#mainline OC writing

[edwards-exploit]

Troublesome Tangmere and 249 Squadron Reliable Rebecca!

In an ideal world, we could've had a story where Tangmere causes good old Sundrian Confusion and Delay and then promptly eats shit.

Rebecca as 249 Squadron wasn't my idea, but it's been ingrained into my head nonetheless. I like the idea of a Rebecca that spent most of her life in scrapyards and storage and then still coming out singing- quite literally! But the trauma of it is still very much there, just... lingering. I imagine 'What Rebecca Does' was one of those moments where her anxiety and self doubt got the better of her- she only spent a short while on rails, and while she did pull expresses like The Night Ferry back on the mainland, here on Sodor it seemed that everyone is much more.... experienced and worldly and cool, and most of all, they got modifications and rebuilds to work around their design flaws while Rebecca is still very much an unrebuilt bulleid pacific. Poor girl's not sure what she can really do, after all these years and with her mechanical problems. This isn't even getting into when she WAS in service- her family was fine, and quite loving actually- and the ex SR engines were a decent sort! Everyone else, however...

[chiropteracupola]

weathering the winter

[queseraphita]

I think smt v coulda really been a cool return to form as a Raidou Kuzunoha ARPG successor instead of a really weak SMT Nocturne successor

[threadmonster]

I impulsively bought this little journal/notebook because I just liked it (and thought it was $5 not $10 but it was too late) and I'm thinking about writing a journal from my OC's POV? As if my OC is writing the journal 🤔

[halfwaydeepunofficial]

i wrote this two years ago (jesus oh my god it was two years ago.) and i'm just supposed to Live With It i guess. character of all time.

Lying in a hospital bed, he had never been more tempted [to leave his friends]. The quest had brought him to the brink of death. It had brought him pain and suffering he could have avoided if he had never gotten involved. But it had also brought him friends- he had been a friendless kid, awkwardly in between the ages of his cousins and family friends and too socially inept to venture outside of those circles. It had brought him magic even beyond his wildest childhood fantasies of heroes and wizards. It had brought him love- no matter how it had ended (if it had ended), he had been able to be near her for so long, the most beautiful girl he’d ever met in every sense of the word. How could he bear to leave it behind? How could he bear to go back to being so terribly lonely and purposeless? “I won’t leave,” he said quietly, a little scared of his own answer, and yet sure of it. “And- and-“ He didn’t like to argue at all, much less challenge Jas, but this was his life he was talking about. “You don’t need to die, and I think it’s awful you’ve convinced yourself you have. None of us need to die, c’mon. It’s a magic quest. Magic, Jas. The kind of story where the good guys win.”

thinking about Him (franklin e. bendel)

[galaxylover06]

UPDATE ON MY AU:

What's happening? Why don't I make art/talk about it anymore? What even is it? Let's go over it

Been a very long while since I addressed my long beloved "AU"

Many of my early followers began supporting me in hopes of seeing it and it's surrounding comic, but I've slowly stopped talking about it because my story was very undecided and in development.

Well not anymore, today I'm happy to share I've made some final discussions for this project.

–––––

1.) It's not an AU anymore.

Just going to get this out of the way, I can't call this an alt universe. I like the current sonic universe and how it's world works and want to build a story in that.

So now I'll be addressing it as a fancomic, that's really all it is!

2.) my VERY early followers know it's name was "Reverent Heart" however that's long changed.

The fancomic and anything related to it's story is now called "Timeless"

3.) that's all cool but what does this fancomic bring to the table?

Three things.

• 1: a mainline series with two sagas, saga one being a semi-self contained story.

If all goes well I'll move onto saga 2, with a more ambitious story consisting of two parts

• 2: a mini prequel series I'll be releasing first for comic/writing practice as well as to flesh out the comics plot

This series in particular will focus solely on Silver and my OC Rocket.

• 3: a couple miscellaneous holiday specials just for fun

4.) does Shadikal still play a significant role in the fancomic?

Yes! (and no) Shadow and Tikal are my protagonist and their relationship is important for the story and their development in it

However I don't plan to make them a couple by the end of the first saga. There will obviously be hints, ship moments, and a clear bias I like them as a couple, but overall I want to develop a proper friendship between the two first.

Thats personally how I'd view them in canon and what I'd like to write in all honesty.

5.) when will this comic ever see the light of day? Soon!

I hope to start around winter this year if scripting goes well!

That's all I can say for now, stay tuned everybody! 💫

[sincerely-sofie]

I know you have ocs for resuce team and exploresr, but that leads me to ask, do you have any for gates or super? I'd like to see htem if you do [please no spoilers though, I'm almost done gates and haven't started super, and I would like my journey through super at the least to be spoiler-free if possible]

Now introducing Team Delphinium from Gates to Infinity and Team Shockwave from Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon!

Extra notes on these teams:

Darcy and Clara both come from worlds beyond the one TPiaG is set in. Clara belongs to the mainline Pokémon world. Darcy belongs to a world where Pokémon don’t exist at all.

Bennett uses his seashell as more of a discus and shield than a blade.

Darcy has a hard time being vulnerable and holds others at arms’ length emotionally, despite being very chipper and open.

Bennett’s father is a dewott and his mother is an intelleon.

Darcy is SUPER into organization and cleaning. Bennett, despite being a very tidy person himself, will purposefully leave messes around for Darcy so she has something to get excited about cleaning up.

Bennett is a shiny Pokémon.

Clara sees Eve as a younger sister. She would do anything to keep her safe and see her smile.

Eve, upon being introduced to the human concept of keychains by Clara, has taken up the hobby of making keychains as handmade gifts for her partner.

Clara enjoys keeping a planner with lots of notes scribbled down about the events of the day. She loves to write in fancy calligraphy in it.

Eve struggles to fall asleep at night, and Clara will make up nonsensical stories for her to listen to whenever she wakes up from a nightmare. Eve thinks Clara is a master storyteller, and while Clara does enjoy writing, she’s not making up the stories on the spot— she’s actually just reciting the plot of a fanfic she made for her world’s version of Warrior Cats.

