#ok but like. there's no way one region (even if it does have a lot of new and complex environments) takes up the same amount of space

[tempests-bards-and-birds]

ok just how big is 4.0 gonna be storage wise because i'm on mobile so yknowww aha

[arolesbianism]

Thinking abt the second dream story featuring a third dream story I can't remember if I ever talked abt. I <3 body horror bonus points if its slow and agonizing

[bambi-kinos]

A few more questions about our mysterious Paul, or more like his mind and his views. I know you get many asks and if you already answered this, just post a link (You might even be Paul j/k )but I do enjoy reading your thoughts) Ok so what do you think he means when he talks about John and their relationship was like. When he says things like he's so obviously straight because of all the girls he's had, John wasn't gay, or that if he was a girl maybe he could go out and do something about John being with Yoko, "in bed" etc. Or John. (Don't think he had lots of gay phobia too despite what "they" seem to think now. Or what George, Ringo or any one of his age would think about it. Obviously Paul and John too Don't seem too clear what they where. Still never really heard anyone else talk the way they do about partnership if there wasn't some love happening. Also did Liverpool men that time really lived that tough, not hugging each other. Wasn't it a bit known for a gay town? Or is that maybe later) sorry for spellings and grammar typing stuff my phone isn't used to. Lol Hope you understand my ask. Love your posts.

I'm given to understand that men from the Northern half of the UK are actually very affectionate with each other. Lots of back slapping and chuffing and affectionate punching and so forth. @scurator has talked about it a bit and is a better source than I could ever be. But the evidence points towards Northern men actually being very chummy and expressive with each other, especially Liverpool. Sailors are passionate by definition, of course the quintessential international sailors' town will be like that too. It is Paul's specific personality defects that have him saying bonkers shit like "we didn't show each other physical affection" while there are photographs of Paul and John pressing together, bumping shoulders, clapping each other on the back, etc. Which are all typical guy-things that men do to signal "I care about you, you're important to me" to each other. Paul would lose nothing by admitting this when the evidence is clear in front of our eyes. But Paul is Paul, so he can't.

When it comes to Liverpool being a "gay town" what that really means is that Liverpool is a port city with a high population of sailors. Houston Texas, where I grew up, is the exact same way. It's a hive of international traffic with thousands of dock workers and sailors running the joint. Sometimes I used to go down to the port to watch them load and unload shipping containers. There are look outs where you can sit with a pair of binoculars and just watch them go. Liverpool has the same set up with the same population of international sailors running around. It isn't necessarily a "gay town" so much as it is a horny as fuck town that is exploding with vibrant international populations all with different ideas about what is sexually permissible and what is not. Lots of sexual openness and promiscuity that is out of step with the rest of the country, vibrant LGBT+ population despite the curtain of conservatism that strangles the rest of the region, very intense artsy culture that lives cheek to jowl with a macho blue collar population...

Now am I talking about Liverpool or Houston? Lmao. Let me put it this way, sailors will fuck anything that stands still long enough and that culture of sexual adventurousness rubs off on the people who build their lives around the international port industry. Paul and John grew up with that too. And if you're thinking that might screw with your head a little when you grow up being filled with all sorts of malicious lies about sex and relationships...oh boy does it.

When it comes to Paul insisting on heterosexuality regarding him and John: IMO this is a manifestation of his greatest fear, that someone may catch on that he fell in love with another man. I don't think Paul was ever truly ashamed of it when push came to shove but that doesn't mean he wants people to know. It's private and Paul doesn't have a lot of privacy left.

Paul is also sharply aware of how dangerous it is to be gay. Paul knew about men being killed for homosexual activity, he was raised to despise it, he was raised to think there was no future in it, that only monsters and predators were homosexuals, all of that was browbeaten into him by Le Society and most likely his family. Remember that Brian Epstein would regularly get the shit kicked out of him if he propositioned the wrong man and sometimes even the right one. Paul wasn't encouraged to embrace Liverpool's seedy underbelly, that would be lunacy. As far as Paul's family knows he did the proper thing and got a girl pregnant out of wedlock (which must have been a big relief to them.) If he ever indicated that he had romantic feelings towards John then he would be lucky if the worst thing that happened to him was getting kicked out.

(That does not necessarily mean that was the reality of his situation. It's hard to know what Jim would do in that situation and I don't think he was blind. But that was what Paul and John were both raised to expect and that is the soup they boiled in while waiting for adulthood.)

And there are bigger things than just Paul and John's privacy and sexuality going on. There are trillions of dollars at stake when it comes to The Beatles.

So when Paul is professing his heterosexuality, when he's saying John wasn't a homosexual, when Paul leans on his experiences with women in interviews, that is what he is thinking of when he does it. Regardless of whatever actually went down between him and John, he has to protect that image while still projecting authenticity. It doesn't matter if it's actually real because John and Paul learned no one wants the real John and Paul. But he can still use his experiences to color his stories and protect John and himself, as well as the legacy of The Beatles.

And it should end there. Yeah?

Of course it doesn't. Or we wouldn't be here. Paul said bonkers shit about being a woman who could have stepped in between John and Yoko. That he was jealous of her and didn't like having her around. That it was a deep relationship with a lot of heat. That they went through a divorce. And then he eventually caved and start talking about how there was a deeper love between him and John, something neither of them had the understanding or vocabulary to express.

Even in death John has the power to undo Paul completely and force him to be vulnerable. Paul gets going out of nowhere it seems like, starts ranting and has to actively fight himself to make himself shut up. Now that he's older he can't really do that anymore. And probably doesn't want to, hence he randomly inserts anecdotes about John into conversations that have nothing to do with him. John has that effect on everyone he meets, he can demand total honesty from people. Paul isn't immune to that. So Paul will talk more and more honestly about himself and John, that they loved each other. And even if all he owns up to is the platonic aspect of it...well, that's a big deal for Paul.

It's hard to say if things will stay this way. Paul often seems like he's on the verge of saying something, isn't he? In the most recent documentary about the first Ed Sullivan appearance, he underlined John and George being his brothers and that he loved them. But that wasn't what he was saying when Now and Then came out and that wasn't what he showed us when he released Eye of the Storm and printed photos of John undressed and preparing for bed while Paul took photos of him. (Probably while Paul was naked in a bathtub if the cloth fringe over his camera lens was any indication.) Do you remember the furor around Now and Then and how the entire rock journalism industry seemed to be holding its breath for something? There's a reason why @frodolives made that point about "they're gentrifying McLennon."

Yoko will die sooner than later. Sean recently sold the Dakota condo and probably moved her upstate to that farm she bought in 1979/1980 so she could be in care. The diaries Fred Seaman stole and fenced were only partially recovered and there's online chatter that Paul's allies are safeguarding the remaining diaries and other resources that Fred managed to smuggle out under Yoko's nose. Peter Doggett's book "Prisoner of Love," which contains the unifying theory about WHY John stayed in the Dakota for so long, was spiked after advanced readers' copies started going out.

Something has changed behind the scenes and we're feeling the faintest tremors of it. I'm sure that we're only just getting started with regards to revelations to come.

[donovan-desmond-official]

Crazy hc time:

So if was looking at a map of Europe today and I realised east Germany is very close to like Norway, Denmark and Sweden and them.

So, if decided that, in the past, there were migratory movements sort of down that path from the Scandinavian region to Ostania. As a result, lots of Scandinavian traditions and cultural practices can be found throughout Ostania.

And the one cultural tradition i want them to inherit in the tradition of not feeding your house guest. Like Ostanians will lock you in a room when it's dinner time. If you don't gtfo by 5pm, you're done. It's generally seen as a bit bizarre to be in someone's house past a certain time or too long of a time. If the sun is setting, you should be on your way home. And missing dinner with your family implies you have an unstable family life, and nobody cares about you.

Obviously, Westalis (well, Southern Westalis) does not do this at all. In fact, it's considered rude not to let your guests eat. It's a sign of poverty and greed. If you invite someone into your house and you don't feed them, word will spread up and down the street about how awful you are. Some compassionate neighbors will start to leave you food since you clearly don't have enough.

Like with many things, neither Yor nor Loid discussed this little cultural nuance, and it leaves Anya very confused.

Imagine Anya goes by a friend's house (she has other friends idk) and then Loid comes to pick her up at like 7 pm, thinking nothing of it. When he gets there, he's surprised to see that Anya is so hungry and upset even though he can clearly tell they already had dinner. Anya clocks that he's about to ask questions and begs to go home before trouble breaks out.

Now Loid is pissed off. Normally, their kids stay with them after school, and Loid makes sure they're well fed and taken care of. Normally, they come after 5, meaning he doesn't have to do more than snacks, so Loid made sure to tell them he would be there after 7, so it's not where they weren't expecting it.

