#some of this is just reiterating stuff that was said more eloquently in the post i linked lol

[twocutlines]

this may be an unpopular opinion but personally i think the thing i struggle with regarding the idea of buck and eddie having satisfying romantic arcs apart from each other is that it is possible for sure, but i don't really. see a way for it to happen without some kind of a shift in the relationship they have each other that moves away from the level of intimacy and closeness they have developed over the past six (6!) years.

because, like, obviously you can have meaningful platonic relationships outside of your romantic partner, but even though buck and eddie are not in a romantic relationship their whole deal is also... not platonic. the space that they occupy in each other's lives is. well. it goes beyond friendship (sorry). and as others have pointed out, part of the reason buck and eddie's past relationships (taylor, ana, etc) have felt so lackluster in comparison to their relationship with each other is simply because they just do not have the kind of emotional intimacy with anyone else that they have with each other – and i don't really think you can have it both ways. the relationship buck and eddie have on the show right now can't continue as it is if the goal is to have them both in well-developed, believable romantic relationships apart from each other; something would need to change.

and i mean. they could do this; it's not impossible. but i think would be a mistake, and not just because i think they have a good foundation for a romantic relationship (though i do) – so much of the story they've told with buck and eddie is about two people who were both very alone in different ways meeting and becoming an integral part of each other's lives, and the relationship they have with each other is a really compelling part of the show. so while having them grow apart from that relationship is technically possible, i don't think it would be a good or satisfying choice narratively

[whump-ventures]

I need to chime in on this post because I feel like a basic point is being missed in this giant repetitive reply. Also I don’t speak very eloquently so forgive me if this gets drawn out or gets ramble-y at points. Tried to keep it somewhat short.

First off, I do want to say that there aren’t “very few writers” who write lady whump. There’s a lot more now than there used to be, and that’s because people are getting more accepting of it and more comfortable with it. I see it all the time. It’s definitely not as popular as the typical male whumpee but there are a lot of people who write and enjoy lady whump and if your little corner of whump didn’t alienate half of the whump community, you would probably know this.

And to the main point of this. Calling lady whump a common “trigger” is completely false. It’s not a trigger. 90% of what people call triggers aren’t triggers. Following this statement up by saying “it makes people uncomfortable.” Discomfort doesn’t equal a trigger, so maybe reevaluate what you decide to say is actually triggering vs what is just a squick or discomfort. “Trigger” is such an overused word at times, a squick makes you uncomfortable, a trigger is usually related to trauma and brings up things like flashbacks, obsessive thoughts, that sort of stuff. I can go way in depth between triggers and squicks but calling lady whump a trigger for most people is completely false. A squick for most people might be true, a trigger for some, absolutely. But it’s not a trigger for the majority of the community.

So now to the next point. “It makes people uncomfortable.”

Why?

Why are we as a community uncomfortable with lady whump? And why are we accepting that discomfort instead of realizing that maybe the roots of the discomfort come from an underlying sexism? Sasha hit the nail on the head with this. Media hasn’t portrayed female characters/female leads well. It’s more recognizable as society, more comfortable as society, to see a male character step into that hero role. It’s more comfortable to see a male character get whumped.

So why aren’t we challenging that comfort zone? Discomfort isn’t always a bad thing. Discomfort can be used to help find a problem, figure out how to improve, get better... Why aren’t we trying to grow as a community and become more accepting of what used to be an outlier? Why aren’t we trying to get better? Why are we just making excuses for what is sometimes internalized sexism brought about by media portrayal?

And then there’s a ton of examples of how media has conditioned us into this thought process and that thought process and blah blah blah. It’s all repetitive. And all it’s doing is trying to explain why it’s so acceptable to not be accepting of lady whump. It’s all just trying to explain away a problem, and doesn’t actually address it. Equality has a way to go, yes. But why can’t we strive for this sort of equality with our writing in the whump community?

