are the Only One Who Can Save the World. I can totally see its appeal for kids and the kid-adjacent adults who need a serotonin fix (ahem).

For that reason, I was surprised that the player avatar is not more cartoonish, for lack of a better way of putting it. I thought it would be an animesque, bug-eyed kid character (though my eyes are on the big side). But no, they’re at best a young adult who’s very into Disney fashion. Honestly, this version of me looks like the one who beat feet all over Disney World with my family between the ages of 15-25. According to my husband, it looks a lot like me -- I just think it’s a younger, thinner version of me.

Pokémon Legends Arceus: My first monster hunt

See the above? This is what I was expecting with Dreamlight Valley. But perhaps it is better suited to Pokémon. What I enjoyed about Arceus in particular is that -- unlike certain other Pokémon titles (see below) -- the character is not a fresh-faced youth who just wants to catch ‘em all. No, in Arceus, they’re a hardened hunter in a world where everyone seems to think Pokémon are dangerous.

But even so, the version of me in Arceus still looks so adorable. They’re like a tiny terrier: Adorable, but a deadly serious hunter. Admittedly, I can’t pull off the scarf-kerchief combo in real life as elegantly as my in-game avatar did. But considering I have no real influence over the character’s features, this one still looks like a decent representation of my inner child.

Coral Island: Living my crunchiest life

Full disclosure: I messed the eyes up in this one, because mine are not almond-shaped. So we’re just going to ignore that and look at the rest of me here (because I’m actually not sure if it’s possible to adjust your facial features post-creation in-game at this point in early access). Admittedly, out of all of them this one probably best captures my general dorkiness, especially with the glasses.

What amuses me about this is that this avatar looks how I would probably look if I did hard labor on a farm. She’s definitely the most willowy version of me that’s still supposed to be an adult . . . and yet her head is still as wide as her hips. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got an enormous noggin in the real life, but I’ve got the hips to balance it out and then some.

Harvestella: Not sure why I even bothered

From one cozy life sim we move on to another -- or at least I thought Harvestella was a cozy life sim. Turns out it’s a Bravely Default game wearing a cozy-life-sim hat. If I’d known that when I started, I wouldn’t have bothered to even try and make myself in the game, because the customization is undercooked. It’s not the worst character creator this year, but it’s a good example of how shallow they can be. Why even have one at all?

Still, I managed to get her to look superficially like me. She’s still not as thin as the Coral Island avatar, if only because she’s got some thighs on her (as do I IRL). Actually, this version of me is kind of the inverse of Coral Island, in that she’s got a tiny head and shoulders on an absolutely stacked pair of legs and hips. Neither one bears a strong similarity to reality, but it’s still fun to see a version of me that aligns with the art style of both worlds.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns: My most optimistic cheekbones

To be fair to Midnight Suns, Hunter already comes with a defined name (sorta), backstory, and personality. So making them look like me was actually going against my natural inclination as a player. But by the time the game launched in December, I was committed to the bit, so I went for it. It was kind of fun to see my in-game self dillydally with the Marvel heroes, if a bit disconcerting.

Funnily enough, this version comes the closest to getting my lips and nose right -- in that they look like actual parts of a human face. But goddamn me to hell and back, I do not have cheekbones that nice. I might attribute those good looks to Hunter’s demoness mother, but I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be human and I’ve never cut glass with my cheeks.

Need for Speed Unbound: My failed attempt to look cool

Need for Speed Unbound was another game that had, at best, a token character creator. Since your in-game avatar basically spends the majority of their time in a car, their appearance really doesn’t matter because it’ll never be as fancy or familiar as that of your favorite ride. But I tried anyway, because I felt like I could at least look like the streetwise badass I shall never be in real life.

Not to repeat myself, but at least the features on this face look somewhat like mine. Those are definitely my eyebrows. I won’t deceive you, though: I don’t look anywhere near this cool. I don’t have piercings in my ears, let alone other appendages. And I look forward to the day I can dye my hair that shade of purple, so I guess this is me living my ombre dreams through the game.

Saints Row (2022): I’ve got everything but the tats

I might not have believed it, but the one game I played this year with a halfway-detailed character creator was Saints Fucking Row. And yes, before you ask, the game’s quality really is this bad. Also, for some reason the game wouldn’t let me soften the shade of blush I used, so I look literally clownish and not metaphorically here. I’d also never where Santo Ileso fashion personally.