Nobody knows what’s going on with Eve, but the one thing they know for certain is that that piplup kid is absolutely NOT neurotypical.

[galactic-ambitions-jester]

Talks in Twilight

Toxic Chaintober 2024 Day 25-29: Dog, Monkey, Pheasant, Revival, and Twilight

(Video starts up)

Hey, hey, hey everyone! Tis’ I Marx! @kirbyoctournament voters, listen up, cuz I’m going to tell you who to vote in the finals in both the Second Chance and the Mainline tournament! Doku’s joinin’ me here on the spot! - Marx

(Camera switches focus to another direction, this time showing Dokutaro)

Reasons on why you should vote Valfrey: she’s filled with swag, she’s a cool girl and they will not hesitate to put Uther in his place in hell. And they’re my friend, so if you vote for them, I’ll give you a special mochi, not poisonous mind you. - Dokutaro

(Offscreen, Uther can be heard yelling and Marx comments on the last statement from Doku with the camera going back to him)

Oh wow… a threat… anywho, wowee, the twilight’s amazing eh? Speaking of twilight, which is the transition between the day and the night, vote for Noir Fontaine, a sad and traumatized boy. Reason? He has my full respect. Plus, I am looking forward to the Director’s Cut of his world. This one’s to you Cosmo, this kid better get to college, I swear to Titan! It would also help him and his confidence if he wins! I know right? Holy Ti- issat the Loyal 3?! - Marx

(Camera moves to see the Loyal 3, Okidogi, Munkidori and Fezandipiti, all revived and alive)

Sup, Boss? - Okidogi

Hey, Boss. - Munkidori

You better haven’t forgotten us. - Fezandipiti

(Camera moves to Dokutaro, who had opened his shell, crying)

… you’re.. you’re aliveandIdon’t.. I’m sorry - Dokutaro

(All three move to the camera’s view to comfort Dokutaro, then they see that Doku was filming something with Marx, and notices the next line that he was supposed to say, and Okidogi picks it up then looks at the camera saying the line and adding something of his own)

You better live up to Noir’s threat and send these kids to college or I’ll bash your skulls! Buy those signs and get Noir to win! - Okidogi

Well, this stream isn’t stopping anytime soon folks! Speaking of revivals and death, vote Valfrey, and get Uther down to hell! - Marx

Any Uther is wicked, as that is how the tales go - Munkidori

(The camera moves to Fezandipiti, who is seen on Cosmo’s stand, luring people to him [Cosmo], and even bought a sign that said “Vote For Noir!” with a drawing of the boy)

Buy now everyone! Not only will this help Noir’s votes to rise but also assist him and his siblings in going to college~~! For only 20 star coins each! - Fezandipiti

Our surprise guests have shown why you should vote Noir and Valfrey! So see you all soon! - Marx

(Video ends)

//credits under the cut

Ocs featured or mentioned

@gethoce - Valfrey

@quanblovk - Uther (only briefly mentioned) drag him to hell!

@poppybros-jr - Cosmo and gang

@desultory-novice - Noir Fontaine

//Okidogi, Munkidori, and Fezandipiti are available for asks!

Prompts by @tealmaskmybeloved

//An unexpected thing happened while writing this and bam! Days 25-29 finished in here! Originally it was just the usual Marx and Dokutaro banter on who to vote for, but then it turned into a stream and eventually ended up with this final video like fic. Vote for Valfrey and Noir guys!~

[leafia-z]

Looking for a PMD ROLEPLAY!

This is my grand, (likely) finale shot at finding the perfect partner for this; I’m beginning to free up in my schedule, so no time better than the present to try and scout out a partner!

When it comes to the Roleplay, I’m more so looking to have it be an OC x OC scenario, with the hero and partner being a pairing! mxm, fxf, fxm.. throw your characters at me! My own character will be a female Vulpix.

World-Building wise, we can have it take place in a canon PMD world, or build our very own! I’m fine with whatever you’d like :) Plotting, we can discuss together! I don’t mind making things as we go, and starting with a loose idea of where we want to go! But, I don’t mind having an exact idea of what we want to do, either!

Now, some general information about me!

- I roleplay in a Semi-Lit, Lazy Lit, to Literate fashion. It all depends on what you yourself write, as I tend to mirror my partners! I quite prefer Lazy Lit, but don’t mind one of the other styles either!

- I’m in the EST timezone, and I’m more so often active in the early afternoon, and later parts of the night. (11 AM — 4 PM, 9 PM - 12 AM.) I’m not picky about what timezone my own partner is in!

- I do work two jobs, and unfortunately, this means I have low energy sometimes. I’ll do my best to let you know, and feel free to poke me if I go silent for a few days! Sometimes, it just slips my mind.. but, I do my best to keep tabs on what I have and haven’t responded to! (Not that I have many roleplays going on currently!)

- I like chatting and gushing about our characters, but it’s not a necessity from your end! I’m just happy to have a partner for this, at the end of the day haha

- I’ve played every PMD game! I’m caught up on mainline & spin off games as well.

If interested, just DM me or leave a like and I’ll reach out!

[hamaonoverdrive]

Central Dogma

My Team OCs 🌕 participation piece for @yuriolympics! [Round 1 Prompt: Communication]

As a courier living in the world's beating heart of biotech and cybernetic development, there is no shortage of delivery work for Gale. When one under-the-table job turns into a matter of life and death, she is saved by a woman who will completely change her lease on life.

Rated Teen for graphic depictions of violence. 4842 words. Tags & CWs: unrequited love, hurt/comfort, angst, dismemberment, medical, organized crime, cyberpunk, biopunk, dystopia Standalone piece, ongoing characters & setting.

⇝Read it here!⇜

Note: Requires AO3 login.

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

So, remember when I asked you about social media in the Pokemon universe?

I've sorta gotten wrapped up in a giant RP community here on tumblr based around that concept, where we all make in-univese tumblr posts from characters in the Pokemon world, whether that be canon characters, OCs, Fallers from non-Pokemon media, and so on.