He comes home ready to vent to Yor, but she's already mad. Because she got a call after 6 asking if everything was alright at home since Loid was picking Anya up so late today. He's like well I was working so I left her in the care of trusted adults and Yor is like why didn't you just tell me so I would pick her up, now people are gonna be suspicious of us.

Now, Loid is fully out of spy mode ok so he's not thinking as rationally. His baby is hungry, and now he's getting the blame. Like his [RETRACTED] side is coming out, accent poking through even because he is heated. They start fighting, trying to understand the situation (while also preparing a nice meal for Anya of course and tucking her into bed).

It gets so bad (well as bad as an argument between these two can get so not that bad) they gotta call in reinforcements.

Yor calls Yuri. Loid calls Franky to keep it balanced. They both immediately clock the issue.

Yuri, working for Foreign Affairs (and following Westalians as an SSS officer), is a bit aware of this discrepancy. The number of times they get calls about crazy negligent Westalian parents being labeled as spies sending them on a wild goose chase and getting them in hot water with the embassy, yeah he already knew from the moment they said Anya was by a friend.

Franky has been working with Westalians (mainly spies), so he has some insight on their weird approach to life. He is constantly trying to remind Mr. Greatest Spy in all of Westalis that he can't do certain things here or he will get caught. Normally, Loid is good at playing the role of assimilated Westalian, but when it comes to raising Anya, he always defaults back to culture. Just hearing it was about Anya he knew Loid was kinda in the wrong.

Anya did not have the heart to tell anyone that she was offered food (kinda) only to turn it down when she realised how nasty that shit was.

Bonus inspo:

[worstjourney]

Pitfalls of Pictures

As polar fandom works its way into ever more serious circles, from social sharing to published works, I thought I might share what I've learned about copyright and using pictures you find online.

Copyright belongs to the person who made the image. This means the artist or photographer in most cases. The photographer is the one who opened the shutter, not the owner of the camera.

Copyright, in most places and cases, lasts for the life of the creator +70 years.

Many Heroic Age polar images are therefore out of copyright. BUT WAIT. That's the photo. If you find it online, it's been digitised by someone. The copyright of the digitised image legally belongs to whichever person, or institution, digitised the image. Therefore the same Ponting photo can be copyright SPRI, Getty, RGS, or Anne Strathie, who scanned it off an original print she bought on eBay. Print: uncopyrighted. Scanned image: copyrighted. Even though the picture is the same, they are discrete things.

A lot of polar photos have been digitised by educational institutions or regional/national archives. They have to balance their mission to drive engagement with the necessity of licencing fees to fund their work. Everyone has a different way of doing this, so it's worth your while to learn the policies of wherever you found the photo.

For the most part (BUT NOT ALWAYS!) so long as you're not making any money on the image or using it to further your career (i.e. just fangirling) you're probably OK. People generally only bother to rally the expensive lawyers when there's cash involved. However it is always worthwhile to check, because there is nuance.

Posting an image which has not previously been public onto a public website (e.g. Tumblr) legally counts as publishing it. If you've been given permission to access it and/or make your own digital copy, that does not necessarily mean you can share it online. There may be different rules around publishing it vs having it, even for free.

Example: In 2014 I photographed all the negatives of Meares' Siberian photos at the BC Archives. I wanted a proper scan of a few of them, for an article I was co-writing at the time. I was allowed to take as many pictures as I liked with my own camera for personal use, and was charged a small fee for the scans. However, if I were going to publish any of them, I would have to fill out paperwork with the BC Archives and pay another, much larger fee. In 2023, I learned that the BC Archives had changed their policy: one needed only to credit the Archives for the photo, with their specified text. I finally got to write my post about Scott's ponies and throw in the photos for free. So keep up to date on usage permissions, too!

Downloading an image and sharing it amongst your friends, via email or messaging or some other closed network, without posting it on a public platform, is not the same as publishing it. But your friends need to be clear that they can't publish it either.

Going into the code of a photo site to find the high-res version of an image? Technically no one can stop you.

Publicly posting that high-res image, which the image holder has buried in code so that people can't distribute it? Not OK.

Printing off merch with that image and selling it as a side hustle? WOW VERY NO.

There is another slightly hazy area called 'transformative works' in which you can take a copyrighted image and change it enough to count as a new image. I don't know if there are any hard and fast rules on this – and they probably vary by jurisdiction – but as a rule of thumb, you're generally OK if no one in their right mind would mistake your image for the original.

I don't think any of us want to raise the ire of the heritage bodies which feed our passion for this stuff, so please make sure to stay on their good side! Photo archives take space and refrigeration and expert curators, which are all very expensive, and this is generally paid for by licensing the photos they keep. (The photo library at SPRI, for example, is the only part of the institution which makes any profit.) So please play nice!

I am far from being an authority on this, just sharing what I've learned over my 15+ years of working with polar photos on and offline. Please research your specific cases, and add anything to this post which you think may be relevant!

[love-is-a-pearl]

hey so I know we talked a little about Kalos with Silver (for their Kalosian Woods AU) but I was rereading your one post thread about the character arc shown from Unova to Kalos to Alola and how Kalos wouldn’t have really been a narratively satisfying League win for Ash in the grand scheme of the Pokemon anime. Your analysis gave me a new appreciation for what the Alola League did and also for the inter-region story that was developed with Ash and his desire to win.

At the same time, however, I’ve been thinking about how the main XYZ writers originally wanted Kalos to be a league win for Ash, and how, combined with the final episodes of XYZ, how it did feel like they were trying to end Ash’s story there (no transition to the next region, etc). And Im thinking about how, in an alternate timeline, we could’ve gotten that and might’ve even had an Alola anime with a new protagonist, if they’d wanted to end Ash’s story with Kalos.

So I was wondering, what changes would you make to Ash’s XYZ character that would make a Kalos League win feel thematically appropriate and satisfying? Would you change anything about his dynamics with the rest of the group?

And what would you have liked from a SM/Alola anime with a different protagonist? Do you think they would’ve been able to maintain the theme of family and the culture the anime proper gave Alola? With a new protagonist, would you have had Guzma win the league, or them, or someone else entirely?

This really is just to bounce off ideas, so don’t feel like you need to respond.

Ok, first I think getting a run-down of why Kalos wouldn't be a good place to end things is a good starting point:

Ash's pokemon (other than a certain frog) are barely relevant

Kalos had a laser focus on Greninja and that's the season's biggest flaw in my eyes. Pokemon got lucky if they had episodes beyond the ones where they evolved, with Goodra and Noivern being the most blatant examples of that.None of them had super close connections with Ash and the fact some of them never even had any relevant battles before the league would make such important win along them feel extremely dissatisfying for me.

Compare that to Alola, where Ash actually had super close bonds with each pokemon he caught (save for Melmetal tbh) and how each of them had arcs in the league itself!

That's awesome! And that's the right only way for Ash to have a League win! It got to be something he does along his pokemon. Not just for himself.

Also, Ash winning any league wouldn't be as impactful if it was not by Pikachu's side (and I can assure that Kalos wouldn't allow anyone one other than Greninja to take down Diantha's Gardevoir if we came to that).

JNs was not the best and Alola's battles could have been better sure, but the fact Pikachu was there in the last battle as Ash's final pokemon in both instances is cathartic. Pikachu is Ash's extension! It's important for Pikachu to be there in the finale along Ash for such important moments for them. Kalos would not have done that.

The companions and Ash are not that close

Sorry not sorry but the "Kalos fam" has some of the most superficial dynamics of all the anime.

Serena and Ash's relationship (which was even supposed to be more than friendship) is painful to watch at times. Ash doesn't seem to like her much, not ever trying to learn about her (even with her saying they DID met before) and in general is very one-sided.

And the same can be said about Clemont. He sees Ash as this amazing trainer he has to aim towards, but other than the "science is amazing" comments, Ash doesn't seem to reciprocate at all.

Neither of them help eachother with their goals other than some few times Clemont and Ash trained. Like, compared to May, with whom Ash was very invested in getting her to find something to do at the beggining and how he showed even more interest in her goal around Battle frontier. Dawn (nuff said). Iris, with whom he trained plenty of times. Lillie, who he put lots of effort into helping with her fear of pokemon (and even sometimes Mallow's and Sophocles' episodic goals).

Gosh, even certain characters of the day got more of Ash's support than Serena and Clemont, with Korrina being the most obvious and funny example. Ash gets so attached to her, her training and her wish to become stronger and they interact SO naturally that is always funny to see how the writers can write such good dynamics between Ash and this one gym girl but not yknow, his "kalosian family". And dont dare to say that he is only like that because she wants to be stronger. Clemont wants that too and Ash doesn't give a SHIT!

Ash is a character that cares a lot for others and the fact he seemed to care so little for his Kalos friends is painful to watch (specially with how much Clemont and Serena ADORE him!)