But I’ll say this for Saints Row, it’s the only game this year were I could accurately represent my own thickness. I’m a chunky lady, no denying it, and this is closest I came all year to looking like myself, round of face, thigh, and chest. I don’t have those clean, Southwestern-style tats, but that’s more aspirational than reflective of reality.

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet: My back-to-school look

My hair isn’t actually purple, but I felt that, in the spirit of playing the Violet edition of the game, I should go full color here. Who knows -- maybe my hair will look like that someday! As for the rest of me, well . . . if the Arceus version of me is a seasoned (but adorable badass), this one looks like the most boring student in the entire school. She’s just here to catch ‘em all.

Still, this game’s photo mode is probably out of any I played this year. Posing with various pocket monsters was adorable, and completely in-character for a young student discovering the world. This version of me is not bad at all -- it just suffers by being not as interesting as the rest of my avatars this year.

Horse Tales Emerald Valley Ranch: What even am I?

I don’t know what to say about this one. I’m already on record as labeling this game my least-favorite of 2022. This wasn’t because of the obviously piss-poor graphical quality. Not at all -- there’s nothing wrong with a bit of a graphical lowgrade, especially in a horse game where the intent is depict the rider as an extension of the horse.

No, I hated it because this is not a depiction of a horseperson. These are acceptable street clothes, but I’m not wearing headphones and loafers to ride over mountainous country and beaches. Also, leaving all that aside, why can I not change the colors of my eyebrows and lashes, which are stuck on “auburn?” I do think it’s ironic that they ask you to select a masculine or feminine character while the default hoodie is in the colors of the non-binary pride flag. 

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: My average D&D character

Now presenting my Tiny Tina character, a.k.a. the one time I resisted the urge to just make myself in a game. She still looks close-ish: She has my hair and eye color, but she doesn’t share my name or pretty much anything else about me. But honestly? This was as close as I was reasonably going to get within the context of the game. Because I play Dungeons and Dragons (or Bunkers and Badasses, I suppose) IRL, and I balk at the notion of making someone who looks like me.

Most D&D characters I’ve made have are a far cry from myself and my lived experience. Even when I incorporate elements of myself or my appearance, it’s usually by accident or with a particular goal in mind. I can’t make a version of me 1-to-1 and engage with the game’s premise in good faith. So here you have it: My unbelievably ugly Wonderlands character.

And that’s it! All the versions of me I made this year! No, I’m not going to give an actual pic of myself for comparison -- this isn’t really about realism, but more about how best I feel I’m represented in the worlds of these games. But if anyone has any other in-game avatars they think look better, or if you just want to show me your creations, feel free to tag me below or on Twitter!

[ludic-nebula-collective]

Possible(?) Headmate List

I've been thinking about the gang today. I haven't really popped off about them yet, but I like the idea of a masterpost for everyone.

I'll try to put everyone in order of how prominent they were during their time. TW - IFS / Internal Family Systems mention: They were the parts I made during IFS that had a bit more autonomy than they should've and the main reason why I'm questioning so much. (I've mentioned in my pinned post that I don't agree with IFS as a practice and don't condone it, but these guys are very important to me.)

Masterpost under the cut!

Syren "Sy" 💫 ➺ based on my love of astronomy ➺ it/sol/voi/they + mirrors ➺ a living star, has both a more human and more star-like form ➺ was most often around when I was dissociating ➺ wasn't really the nicest, but it meant well

Maera ✨ ➺ based on my love of animals, mythology, and space ➺ she/it/they/star/woo/kit/🐕/🐾 + mirrors ➺ she's based on Canis Minor! blond border collie girl! ➺ always happy and always hyperactive, she's a sweetheart ➺ made me raise a brow when I realized she didn't seem to represent any negative "part" of me...