It's called Pokemon IRL, and it runs on a multiverse system. Essentially, the in-universe website connects across the multiverse, allowing people to have different canons without it conflicting.

I run a bunch of blogs for it, including one for the Tropius that I mentioned to you back in that original ask. I also write blogs for Kay Faraday, an Arceus who prefers to be in the form of a shiny Sentret, someone who got sent to the PMD world and really didn't like it, a Herlock Sholmes-inspired detective from a steampunk PMD world, a gym inspector, a Mew who got tired of being a legendary and just wants to live among humans now, a Zorua who's going through the plot of every single mainline Pokemon game, and the Ninetales from PMD Rescue Team.

It's really fun! I wrote a guide to it here, if you're interested!

I had to do a triple take at just regular ol' Kay Faraday in that list. (And was also having some trouble just with my brain and parsing commas, so I was like "Kay Faraday is an Arceus???" and. no.) But that sounds like fun! I feel particularly bad for that poor Zorua - that's a lot of plot to live through.

"Multiverse social media" is such a funny concept. I mean, it obviously solves the ""canon"" problem. But imagine, like, you share a news bulletin about missing person Subway Master Ingo and then you find like thirteen different Ingos and you can't even be sure if any of them are actually the guy from your world because seven of them have amnesia and are blogging from the year 1800.

[wildstar25]

Doomed timeline au children? Omg tell me more

Yeah! Motek (left) and Mira (right) \o/

They are basically fire emblem awakening style OCs in that they would come from a distant, very far removed timeline where an 8th umbral calamity did occur. Arsay and Y'shtola die in that timeline to the event. In order to protect their children and the few others that survived, G'raha takes them all into the crystal tower to live safely. He figures out how to pull off the dimension and time hoping spell himself but his life would again be the price. He removes the stasis spell from the tower and allows his children to grow; raising them to be strong and capable warriors like their mother, before finally sending them off to try and re-write their future.

I have tags for them if you want to learn more! They are babies that I love to put in the pearwriggler in my head but I rarely talk about them ^^; https://wildstar25.tumblr.com/tagged/mira%20nun/chrono https://wildstar25.tumblr.com/tagged/motek%20nun

Their "if this was the real msq" story would end with them saving the day and going back to their real timeline, figuring out how to save the world where they came from a la future trunks dbz.

I still dont think I consider them canon to mainline Arsay story but if they were her canon retainers it would be a situation where they showed up after endwalker and realized that whatever timeline they are in its way too different than the one they were meant to go to. But since they are stuck they might as well try to keep tabs on their mom so they get themselves hired as retainers. It's very important that in this context they never reveal who they are, least they inadvertently cause some weird butterfly effect which triggers the calamity they were hoping to avoid.

[stormbreaker101]

Music(ology) headcanons! Part 2

My friend @klaraflamez and I have been writing a shared story based upon the wizard101 AUs we made independently. Things go somewhat off the rails, and so these headcanons that we made for Music absolutely do not work for canon, which is part of why I'm making this post separate.

An overview of our AUs:

In both Corrupted Spiral (my AU) and the Cleaved AU (Klara's), the Spiral learned so heavily on its dependency upon its Wizard that it led to the Wizards' demises. In CS, before Arc 4 could properly begin, Nora lashed out in fury, sick of being Nothing but a title and weapon, and abandons the Spiral. In Cleaved, Scarlet was killed in the final fight of Lemuria, a 1v8, abandoned and alone because the Spiral assumed she would have handled it.

The main characters of the next generation after the two Wizards (~0-5 years after Nora's departure and 25 years after Scarlet's death) each realize that even though they're not The Wizard, they still have a duty to serve the good of the Spiral.

Overall there's a major theme of destiny and responsibility not falling on just one person's shoulders. The Wizard is not the only Paradox, and the primordial magics of Light, Shadow, and Music are no longer reserved for the Wizard and the gods. They become proper schools, integrated with the other ten (7 playable schools + 3 Astrals).

I've written and come up with spells for the Music school, as one of the characters I'm writing ends up as the Scion of Music, while Klara's writing the revamped Shadow and Light schools because her OCs become the Scions for those.

More details on Music as its own school in CCSAU (both lorewise and mechanicswise because i am gamerpilled), and all the spells themselves plus their explanations (where I derived inspiration from) are under the cut!

Music is the magic of creation. 'Outgoing' mechanics are the name of the game. It is a major hitter like Fire and Storm, but also has access to heals like the more defensive Life magic that came from the Song of Creation. Music's greatest weakness is that it is a major glass cannon, with no spells in its repertoire able to mitigate incoming damage.

The reason Music is tied to Fire and Storm alongside Life lorewise is because the Scion of Music first studied Fire and Storm magic alongside Musicology, before Music was its own school. Our Scion shaped Music as much as Music shaped him.

Now onto the spells themselves!

MAINLINE (primarily ATTACKING) SPELLS:

1 pip - Lyrebird - 90-130 damage. Based on the lyre instrument, and also a nod to Lyra, the fanon Music school tree in the Cleaved AU.

2 pip - Trombun - 220-260 damage. A pun on trombone and bunny.

3 pip - Earworm - 500 damage over 3 turns. Colloquially, earworms are catchy bits of song that just stay in your head and WON'T GET OUT, which is the inspiration for making this spell a pesky overtime. Also, taken from the Earworm/Brainworm mobs in Empyrea.

4 pip - Melodeer -  465-525, + 20% heal OR damage blade to self. Melody + deer. Here we begin to see some utility and niche poke its way into spells so that they're not plain and pure damage. Also, just to balance Music against the other 'hitter' schools a little bit more, it doesn't get a 4-pip AoE.

5 pip - Volta Bracken - 400 damage AND 400 health to self. A reference to volta brackets (an element in musical notation), with language nodding at Storm and Life magic (volt as in electricity, bracken as in a kind of plant). Yes this spell is an objectively better version of Beary Surprise. I hate Beary Surprise so much why is the bear both anthro and nude. why does he fucking smile like that. why can i see the whites of his eyes. WHY THE HUG?

6 pip - Resonance - 525-610 damage + remove all blades on 1 target. A single-target version of Myth's dreaded Earthquake.