A season where Ash wins a league shouldn't be about only him achieving something (which Kalos totally feels like). It should be something more. Something about how Ash being with those people helped them grow, about how they helped him grow, and how much they matter to him.

Kalos is not a relevant place for Ash himself

There's nothing about how Kalos is written that makes the region or the people in there feel special for Ash.

Honestly this can be said to all regions. I'm a Sinnoh apologist but even I admit that Ash becoming Sinnoh champion wouldn't be the most interesting for him as he doesn't have a super strong connection with it other than Dawn, Paul and kinda of Cynthia.

In Kalos he surely had Serena, Clemont, Bonnie; And Sycamore, Korrina, Alain and Diantha can be added into the list too if we force it a bit. But there's nothing about Kalos itself that makes it stand out as a region Ash would want to "reign", you get me? Maaaybeeee the romance thing with Serena could make it more relevant, but that was done poorly and doesn't count enough for me.

To be completely honest, the most satisfactory region for Ash to win up to gen6 would totally have been Kanto. That's his home, where he was born, his mom is there, lots of his friends (brock, misty, gary, oak, tracey) are there. That's where he met Pikachu.

No other region felt as special up till Alola. And sure it is super cheesy at times, but it works!

With those in mind, I think is also worth noting how Kalos' beggining and ending are smh detached from the middle story and how that lack of planning is one of the reasons the writing in that season is so irritating for me.

Like, we have the first 2 episodes of Kalos that stabilish:

That Clemont lost his gym to his own robot.

That Clemont's father is a superhero.

That Serena knows Ash for a while now.

And then in the Flare Finale, we have the payoff to those things, with:

Clembot dying.

Clemont and Bonnie discovering (with the most lukewarm reactions my I add) that Myers is Blaziken Mask.

Serena kissing Ash.

And that's the thing. Other than in the beggining and ending: THOSE THINGS DONT MATTER!!!!

Clemont losing the gym to Clembot is resolved in ep9 and that whole thing about him losing the gym matters nothing in the long run other than that we lose the precious potential of having a Heliolisk in the main gang!

Meyer NEVER appears outside of the starting and ending arcs!

Serena and Ash BARELY interact in any meaningful way in the WHOLE anime and their friendship is one of the weakest between all main characters!

For any of the above to hold weight, there should have been more moments in the actual anime building up to it. Clemont's gym thing should have been more important than just the place where Ash jumped off from; Meyer should have been a more relevant character; Ash should have been a better friend to Serena if they wanted to sell the idea that this girl really feel for this version of him when he is extremely neutral to her at best (and a complete jerk at worse).

Honestly for a Kalos league win to feel earned, a whole rewrite from ep 7 to 136 would be needed for me lol

Make Serena's "give up too fast" into an actual character trait and not something her mom said once. Have her try things (SPECIALLY BATTLES) and give up! Have Ash help her with those things and try his optimistic "dont give up" bullshit only for it to backfire on her because it's not easy for everybody to be like that.

And not rushing her into "doing something" because they wasted 50 episodes not trying anything with her beforehand! It's fine that Serena took so long to find what she wanted to do, but the fact she didn't try anything or had any moment focused on her struggling with that beforehand IS NOT!

Have Clemont learn something from Ash too. Have his struggle with maintaining the Gym and what it all means to him hold more weight! Have Clemont try Ash's humanxpokemon training a few times so he can build up his confidence. Have that lil tidbit we saw before his battle with Ash and what it means to be a Gym Leader be an integral part of his character! Have his inventions be more relevant than just some gag. Have him and Serena be closer because they "arent like Ash, but they want to be".

Have Ash affect them, but also have them affect Ash more! Have Ash learn how to dance with Serena and have that stick! Combine that with Counter Shield and make that move go from "ash and dawn's thing" to "ash and ALL HIS FRIENDS's thing" QAQ Have Ash learn some strategies from Clemont too and use his inventions during his pokemon training!

HAVE THE DAMN POKEMON INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER AND WITH TRAINERS OTHER THAN THEIR OWN!!

Gosh, seriously, the fact I can count on one hand the amount of times Ash ever acknowledged Fennekin's existence is terrible! The pokemon should be as relevant as people in the goddamn pokemon anime and that's one thing Kalos failed to get that all other seasons get (maybe not JNs).

We could have had so much more SerenaxHawlucha moments if they weren't cowards. That bird would have LOVED showcases and the fact Hawlucha never saw a single one of those shows how much Kalos' writing fails at making those characters feel connected with their stupid "only one person at the spotlight each time" approach. If an episode is about Serena, only her pokemon appear; If its about Clemont, only his pokemon appear; if is about Ash, good luck having screen time even if you're a human. And that's bad. That should not be the approach to a pokemon season, let alone the season where the MC is supposed to achieve his most important goal!

But let's say that Kalos ends as it is and Ash wins. I think another year and another 50 or so episodes would be needed still. To have Ash go throught the same arc he went throught Alola, but in Kalos.

Maybe we could have a rewrite from Snowbelle onwards.

Maybe after how Ash acts when she was just trying to help, Serena could leave the gang (I know it sounds like me being a hater but HEAR ME OUT). Ash hurt her feelings, treated her horribly right before and is not like she has a reason to stay other than to cheer for him in the league. So she leaves (and I keep thinking on expanding the idea of her final words being something like "I thought you were different" to add to "that's not you" she says in that episode).

And that's what gets Ash to realize he messed up. If he got the kindest girl in the world fed up with his bullshit is because he messed up big time.

And I like the promise he makes with Greninja, about starting from zero, and that could be what he does here.

But to what extend, i dont know.. I keep thinking that he could rechallenge gym leaders and about Hoenn's battle frontier to tie in with Hoenn remakes, but neither of those sound right (specially since he already did the battle frontier).

Maybe a Brandon re-challenge in specific? Since Ash never won against him fully and to parallel Paul back in DP?

Or maybe a small arc of him re-challenging the gym leaders in the Battle Chateau (it could work as JN's world championship tbh)?

Maybe he goes back to Lumiose with Clemont and we have a bit more of Meyer too to salvage THAT plot point. And maybe Sycamore could even give him mega stones to help him "start over" :0c Maybe he could then bring back reserves to tie in everything properly?

I dont know.

What I know is: It would be nice to follow a bit of Serena's side too! Maybe she could just go back home or go all the way to Hoenn and start doing contests! And we could see her growing into more of her own person and expanding the abilities she never explored before (LIKE BATTLING WHY SHE NEVER BATTLED?) and existing outside of Ash yknow!?

And more importantly, on Ash's side, I think it would be a great chance of showing his feelings for Serena in this "arc" if they really wanted to make them endgame.

Like, have him realize how much he misses her, how her support was way more important to him than he expected and have him realize how the people around you are more important than winning or something. Same message from Alola but with that romantic twist Kalos yearns for.

Have Ash grow into "the person he really is" for Serena mostly. And have him reach for her just to show her that (perhaps in a battle :3c) and have her finally back into the gang after he proves just how much he really cares.

And then league goes same way I guess. Except Greninja gets backseated for the finale cause I say so.

Now, SunMoon!

Alola would totally maintain the family theme no matter what, yes!

Alola's core theme is "finding a place where you belong" after all. We can see that in the games too, with Lillie's problems with her mother; Gladion who keeps this split life of "do I protect my sister or do I embrace Team Skull"; How Team Skull themselves is a bunch of kiddos that failed the island challenge and have nowhere to be due to that. Even the protag that comes from a whole nother region to find themselves adapting to a new life.

That's also why letting Ash win there, the kid who never had a place to belong despite 20 years of going around, is very satisfactory too.

But doing that with any main character that feels displaced in their own home would have been good ngl (making the MC Selene instead of Helio and expand on that outcast feel with some queer-coding in her relationship with Lillie would be awesome ôwô)

I also keep thinking of the idea of cutting the middle man and upgrading Lillie into full main character.

Ash stole Nebby from her, but lets say that the anime goes kinda the same way but the Tapus give Lillie Nebby instead. It would be interesting.

Have her try and protect it while also hiding it from her mom. Have her learn to battle to protect it and slowly grow stronger herself. I just like the idea of Lillie becoming a battler ok? It feels like the natural progression from scared girl who can't talk back to her mom /scared of pokemon > to girl who can fight for her ideals along the pokemon that took her in when no one else did.

Have her go with it as Solgaleo after her mom and save her with the pokemon that has always been by her side! The Pokemon that felt more like family than her own. Good stuff!

But the league.. I dont know honestly. If we keep this idea of Lillie as MC, down to living with Kukui and finding a family under him, it can work the same way in the anime, just put Lillie in Ash's place.

But I know the anime would never so. Idk. I still think a GuzmaxKukui battle would be good no matter what so Lillie(or any other MC) failing in the league against Guzma, only for Kukui to come and protect his adopted child would be interesting to see to ngl!

