#they're checking for worms is crazy

[imclou]

can't believe fnaf brought me out of art hibernation man what a turn of events

[lilaccmilk]

Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Werewolf?

Pairing: Werewolf Boyfriend x Human!Reader Warnings: idk werewolf? shitty description of shifting into a werewolf. A/N: Now I know I said I'll make an OC, but I'm too indecisive to pick a name. Please send me name ideas for my OC.

You heard the door open and checked the time '11 pm'. You sigh feeling helpless. Your boyfriend has started coming home late, or sometimes staying cooped up in his room refusing to come out. This has been going on for a month, since the camping trip you went to with him and your friends.

Truth be told, at first when he started coming late you felt as if he was doing something behind your back. But his behaviour and mood keeps fluctuating. Sure he becomes aggressive. Very aggressive. But not towards you, god no, he could never be aggressive towards you. Either he's very clingy and needy, or just pulls away from you.

Not only that but he's gotten warmer. His voice has turned more.....deep. And he has a bit of a growl in his voice. He's gotten a bit taller, muscular. His teeth feel like they're sharper. In all honesty, he has started to feel like one of the creatures in a monster fucking blog. But you try to tell yourself that you must be imagining things. Sure you're delusional, but not that delusional.

Today was one of those days where he was feeling clingy towards you. You were lying on the couch, with your boyfriend partially on top of you, his head resting on your chest. When suddenly he looked up at you.

"Hey....love?" he started to speak. "Hmm?"

"I have a question....Would you still love me if i was a w-"

"Worm?" you cut him off with amusement in your eyes.

"Huh? a worm?" He blinked.

"Yeah, weren't you going to ask me if I'd still love you if you were a worm."

"No. What kind of stupid question is that? Wait nevermind. Let me rephrase....what do you think about werewolves?"

You stared at him, your thoughts going haywire ⎯ 'Why did he ask me that? Did he find out about my monster fucking blog? Did he go through my tumblr? Wait is that why he's getting distant.' ⎯ amidst the chaos in your head you managed to croak out "I uh...like to believe they're real. If it's about that werewolf blog I run, it's just fiction...right? Like you know, werewolves don't exist. It's like writing for a fictional character. If it bothers you I'll stop. I should have-" you get cut off by him kissing you.

"I um....well it might sound crazy. So let me show you instead of telling you." He stands up and then closes his eyes. You look at him in anticipation and feel the energy shift in the room, you notice him opening his eyes that have darkened. His bones start to break and stick out in directions they're not meant to stick out. His height grows and he starts snarling. After what feels like an eternity, you're face to face werewolf that is around 7 feet. Well not exactly face to face since he towers over you.

He then shifts back and now you're looking at your very human boyfriend again. You're too awestruck to do or say anything. And then, you squeal. In delight. This catches your boyfriend off-guard and he just tilts his head in confusion. You hug him, full force.

"Does this mean you're fine with me being a werewolf?" he asks tentatively.

"I love you for who you are, not for your appearance. And your werewolf side is still you. I'll always love you." you say with a grin.

"I'm glad I have you. And what was that about writing for werewolves? I'd love to hear about your fantasies love." he says with a teasing grin, but you know he was serious about knowing your fantasies. You're in for a long night.

[lakesbian]

recently remembered that at the end of worm aisha talks about stealing people's pants every time they go to the bathroom and it was cracking me up. she's so fucking funny.

Like imagine what this is like from the perspective of the person she's stalking. They go to the bathroom, and when they're done, they realize that their pants are gone. They know they were wearing their pants, they clearly remember pulling them down. They were looking at them less than a minute ago. It's completely confounding, because it's not possible for them to have simply misplaced an entire pair of pants somewhere between pulling them down and using the toilet. And yet, their pants are gone. They check the laundry room, their laundry hamper, their bedroom, and anywhere else they could have feasibly put their pants in the event they were just...imagining that they were wearing pants into the bathroom? But the pants remain gone, having seemingly vanished from the universe while they weren't paying attention, so they have to just go put on new pants. Maybe they post about it on Earth Bet's equivalent of a glitch in the matrix subreddit or whatever, but without any real chance of an explanation, they eventually stop thinking about it.

Until the next time they go to the bathroom. When their pants disappear again. And the next time after that, and the next next time after that, and so on. It is no longer mildly bemusing. Things have evolved beyond "that weird thing that happened to me once that I might tell as a story later" and into "I only have 2 pairs of pants left, because the rest of them disappeared into the fucking ether when I went to the bathroom, and now I'm both scared to pee and afraid that I am either going crazy or being haunted by some sort of niche vengeful ghost that other people will think I'm crazy if I try to tell them about."