I could go on and on about this but I will just end it by reiterating what Sasha said. “Accepting the normal” is ignoring the problem, not facing it or tackling the root of it.

[update] whump tagging

First and foremost I want to answer a mistake I made with this:

I tried to say too much in too few words. I was trying to avoid confusion and ended up causing more.

I believe that since we tag "Female Whump", it is fair to tag every gender on whumps too, but especially male whump because male whump is always thought of as default -- and it shouldn't.

In the blue part I'm talking about generic posts we usually write to share general tropes, ex:

"Imagine the Whumpee rolling their eyes back into their heads before passing out"

In these kinds of posts, I don't believe we should tag any gender because it's implied that it's just a general example. The reader chooses which gender they imagine when reading THIS KIND OF POST.

Non-binaries are non-binaries, they are not up to the reader to choose. As I say in the red part, in the case of characters who identify as enbys, they should be treated as enbys, "non-binary whump"/"enby whump" (I would love to see more of these in the tags by the way, I have one story for this tag on the way btw).

Some people don't like the tagging idea, but I see it as necessary and tagging is used a lot in this community. Some of the reasons for tagging is: organization, interaction with like-minded people, possibility of blocking content etc. So adding gender tags to non-female whump posts doesn't sound like that much of a stretch.

[artlessictoan]

How I’d do Naruto Next Gen

okok I’ve been wanting to do something more in depth and organised than my usual ranting about how everything is terrible now, so here we go! (though lbr this is just my usual ranting but 10x longer)

for the sake of brevity ha and my own piece of mind I’m not gonna go into how unnecessarily hetro the ending was and how everyone should’ve been gay and hey not every couple absolutely had to get married and/or have kids and also nart should’ve gotten the opportunity to realise that becoming hokage wasn’t necessary to achieve his real goal of becoming someone loved and accepted by others and he deserved so much better tbh and why isn’t sak just running the whole show and why isn’t there more sand sibs, bc let’s face it none of that was ever gonna happen, so these ideas are mostly built with the premise that all the canon couples stay canon and all the kids are still around and the product of those ships and the big plot things that happened (like nart becoming hokage and the like) stay roughly the same

forewarning bc else someone’s bound to say something; if you enjoy the next gen stuff? not a problem! that’s great, people enjoying stuff is a good thing! I wish I could enjoy more stuff, bc enjoying things is far more fun than not enjoying things! everyone has a different taste though and for me – and a lot of other people – the way that the next gen has turned out has been a disappointment, this post is for those people, so we can talk about why we think it’s failed and what we would’ve like to see instead, if you don’t feel that way about it.. well just scroll on past this post and keep enjoying the things you enjoy! have an absolute blast, you’ve earned it!

under the cut bc I am apparently incapable of keeping my rambling concise, there’s 2000 words of only vaguely coherent thoughts and tangents, so maybe get yourself a cuppa and a snack before trudging through it (some of this I’ve said in other posts before but w/e)

---

first off lets change some of the kids’ personalities, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with any of them, but like….. 90% are carbon copies of one of their parents (and mostly their dads but I won’t get into that issue rn) which is ridiculous, bc personality traits aren’t genetic?? like my mum is super chill and sensible and my dad is short-tempered, but I’m an anxious mess and my bro is an anti-social control freak.. we didn’t get any of that from either of our parents

while it’s certainly true that you might be influenced by them (me and mum share a lot of interests and tastes), it’s not a hard and fast rule and I don’t find it realistic that EVERY kid takes after their parents, though I probably wouldn’t have such a problem with it if they were more a mix of both parents than just their dads, so here’s some potential alterations:

Boruto. good fucking lord, no, we did not need a clone of Naruto heading another series, if we wanted to see a rambunctious scamp who gets into trouble but loves his friends a whole lot and has a knack for giving inspirational speeches, then there’s already a whole 700 chap manga for that! one with a far more likable and interesting rambunctious scamp tbqh. so how about we make a few alterations, maybe instead of taking after Nart, Bolt takes a bit more after Hinata? a little quiet and a bit of a pushover, but someone who’ll quickly stick up for a friend and has an ease of communication that’s a bit more Nart? not shy so much as laidback and composed, maybe he isn’t all that interested in being a ninja too, like he’s quite skilled but is a pacifist and would much rather get a civilian job as idk a baker or gardener or something