And PUH-LEASE, I ADORE this kinds of talk! Rambling about pokemon meta/what ifs is my favorite thing, I just dont do it more often cause I know I'm irritating :v

[worldssmallestlizard]

i want to ramble about panjura from path of titans a bit because it made me have interesting thoughts about map design in games

ok so for context everyone Hates this map because it is a big sprawling forest. the moment a map with more condensed/defined areas came out (gondwa) the majority of the playerbase moved to that

im not even really fond of this game anymore. like. i realized the combat aspect is not really for me and nor is the playerbase really (i pretend global chat doesnt exist its so tense). but what drew me in was that (1.) i had no idea that a game's map design could have so much attention to detail and (2.) ON TOP OF THAT BE SO BIG?? apparently the size of panjura is 8x8km. i heard through someone else that it also took 2 years to design

and i just find it really immersive in the way that you can come across a clearing of shallow trees over a brook or a rolling hill that like. stops to make you appreciate it if youre not focused on "man im fucking bored i gotta kill someone." because my friends advertised this to me 2 years ago as a game where you could just be a dinosaur lol. ive been trying to get some mileage out of it but havent found my niche yet really ive considered quitting the game a few times

and i guess like. gondwa (the alternative) does a good job at being more game-friendly. it funnels players into interactions a bit, and the ocean surrounding it shrinks the area you can wander, heightening your chances of coming across someone to fight. (when i was a new player it used to surprise me that everyone enjoys fighting) the land is divided up by rivers and cliffs, so most people are coming off of common bridges or shortcuts. you could also point to a specific area on the map and say "oh thats [region name]" because the borders are so defined. which is something you can't really do with panjura. thus, gondwa is a bit more palatable and is understandably why so many community servers use it to encourage interactions instead. EVERY area is considered a "hotspot" in its own way.

so you can sort of see why like. most people found panjura boring. the larger lake is probably one of the most notable features here, and even then this cuts off the bottom half of the map which does follow more of their uniform use of forests, cliffs, and occasional brooks/ponds. aside from some steep hills, you can otherwise make a beeline for any area you want to migrate to though. it is comparably "too big"

but thats what i fucking love about it so much. there is so much space that like the map has a kind of private aspect to it to the point that if you DO come across another player by some insane stroke of luck, it's way more memorable? and it has a feel to it like youre just going for a walk. but nobody opens a game to just take a walk. which makes it so hard to describe why i love panjura. its just very quiet and gives you more options if you want your own space to roam. theres also more freedom to be able to enter and leave areas at any point. i'd also like to make a note that people only play for the handful of designated "hotspots" around the center of the map

and after panjura got "replaced" for lack of better word there's not always much attention given to it development-wise; a lot of the regions could be redefined bc they've just always been circular (for context you get quests based on the region youre in. gondwa has irregular-shaped regions) and some of them are very incomplete, like some used to have missing quest items or currently have no quest items at all. meanwhile i wouldnt be surprised if gondwa got a bit more polishing over the year it was released. and that could very well be attached to gondwa just being newer/easier to tweak compared to panjura sticking with the game since the beginning

and thats just. it. panjura is comparatively more realistic and immersive in a careful way but thats all it really has going for it. and with the perspective of game design, palatability, guiding, consideration for the player, etc., you dont 100% know when someone is going to attempt to create something similar to it again. which makes me think about this a lot whenever i play it. it just sort of opened my eyes to what art in games COULD be versus what they thrive as

not even to say that gondwa has no aesthetic aspects to it, it just jams so many of them together though (i took none of these photos):

and like. hearing about it was really exciting. but even if you find an area to be very pretty, the awe stops for me when i roam for a bit and realize how small it is. most of these tend to abruptly end where another region begins. to enjoy a map i want to feel dwarfed by it like as if i could run in it for hours, not just enjoy a small spot and say "that was cool! next drastically different biome please." and i wonder if there are any other games that give you the freedom to roam like panjura does. it makes me sad sometimes how people just straight up call it bad/boring map design and it always made me want to dissect why

[socra-time]

Naruto Episode Comments, Ep. 1-20

(Context: I know a lot of the character’s names and some of the big plot points, but I’m going in blind otherwise)

Ep 1:

-Naruto is kinda annoying but also he’s just a lil gremlin and I can respect that

-I kinda love Iruka. Also he’s hot.

-”Clone jutsu? That’s my worst jutsu!” says Naruto, known for his Shadow Clone jutsu

-there’s just something so charming about the old anime style (but also some of the expressions are so goofy)

-HOLY SHIT IRUKA IS A REAL ONE

-I don’t trust the Hokage. I don’t really have a concrete reason for this yet, but his vibes are off

-oooh Irukaaaaa you’re so sexy for not being an asshole to the traumatized child

-oh I guess Shadow Clone jutsu is different from regular clones so disregard my earlier comment

-honestly this was a better first episode than I was expecting. I’m sold!

Ep 2:

-Naruto continues to be a lil gremlin

-Naruto pls for the love of god stop using your stupid ass “sexy jutsu”

-the Hokage really has had enough of these little kids and honestly I can’t even blame him

-I love the voice of Konohamaru’s trainer (I’m watching dub btw), it’s so pompous

-I love the ninja sandals. I want a pair.

-I like that Naruto’s voice actually sounds childish. It’s a tad bit grating sometimes but I think I’ll get used to it quickly

-STOP IT WITH THE SEXY JUTSU

-STOPPPPPP

-anyways #KonohamaruForHokage

Ep 3:

-again, the ninja sandals are so fucking drippy

-Ino wtf is up with your outfit. Why is half of it bandages

-the amount of sheer passive-aggressiveness in these 12 year old girls-

-Naruto has a crush on Sakura at first???? I didn’t know that lol

-Sasuke does not give a singular shit about anything other than his brooding and tbh I didn’t expect anything less

-Sakura’s little inner monologue is so feral lmao

-I don’t like Sasuke’s voice so far. It’s monotone, but not in an edgy way, just in a kinda dull way? Also he doesn’t really sound like a kid

-no hate to Shikamaru but his ponytail looks painful. My scalp hurts just looking at it

-oh my god not Sakura ragging on Naruto for being an orphan-

-lmao the amount of fucking drama with this team of kids is crazy

-why are the Hokage and Kakashi just casually breaking into Naruto’s home to look around

-rip Naruto’s bowels

Ep 4:

-I was not expecting Kakashi to sound like that but I’m kinda here for it actually

-oh I can already tell I’m gonna hate how the female characters are written in this show. Sakura honey I’m so sorry

-I know Sasuke’s got trauma or whatever but god he’s so fucking edgy. “I hate most things and I don’t like anything” bitch just say your favorite food or something

-oh my god Naruto is so tiny compared to Kakashi

-ok I already see why people love Kakashi so much

Ep 5:

-Kakashi is raining hell down on these children and I’m so here for it

-Kakashi is so COOL

-fucking “HEADHUNTER JUTSU” is the most metal name for a jutsu

-“you think like little kids” says Kakashi to the 12 year olds

-Kakashi really didn’t need to give his “you failed” monologue while pinning Sasuke to the ground. Bro was just doing it to assert dominance lmao

-I know that Sasuke’s reasoning for sharing is logical and not because he cares about Naruto, but I like that he offers his food to Naruto first

-aw the squad is starting to squad just a teeny tiny bit

Ep 6:

-booooo Naruto is a cat hater :(

-I love that Naruto is shorter than Sakura

-I like that we get some worldbuilding early on (also I’m a sucker for a good map so the scene explaining the different regions was cool)

-okay Sasuke is a badass

-Kakashi is also a badass but I already knew that

-I love how chill Kakashi is about literally everything

Ep 7:

-Kakashi is so over the bridge builder guy’s bullshit

-I do wish there was more of a sense of scale regarding how far apart the different locations are, since I have no idea how far away from Konoha the Land of Waves actually is

-okay I was NOT expecting Zabuza to fucking THROW HIS GIANT CLOUD STRIFE SWORD LIKE A BOOMERANG???

-Zabuza 🤝 Kakashi

not wearing their headbands correctly

-I like Zabuza’s voice

-the sharingan doesn’t make that much sense to me in terms of how it works but I’ll just chalk it up to anime logic

EP 8:

-oh the Water Prison jutsu is kinda terrifying to think about

-I can’t get over Zabuza’s fuckin armwarmer thingies

-ah yes gotta love the choppy old anime fight animation

-between Kakashi and Zabuza, Sasuke really cannot get a break from being pinned to the ground

-the demon wind shuriken is so sick-looking

-okay good on Naruto and Sasuke for working together but couldn’t they have given Sakura something to do

Ep 9:

-binging this makes the flashbacks at the beginning of episodes very annoying

-oh Kakashi is fucking PISSED

-shoutout to whoever animated all the hand signs for the jutsus holy shit

-yeah Kakashi would be so annoying to fight ngl

-Sakura is constantly calling Naruto out on his bullshit and that’s the kind of hater behavior I’m here for

-the soundtrack is hitting different this episode

-wow Naruto really saw another kid kill a man and got immediate imposter syndrome lmao

Ep 10:

-I like Haku’s painted nails

-aw Kakashi is actually a really encouraging teacher

-how is Naruto so bad with chakra control and yet was able to master Shadow Clone jutsu????