7 pip - Horschestra - 700 damage to all enemies. Your classic 7-pip AOE. Horse + Orchestra, taken from a song in the Homestuck OST because it made me laugh tbh.

8 pip - Revivace - 1200 Heal to all allies. Name derived from Revive (synonym of Rebirth) and Vivace (musical mood). Meant to be a parallel to Life’s Rebirth spell, since Bartleby is the closest thing to a Music school tree in CS. However Rebirth gives an absorb-shield, which counts as temporary HP even if the spell heals someone to full, while Revivace has no extra defense.

9 pip - Crescendo! -  100 damage turn 1, then a DoT for 200, 300, then 400 damage, to all enemies. Crescendo is a musical term for "get gradually louder"

10 pip (Azteca) - Ceramic Drake - 1000 damage to 1 target, then 625 damage to all enemies over 3 rounds. The first of Music's spells that take on aesthetics derived from the world they're learned in. It takes inspiration from the tlapitzalli, an Aztec flute-like instrument made of ceramic.

5 pip + Shadow (Darkmoor) - Rehubution - 810 damage + 25% Music trap to all enemies. The spell's name comes from the word Retribution and the rehu, an instrument made by the Māori of Aotearoa. All of the canon Darkmoor spells are actually Khrysalis themed, and @chrono101 (now deactivated) made a really cool post about how the Hoppers had Aotearoan references that I remembered while coming up with this post. The effect in combat is derived from Fire from Above before it was nerfed and then slaughtered.

6 pip + Shadow (Polaris) - Luphilymn - 1260 damage, +1 turn to Damage over Times (DoTs) on enemy and +1 turn to Heal over Times (HoTs) on self. Luphilim + Hymn.

4 pip + Shadow (Mirage) - Spirit of the Groove - 900 damage, divided between targets (like all other Mirage spells). This spell is less a reference to something Miragian, and more a nod to a character who had a major impact on the Scion of Music's development. Ceramic Drake, Luphilhymn, and the upcoming spells of Ramalong and Jungle Drum Jam also are nods to characters that the Scion of Music was greatly supported by.

X-pip + Shadow (Karamelle) - Ramalong - 220 damage per pip. A blend of sing-along and the candy rams. This spell is an X-pip because there are a handful of songs/lullabies about counting sheep. Count your pips up!

6 pip + Shadow (Lemuria) - Jungle Drum Jam - 850 damage to all enemies, +40% Music blade AND +40% heal blade to self. Taken from this once-off moment in Lemuria where Bantam says that he and the Koolakamba just casually use advanced musicology for the sake of boogieing.

The effect is taken DIRECTLY from the far superior path of the Life Lemuria spell, Lord of the Jungle, before KI nerfed it to bits. I am so fucking mad about the nerf. I fucking liked having a decent shadow AoE on my Life and now it's useless again. <- had to get my gamer rage out sorry.

1 pip + Fire pip + Storm pip (Novus) - Tempo Inferno - 800 damage, gambit 1 blade into a DoT for 500 over 4 turns, gambit 1 trap into a HoT for 500 HP over 4 turns. Tempo refers to the speed of a musical piece, and both pieces of this spell's name are nods to Storm and Fire as well (Temp- for tempest, Storm's most iconic spell, Inferno for fire). This spell would also hold visual reference to that one sidequest about how clocks don't work on Novus.

1 pip + Death pip + Myth pip (Wallaru) - Crab Grave - 575 damage to all enemies. A reference to the extinct Juggernaut crabs of Wallaru, the still living Tasmanian giant crab, and the legendary Crab Rave meme. Given that all of the Wallaru spells' archmastery pips are the ones backwards from the Novus spells' pips, it made sense to make Crab Grave's pips the roshambo opposite to Tempo Inferno's. Myth is the roshambo opposite of Storm, and Death is the roshambo opposite of Fire. Don't believe me on Death and Fire? Look at how Balance's Novus gear has 3 variants that pair Ice-Life, Storm-Myth, and Fire-Death as its archschools. No I don't know why the Balance Wallaru spell is Death-Storm instead of Death-Fire I don't get it <- gamer raging again.

UTILITY SPELLS:

There are some utility spells that every school gets access to, simply changed per school: the basic Blade and Trap and Shield are simply named Music Blade, Music Trap, and Music Shield, because they're standardized for all the schools (Except Ice Shield, which is actually Snow Shield, for whatever reason?). Though, to put a wrinkle into things and keep with Music's theming as hyper-outgoing, Music Trap is the only ward spell (a spell that affects incoming damage rather than outgoing) that Music gets permanent access to. Music Shield would be TC only. Traps get special treatment because of Maulwurf von Trap existing. I like the guy don't @ me.

Then there's the utility spells that are just about the same for each school but with unique names. These include:

the 2 pip damage bubble - Circle of Fifths, after an important element in music theory. +25% damage to all outgoing Music spells AND +25% to all outgoing Music heals (the boost to healing alongside damage is unique to Music. Life gets Circle of Thorns (+25% damage) and Sanctuary (+60% healing) as two different bubbles.)

the 4-pip critical and pierce bubble - Acoustic Arena, +15% Music critical and +20% Music pierce.

the dispel - Mute

the Taunt/Pacify - Soloist, Taunts the enemy for 2 turns, making you the only target they can hit. Yes, having a glass cannon school gain taunt is a bit poor in game design, typically you want your glass cannons to have some form of Pacify so that they're not killed as quickly, but thematically Music becoming a loud center of attention makes more sense to me.

the complementary triad shield - Eclipse Shield, -70% incoming Light and Shadow damage. The parallel to Storm's Thermic Shield (-70% Fire and Ice) or Death's Dream Shield (-70% Life and Myth). Like Music Shield, because this spell is both a staple piece of utility that every school should have access to and a defensive ward that goes against Music's school identity, it would only exist as a treasure card.

The level 75 minion from The Professor - Baronness Webberfeld - 5 pips, summon a minion of Music. She is a reference to Baronness Elberfeld, a minor character from the Sound of Music. Because I had to get a reference to that in. Because I am normal about Maulwurf von Trap and his source media.