Shikadai. only a few minor changes here bc I really do like the kid as he is, I’d just like to see him using Tema’s abilities too (and maybe also being just a bit more snarky and unyielding like his mum)

Inojin. I’m kinda torn on this one, bc I do like that he’s a lot like Sai (at least in the anime, he seems to have a pretty different personality from what little we’ve seen of him in the manga???), but I think it’d be pretty interesting if he was just not like either of his parents, maybe if he was very quiet and subdued, but also the mastermind behind all the kid’s pranks, has a mischievous streak that often shocks people, but his friends always love hanging out with him bc of it. also why doesn’t he have Ino’s powers? let’s give him Ino’s powers too

Sand Kids 2.0. ok so at this point we haven’t seen nearly enough of them to say much either way but I have negative faith in kishi and ike so I’ll just say that I want them all to be Gaara’s adopted kids (since it’s still unclear if it’s just Shinki or all of ‘em atm) and I want them to be exactly like this shameless plug for me and @spellfire01‘s versions of them which are the best fucking versions and I will protect my children with my life

now some changes to the original cast (this is where I’m gonna get proper bitter, prepare yourselves):

OH NARUTO MY POOR CHILD WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU I’ve already talked about this but let me just reiterate in as eloquent a way as I can; Naruto would never become a neglectful father. N e v e r. not after the childhood he went through, no matter how much work he had to do as kage, don’t dare fucking try and tell me that Naruto – "It's almost unbearable, isn't it… the pain of being all alone. I know that feeling; I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them… They rescued me from my loneliness" – Uzumaki would EVER neglect his kids. just fucking don’t. in this version Nart is a doting and involved dad (perhaps a little too much, to the point that his kids find him kinda exhausting and have to ask him to leave them alone sometimes) who sends his clones to work at the office while he hangs out with his family.. I honestly don’t know why he doesn’t already do that

let all the girls out of their houses to do some ninja work for the love of god

poor put-upon Shino-sensei is alright.. but we’ve already had that with Iruka, I’d honestly much rather see the Cool Sensei who keeps all the kids in line without even doing much of anything and has a knack for inspiring them and always has a line of students trailing after him asking to hear more of his awesome ninja stories and everyone always trying to show off when he’s around, bc Shino is literally The Best

have Sauce and Saku be divorcees. seriously, are even the people who ship them happy with how their relationship has turned out? they barely see each other and apparently it’s been that way since chap 699, so why not just have them split up? it really wouldn’t change much, just say that, at some point after Sarada was born, they realised that they were both gay incompatible personality-wise and they were both so busy with their individual work that there wasn’t much of a relationship to lose. not only would this be good for both their characters (there’s no reason they couldn’t still be good friends) and just more sensible all-round, but it would also be a nice way to show that not every childhood romance/first love works out and that’s perfectly fine and normal and they can still live happy, full lives afterwards!

speaking of Sauce, let him spend at least a little bit of time interacting with his friends and family in Konoha, even if he’s still mostly travelling around on important missions he should at least be taking every opportunity to visit his daughter when he’s in the area, seriously, c’mon