-Kakashi casually defying gravity to walk up a tree with his crutches was actually kinda hilarious to me for some reason

-I’m still not sold on Sasuke’s voice. There are moments when it’s fine but otherwise it’s just so stiff

-YAY FOR SAKURA GETTING A WIN OVER THE BOYS

-aw Naruto encouraging Sakura was cute (even though he was salty about her beating him)

-I like the difference that’s set up between having a lot of chakra (like Naruto) versus good chakra control (like Sakura)- hopefully this means people are going to go about how they train and fight differently

-Naruto asking Sakura for advice and asking her not to tell Sasuke anything was actually kinda endearing lol

Ep 11:

-dumb question maybe but if Gato is so against the bridge being built and he has the resources to hire a bunch of goons, why doesn’t he just bomb the bridge or something

-ah yes Sakura discovers poverty

-Sasuke is slowly growing on me. He’s very awkward

-Sakura I’m so sorry you have to deal with those two idiots as teammates

-holy fuck Inari’s backstory with Kaiza was darker than I thought it would be

-also rip Kaiza you were a real one

Ep 12:

-lmao not Naruto thinking Haku is prettier than Sakura fjfhshhajasisa-

-aw Sasuke helping Naruto walk home after training was nice, there’s definitely very slight development happening in their relationship as rivals

-Kakashi’s talk with Inari was a really nice moment

Ep 13:

-I like the way Haku talks. It’s very impassive and mysterious

-I’m always a fan of when the MC inspires literally everyone around them and Naruto is no exception

-Haku’s painted nails continue to slay (also I realized his toenails are painted too)

-the needles Haku fights with are really cool-looking but also seem really impractical

-YEAHHHHH NARUTO TIME

-aw Kakashi is proud of his kids

-goddamn Haku is so cool

Ep 14:

-I’m only thinking about this now but did Naruto never wonder why he had a big seal on his stomach

-literally half this episode was recap which was kinda annoying

-Naruto I love you but you’re so stupid

Ep 15:

-I really wish they gave Sakura more to do in this fight. I get that Kakashi’s the only one who can take Zabuza and that we need to see Naruto and Sasuke fighting together, but Sakura is kinda just standing there the whole time

-Haku needs to go to therapy ASAP

-I’m still confused about how Kakashi’s sharingan works tbh

Ep 16:

-aw yeah baby Sasuke sharingan time

-aw yeahhhh Sasuke saving Naruto

-god fucking dammit I think Sasuke is my favorite Team 7 member and I hate that for me

-oh boy Naruto is about to go apeshit

-also there is no way in hell anyone watching this actually believed Sasuke died

Ep 17:

-geez the animation quality really went up this episode

-yeah Haku’s backstory is just as tragic as I thought it would be but also Jesus Christ his relationship with Zabuza is so fucked up

-I’m very curious as to why Kakashi has the sharingan if it’s a bloodline trait of the Uchiha clan (and also why he only has it in one eye)

-Kakashi summoning fucking dogs was so random but also hell yeah doggies

-andddd Kakashi’s a lightningbender? I thought the sharingan was his main thing but apparently not

-Haku PLEASE go to therapy

Ep 18:

-this show’s soundtrack has actually been so good so far

-so like was Naruto actually gonna kill Haku before Haku stopped him

-oh FUCK rip Haku (also first real-time death of the series!)

-Kakashi closing Haku’s eyes and saving his body was nice, you can tell that he feels bad about him dying even though he was on Zabuza’s side

-also they didn’t hold back on the blood, goddamn

-I like that the bridge builder seems to have a bit of a soft spot for Sakura since she’s been with him the most

Ep 19:

-Gato is literally so fucking disgusting I need him dead ASAP

-Kakashi wrangling Naruto back from attacking Gato was kinda funny

-ah yes the big Shonen Protagonist Speech™ from Naruto

-Zabuza’s last hurrah was fucking epic, I really like how his and Haku’s story ended (also the line “where he’s going, I cannot follow” about Zabuza joining Haku in the afterlife was metal). I like that Zabuza got a last moment of humanization

-aw Naruto is such a wholesome, determined lil guy

-oh Naruto is gonna be so insufferable when he finds out the bridge is named after him

Ep 20:

-HELL YEAH CHUNIN EXAM TIMEEEE IM SO EXCITED

-wow Naruto is really out here fantasizing about being Sasuke’s knight in shining armor

-Sasuke is a cocky little shit but also he’s technically right about Naruto and Sakura being “worse” than him

-so far Sakura’s biggest fight has been her beating up fuckin Konohamaru

-SAND SIBLINGS SPOTTED!!!

-I don’t like Temari’s voice

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! I hope you having a good day, I just had a question that I hope is ok.

Is there any condition that would make it difficult to walk long distances (sometimes using a wheel chair, sometimes crutches) but doesn't affect the hands/arms at all? I'm working on a concept for a character and was wondering about making him an ambulatory wheelchair user since it's not something I see often in stories, but he's also a musician mainly playing stringed instruments and I don't want that to become painful for him.

But I wasn't sure if that was something that could exist and I wouldn't want to write it that way if it's not

Hello lovely asker!

So here is a list of conditions that don't (or sometimes don't) affect the upper body and can be ambulatory conditions.

Conditions that physically effect the lower back/legs:

Lower extremity amputation

Congenital lower body differences - Foot, ankle, knee etc. (Club Foot, Miserable malalignment syndrome etc.)

Sacral Agenesis

Monoplegia

Leg injuries

Cartilage Damage/Injuries

Spina Bifida

Arthritis

Incomplete Paraplegia

Leg length difference

Ankylosing Spondylitis

Multiple Sclerosis

Hypermobility

Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia

Posterior tibial tendon dysfunction

Complex regional pain syndrome

Conversion disorder

Brain Based Disorders:

Epilepsy (drop epilepsy, myoclonic epilepsy etc)

Diplegic Cerebral Palsy

Narcolepsy (often with cataplexy)

Chiari malformation

FND

PANDAS

Tourettes/tic disorders

Autoimmune Encephalitis

Heart/Respiratory/other etc.:

Vertigo/POTS/other conditions that cause syncope/dizziness

Respiratory Conditions (COPD, etc)

Heart Conditions

Conditions that affect balance/increase fall risk

Post polio (and other diseases)

Psychosomatic Paralysis/Pain/other ailments

This is just a rough list of what we could all come up with, there are many others that have gone forgotten, but that's for you the writer to do more research on too. One thing is a few of these conditions can affect the hands or eventually progress to effecting the hands, arms, and/or even the upper or lower back.

Depending on what type of instrument they play will also factor in. Playing posture is different with every instrument, as well as the weight. And some instruments like the Viola Da gamba does require leg strength. If the character is classically trained also, it makes a difference in etiquette. I am (was technically) classically trained and if you have pain of any kind you're told it doesn't matter, you're told to play through the pain and keep going. To suffer for your art is still the prevalence in the classical world. Excruciating pain? Keep going. Cut open your finger on something? Keep going. It's not good, but it is the reality of it, unfortunately.

Also I will mention that don't be afraid to choose another condition that does affect the character's upper body. A lot of disabled musicians have a variety of conditions and simply exist and play music. But also even though the character might have a condition that mainly affects the legs, if pain is common with the condition you choose, this still will affect the character playing. Being in pain even if it's not in your arms or back can be very distracting and will throw you off.

And one last thing! Please don't write this character "Overcoming" their disability to play music. I would research disabled musicians (Itzhak Perlman is the first one that comes to mind for me) and even—if called for—adaptive technology for instruments or how people have adapted their instruments/music to them for more accessibility.

Alrighty! Happy writing! I hope this helps some!

~ Mod Virus 🌸 (and a very thank you to Mods Sasza, Rot, Bert, & Patch for helping me with the research on this)

[lgbtlunaverse]

My stance on literary criticism in fanfiction communities is and will stay "only if it's explicitly asked for" and my usual go-to reply to the followup of "But you need criticism to improve!!" is: this is a hobby space, people are putting stuff out for free on the internet, it's not ABOUT quality, it's about fun.