And then we get to the unique utility spells, the gimmicks that gives Music its identity in-game or give it thematic support.

Tune Up - 0 pips, +20% accuracy to the next outgoing Music spell. A parallel to Storm's Lightning Strike (which back in my day only gave +10% accuracy, not +25%). Music spells have a base accuracy of 70% like Storm, so the accuracy buff would be greatly needed at lower levels.

Bangsnap! - 2 pips, Confuse or stun each enemy for 1 turn.

Gurdy-hurdy - 3 pips, Confuse or stun each enemy for 2 turns.

Bangsnap and Gurdyhurdy go together, I'm thinking of them being from the Grizzleheim and Wintertusk spell quests at level 35 and 55. Bang snaps are small explosives that only release a loud sound but do no damage. Gurdy-hurdy is a reference to another in-game moment.

(The hurdy-gurdy, un-reversed, is a kind of musical instrument.)

And, yep! Myth is no longer the only school with the Confusion mechanic! Yippee! (I can hear the gamerbro players scream.) This is because before Music became a standalone school in CCSAU, Klara had the idea that, the way some Wizard101 spells are musicological despite not being in the school of Music, some Pirate101 abilities are inherently musicological as well, namely Blast of Discord.

And this is an ability that our Scion of Music was able to learn before Music became an independent school, so rather than take that ability away from him, we decided to incorporate it into Music's entire repertoire.

Leitmotif - 2 pips, 305 HP to 1 target, then 305 more HP 3 turns later. A leitmotif is a snippet of a musical melody that comes back later in a piece or in another piece (Toby Fox, one of my favorite composers, uses leitmotifs to the MAX.)

Sonatyr - 4 pip, 650 Health + 30% Healing Blade to all. Satyr + Sonata. Does less health than Life's Satyr because I don't want to completely upstage Life, but giving an extra blade to everyone is useful. It buffs every healer, and would count for any blade-based gambits/secondary effects.

Adagio - 1 pip, +1 turn to a HoT on an ally or to a DoT on an enemy. Adagio means for a piece of music to slow down.

Allegro - 1 pip, -1 turn to a HoT on an enemy or to a DoT on an ally. Allegro means for a piece of music to speed up.

Adagio and Allegro are spells that go together. If they were to be implemented in-game, I'd have them be learned at the same time. Having a spell that does different things depending on whether it's on an ally or enemy is really interesting to me, though it would be a pain in the ass to code.

Encore - 5 pips, force your target to cast the same spell for the next 2 turns. Encore, of course, means "to play again". Taken directly from Pokemon because why not?

Baton Pass - X pips, give your blades to an ally, universal and at half-value, (1 pip per blade). Also derived from Pokemon because why not? The half-value gimmick comes from Bantam's cheat of "I'll be taking that, thanks!" Where he replaces a blade you cast on someone else with a universal blade of half value. The devs intended that cheat to be annoying and discourage buffing one player to the max, but it's actually a REALLY HANDY mechanic when used correctly. The half-value blade would count as a unique blade that therefore stacks with whatever other blades your ally has.

Perfect Pitch - 1 pip, +20% accuracy to all allies. Perfect pitch is defined as the ability to tell exactly what note(s) a sound is without any reference. This spell would be copy-pasted over from Life, and also derived from the Pirate101 abilities Call to Arms and Esprit de Corps, which both boost your team's accuracy. (Esprit also gives dodge, a stat that I cannot find any way to translate into Wizard101 that wouldn't be a defensive ward, which Music does not do). The animations for those two powers feature musical instruments (a drum and a trumpet), which makes it feel very musicological to me and therefore fitting for Music itself.

Fortissimo! - 2 pips, +15% Critical chance to all allies. Fortissimo is music speak for "BE FUCKING LOUD!" This spell is derived from the Pirate101 abilities Discipline and Enduring Discipline, which (are supposed to) give +5% and +10% critical chance to all allies. (I have heard that the abilities that purely increase critical chance rather than another stat simply don't work because Pirate101's code is made out of silly string, but that's besides the point). There are very few spells that affect critical, so it's a niche that Music could fill in if it wanted to.

This probably isn't even enough utility, Wizard101 has a SURPRISING amount of spells it throws at you. It's such an in-depth game. I love it. I am normal about Wizard101.

Also, Klara was absolutely AMAZING and drew some of the spells!

[ifbench]

Pokemon Black Retrospective, from the perspective of someone who became bored with it on their first playthrough

To preface this, this is technically not my first time playing Pokemon Black? I did play it once before, back in mid 2020, before I started PMD Rescue Team DX. I quickly got very bored with it, though, and stopped playing before I made it to Striaton City.

If you'd like to read my other mainline Pokemon retrospectives, you can read Emerald here, X here, and Firered here.

Pokemon Black was a strange one for me.

Like I mentioned in the preface, I didn't like it much on my first playthrough. I grew bored of it before I even reached the first gym.

And yet, in the years from then until now, I kept hearing about how it was apparently the greatest that mainline Pokemon had ever been. How it was the pinnacle of the franchise.

I didn't think much of it, until I started my mainline Pokemon marathon, and realized that I would have to give Pokemon Black another go.

I completed Emerald, then X, then Firered, having differing opinions on each. And for the most part, I was having fun! So, maybe if I tried Black again, I'd have fun with it too?

I decided that it was finally time, and I started a new game of Pokemon Black.

Like with my first playthrough, I chose Oshawott as my starter, having gotten much more attached to the species since then, thanks to my PMD OC Gen.

I named my Oshawott Arbaquo, after a neglected Oshawott-Shaymin hybrid OC of mine.

And so, I began my journey through the Unova region, hoping to see it through to the end this time.

The journey up to Striaton wasn't much to write about, but Accumula Town was cute, especially with the musicians adding instruments to the background music. The first battle with N was also neat, but I'll get to him later.

But once I made it to Striaton, I had surpassed my 2020 self, making it farther than I ever had. And I was immediately curbstomped by Cheren three times in a row.