Temari got done so dirty in that one episode.. here’re some much better words than I could ever muster but generally I’d want her to be less the ‘scary, overbearing, harsh’ mother and more the ‘strict but cool and sneaky’ mother, like she’d honestly be the type to use reverse psychology and gentle manipulation, she’d make her boy do some seemingly meaningless task that somehow makes him have an epiphany and come back to her when he’s done like “I know what I did wrong now and I’m sorry” than just shout at him and refuse to make dinner (also I just really like to hc that she’s a terrible cook so it’s Shikamaru who does all the cooking anyway)

it’d be really great to see Hina either being the new clan head or at least otherwise involved in Hyuuga clan politics, so we could actually see how she’s working to destroy that whole slavery thing they’ve got going, rather than that plotline just being dropped somewhere around the end of the chunin exam arc and never picked up again (I mean I assume that it’s all supposed to be fixed by now, but that’s not the kinda thing that should happen entirely off-screen) and so we can see her life revolving around something other than Nart and her kids, she’s remarkably capable and had so much potential but she’s been denied every opportunity to really exist as her own character by the writers

Kiba…… what the hell is going on with Kiba? where is he? what is he doing? how’s he feeling these days? is he supposed to be married to that nameless cat lady we saw for a single panel? these are things we shall never know I guess. tbh what I’d really LOVE to see would be Kiba-sensei, just imagine him and Shino both being teachers who work in completely opposite ways, Shino is the quiet, inspiring, lowkey scary one and Kiba is the gigantic fucking dork one who cheers his students on way too loud and makes the classes super fun and joins in the kids games, him and Shino have a class rivalry and Kiba is constantly roping students into joining his attempts to prank Shino (they’ve never once succeeded but oNE DAY)

Ino should be the next head of Konoha’s intelligence division, I will fight kishi on this one

why the actual fuck is oroch still happily living it up in his penthouse lab?? kill the fucker. or at the very least imprison the fucker. just say that Mitsuki was an old project of his that somehow kept developing in his absence, or was a product of research carried out by some lackeys’ years after he’s gone, anything that means I don’t have to accept that everyone has apparently forgiven him for everything and knows that he’s still experimenting on kids but just don’t care

and on that last note: Justice for Yamato 2k17

right now let’s get onto the actual plot/story for this very self-pandering au

make Sarada the main char. while I can see why they would choose to go with Boruto, honestly Salad’s more interesting a character and! A Girl!! Main Character!!!! I NEED IT!!!!!! focus on her goal to be hokage and her struggles with her parents and follow up on that ‘restoring the Uchiha’ plot thread that just.. dropped right off the map somewhere between 699 and 700, her reconciling what her clan was with what she wants to make it

get rid of that weird demon-sensing eye thing that’s going on. and the demon thing in general. and also that jarring post-apocalypse future thing they’re building up. I didn’t slog through over a decade of kishi’s bullshit just so my kids didn’t get to live long, happy lives. make the plot just slice-of-life fluff, nothing more dangerous than a bully, just some kids trying to be awesome ninja in a world that doesn’t really need ninja anymore bc peace and all that

waaay more of Chocho, Himawari and Inojin (at least enough so they all get equal billing)

show how the ninja world has grown and developed since the end of the original series (not just technologically), what do ninja do now that there aren’t any wars and international relationships are at an all-time high? have missions completely gone from being combat and intel based to more about construction and assistance? are ninja numbers actually dropping, favouring civilian jobs in these more peaceful times? how well are people – ninja or not – adjusting to these changes? is learning ninja techniques still encouraged but in a way that’s more about culture and traditions than actual use in combat (in the same way that swordplay today is mostly practiced for performance, fun and sport, rather than out of any real-life practicality)? there are so many interesting things to explore that you don’t even need to be adding in new threats to keep the series entertaining

I’ve said this before, but I think it’d be really cool and cute if after the end of the war and with some drastic changes to the ninja world’s politics, this next gen is less about becoming ninja, than realising that they’ll never be ninja (at least not in the way that their parents were) and how they react to that. maybe they’re frustrated because they hear so many cool stories about the grand battles of the previous generation and they want to be able to do those things too damnit! so the kids are just going around trying to be super-awesome ninja in a world that doesn’t really need ninja anymore, picking fights and trying to make their boring d-rank missions seem more important and dangerous than they really are, maybe at some point they learn a bit more about how hard and traumatising that life was for their parents and why the world had to change, until they eventually decide that if the role of a ninja has to change, then together they’re gonna discover what that new role will be, what will being a ninja really mean in this new, peaceful world?