And that's true. But the thing is that I do care about quality, actually. Controversial opinion but I like it when things are good. I want to make good things as a creator and enjoy them as an audience member. I think high quality art is just... a good goal to strive for inherently. And fanfiction is art (We're not having a debate about this. 'Art' is not a word that means high quality or high value. Because then bad art could not exist. Art means that it's art. Artistic expression. Nothing else)

And I think where me and the people talking about how criticism is necessary lose each other is that when we talk about quality, we both want good art to be made. But does that mean "I want a higher number of good works of art to exist" or do we mean "I want a higher fraction of all art that is created to be good"

Because those are 2 very different things.

See: if we mean the first, bad art existing is irrelevant, we only care about making sure good art comes into existance. But for the second, guarding against bad art is an integral part of reaching our goal. We not only have to encourage people to make good art, we have to discourage them from making bad art.

And those dual goals are important. Because criticism can make someone who is less good at art into a better artist. But it can also just make them... not make art.

And THIS. I think. Is where the distinction between paid professional art and hobby spaces, like fandoms, becomes important. It's not that I think you only get to criticise something if you paid money for it. It's that professional art spaces have a finite amount of resources. People need to eat, and they need to be paid, and art costs money to make. And if it's spent on the creation of bad art, that means less good art has the resources to be made.

(Even in something like indie e-book publishing with a lot less gatekeeping or upfront costs, this is still true. Resource allocation is perhaps more direct, directly from audience to author, but even before factoring in things like marketing and amazon's algorithm the truth is that writers have bills to pay and if they're not selling they'll need to find a different job)

What all of his means is that criticism is essential to professional art spaces. Because in order for quality to exist, you need to encourage the allocation of resources to good art and discourage the allocation of resources to bad art.

(It's more nuanced than that. Everytime a bad tropey romance book blows up people start whining about all the superior art this money could've been spent on. But there isn't ONE singular art money pool for the entire world. There are several thousand smaller resource pools that will be distributed among different regions and niches. The money spent on that tropey romance book was never going to be spent on an experimental sculpture. The work that lost out here is another better tropey romance book. Which is why you actually need to know and respect a genre to critique works in it effectively– ok I'll stop now)

And if there are more good artists than you can give resource to (which, by the way, is always true. Every moment of every day there truly great art not being made because the resources weren't there. From rejected ideas to talented people who never got to be artists in the first place because they needed a more stable job) then it doesn't matter whether an overall increase in quality comes from someone improving their craft or from them leaving the industry, leaving more resources to someone with higher quality work. They both have the same effect on the overall quality within the space.

But... in hobby spaces, those limits do not exist. People make stuff and put it on the internet for free. it's not just that they're not making money– even in professional spaces many people don't make money off their art– it's that making money isn't even an option. So that pool of limited resources doesn't exist.

Which means that the ONLY limiting factor for fanfiction is interest. The amount of fanfiction you get is dictated by the amount of people who are interested in creating it. That's it. Someone writing bad fanfiction does NOT mean that a different better fic writer will not get to write theirs.

"But criticism can make the bad fanfic writer better!" This is true, and it's usually what people who advocate for constructive ciritcism want. They do not want bad writers to be replaced by good writers, they want the bad writers to become good.

This makes sense, because as we just established, individual improvement is the ONLY way of improving the level of quality, because the only limiting factor is the amount of interested people

So, do you know what criticism can also do?

Make someone stop creating.

Well phrased or not, constructive or not. ANY critique that wasn't asked for has a chance to make someone want to stop creating. There really isn't a way to make sure you're not hitting someone in their deepest insecurities. And in unregulated spaces like fanfic you also don't have a way to screen for critique quality. There's no professional reviewers here. You can say "criticism is fine as long as it's constructive" all you want, but complete assholes giving absolutely useless critique can and do regularly think their criticism is the best writing advice in the world.

And if someone does stop, you have less interested people. You have decreased your one limiting factor.

And the thing is: people improve by just writing on their own. They might (keyword: MIGHT) improve faster if they had regular audience critique, but they'll improve by the mere act of repeatedly writing. It's the most important factor in improving.

And removing someone from the pool of interested people inherently means they stop writing, and thus stop improving. You have unavoidably DECREASED the amount of quality work that could be created.

The bottom line is: in spaces with limited resources, people either improving or quitting is the point. It's how you gatekeep, and get more good art to be made by freeing up those limited resources. In places where the only limiting factor is the people themselves, anyone being discouraged from making art because it's "not good enough" is a NET LOSS for quality.

Regardless of the fact that human enjoyment should be the first priority in hobbies, if you primarily look at it through the lens of caring about quality, unsolicited criticism hinders quality instead of serving it. The people who want to improve and who will not be discouraged by criticism will seek it out via beta-readers or editors or writing groups, or will explicitly invite their audience to give constructive criticism. At that point, go wild! But if you weren't asked: stay quiet.

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Ok, so this isn't my first request as I've sent a few requests before many years ago, but I think I have an idea I wanna see you turn into reality if that's ok? How about Protag introducing Ogerpon(Our sweet adopted daughter) to the main cast, something similar to what you did for the Ruination Quartet I suppose. Thanks a lot on advance, and sorry if it's a mouthful ×-×)'

YES THE MASK DAUGHTER ;w; I love Ogerpon 5ever

(also I know canonically the Teal Mask takes place a little while after the Treasure Hunt starts, but we'll say the protag is already a champion and everything).

........

After your short trip to Kitakami, Arven, Penny, and Nemona couldn't wait for you to tell them all about it!

Ofc since you already had the Ruinous Quartet captured, they suspected you would've found some other rare/legendary Pokémon in that region, too.

You just had a knack for getting such powerful (and often dangerous) creatures to trust you.

So when you finally introduced Ogerpon to the group, they're completely thrown off-guard by her cutesy appearance.

But after the initial shock passes, you explain to them what you've learned about her during your time in Kitakami.

Nemona grins as you talk about her masks and how she acted in battle (while omitting the fact you challenged Kieran beforehand and severely humbled the poor guy).

Ogerpon is still kinda shy around new humans, but she's giddy over all the positive attention your fellow Paldean champion is giving her! So they warm up to each other pretty quickly.

Penny's just relieved that you didn't bring home another harbinger of doom.

Plus, she completely understands how Ogerpon felt about being outcasted and misunderstood...#relatable

Arven did read a little about the legend surrounding the Ogre and the Loyal Three in his free time, only to gawk as you explain that it's actually the opposite: the Three were the real villains of the story.

He wonders how tf an awful lie like that could be told for generations....but to his relief, you helped convince the village that Ogerpon was good at heart (and that you captured the Loyal Three and made them see the error of their ways).

He does sympathize with her losing her trainer/parent figure long ago, too.

Introducing Ogerpon to picnics was....interesting, to say the least.

She was shy about eating at the table with the rest of your Pokémon team, or even eating at all tbh.

Never before has she shared a meal with others.

The only exception was during the mask festivals where she and her trainer had to go undercover and act human.

So she puts on one of her masks as a nervous habit, but Nemona encourages her to remove it, reassuring her that she's safe and that she didn't have to hide anymore.

Her kindness brings tears to her eyes, but she's smiling nonetheless.

And you smile, too, watching your friends slowly yet surely help Ogerpon feel more at home here in Paldea.

You're glad she chose to come along with you.

[radioroxx]

hi pluto i’m here to ask if u have any isat headcanons. about anybody! hope u have a good sunday :))

HAPPY SUNDAY VIA can i call you via. hello

ive mentioned my tattoo hcs before but im gonna expand on them as best i can rn because i think about it occasionally (i am making a lot of this up. right now! for you!)

ok so odile has a lower back tattoo she got in her 20s and i feel very strongly about this one 1. because i think its funny 2. because it makes her 10x cooler. the other day in my moots disc we talked about the idea of odile having a past polycule that she broke off from and so ive adopted that idea and decided the tattoo is a matching one. she does not regret it at all and is still (somewhat) in touch with her ex’s. siffrin was the first person she told about this, drunkenly btw, and for months afterwards he couldnt remember if it was Actually Real or just something his brain made up (and they were too scared to ask lol)

siffrin has star tattoos on his back and shoulders! i was considering giving him sleeves but i changed my mind,, he got them while he was still travelling on his own. possibly theres a region that is more well known for tattooing (havent decided what this would be though)! he was interested from a ‘learning about new culture’ perspective, also just because Why Not. he chose to get stars because it felt right. he somewhat regrets it. (maybe, post canon and later on their journey, he would try out something else. different designs. things inspired by his family! or things he wants to remember)

isabeau has no tattoos. not from not wanting them, but from just never really having the interest. UNTIL travelling with the party. until staying up late with sif in their shared tent and finding out that, on his travels, he learned how to (very basically) give people tattoos. and begs him for one. its like 2am and neither of them are thinking clearly so they agree. they ‘borrow’ odiles ink pot she uses for writing, a sewing needle that isa happens to have on hand, aaaand it. goes very poorly. as youd imagine. he is lucky to have the long sleeves to cover it up. whatever design theyd been going for was absolutely not achieved. but! he cherishes the memories regardless. (incredibly, they would try this twice. the second time would be after bonnie joined the crew, who would catch them awake, beg siffrin for a tattoo of their own, be told ‘no’, but would still be allowed to watch as long as they PROMISE not to tattle to madame and mira in the morning. bonnie absolutely tattles).