Evren "Ev" 🍯 ➺ based on my love of pastels, learning, "kawaii"/soft things, and possibly cartoons? ➺ ey/ve/ne/they/she ➺ I've been trying to see if these "parts" are more personas than other people, that's why this account is framed around one ➺ a demon in a human skin, but you wouldn't know if ey didn't have eir horns :) ➺ one of the ones that popped up cuz my brain said "hey, this guy's here too" out of nowhere lmao

Raine 🌧️ ➺ based on my love of oceanography and marine biology ➺ ve/xe/they/she ➺ human-adjacent, ve grow spikes on ver body (especially on ver head like a tiara) when ver angry ➺ ve mask quite a bit, more than any of the others ➺ ve also like to go by Marsh! it's like a screen name for ven

Homura 🔥 ➺ based on my strong Pyra (Xenoblade Chronicles 2) kin and my love of vtubers ➺ she/they/fie/e ➺ she's a lady with short reddish hair and circular glasses. the tips of her hair burn slightly ➺ the mom friend of the group, but she usually lets people walk all over her... ➺ if she was a vtuber, she'd call her viewers her sparks!

Saige 🌱 ➺ based on my Ground-type Miku (Project Voltage) kin and my love of the desert, botany, and the song Sand Planet ➺ dune/fie/kit/she ➺ green hair and deep pink eyes, like the flower on a cactus ➺ the one that pops up when someone needs brutal honesty ➺ kind of a hardass, but done absolutely means well

Juno / Lyra "LJ" 🥤 ➺ based on my love of Pokémon and possibly silly/colorful things? ➺ e/they/bu/🫧/she ➺ eir the middle stage between Marill and Azumarill, but as a human girlie ➺ here's where we get to the ones that weren't/aren't present enough to have a lot of info. I think e's pretty goofy, though ➺ couldn't decide between the two names, so e use both!

Wrenly "Wren" 🥀 ➺ based on my love of weirdcore as a genre ➺ xe/ink/voi/star/wy/it ➺ a tall, lanky, possibly staticky creature that's both mute and nonscribal ➺ xer whole thing was like. I can feel them physically inside me. is that weird? xe would claw at my stomach whenever i felt dysphoric or dysmorphic

Angel 💗 ➺ gonna be real, I don't really know what she's based on. my brain told me one day that I had another dog girl in me, so here she is lmao ➺ she/her, possibly more? ➺ a shel-Aussie dog girl! ➺ literally would just. make yapping noises. I'm dead serious. we love her for it, though

Sidney "Syd" 🗡️ ➺ based on my gender expression (feminine enby) and love of punk aesthetics and heavier music ➺ they/xe/ey/ne/fie/ink/voi ➺ they have two appearances based on their gender expression, but they're mostly a taller woman with shorter white hair and blue eyes ➺ wasn't really around. I think it was because they were suffering in silence

Addison 💾 ➺ based on my love of tech ➺ wy/ey/ce/ne/it/they ➺ I've never really been able to see or interact with the headspace, but I've realized it's a series of interconnected planets in its own solar system (if it exists). wy is the one that created it ➺ wy is a living computer program, so wy powers down as a means of running from their problems and trauma. I haven't really heard anything from wir at all

??? 🦗 ➺ also based on my love of Pokémon ➺ they/them ➺ I don't really know if they're here, but I wondered for a while if LJ had eir own part based on a shiny Lurantis OC I have

That's the crew! Again, I'm still not sure if they count as headmates or not, but while they were created to be parts of me to help me get through my trauma, they were very much their own people that only really "fronted" during specific times. It's all very confusing, but they still mean a hell of a lot to me.

If anyone has any questions on or for any of them, feel free to leave a comment!

[lycankeyy]

Sprry to fictive post on main but every time I see that "tweet like Pokémon are real" tweet I remember my incredibly random psuedomemory that my mom ran a Twitter(-adjacent) account for the Poké House since it was more or less just us fostering a fuckton of orphaned/abandoned/injured Pokémon and i had access to it and posted cryptic shit on there sometimes and anyway every time I think about this I think about how I had the opportunity to old-friends-senior-dog-sanctuary that shit . Like I would've gotten in So much trouble but could you imagine

[moonlatias]

Minty | 30+ | she/her | Wiccan/Luciferian | kinda a nerd

A bit of a private gal, here to learn from others and share a bit of myself in the process.

This blog is primarily dedicated to my spiritual path. Formerly Catholic, I now identify as pagan. For simplicity's sake, I like to go with eclectic Wiccan/theistic Luciferian, but I suppose to be even more specific, I am a (Neo)pagan who honors the Divine as God and Goddess within a (Neo)Wiccan framework. Echoes of my Christian faith still exist throughout my practice and views, but that’s ok with me. I get to rewrite and determine what those teachings mean to me now.