And, more practically pressing than the subtle horror of a large object just magically disappearing off your person at regular times in a way you can't ascertain the cause of or stop: They're gonna have to buy new pants.

So they go to a clothing store. They briefly consider using the bathroom while there, but then remember The Consequences, and go straight it the changing rooms instead. They hang up their new pant selections. They look away for a mere moment to take off their current (and last remaining) pair of pants. They look back up and reach for one of the pants they're going to try on.

All Of The Pants They Brought Into The Stall Are Gone.

They immediately look back down, with the frantic horror of someone who already knows what they're going to see, and well you're not going to fucking believe this, but: The Pair Of Pants They Were Already Wearing Is Also Gone.

like what do you even do about this. absurd form of psychological torture. aisha smiling smugly while her victim stands there stranded in naught but underpants, haunted and vexed by the unbelievable pants-stealing ghost. maybe they try to tell their friends about it and demonstrate after that and it's the one time she Doesn't take their pants. they think they're going completely batshit or being tormented by a very immature demon. aisha laborn you are so so special and famous to me

[supercorpkid]

Ooooo okay

So inspired by your runaway dancers fic (so good) but BD didn't run away just kind off suffered in silence faded into the background

But like BD is just feeling left out cause Alex and Kara are like a team both work for the DEO and constantly have sister nights and are just really close

And like Lucy Lane and Lena Luthor both know what it's like to be the black sheep (so do Alex and Kara they just don't notice it) and like BD isn't invited to sister night so Lucy and Lena take BD to go have fun and take BDs mind off of it

And then the sisters realise (somehow maybe they overhear or they get confronted) they have left out BD and apologise and all make up

So like angst and fluff for BD (you can change any off the plot this is just something to help spark ideas)

You're On Your Own, Kid.

Supergirl. Baby Danvers. Kara Danvers x BabyDanvers!Reader, Alex Danvers x BabyDanvers!Reader, Lena Luthor, Lucy Lane.

Word count: 1900

They are everywhere. Everywhere you look, the heroes of National City catch your eye, and you're left swallowing the lump in your throat. They're your sisters. There shouldn’t be a lump in your throat at the sight of them. But recently, things have been taking a hard turn for you.

You love your job. Really, you do. Taking care of little animals and being a veterinarian brings you joy. But sometimes, you wish you had chosen something more impactful—not just for the world, but for your sisters.

Alex is an agent. A badass one, armed with alien tech, and she’s an incredible doctor, skilled in both human and Kryptonian anatomy. Kara has just become a prominent reporter at one of the biggest media empires in National City and, of course, she’s also one of the planet's greatest superheroes. 

And here you are, examining dog feces for worms.

You don’t mind. There’s no way to express this without sounding jealous, which you’re really not. Your heart swells with pride when Kara saves the world. When you see Alex doing something extremely dangerous yet incredibly badass, you want to shout from the rooftops that she’s your sister.

But lately, you’ve been feeling lonely and a bit left out. They have so much in common and spend so much time together that, little by little, you're left on the sidelines. It started with conversations about things you knew nothing about, then inside jokes you weren’t part of, then secrets. Now, spending time with them is emotionally draining, but not being around them feels even worse.

“Did you see this?” A technician shoves her phone in your face. You smile at Supergirl’s picture and the headline, though she can’t see it because you're wearing a mask.

“Chichi doesn’t have worms.” You remove your gloves, organize the space, and reach for her phone to read the entire news. “Whoa, Supergirl saved the world today!” You look up. “Isn’t it crazy to think we could’ve died analyzing feces if it wasn’t for her?”

“I know! I wish I knew her. I’d make sure she knew she saved us from the most embarrassing death ever.”

You think to yourself that you’ll let Kara know this as soon as you’re out of the clinic. It might have been a while since you two last talked, but you think your sister would appreciate hearing about her heroics. Everyone likes compliments, after all.

“We should go out to celebrate.”

“Not being dead?”

She nods enthusiastically. You almost take her up on it but think better of it. You want to celebrate, but you’d rather do it with Supergirl herself. Buy her potstickers and thank her in person.

You can’t buy Kara potstickers every time she saves the world—you’d go bankrupt in a few months. But not dying an embarrassing death calls for it, honestly.

You leave work and head to her favorite restaurant, and soon you're on your way to her apartment. As you’re about to knock, you hear Alex’s voice inside.