mira! does not seem like a tattoo person to me. i think she would be intimidated by the idea- partially in relation to the change belief, partially because she wouldnt know what to get. i like to think tattoos are probably pretty controversial to the religion… some people think they are a very powerful form of change! something you cant take back. others disagree for the same reason, that its permanent. so pre canon no tattoos for her. but!! but! as i mentioned before with siffrin getting tattoos for his family, i think mira might consider something as well (confidence boosted by the fact that the others will be matching). other than that though, it just doesnt appeal to her much.

bonnie has no tattoos also aaand it will stay that way for. a little bit. this is something that upsets them greatly because i also like to believe that nille has PLENTY of tattoos! possibly some she even got when she was much much younger! irresponsibly, of course, and many of them are regrettable. so she steers bonnie away from making that same mistake too young (tries to encourage them to wait until they are 18 at least). maybe bambouche as a whole is a very tattoo-supportive town, which is where bonnie got their interest. this does not stop them from making little paintings up their arms and having the others help out as well, to make up for it, in a non-permanent way.

i havent actually designed what any of their tattoos would look like… thats gotta be something i sit down to think about,,, one day maybe ehe

[lexydakitten]

ok, major watcher spoilers and also i haven't beaten it yet but i really strongly love the horror of outer rim and unfortunate evolution especially. the way the rot spreads, clearly tied to you and your activities - which you don't have innately! they're a "gift" from oaoa! it works especially well in the context of rainworld. a lot of the times that sort of leviathan horror can fall flat, because there is no release. but the thing with rainworld is that your main priority is survival, even if you can come back, dying is still a major setback. what you are used to at that point is the ability to save yourself, use your abilities to fight, and be able to take on things in combat. if you can't fight an enemy, you can flee.

but all the rotted creatures? they impede that. you attempt to fight them, and if you don't kill them quickly, they transform and grow ways to reach you, even if you're hidden. if you don't flee right away, you might not get to at all, on top of seeing how unnatural this is and how agonized these creatures seem to have become with the condition.

and in unfortunate evolution, before any fear of survival, the first thing you notice is that you're in five pebbles. there's no color AT ALL, completely different from everything else. it's the only 0g region, and by that point it's hard to navigate because you've not been in one in awhile. additionally, 0g is just generally harder to control yourself in, and you're vulnerable. most likely, you can't shelter either, and you may get sent back a lot if you die. station annex is a creepy hell that sucks to feel stuck in, death is really intimidating.

and then you reach the abyss. you've past windows and it's clear some sort of monster is here, you don't know if you're going to encounter five pebbles or not, but you know something is even more wrong than you could've imagine. it feels very parallel to the void and i actually thought i maybe had reached the end when i got there, especially with the giant rotting void worm. but the real horror is that you don't know what happens here. what does a rotting void worm do if it notices you? will it notice you? you can't fight back from that. you can't flee in the 0g. if you go invisible, you get stuck unless you can throwboost. it works so much better than it normally would specifically because it's rainworld. in rainworld, you're prey, but you have the capacity to become predator, the capacity to be on top and feel unstoppable. a rotting void worm? you are helpless, floating in an unfamiliar place, with one giant monster. void worms aren't usually alone, either. it makes you wonder what this force is. that's all. i think it's really impressive and also it scared the everloving piss out of me visiting that place. i dont find myself freaked out by 2d games very easily and i think i got so anxious from it that i got a headache. it is in every way wonderful. i'm having the time of my life. this dlc does so good at making you afraid of the unknown, something you thought you understood all the workarounds of is now completely foreign and you have no control. thats some good shit

(i also dont expect this post to be seen by like.. anyone but if you spoil to me i bite you violently [immediate block] give me a week at least plses. i dont expect problems but yk)

[dopscratch]

ok well it looks like there's a little more than five of you

so uh

i started writing a little bit and yknow when i said laios is literally me?

yeah i think i was born to write him

anyway here's a treat for you all, the very first draft of the first few paragraphs of A Culinary Guide to the Barbaric Archipelago

feedback is much appreciated this will probably look fairly different once i end up actually publishing :)

also keep in mind i've only watched the show so if anything seems inaccurate just tell me (preferably spoiler-free/spoiler-light) ___

Laios had no idea what these monsters were, and the thought only excited him. They had shown up as he and his party were traversing a high-ceilinged region in the fifth floor, and everyone was fumbling to fend them off. They were large, frighteningly fast, and were constantly in motion, enough that they were nothing but a near-indecipherable blur as they screeched through the air. 

Marcille had tried exploding them to no avail, the spells hitting nothing but a crumbling wall. Not a single swing of Kensuke had managed to so much as clip them, and fabric shreds floated through the air like autumn leaves as they tore through the party’s items with their talons. Chilchuck was screaming as he ducked and weaved, dodging the masses with some success. Meanwhile, Senshi busied himself trying to recover all of his fallen ingredients after one of the creature’s claws had torn off his pot and ripped open his supply bag, scattering its contents among the bricks. He didn’t even flinch when one sent sparks flying from his helmet. The only things that Laios could make out through the streaks were shimmering scales and sharp talons—either a reptilian or bird-type monster. Well, he’d read once that birds technically were reptiles anyway, but that was certainly besides the point, plus, monsters of either type generally still had their differences...though now that he thought about it, they often were encountered together—Basilisks, Cockatrices, and Coatuls were all combinations of snakes and birds, and white dragons had bird wings—wait, maybe that was why Falin had feathers! He’d thought it greedy at first, to have so many cool features together, but when he really considered it, regular birds had always had scales, on their legs at least! So then, maybe the feathers were just a natural part of it after all! Maybe...

“Maybe dragons aren’t just reptilian monsters, but a special type of bird monster!” Laios didn’t even realize he’d said anything aloud until Chilchuck turned his ire to him.

“What? How does that even matter!? Get a grip, Laios! We need to get the hell out of here!” the half-foot yelled. He grabbed onto Laios’s arm, but before he could try to tug the larger man away, he ducked to avoid an incoming blur. Marcille was having similar issues.

“Forget the food, we need to go!” She shrieked, trying to dissuade Senshi from the Sisyphean task that was collecting his things. Every time he made any sort of progress, a passing monster would swoop in to take a swipe at him, the passing wind sending everything flying once more.

__

first person to guess which httyd dragon is harassing them gets a doodle of your choice from me :)

ALSO, i am debating when in the books i want to set it. on one hand, setting it after the events of all the books could create some interesting dynamics with the main httyd gang and the touden party, though on the other hand that'd make it a lot less accessible for non-httyd readers and also just a massive spoiler fest. so i think setting it sometime before book 8 would also be fun and be able to accomplish what i want it to. and maybe even setting it before/during book 1 could be cool so i could play off of the interactions with the green death, though of course that would also be sacrificing the other httyd characters's development.

either way i think the main plot is that the touden party eats their way across the barbaric archipelago and hiccup horrendous haddock the third the hope and heir to the tribe of hairy hooligans just wants to find out why all the wild dragons are getting so agressive

also ziggerastica is just having a fit

[karanseraph]

Alien robots can have accents

This might be spoilers for The Life and Times of Skywarp fic, but just going through my process in public, because sometimes this helps me think and organize my thoughts.

Alien robots can have accents, because other planets have regions and culture and also because if we encounter them, they can assimilate our language(s) differently.

Also, Transformers media has pretty much always had this as a thing, because, with one notable exception I can think of, humans recorded their voices.

What a character's accent sounds like can differ, like if one piece of media was recorded in Canada, for example, and another recorded in Japan, let's say, then even if a character has a regional accent in both, that character doesn't necessarily have the same type of regional accent.

some non-audio media also calls out quirky speech patterns and accents in the written dialogue.

OK, that's all understood stuff we all know.

Now, I'm trying to think what accents and mannerisms Thrust and Ramjet have when we meet them through Skywarp's POV in a fic.

So, I the writer (and I've noted this bias in the various notes attached to the fic) am writing in English, because that's my language. And mostly it's North American/US/Eastern/Mid-Atlantic because that's my region. But, here and there there may be deviations or variations. The characters aren't actually speaking English on Cybertron, I'm just writing the story in my language.

The POV character is Skywarp, who, like many people, does not perceive his own accent unless someone else calls it out. So, descriptions of the other Cybertronian characters having any dialect or accent difference get filtered through the character's perception.