and, a final ending note: fuck ike’s sickening treatment of Sarada with regards to her sexualised presentation and the disgusting reveal that someone taught Boruto (a young child!) the sexy jutsu. Let The Kids Be Kids 2k17

[elmspirituality]

Why I gave up tumblr

So I’m gonna post this on this blog, and then probably reblog it on my main blog...the thing is, I’ve kind of given up tumblr. I think it’s been about a month now (I did mention that I might be doing this a while ago, but never actually confirmed it)? And honestly (though I know other things have influenced me as well, obviously) I feel SO much better. I stopped taking my medication, which I know everybody advises against and really I shouldn’t have done it without consulting my psychiatrist first, but I just had to stop. I never really wanted to start medication in the first place, and deep down, I knew I was not meant to be taking it (plus I was only on it for like 6 weeks or something, so it wasn’t as big a deal as it would’ve been if I had been on the stuff for a few years). 

I need to be surrounded by positivity and love, and I need to avoid all forms of self-deprecating humor. I know it can be funny. But I was on tumblr ALL THE TIME and seeing that stuff constantly really sends a message to your brain. Not only that, but pretty much everyone on here (that I follow, at least) has some sort of mental illness and though most of it is people trying to stay positive, it’s another message being sent to my brain. The message of “you are sick just like these other people. you don’t fit in with everyone else. this is the only place you can find comfort” and again, let me reiterate that I know not everyone has had the same experience as me on Tumblr, but that is what it felt like to me. I had to get out. I still spend a good amount of time online, but I’ve been doing other things. Yes, I’ve definitely been on Facebook a little bit more, which I considered giving up as well, but I do actually use it for things other than, like, ranting about my life and entertaining myself with memes (I still do that though, I haven’t COMPLETELY changed). I joined a bunch of spiritual groups on fb that are super positive, and fill a lot of the time that I would’ve spent on here. I go on pinterest, and I also spend time just reading about spiritual stuff (sorry I couldn’t put that more eloquently lol). 

In addition to that, I’ve been reading actual books, and let me tell you, THAT is hella therapeutic. YES, it costs money. But you know what? I just got another job. Something that I’ve been unable to do during the school year for YEARS, because I was always just so depressed and never felt like I needed it that badly. Now though, I’ve really kinda gotten my act together, found a job on Craigslist, and now I’m going to have a little extra income coming in. It’s not much, but it’s enough that I won’t have to use my NJ bank account anymore to pay rent (I have one account in CO and one in NJ; the one in NJ has all the money that I saved up over the summer lifeguarding). I realized that I need a little extra money for things like books and energy healings and the stuff that, unlike medication, has actually helped me recover. I don’t consider myself depressed anymore. Instead, I’d say that I’m prone to depression. If I stopped meditating, reading, etc. then I can say with a lot of certainty the depression would probably come back. 

God, it’s just so nice. I’m also keeping up with all of my schoolwork (that’s been another huge problem for me in the past) and I found a place to live for next year with a girl that I already know and get along with (also she’s VEGAN and loves to bake so ngl I’m pretty excited to live with her). And my friend from NJ is coming to visit me for the first time in CO and there’s just a lot of good stuff happening in my life right now. I can tell you, again with a lot of certainty, that this is all because of my own personal efforts to heal. There’s still other stuff I want to improve on- for example, I need to get better at keeping my room clean and doing laundry, and I want to start working out again (although should actually happen soon because my new job is at a nice gym where I get a free membership and I kinda see that as a sign from the universe to get my ass exercising again lol). All in all, things are pretty good right now. I just wanted to be honest with you all so people don’t think that I just like, fell off the face of the Earth or something. I still check in about once a week to see if anyone has sent me messages or anything, but other than that, I won’t be on here anymore. I may start up another blog (possibly wordpress...really, I’d like to start my own spiritual business eventually and if that ever happens then you can bet your sweet patootie there will be a blog) and if I do then I will definitely inform everyone on here so you can follow up on what I’ve been doing. Other than that, I hope everyone on here is doing well, and do feel free to send me asks or something if there’s anything else you want to know (like I said, I do check in from time to time!). Love and light <3 