My path is primarily one of deity reverence. Magic is not particularly vital to my path, though I do practice it periodically. I'm also in the process of tinkering around with various forms of divination in order to see which I like best.

I believe in the God and Goddess through the lens of panentheism, a form of "soft" polytheism, with the idea that all gods/goddesses are aspects or emanations of the ultimate Divine Source (though still unique figures worthy of paying respect to in their own ways, and for whom cultural context and background is still relevant).

My God is known to me as the Radiant Horned God, who I also revere as Lucifer. My Goddess is known to me as the Mother of Tides, the Lady of the Moon, and the Mother to All the Earth, who I also revere as [redacted]. I also have relationships with Thor, Inari, and Dionysus.

My spouse has deities/figures they honor as well, and as a result you may see me honor them, too! They are a part of my life even if I don’t directly worship or work with them.

My devotion is guided by my historical, mythological, and esoteric research. I am inspired by Wiccan folklore, various forms of paganism (particularly Norse and Celtic), Christian apocrypha (including demonolatry), and Luciferianism. I also find comfort and important lessons in Buddhist and Shinto teachings.

You may sometimes see a bit of what looks like "pop culture paganism" in my practice, as I weave Pokémon into how my path has been shaped. I don't actually pray to Pokémon or believe they are real, but since they are such an important part of my life, I use them to work with and understand the otherwise-unfathomable nature of the divine.

Outside of my spiritual path, I love creative writing, video games, reading, D&D, and learning new things. I also love art (though I rarely draw anymore), and am always hungry to commission art of my beloved original characters (OCs). My blog is represented by an OC from one of my stories—Laska, an arctic fox who, like me, goes through a spiritual journey and eventually has to save the world. I’m not personally a furry, but I guess I’m furry adjacent. 🤷‍♀️

Please do not interact if you have a problem with Wicca. I am not here to defend the religion or why I have chosen to practice it. I did enough of that in my previous religion and have no desire to do it anymore. Please leave me alone. (That goes for all other aspects of my practice too, but I definitely have no time or patience for people wanting to challenge Wicca in bad faith.)

Hoping to follow and interact with others who share in my interests and my passion for learning new things! I hope my posts can also be interesting or helpful to others as well.

You may also visit me on my Twitter or my Bluesky!

Blessed be!

- Minty 💖

(Header to this post by BewitchedInk, banner art for the blog by Jasmae, blog avatar by Luthien_Nightwolf)

[quillyfied]

Post that’s been trying to form in my brain since April, not sure if I’ve got all the words right but I’m gonna go for it anyway:

Starting disclaimer, absolutely we should be telling more historical and historical-adjacent stories about POC in these fraught colonial times bc it wasn’t just All White Europeans All The Time, and their stories were most certainly not weird white guilt fodder about slavery and imperialism. That said, there’s something kinda powerful, I think, in telling a story like Our Flag Means Death about Blackbeard.

Because Blackbeard, to this day, is THE dude. He’s THE pirate. Every single pirate in cartoons and comedy that has the name Something-beard (Stickybeard from KND being the most obvious example I can think of, followed by this absolutely ridiculous Studio C sketch, but I know there’s countless more) is parodying this guy. Blackbeard is a legend. Had a fierce reputation, supposedly set his own beard on fire to scare people, when he died the legend went his headless body jumped off the ship and swam around it three times before he finally quit moving. And piracy, as it is in the show, is a manly-man sort of profession in pop culture. In maybe a roundabout way, it could be said that since swashbuckling stories from the time of Blackbeard’s contemporaries all the way to now, Blackbeard is pretty much the ultimate macho manly man dudebro (for three hundred manly, manly years).

Certainly this is the reputation they bestow on Blackbeard in OFMD. He’s a legend. And it’s established from the first episode that piracy has certain expectations attached to it. And from the get-go, OFMD begins challenging Blackbeard’s historical image AND his real-world legacy and reputation. I mean, for a start, there’s the obvious: he’s played by Taika Waititi, who is not a Christian-raised white British man from Bristol or someone who can pass for that basic image (not how the costume department chose to portray him, anyway, I do recall that Taika has played an imaginary friend version of Hitler before, but the basics are still he ain’t a white Christian dude). And it keeps going, from details as small as wearing a knee brace and a crop top with leather clothing to details as big as Blackbeard falling for Stede Bonnet. There’s power, I think, in taking a household name and using him as a vehicle for a story that challenges pretty much everything that household name stands for, from brutality as a necessary masculine trait to heteronormativity to white domination of the seas.