It wasn't until I was told that I could visit the Dreamyard before fighting the Striaton gym did I manage to level up Arbaquo a bit, acquired my second Pokemon, Minro the Pansear, and was able to defeat Cheren.

Then was the Striaton gym, but with Minro by my side, obtaining the Trio Badge from Cilan was mostly easy.

Then was the encounter with Team Plasma in the Dreamyard. I had heard talk of this moment several times, but it was still a shock to see it.

It makes sense, though. Despite the name of the game, this isn't a black and white story. As my friend Icy said, this moment shows the unscrupulous lengths people go to when they are truly dedicated to a cause.

After that, dream mist secured, I returned to Striaton City, and unlocked a feature that would probably have been really cool if it was still available. Unfortunately, it is no longer available, and so I can only imagine what it would have been like.

I then made my way along Route 3, where I had another encounter with Team Plasma, though not much else happened aside from me catching a Pidove as my third team member. I named him Poliner.

Nacrene City was interesting! I found it neat how the whole town was comprised of refurbished warehouse, and there was a second battle with N!

Before this playthrough, my only knowledge of N was fandom osmosis, RP blogs, and a few fanfics, particularly kintsugi's fics. At one point, I considered having him be the human world's Voice of Life, though I decided to give that role to a different character.

It was a completely different experience meeting him through the game as intended, though. I liked him a lot, with how much he said he liked math and said he wanted to be my friend!

After that battle, I tried to battle Lenora, and failed miserably. I tried again, and failed miserably again. It took several tries, but eventually I was able to defeat her.

I had no idea that Team Plasma would try to steal from the museum, nor that they thought that the Dragonite skull was part of the legendary dragon. It's kinda silly in retrospect, but this was something completely new to me. I was intrigued.

Plus, Burgh was here! I didn't think I'd encounter him until Castelia City, but here he was!

Pinwheel Forest was when I decided to activate the infinite rare candy cheat so that I wouldn't have to grind. It was a nice leisurely stroll, aside from the Plasma grunts, but I didn't want to get stuck having to grind later.

Soon, the stolen Dragonite skull was retrieved, and I could continue on to Castelia City.

Between Pinwheel Forest and Castelia City, though, was Skyarrow Bridge. It was really cool seeing the bridge in its full glory, the camera panning around and all sorts of cool perspective shots!

Castelia City continued with the cool perspective shots, with the city being like a mini-Lumiose, complete with side areas and back alleys. It was a lot to take in, but it was cool!

Not so cool was the fact that the EXP Share was still a held item that only worked on a single Pokemon. That battle house was neat, at least.

Burgh's gym was...something, to say the least, but he was an easier foe than Lenora, and I acquired my third badge.

After another encounter with Team Plasma, I made my way to the desert of Route 4, and was accosted by a sandstorm.

Like with Hoenn's desert, the weather chipped away at my Pokemon's health with every battle, making the route a test in how many battles I could avoid.

Eventually, though, I made it through, emerging into Nimbasa City.

It had just as many things to do as Castelia, despite being a bit smaller.

But before any of that (at least I think, this might have happened after the gym, I can't entirely remember), there was the fabled Ferris Wheel scene with N.

While it didn't quite live up to all the hype, it was still really cool! It was a fun way of explaining a bit more about N.

After that battle, I got to explore Nimbasa proper.

Honestly, I don't get the purpose of the Small Court and Big Stadium? As far as I could tell, they both just had one trainer battle each and that was it.

The Musical Theater was fun, though! I had fun dressing up Arbaquo for a musical, and the music was nice! It felt sorta like the contests from Emerald.

Then was the Nimbasa Gym, a rollercoaster of a time. Literally.

The trainers were actually harder than Elesa herself, but she was still a challenge, since half my team was weak to her. But Minro had recently learned a new fire-type move, and put it to great use here.

Seriously, why do people dislike the elemental monkeys?

Anyways, after the gym, I set out onto Route 5, where I encountered Alder, the champion.

Like in X, the champion here is more than just a final challenge, but a friend you meet along the way. I find that neat, and Alder's theme music is great.

After making it across Driftveil Drawbridge, I made it into Driftveil City, home of Charles the Heartbreaker.

The rotation battle with him was really fun! It was an interesting and intriguing new way of battle!

But before I could get too comfortable in the city, I had a job to do: Investigate the Cold Storage, and find one of the sages of Team Plasma.

It was a neat ice sliding puzzle area! And I caught a Minccino while I was at it! I named her Minrir.

After finding Zinzolin, it was time to take on the Driftveil City gym! It wasn't too challenging, but Clay was still a fun foe!

Next was the quaint Route 6, where I caught another team member, Daria the Deerling.

Chargestone Cave was really cool! I really enjoyed the puzzles with the floating magnetic rocks, and I caught a Drilbur here, who I named Rilia!

The Team Plasma encounter here was cool, too! It was neat being surrounded by the Shadow Triad to be taken to N, and seeing N clash with Professor Juniper.

But soon, I emerged into Mistralton City, and not a moment too soon, for I had a breakthrough:

I had figured out how to usee my Action Replay to activate mystery gifts, and let me do the Victini event.

Upon activating the code, I received the Liberty Pass from the mystery gift deliverer, and promptly flew back to Castelia City, to see what this event was all about.

It wasn't much, probably because I was way over the level for it, but it was still fun battling the Plasma grunts, learning about Victini, and then battling and catching Victini!

After that little side tangent, I flew back to Mistralton. But before I could challenge the gym, I had to trek up Celestial Tower.

Celestial Tower felt a lot like the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town back in Kanto. It was eerie, spooky, and had possessed trainers too! It was a very fun experience, and I enjoyed the climb.

After meeting with Skyla at the peak of the tower, it was time to go back to Mistralton and challenge her gym.

I thought the stuff I had heard about the cannons in her gym were exaggerated.

They were not exaggerated.

Not only were you shot out of cannons in order to traverse the gym, one of the final cannons shot you face-first into a steel wall. Youch.

But aside from that, Skyla was pretty easy, and I got my sixth badge.