[thewritelycampix]

No Pokeballs Allowed

Chapter 3: Graveyard Shift

Town pride is a commonplace thing in any world. People and Pokémon alike seem to have a need to protect what they believe is theirs, even though in reality, it is just a big plot of land with a variety of rectangles and triangles built on top of it. Why humans had developed these enamoured attachments and why Pokémon decided it was a good idea to follow, we will never know. Some may argue that the concept of a home is a comforting prospect for people to come home to. But it is not the question of having a home, but simply having an attraction to the land itself, rather than the sense of security it brings. Most people would usually think this does not make sense, developing an emotional or even romantic attachment to a large square-ish chunk of dirt and rocks, but many do it anyways. This is not a good idea, because like many things that people love, there are other people that exist only to take that beloved thing, knock it off its cone into the sand and drive over it with their fancy Diesel-chugging ATV. And all the hours those people had spent figuratively making out with the local bar will be put into perspective as all the things they loved become roadkill.

Nuzlocke was a beautiful town. It was incredibly obvious by looking at the town that it was a labour of love that had lasted decades, perhaps centuries to make. Nuzlocke was thriving. An item shop, jewellery, outdoor mall, a town square, Technical Machine and Relic shop, daycare; the town seemed to have everything. This statement wasn’t entirely true.

“Everyone here seems kind of cold,” Coran noticed. By this, he did not mean that everyone in Nuzlocke was uncomfortable with the temperature; rather, he meant that nobody quite seemed to appreciate his presence that much.

“…Really? I’ve never noticed.” Squirtle (the Eevee) said, looking around.

“That was sarcasm, wasn’t it?” Coran said, crossing his arms. “Honestly, I’m really new here, so I can’t tell. Sarcasm is not a good idea when you’re introducing people to places and such.”

“No, it isn’t sarcasm,” Squirtle reiterated. “I’ve really just kept to myself. My only contact with these Pokémon is through the Bulletin Board. They post problems, I solve them. End of story.” Squirtle shrugged. “But now that you mention it, everyone does seem kind of quiet and reclusive.”

“Yeah, it’s like everyone here is an adolescent teenager who takes pride in being an introvert.”

Squirtle stared at him, confused. “…what?”

“Forget it,” said Coran, mentally reeling from the words that had spilt out of his mouth. What had he even said? He couldn’t remember it exactly. It was foggy, as if the sentence had been said months ago rather than moments.

Squirtle, who, by this point, had begun deliberating on what Coran had pointed out about Nuzlocke’s general attitude, tried to start a conversation with a passing Breloom. “Hi there!” she said, uncharacteristically cheerily.

Breloom gave her a confused look, before narrowing his eyes. He seemed to be trying to discern what it was Squirtle wanted. “Um…Hello.”

“Nice day, isn’t it?” Squirtle asked.

Breloom simply looked up at the sunny blue sky. “No.”

Squirtle wasn’t expecting a negative answer. She drew back in surprise. “What? Why?”

“I am a part mushroom. Mushrooms like dank, dark places. It’s too hot for me.” Breloom said, before walking along his way without another word.

Squirtle frowned deeply. “I…wasn’t expecting that. Maybe he’s just an outlier,” she mumbled, giving Coran a curious look. “Anyways, we didn’t come here to socialise. We came here to shop. Come on, let’s go.”

Squirtle led Coran up to a nearby booth built into the front of what looked like a warehouse. It was currently empty - nobody was there. “Hello?” Squirtle called. “Is anyone there?”