“Ayy!” she exclaims in an uncharacteristic manner. “Sisters’ night with cold beer after you saved the world and I saved your butt at CatCo was an awesome idea.”

Sisters’ night?

You check your phone to make sure you haven’t missed a text. No, you definitely weren’t invited to this impromptu sisters’ night. You try to muster the courage to knock anyway. They weren’t expecting you, but Kara wouldn’t—

“Golly, eating potstickers after saving the world with my family is the best feeling in the universe.”

You turn around without a second thought. It’s awfully sad how unsurprising this is to you. It doesn’t take you off guard, it doesn’t even make your stomach drop. It’s nothing new.

Sure, you’ve been almost out of their lives. Haven’t hung out in a month, Kara hasn’t visited you at work in months, and the last time someone said anything in the text chain was when you asked if they’d heard from Mom that day. Alex simply said no. And that was two weeks ago.

But still, not being invited to a sisters’ night? It literally has that name because it’s a celebration of sisters! You’re a sister. Even if you are the least favorite one.

Great, you’re back at it again. Feeling like you always did back in Midvale. Feeling jealous of Kara and her friendship with Alex. Wanting what they have so badly. The understanding, the support, the “I’ll die for you” love that you only ever got little tastes of.

Ugh. You roll in your bed, trying to go to sleep and praying you wake up invisible.

It's been a week since you realized your sisters want you out of their lives, so you've been keeping to yourself. They haven't come looking for you, not even when you didn't make it to games' night and said nothing on the group chat.

You hear the doorbell and go answer it. It's been a while since anyone visited and you have no idea who could be behind that door. "Lena?"

"So you are alive!" 

"I guess?" You're puzzled by her visit. She's friends with your sisters. Sure, you've talked before, but she's Kara's best friend, not yours.

"Well, I wouldn't know. I haven't seen you in weeks." Lena glances inside your apartment and you finally realize you haven't invited her in yet. So you make space and she takes the chance to walk in. "You haven't been to any game's night, and haven't added anything to the group chat."

"Has —" The question burns in your throat and it needs to be asked. "Anyone else noticed?"

Lena stops, understanding your implication, and turns around slowly.

"Should anyone in specific notice it?"

You don't answer, and her expression demands more. You want to confide in her, but you can't. Lena is Kara's best friend. It wouldn't be fair to share something about your sister with her. So you bite your tongue and shrug. You're on your own. You always have been.

"Oh, no. No. Just curious."

"Well, I came to drag you to game night with me today and you can't say no!"

"No." Lena's face falls and you smile apologetically. "Sorry, I'm going out with some friends from vet school."

"But we're your family!" Lena tries again. Some family! They don't even notice you haven't been around in weeks. "Just come with me today and I'll stop bugging you." Before you open your mouth she adds, "Don't say no."

"No."

"See, you did it again." She pretends to be annoyed and you laugh.

"Sorry Lena, next one, maybe. This one is not gonna happen."

You don't make it to the next one, no matter how many times Lena texts you or tries to bribe you with your favorite food. You can’t go. How many sisters’ nights have they had that you weren’t a part of? How many times was it just them, never realizing something was missing? And worst of all, what if there isn't something missing to them? What if you're someone that people can't even miss?

You think you finally get Lena off your back. She stops texting you, so you're sure you won't have to explain yourself anymore or come up with lazy excuses.

“Y/N.” Your technician calls, and you raise your head from your computer. There were no emergencies today, so you've been just going over some patients' charts while you wait for the next one. “Some women outside are asking for you.”

You look at her with puzzled eyes.

“They don't even own a pet.” You furrow your brows harder and make your way to the front of the clinic.

“Lena? Lucy? What are you guys doing here?”

“We're taking you out for a drink,” Lena says, then adds in a more severe tone, “and seriously, I won't accept no for an answer this time.”

“I'm working and I have a patient.” You look at your schedule. “A cat named…” You raise your head at her, with an eyebrow raised. “Lex.”

“One of those bald ones that looks like it's inside out. Oh, be careful 'cause he bites.” She adds with a smirk.

You look back at the schedule to see that the last patient of the day also seems to be a prank from them. “And next, there is a dog named Clark.”

“He's a golden retriever! The sweetest, but super strong!” Lucy jokes, and you roll your eyes at their shenanigans.

“Can't believe you weirdos paid to hang out with me.”

“Oh, it was all Lena.” You chuckle, of course, it was Lena. Who else would literally throw money at your face so she could talk to you?

There's nothing you can say; you have to join them. You really like them both, but you know they are mostly your sisters' friends, so you can't tell them the real reason why you've been so MIA.