After traveling across the other part of Route 7, and through the Twist Mountain mines, I arrived at the moist Icirrus City.

Gotta say, I was not expecting to be able to encounter wild Pokemon within a city, but I found it neat!

Also neat, if tremendously silly, was the quiz house. I laughed a lot at the question I got, being "What do you call your father's brother", and the hint being "it's not big brother".

But then it was time to face the Icirrus gym.

It was like a souped-up version of Cold Storage, with rotating mechanisms that change your sliding trajectory. It was a really fun puzzle!

But thanks to Minro, Brycen wasn't very tough. And I got my seventh badge.

As we exited the gym, though, who to greet us but Team Plasma? Seeing the Shadow Triad surround us was certainly a surprise, especially with them telling us to go to Dragonspiral Tower.

And so, to Dragonspiral Tower I went.

Dragonspiral Tower reminded me of Sky Pillar from Emerald, with it being more and more crumbled and unstable as you went up. It had a lot of fun navigational challenges as I made my way up to the top!

But I was too late. N had already awakened Zekrom, and now my only hope lay with awakening the legendary dragon of truth, Reshiram.

I really appreciate how, unlike Emerald and Firered, Black tells you where to go. You're not left wandering for hours trying to find the Team Magma base, only for it to be hidden behind a random rock on the other side of the region. Nor are you left to flounder after finding all your available routes blocked by Snorlaxes, only to find out that you had to backtrack to a prior city with no indication.

No, instead, Black directly tells you to head to the Desert Resort.

Speaking of which, the Desert Resort was neat! It was unique among most other decrepit structures I've seen in other mainline Pokemon games, in that you're not going up, but down. Down, down, as far as you can go, to the deepest part of this buried castle. It was really cool!

Alas, this is not where Reshiram was. They were actually right before my eyes all the way back in Nacrene City. Reshiram was the unassuming little stone in the top left part of the museum.

And so, I acquired the stone form of Reshiram, but they were still sealed, with me having no idea how to free them.

I flew back to Icirrus City, and continued onwards, making my way towards Opelucid City. But before I could get there, I had to travel across Tubeline Bridge first.

Let me tell you. It was an experience seeing a figure at the far end of the bridge, thinking, "hey, they look familiar", and as soon as I realize it's Ghetsis, I get surrounded by the Shadow Triad.

And then he tells you his whole secret evil plan. Which, I feel was kinda weird, but alright.

Route 9 was short enough that the shock was still there when I arrived at Opelucid City.

Opelucid City was reallty cool! I loved the look of it all, and the music was great! It even had the first rotation battles I've seen since Heartbreaker Charles!

And after a conversation with Iris and Drayden, it was time to take on my final gym of this game.

The Opelucid Gym was massive, with a really interesting puzzle. It felt almost overwhelming with how big it was, but soon, I made it to the end, to battle Drayden.

It was a fun fight, and his Druddigon gave me quite a bit of trouble. But I won, and got my final badge.

All that was left was to head through Route 10, and take on the Pokemon League...or so the game probably wanted me to think.

Route 10 had some really nice music, and the final rival battles against Cheren and Bianca. I haven't talked about them nearly enough here, so I'll do that now.

Cheren was my first roadblock, the one who curbstomped me three times in a row all the way back in Striaton. It was really neat seeing his character development, seeing him figure out what he wants to do with his life.

Bianca is a similar story. She never curbstomped me, but she had her own character development, that maybe she had a different calling in life than what she once thought. And from what I've heard of B2W2, I think she achieved that calling.

All in all, they're great rivals, and those final battles with them reminded me of the final battles with the Kalos friends, on the last route before its Victory Road.

Fitting, as I was just about to reach Unova's Victory Road.

The badge check gates here were amazing. They were like Kanto's, but with the flavor of Kalos, and dialed up to 11.

Each badge had its own themed area, with the Trio badge having an outdoor dining area, the Legend badge having two dragon statues, and so on. And with each gate i passed through, more instruments were added to the music, until it all came together, forming the music for Unova's Victory Road.

Hoenn's Victory Road was a test of navigation. Kalos' was a test of strength. Kanto's was a test of wit. What, then, would Unova's Victory Road test?

A combination of all three.

I had to use spatial reasoning to figure out what caves went where, and which slopes to slide down. I had to use my sense of direction to make it through the caves, and know when I'm going the wrong way. And I had to use my strength to defeat some of the toughest trainers yet.

It was fantastic, probably my favorite Victory Road yet.

And finally, I had made it to the Pokemon League.

Apparently I was wrong in my X retrospective. Kalos wasn't the first region to let you challenge the Elite Four in any order you wish. Unova lets you do that too.

I unfortunately don't remember much of my matches agaisnt Unova's Elite Four, but they were each very tricky. I had to use a lot of strategy to get past them each. And I remember that the order I fought them in was Shauntal, Grimsley, Marshal, and Caitlin. And some of them had mentioned another challenger, one that came before me.

I defeated them all, though, and was ready to face Champion Alder.

But I never got the chance to, as N had already beaten him first.

It was like a twisted version of the final hour of Firered. Your rival had become champion moments before you.

Only with N, he wasn't planning on a simple battle for the title of champion.

No, as the castle of Team Plasma rose up from the ground, I knew that this would be a battle to decide the fate of the Unova region.

But I had to reach N first, and travel through the castle to get to him.

Black is, as far as I'm aware, the first mainline Pokemon game to do the unthinkable: have the plot take precedence over the journey to become champion. Rather than the game's plot ending at the 7th or 8th gym, like with Emerald, X, and Firered, the ending of the plot is the ending of the game.

It's a lot like Violet in that regard, but I'll talk about that once I write my retrospective on Violet.

Team Plasma's Castle was an experience I won't soon forget. There were no battles until the very end. I was told the story of N and Team Plasma by the Shadow Triad, N's room, and N's siblings.

Anthea and Concordia should have gotten more screentime, yes. But I still like their role here, in how they show you more of what Team Plasma was like, and what drove N to be like this.

But before long, I made it to the throne room, where N waited.