A bored looking Shuppet came to the front of the booth. Her half-lidded eyes took in the pair of Pokémon in front of her. She let out a quiet sigh and took a deep breath. “Hello, and welcome to Banette’s Bazaar, how can I help you today?” The words came out of her mouth so monotonous and easily it seemed as if she had been saying them for the past ten minutes before Coran and Squirtle had come to the booth.

“Yes, I’d like to peruse some of your wares, please,” Squirtle replied.

Shuppet raised an eyebrow at Squirtle’s eloquent vocabulary and gestured behind her. “There’s shelves upon shelves back there. Take a look at our…extensive selection of merchandise and commodities.” Shuppet said, smirking a bit.

Squirtle, a bit put off, nodded her head curtly. “Thank you.”

Coran, while Squirtle and Shuppet had been talking, was checking out the shelves. It wasn’t a very big store, but there still was quite a selection. Many, many berries, a few TMs and HMs, rocks, sticks, thorns, seeds and some very expensive vitamins. Squirtle walked up to him. “What do you see?”

“Just gonna put this out there, but…” Coran’s voice quivered as he looked at the plethora of items with nothing short of overwhelming fear. “I have no idea what any of this stuff does.”

“Y'know, I would explain this to you, but I feel I’ve done enough explaining to last me a lifetime, so I’ll just take some of these,” she said, grabbing some of the blue berries and putting them in her bag. “…and we should probably have some of these,” she finished, putting two reddish seeds into her treasure bag. She took it back to the front of the shop.

Shuppet, without even looking at the bag, told them the total was 900 Poké. Squirtle paid the right amount, then left. “Coran,” she said. “I believe it’s time for you to take your first trouble.”

Coran wasn’t so sure he agreed with her about that, but he realised that he would have entered a losing battle if he tried to challenge that, so he decided not to resist. They headed back to the Bulletin Board and looked at the possible jobs.

“Here. This one looks good for your first time,” Squirtle announced. Coran looked at where Squirtle was pointing. It read:

Get my pendant back!

Rank: E Dungeon: Sorrowing Meadows

My name is Yamask. I was travelling through the Sorrowing Meadows on my way to my friend’s place. I came through without incident, but when I got back to Nuzlocke, I found that my pendant, which had been handed down through my family for a long time, was missing! I would go back to get it, but now I hear rumours of suspicious Pokémon roaming around. Please, get it back!

Reward: 1000 Poké

Coran bit his lip. A shiver ran down his spine at the name. “Sorrowing Meadows?” he said, unable to banish a whine from his voice. “I-is that somewhere between Blood-Death Gulch and Endless Pain Hill?”

“Oh, hush. The Sorrowing Meadows aren’t that bad. And besides, it seems like he was only on the main path, so it’ll be easy to find the pendant.” She let that hang a bit, then continued. “I’m coming with you, of course. This is your first job, and you didn’t really pass the Sanity test, so I’m going to be keeping an eye on you.”

Normally, this would have struck Coran as an attack on his ego. But the thought of tackling such a sinister-sounding place such as the Sorrowing Meadows alone was even more of an attack, and on something a little more vulnerable than his ego. He agreed.

“Here it is! The Sorrowing Meadows,” announced Squirtle, nodding in what she was sure was an official manner.

Coran looked at her in confusion. “How can you be so chipper in a place like this?”

The Sorrowing Meadows looked quite sorrowing indeed. The thickly laid trees were dead skeletons, reaching out to scratch and scrape anyone who passed by, as if they were being controlled by a deranged puppeteer. The pale moon rising up along the scraggly horizon of gnarled branches made tinted everything below its light a sickly purple colour, draining the forest of any sign of life. The worn dirt path had stone bricks scattered about, half buried in the dirt. It was as if someone had tried to civilize the woods, but had died when he had just started the act. Even this path the poor soul had made seemed threatened, as if the purple grass was extending its tendrils to choke it out. If he looked hard enough, Coran could see the outline of a steeple in the background. A holy building in an unholy place was not a good thing for a genre savvy Pokémon like him. Overall, this was not first stage material.