And I think David Jenkins and his incredible team knew exactly what they were doing when they set out to tell this kind of story. They’ve said it before—historical real-world Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet were a nasty couple of dudes, racist and misogynistic and propagating violence, if not being horrifically violent themselves. So what a statement it is, to take the legacies of these real pieces of work and use them to tell a story that directly opposes exactly what they were all about in the real world, a story that resonates and has emotional depth and complexity. Not undoing or rewriting what the historical figures have done, but showing that life doesn’t have to follow the example they set, that if the legendary Blackbeard can feature in a story where he’s allowed to be softer and more vulnerable and battling how the world doesn’t want that from him but HE wants it from himself—idk man, I just like taking these monuments of toxic masculinity and using them to explore alternatives.

Hopefully this makes any kind of sense, I think I might have lost the plot a bit. TL;DR using toxic masculine icon Blackbeard to dismantle toxic masculinity is cool. It’s like beating a Dragon type Pokémon with another Dragon type but better. Using the same beams that upheld terrible ideology to dismantle said ideology. Happy S2, happy to sail alongside all o’ ye in this fandom, yohoho and a happy Pride to all bc Blackbeard’s gay now.

[shmothman]

So based on your posts I believe your a biologist (biology adjacent background at least, know about animals?) serious question about the Pokémon world for you. Do you think animals exist there?

In the earlier show and iterations it seemed like there were animals (like there are here even if they weren’t exactly featured) and Pokémon - the cooler animals that had abilities and could kill ppl and ppl were forced to respect. The newer iterations (probably bc so many Pokémon have been introduced) pretty much seem to show that there are only Pokémon ex. In the first series when Ash and gang visit the Cerulean gym and see the aquarium it looks like a bunch of fish and then some Pokémon (I think there was only a handful of gen 1 one water Pokémon so that makes sense) but now in journeys underwater scenes will include dozens of water Pokémon from all gens with no generic looking fish (which also makes sense in terms of gen continuity and not needing generic fish to fill the water anymore)

I personally think there are animals and bugs and Pokémon are the “more special” ones. Bc I’m pretty sure ppl eat meat there but could not imagine eating Pokémon would be ok. Idk the whole thing is insane to me. Some Pokémon are classified as “fire-Xanimal” - ie Litten being fire-cat Pokemon but how do they know what a cat is? If animals don’t exist??? Or my other theory is animals existed and were slowly replaced/evolved into the Pokémon we see now

What do you think?

I am indeed a biologist!! A river ecologist, at the present, but my background is in general biology! And I do have many thoughts on this topic 🤣

Obviously, in the first couple seasons of the anime, there were some “regular” animals included—things like the fish from Cerulean—and I do agree that that’s pretty much only because they didn’t have enough pokemon yet to fill the scenes out. (Also because in… 1998? Or so? When that episode came out, they had no way of anticipating just how huge pokemon would be, over 20 years and 900 pokemon later 🤣) BUT when I write the pokemon world, I write as if pokemon are the only animals. (Though, funny enough, there are plant pokemon, but also “regular” plants.) As for the meat they eat… eh. I honestly just don’t think about it too much 🤣 synthetic meat maybe. Plant burgers 🤣

The whole Pokédex thing—meowth being the “scratch cat” pokemon and pikachu being the “electric mouse” pokemon and things like that… I just see that as a way for players and viewers to be able to relate to the new pokemon they’re being introduced to, you know? Though I obviously don’t think it’s wrong to headcanon that there are regular animals as well as pokemon—it’s just not how I write the world! (Of course, there are exceptions to my rule: coral are technically animals, and I would have no problem writing about there being a coral reef in the pokemon world, populated by regular coral as well as corsola, for instance 🤣)

Although I am a scientist, I do take pokemon with a heaping grain of fantasy salt 🤣 though what I think is most interesting is the idea of evolution (the scientific kind, not the pokemon kind—man, that terminology would get confusing in-fiction) and taxonomy in the pokemon world—even if it doesn’t make much real sense, considering pokemon are designed to be the Coolest, not… the most realistic for the ecological niche they might fill. God I’d love to be a pokemon professor.