Skywarp, the character, in this fic, is based in Vos which is in the south and east of Cybertron. He doesn't always know what region a dialect is associated with when he first hears it. He just notices it's different or more difficult to parse.

So like, when I'm writing, I would not say "Nyonienne" is French." It's not. It's really not. It's an alien dialect/accent of whatever Cybertronian languages is spoken in that era. But, I might write that when Skywarp met Eriel and she gave her designation the way she pronounced certain airy phonemes was different enough that he wasn't sure how to spell her name. It might have been Oryal or Ariel or Auriel.

Skywarp knows Mirage, Tracks, Red Alert, Thundercracker, Flatline, and Daytrader are all from and/or based in Iacon, but he also knows they don't all sound the same and supposes this is because Iacon has 'street' and 'spire' differences as well as being a big region with suburbs.

OK, so back to Ramjet and Thrust. Skywarp has never met them in person. He knows of them. He knows they are based out of Unitrex which is generally in the north and has a cliffy Rust Sea coast and is known as City of the Stars. When there was a big Seeker meeting, Ramjet sent Red Wing and Laserbeak as emissaries, but Laserbeak is an older bot with his own fawning skeksis-like mannerisms and Red Wing was a new recruit to their team, possibly assimilating language elsewhere.

I think this version of Ramjet is like if a locally-famous rock star from a metal band (they might be The Heralds or just Heralds?) that sings songs about chaos, destruction, and sometimes romance received some regional knighthood-like honor due to his emotive spark-felt singing and took it way too seriously and acts like he's some kind of Seeker-Rock-Paladin, but it's hard to tell because whenever he's not singing his manner is over-the-top facetious and sarcastic to the point of deadpan lying about everything. But the bots on his team legitimately think he's great and consider him their leader, because he totally signed up for that! Also, he crashes through things a lot.

The Sir Rock Star thing seems British coded, even if organics are more likely to seem him as their mechanical steed than a shining white knight. Does another region have this intersection of musician and public treasure, like if one is an idol singer or such? Ramjet could also be that.

But Thrust is...loud and boasts about how great their team is, but acts mainly as Ramjet's conspiratorial spiritual advisor going on and on about the stars and alignments and the symbolic meaning of colors in other bots' decos and what elemental energies he promises he can sense in others.

Some Thrusts are vaguely Western-like? But is Thrust also Brit-coded but like old British occultist flavor? And he goes about saying every bot is a star and do what thou wilt and talking about magic?

But they aren't really British at all. They're alien robots throwing brutal warehouse raves in Unitrex as a cover to spy on the Titan-building project nearby.

[arolegos]

@fiberturkey89 OK HI i love treating ninjago charactes like my oc so heres the umm explanation for my morro design!!! YAP SESSION under cut cause i dont wanna flood ppl with my yapping ...

ok so to me he was a member of the cloud kingdom!!! i know this is a somewhat popular headcanon although im not sure who first came up with it. i just wanted a reason to make him look cool at first

every different realm and region has a majority species . To me . i could go on and on about each one that i Made up but for now i will focus on the CK species (plus euphrasia for additional um. idk. context?)

idk what id call the species name. ill just call them Writers . for now. Ummm as u can see i believe that their species has a LOT of wings. like a whole bunch. each person can have up to like 3 colours for their wings, with white being the main one. the colours don't have meaning Yet but idk . they're mostly whatever colour i think fit best with their character .

they also got Eyes on their wings . this would be the tertiary colour (or the same colour as secondary) . they have a Lot of feathers on their body (neck-chest, arm-wrist, around knee-ankle). They also have . featheered tails . Ok that's about as much as ill detail for their species bc i do have madeup culture for them But i don't want this to turn into a 9 paragraph yap session . I will focus on morro now

MORRO FAKE LORE! WOOHOO!!

ok so in the world where hes my oc. he was a part of the writers of destiny (or rather one in training but he lived in the cloud kingdom nonetheless) . anyways . he didn't really like the life there bc he always wanted to be More than just a writer of destiny. he wanted to be there to experience the damn thing himself, but that obviously wasn't allowed in the cloud kingdom (bc . well. u can see that theyre kinda strict on their rules (one destiny one path sort of thing or whatever) . so he eventually gets kicked out after enough misdemeanours (so probably he misbehaved like One time) . anyways they bound him to a flightless life (bc . flying was . well. a pretty big thing in a community full of people who have wings all over their body) and exiled him to Ninjago .

he cant fly back home so he doesn't. not that he would anyway. this is why he keeps his wings folded/closed almost all the time. they do not serve any purpose. he would love to chop them off if he could

he makes a few friends on the streets but theyre hardly 'friends' in the natural sense of that word.

also. in a fucked up twist of the world, he ends up being the elemental master of wind.

(this ones connected to another thing i also made up but if the Ninjago writers get to forget things and make things up at random So Can I; anyways my point is that wojira was defeated by Nyad . who was one of the two elements that matched the um amulet thing. and since she transformed into the sea i cant imagine the first EM of wind was just like Oh well okay then i guess its all over. In my mind they became one with the wind too and was probably from an even higher plane than the cloud kingdom but their powers ended up there anyway . Taken by some. Freak.)

around this time is when he meets wu and stuff. u know everything that happens from here so i will not be retelling shit but i am sooo adamant on them Not being father and son sorry. or at the very least i think it was only one-sided . i think wu wanted company and morro reminded him of a younger version of his older brother . thought of him as a 'son' bc thats the only way he could really see him. whereas morro thought wu was some stinky old man who was nice. very nice and sweet to him. promised him a destiny bigger than himself. but not a father. what even is a father? he does not see that in wu sorry . tgey will never be father and son to me . that relationship dynamic is too simple for the complexity of their relationship

yeagh well wu 'lied' about his destiny (I mean . of cours i dont actually think that way. wu kind of Had no way to tell if he really was destined to be the green ninja although It is kinda Freaked up to suggest it to a like. 10 year old. i guess he did learn his lesson . ) and morro was like Fuck u i choose my own destiny . And left and died. ok yea this is all stuff u already knew

(also i imagine he went looking for FSM's tombstone (aka he was Really just looking for the realm crystal) so he could go back home . to rewrite his own destiny. to be like Yeah i actually AM the green ninja and you cant stop me.)

okkokokk this is a bit graphic cause. believe it or not. morro dies. so like. i will be describing that a little

annywaayyyysss morro goes to the cave of despair and. gets lost. falls a bunch. at some point he realises hes like completely lost as in like to the point of no return . and while hes panicking there are Fuckinf geysers gushing out and rumbling the damn ground. he falls but he doesn't die immediately. he breaks his wings first though. not that they would've helped him fly out. but im just explaining why his wings look so wilted and like theyre just 'hanging off' in his ghost design. its bc they r. those are broken wings that cannot move naturally . he cannot keep them folded bc they are broken

his cause of death was thirst . starvation was a factor too but like. thirst got his ass first (as it would anyone). he ripped his sleeves while venturing around the cave but he did use some to try and wrap around his wounds . didn't really Help tho cause he died anyway .

Extra fucked up fake lore ? Writers have feathered tails that fall off to impending doom. as a final play on a destined fate (Dying!!!! LOL!!!!). so like days before morro dies the feathers of his tail fall off one by one until there are None left . if it makes it any better it doesn't hurt like a broken bone . just imagine if one day you woke up to your.? idk? leg gone? like it didn't hurt its just gone and you can feel that its gone but not the pain of the loss. if u get what i mean. or maybe thats not the right comparison. idk. your hair i guess?

. in his last moments his thoughts are not of any happy memories Because he straight up has none sorry gang i dont want him happy. Ok kidding im sure he thought of wu. im sure part of him wished wu had come after him. im sure a part of him wished he hadn't stepped into the cave. but i also Believe he probably welcomed death pretty nicely. with a warm hug and all. he probably leapt into that mfs arms.

anywaygsss . he gets sent to the cursed realm (Whicg is crazy im not going to lie but apparently he did a bunch of crazy shit while looking for the FSM's tomb so. maybe deserved. i dont know.) and the preeminent is like Yooo what is this freak doing here . Do my taxes. and morro is like Ok but u have to curse some realms. And the preeminent is like Yeah i already planned on doing that

also its only BC he went to the cursed realm that his wings are black in his ghost form!!! it looks more decayed and Cursed that way

ok yeah thats all the stuff i made up i think . unless i missed something. i dont think i did

also Lloyd would not have had his wings while he was being possessed . he only had like traces of them (ghost feathers would fall off his back when he moved but they weren't /actually/ there . it confused the fuck out of the ninja the first time. they were like Woah your voice got deeper. Why are you shedding feathers.)

morro is my favourite fucked up evil OC im so thankful they didn't give him a redemption arc thank yiu so much i love it when villains refuse to be redeemed even when given the chance im cheering adn clapping. morro never get revived. thank you.