“And why did we have to come here at night? Why can’t it wait till the morning?”

“Because, Coran,” Squirtle answered, “That notice was posted today, and it detailed suspicious Pokémon about-”

“Wouldn’t that mean going at night was a bad thing?!” Coran blurted.

“Let me finish!” Squirtle snapped. “Suspicious Pokémon are dangerous, yes, but they could also steal the pendant. It’s best for us to get the pendant as soon as possible so it isn’t stolen. The client comes first.”

Coran hesitated. “Okay, fine. Let’s do it. But when we get back, I’m going to make a mattress and you’re going to help me.”

“…No I’m not.”

“Come on!”

“Yes, come on, that’s a great idea,” Squirtle said, flicking her tail and taking her first steps into the Sorrowing Meadows.

Things did not get better when they entered the dungeon. Almost immediately the moon at their backs was blotted out by the skeleton-like trees. The path, though worn enough to be seen, became more and more choked by ivy and grass as the two Pokémon ventured further into the forest. It was getting truly hard to see, and Coran was beginning to doubt whether he would even be able to spot a tiny pendant at all in the darkness. He did note that he didn’t see any of those aforementioned ‘hostile Pokémon’, which he was grateful for. But he would much rather be sleeping right now. This was not an enjoyable pastime and his entire body recognized this.

"Well, farther up and further in!” Squirtle chirped in an excessively happy manner, as if trying to mock him.

Coran simply sighed and followed her. That was before he tripped on a tree root.

“Ow.” Coran was not in the best of moods, and this did not help. Therefore, he had to convince himself to get up. He spent one long minute on the ground, trying his very hardest to tell himself that going further into this forsaken land was a better idea than lying here in the dirt. When he did get up, however, he was faced with a rather prominent problem.

Squirtle was gone.

One hour later…

Coran ran frantically through the quickly darkening forest, trying to find any sign of Squirtle. Or any sign of an exit.

Or any sign of hope.

Terrified at every single sound he knew he wasn’t making, he dashed across the path, confident that Squirtle wouldn’t have strayed from it. But the longer he ran alongside the road, the darker things became, and the more hopeless things seemed to be. The ground somehow felt unfamiliar beneath his paws. This was a strange thing to note, Coran realized, considering that he’d never been here before. This entire place was unfamiliar. Then he remembered he was also apparently an amnesiac. So not only was this place unfamiliar, but also literally everything he’d ever experienced since waking up in that field. His throat was getting scratchy from thirst. He didn’t have a bag on him. No berries grew here. There was only sorrow.

This is my first job! I can’t die here! Where is she? Where is anything?!

Coran was getting delirious. Why…why is it even called Sorrowing Meadows…? It’s a forest. Not meadows. If…if anything, Nuzlocke should be called Sorrowing Meadows. Would that mean this place was Nuzlocke? What does Nuzlocke mean, anyways? Is there a secret in Nuzlocke? Is there a thousand year old door locked with a key you can only get by winning a racing tournament with foxy items off destination? Where can I get a nuzkey? Is there a town called Nuzkey, and if there is how do I get it to Nuzlocke so they can kiss and unlock the foxy tourney door….? He chuckled nervously. He had slowed down, and was simply walking across the path absentmindedly. After a while of sauntering along his merry way, he heard a sort of metal scraping along with his footsteps. He looked down, and saw a pendant and chain hooked around his foot. He picked it up, and guessed it must have been the pendant he was here for.

“…I…I win,” he said, teetering on his feet. “H-hey…hey, Sq-Squirtle…H-how many points is…” Before he could finish his sentence, Coran fell flat on his face, unconscious.

“He’s out cold…”

“What do we do now? Can we?”

“It’s fine…he doesn’t need it.”

“It’s so shiny!”

“He won’t mind, right?”

“Right.”

And the pendant was gone.

Link to Chapter 4

Start at the beginning