[emberopolis]

A Brief Look at 🌟 Pop Pantheons 🌟

So I am a big fan of pop culture paganism/magic.  I could write at length about it (and I might eventually) but for now I want to focus on one of the (maybe) biggest aspects of pop paganism: pop pantheons.

A pop pantheon is a collection made of fictional characters, images, or archetypes that you work with like deities or other revered magical beings, or that you use in a sacred way.  A popular example of this is the tarot, where you can make 100 different decks using 100 different subjects and people can still connect to it as a divination tool.

Pop pantheons can be used either on their own or as a gateway into working with ancient deities-- both of which I’ll talk about.

Why would you use a pop pantheon over a ‘real’ pantheon? The answer to that question is very simple: connection.  You have a personal connection to these pop culture figures already, so you can really put your heart into working with them.  When you’re personally invested in something, you connect to it better.  The feelings you have for those things are raw and powerful and can be harnessed in your magic or your daily life.

I’ll use an example from my own practice: Pokémon.  I’ve explained in other posts how much I love Pokémon.  Because I have such a deep connection to Pokémon, I am able to tap into that and use Pokémon trading cards for divination.  I might also pick a Pokémon to embody something for a spell or ritual.  For example, I feel like I need to be more disciplined, but I don’t work with any deities or beings that represent 'discipline’ so I don’t feel like I have a source to call on.  I, personally, don’t feel comfortable calling on the help of deities I don’t work with, so instead I can turn to my special interest, Pokémon, and find something to represent discipline for me.  I could use Lucario as an image of discipline because of its history of being a knight’s companion and intensive training to be able to see and use auras.  I could do a spell where I involve this Pokémon through a trading card or a plush toy or an enamel pin, and I can use that item as my talisman.  Then when I need to call on discipline, I could turn to that item or carry it with me.

Pop pantheons are easily accessible. For some things in pop culture, there is vastly more information about that thing than there is about a specific deity or mythical being.  There might only be a handful of myths for a deity.  However, with pop culture work, you likely have access to the source material for the being you want to work with and can easily consume it.  A great example of this is Aslan from C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia.  There are already books dedicated to using Narnia as a religious-adjacent text for your life.

Another example could be Merlin.  Merlin is an archetypal figure with many interpretations that you can consume and build a connection with.  You can read the legends of King Arthur, or you could choose a Merlin-esque being who embodies the same archetype, like Gandalf.  You can read the Middle Earth books to foster that connection to the archetype of the wise wizard or magical mentor.  This stuff is readily available at your fingertips, it’s as simple as going to the library and checking out the books or renting the DVDs.

What you need might be too ‘niche’ for a deity/being or you can’t think of/don’t work with a deity/being that represents what you need. As I mentioned earlier, some of us don’t feel comfortable calling on deities/beings we don’t regularly work with, but we feel we need the help of a supernatural force.  We can call on an archetype or a fictional being that we feel connected to to serve this function.  My example from earlier was how I felt I needed discipline, but I don’t work with any beings that represent or embody that, so I called on a Pokémon for the job.  A big facet of the world of Pokémon is establishing a deep connection with your Pokémon and being able to call on them when you need help, so it felt appropriate to me to use a Pokémon for this task.

Pop pantheons can be more comfortable to work with. This is sort of the same as the previous point, but I’m going to include it anyway.  I’m going to use an example that Molly Roberts used in her video on this subject (which is linked at the end of this post.)  For road opener work, Molly uses Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz.  She mentions that many people like to call on/use Ganesha symbolism for road opener work because it falls under the umbrella of things he represents.  However, Molly doesn’t feel comfortable working with a being from a system she doesn’t know enough about, so instead she uses Glinda, who represents the same thing to her but comes from something she does know and understand.  She’s more comfortable with Glinda, so her work flows freely and her magic isn’t blocked up or diminished by uncertainty or discomfort or a feeling that what she is doing is ‘wrong.’