N told me I wasn't ready, that I wasn't worthy, as Reshiram hadn't awakened yet. But before my eyes, the Light Stone began to glow, and Reshiram emerged from it.

I dedideed to use Minro to try to catch Reshiram, since Reshiram would likely be taking their spot on the team for the coming battles. I wanted to let my faithful monkey companion have one more moment in the spotlight.

And they performed wonderfully. Whittling down Reshiram to a tiny sliver of health, enough that I could catch it.

N was my toughest opponent yet, with his team being even higher leveled than the Elite Four.

But I remembered his words from back in Nacrene City, about how, when all of this was over, he wanted to be friends with me.

I think those words are what made this part of the game so emotional to me. I wanted that to come true.

And so, I battled, and I won.

And yet, it wasn't over. Ghetsis came along, and brutally berated N. And then, he challenged me, in a battle that would decide the fate of the Unova region.

He was even tougher than N was. Fitting, as he was my final challenge in the main story of this game. It took everything I had, every single member of my team, to defeat him. By the time I was at his last Pokemon, only Arbaquo was left standing.

But despite the odds, I won. I had defeated Ghetsis.

But before the credits rolled, there was one final cutscene. A conversation from N to me. About how he didn't understand me at first, about how he couldn't understand why a Pokemon had liked me. About how he wanted to battle me, to find out why.

And then, that iconic line came. About making my dreams come true.

I like to think that my character and N became friends.

And so, the credits rolled, ending this game.

I had completed Pokemon Black.

I had so much fun with this game, and I'm so glad I gave it another go. Out of the four I've completed for this marathon so far, it's probably my favorite mainline Pokemon game.

It's not perfect. It had its difficulty spikes, and a few parts of it felt a bit awkward.

But it was fantastic. I love this game, it was fantastic.

I see what the hype is all about now.

[shikariix]

WAIT THEYRE POKÉMON OCS?? gimme all the headcanons and pokémon’s for my girl tiffany right now 🔫🔫🤚

DFDJHG not all of them are pokemon ocs but lucky for you Tiffany is!! !

In her original version she started with a Lillipup because I adore those little puppies, but then I reworked her a little for a different rp forum and chose to have a randomised starter, which became Charmander! I gave all her pokemon names based on Egyptian deities (there is no in character explanation for why lmao), and her partner became Ra :3 Ra is a sweet little boy even as a Charizard - I always pictured him smaller than the average Charizard.

Tiffany actually signed up to be a Pokémon Ranger (like in the Ranger games, idk what purpose the Ranger class serves in the mainline games) after a... situation, regarding her relationship. She takes a bit of a hiatus from making videos in this time to help people and spend time with nature.

She's not necessarily a big fan of nature as in she'd get bored just from strolling or birdwatching, but she can be an adrenaline junkie so if there's a forest fire and she can go in and rescue people she's ON IT. She actually starts vlogging some of these rescue missions too fjhgfdj because that's the responsible thing to do.

Being a Ranger became a surprisingly comfortable position - so comfortable that she eventually climbed the ranks to be Top Ranger! So proud of my girlie 😌

But this position comes with a target on her back. We had a whole thing going with Rangers vs Team Rocket on the forum, and I got the idea (because of RWBY,,,,) to like, make Tiffany feel that she is not, in fact invincible. So in a fight with TR, she ended up protecting Ra but losing part of her right arm in the process. Disabled queen 🦾 It does push her into depression for a while and she's temporarily afraid of Ra because it was a Charizard who hurt her, but all that gets resolved eventually.

I think most of her team were random actually, it helped because I didn't really have a set plan for her 'mon wise. Some of my favorite Pokémon that ended up on her team were a Flaaffy named Mut, and Khonsu the Avalugg! I love Avalugg for her because it's basically a big stage for her to stand on sfjfjhfg

She also had Sobek the Krokorok and Kebechet the Noibat who I sadly don't remember much about 😭 And a Shiny Roselia named Hathor that I believe I had big plans for that sadly never got to fruition.

ANYWAY this post got very long dffgjhfg and I'm sure there's more stored in my brain somewhere. But I love Tiffany a lot, she was so much fun to write. And her playlist is a banger too.

also she's bi 🏳️‍🌈(imagine this is a bi flag emoji pls)

[ceaselxss]

✦ You choose!

I'll do a couple that I didn't get to do

@reapersxfolly Mae is an amazing writer and an amazing artist and I'm biased perhaps because I very clearly love Tseng but they've always had such a good grasp on him and its so validating to have similar thoughts and then also very thought provoking to have ones that differ Mae's writing, their pose, is always something I've admired. They write so well and in tones that suit who they're writing And their OC work is so compelling that even if they've not been on Ashe as much lately, and even if Ashe is going to have more SOLDIER focus now, she will always be canon to me

@shinrasfirst Min is integral to my Tseng; their Rufus, their Rude, their Zack all have such an influence. Min is one of the people from the very begining of his lifespan that made him stick They care so much about their characters, down to all these little details. I love their Rufus so much, and their Rude has left a lot of impact and very heavily influence how I see Rude. Chefs kiss They float around now and make me excited every time i see their url pop up in my notes

@endweapon As I've said, I love Dirge and i love anyone who loves Dirge. Count has the difficult task of writing a character who has a mainline game based around him as the antagonist but he is only actually in the mobile game as himself. And yet with some of the most limited and conflicting information a character can have, they've got one of the most complex muses that I follow here. Their mastery over Weiss is a subconscious reason I don't write mine much anymore; I'm so satisfied with seeing theirs around that i dont feel much of a need (and i mean this entirely positively, its a weird thing to phrase)

@speedchasing Moogle comes and goes but every time I see them come back I get so excited. I love their Roche so much. He is so alive; they've taken a new edition who's biggest point is comic relief and they've written so much brilliance into him. I care so much for their flashy bastard. No matter how canon might treat Roche, Moogle's is more real and more canon to me

@ivory-paragon James is brilliant. I most admire their Ru from a distance but I love him; he's so detailed and complex. Their writing is really wonderful and you have to respect such a long commitment to a character