Pop pantheons can be a gateway into working with ‘real’ deities. If you’ve never worked with a deity before and aren’t feeling called to one, but want to start a relationship with one, it can be a bit intimidating to work with one at first, especially if you’re new to paganism and/or witchcraft in general.  You might feel drawn to a pop cultural depiction of a deity, though, and want to interact with that being through the lens of the pop culture ‘version.’  A great example of this is Loki from the Marvel universe.  I’ve heard of several people who came to Loki through an interest in his Marvel counterpart.  I have a friend who works intimately with Loki and the way he appears to her is much the same as Marvel’s Loki.  Is her work with him diminished because he resembles the Marvel character?  Not at all!

Another example is Hades.  Say someone played that game and suddenly felt a strong interest in Dionysus.  They might begin dipping their toes in deity work, and when they do they envision Dionysus the way he appears in the game.  This helps them connect to the ‘true’ Dionysus because they already feel drawn to that vision of him and feel comfortable with it.  They can use Hades Dionysus as their proxy for the ‘real’ Dionysus the god chooses to show his preferred form to that person-- if he ever does at all.  Dionysus might be perfectly happy to be represented as the Hades Dionysus for that practitioner and not change.

🌟 🌟 🌟

This post is getting quite long, so I will stop here.  I hope this feels like a good introduction to pop pantheons.  If you have questions or want me to expand on this subject, you can always send me an ask.

Before you leave, I’d like to recommend three videos to you.  Some of the information I’ve provided in this post comes from these videos, and each expands on the ideas presented here and provides more information.  So if you’re interested in knowing more, I highly recommend watching them:

Kelly-Ann Maddox: Worth with Deities and Other Personified Beings

Jesse Huntenberg: Discovering Gods, Goddesses, and Archetypes

Molly Roberts: Pop Pantheons!

[armsofarceus]

The last time this blog reblogged an image was over a year ago. The last time it posted original content was over four years ago.

I am endlessly happy that my resources are still widely used and shared after all this time and that people appreciate the work I did here.

I still get asks from people who probably haven't paid attention to the timestamps. I'm not really planning on answering them, I'm sorry.

90% of the asks I get, and had gotten back when I was active, were "how do I establish a relationship with [this Pokémon]?" For every one of these asks all I did was look on Bulbapedia for all available information on the Pokémon in question and then abstract it outwards to things possible in real life.

While I'm glad this may have helped people it's honestly not the most mentally stimulating thing to talk about. I understand being new to something and unsure and wanting to seek advice from someone who seems to know more than you, but I guarantee that every single one of you is capable of answering those types of questions on your own. I mean this in the most empowering way possible.

One of the big reasons I stopped doing this is because of one odd encounter I had where someone messaged me on this blog. I won't divulge the personal details this person sent me, but they told me something along the lines of how a spirit was affecting them to the point of infringing upon their personal life and health.

They overshared a lot of stuff that I don't think any person wants dumped on them from a stranger, and I didn't reply because I feel like I was rightly weirded out by being approached like this. Especially considering they sent a follow up message sometime later telling me they were upset with me for not helping them through their spiritual crisis and that they would not "forgive me" for it.

I don't know any of you. None of you know me. That was one of the most uncomfortable one-sided interactions I've ever had in any Pagan-adjacent community. I believe in "magick" but this experience showed me that this stuff isn't like... fun and lighthearted for a lot of people and I refuse to be any sort of authority for anyone having any sort of problems in their life who want a spiritual answer to their problems. I started this for fun and seeing all the anxiety strangers brought to me over just how "real" all this was for them was too much for me. I won't say magick isn't real, but I think a lot of you guys need to take a step back and look at your lives more holistically.

I am a stranger running a blog about how picturing cartoon animals while cooking might make your food taste better. It's just that deep.

Anyway I really do appreciate the engagement I've had over the years otherwise. Sometimes I think about coming back and completing some of my "Magickal Properties" posts that are still very popular even now. But idk if I will. That said, if anyone wants to make work derivative of mine feel free to. Anything you use directly from me please credit by linking to this blog. Anything inspired by my work but ultimately containing content originally from your own mind doesn't need to be directly credited unless you feel like giving me a little shout out. There's not a lot on here I'd say I "own" except for the text of my posts as I've written them. As long as you're not copying and pasting my words and claiming them as your own you're probably fine.

Thanks for all your support over the years, even in my absence. I wish you all the best.

(And yes, I did really like Pokémon Legends: Arceus.)