You've been more of a listener throughout the entire hangout. It's weird getting information about your sisters from Lena and Lucy instead of directly from them, but hey, it was their choice. You're just giving them the space they seem to want.

“So, when are you going to tell us about what's going on with you and why you've completely disappeared from our lives lately?”

“Nothing's happening,” you slur, not because you're drunk but because you don't want to talk.

“My bet was that you're in a new relationship,” Lucy says, and you wish she was right. It would make the loneliness you're feeling less prominent.

“I guess you lost the bet.”

Lena looks straight into your eyes. “Well, I think it has something to do with family.”

You don't answer, but the fact that you don’t is what makes them understand right away. Lena reaches for your hand on the other side of the table, and you swallow the lump in your throat and the tears coming.

“It's okay, darling.” She almost whispers in this packed bar full of drunk people. You still hear her perfectly and can hear the sweetness of her tone as well. “We both have been there too.”

“You have?”

Lucy smiles at Lena before turning to you. “Dude, we're the black sheep of our families. Of course we know what it's like not to belong with your family.”

“Yeah.” The tears threaten to leave your eyes again, and you do your best to swallow them down. “It's been hard. They're hanging out together so much, and they have so much in common.”

“Yeah, but that doesn't mean they don't miss you.” Lena tries, and you give her a watery chuckle.

“Trust me, they don't. You've reached out to me a lot more than they have in the past month. I don't think they even noticed I haven't been around.”

“That's crazy! Of course they noticed it!” It's Lucy who tries again.

“They had a sisters' night without me. They haven't texted me in a month, and I haven't been to so many game nights that I'd expect them to at least realize the counting of people has been wrong.”

“Oh, we haven't been playing group games these days.”

You just stare at them, not much left to say. They know where you're coming from, and there's no more excuses they can give for your sisters' behavior. Though, they aren't the ones supposed to be making excuses anyway.

After you get this confession out of the way, you can enjoy the night without having to tiptoe around the subject. Both Lena and Lucy are very understanding of your situation, and though you can feel they pity you, the overall feeling is warmth.

Because sisters' night is basically out of your vocabulary already, Lena and Lucy have turned the usual Thursday night into girls' night. It's the second one, and Lucy wanted to karaoke so you all ended up at the alien bar everyone usually frequents. 

You weren't thinking about your sisters at all when you agreed to meet them there. And you also forgot they could waltz in at any moment after three beers and one shot. You're at the bar waiting for another beer, when Lena next to you whispers, "o-oh."

"Hm?" You turn to her and automatically you follow her line of sight and see Kara and Alex entering the bar. "Oh, shit." The bartender places your beer in front of you and you turn around gulping in. "I have to go."

"What?" Kara comes closer before you have the chance to run out. "I thought you said you'd be working."

"Yeah, I finished up and —" Lena gets interrupted by Lucy who fails to read the situation and comes in yelling, 

"YAY, girls night!"

"Girls' night?" She raises one eyebrow to Lena. "Why was I not invited?"

"It hurts, aye." You can't help the grumble that leaves your mouth. Alex furrows her brows at you, hands finally out of her pockets. They share a look, before turning to you again.

"Sorry?"

Lena and Lucy quickly make their way to the karaoke claiming they're going to pick a song and you're left face-to-face with your biggest problem. You can't face them. Don't want to. It all feels unnecessary and you know you're the one who's going to get hurt in the end.

"I'll go help the girls." You point out and Alex stands in the way for you to leave.

"How about you stay and talk to us, instead? We haven't seen you in a while."

"And whose fault is that?" You widen your eyes to the words that just left your mouth. You can't believe you just said this. 

Alex and Kara's surprised faces aren't far behind, and so you breathe deep before you say something else to turn this into an argument.

"I'm gonna go." You repeat.

"No, you're not. Not when it seems like you have a bunch of things stuck on your throat."

And they are right, you do have so many things you'd like to tell them. You take a deep breath, trying to gather your thoughts and the courage to speak up. The bar suddenly feels too loud, too crowded, but you know this conversation can't wait any longer.

"Fine," you say, finally feeling brave enough to meet their eyes. "Let's talk."

Kara and Alex exchange a glance, then nod. Kara motions to a quieter corner of the bar, and you all move there. Once seated, you take another deep breath and start.

"It's just… I've been feeling left out. You two have been spending so much time together, and I feel like I'm just on the sidelines. Like I don't belong."

Alex's eyes soften, and Kara looks stricken. "Y/N, we had no idea you felt this way," Alex says gently. "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I didn't want to seem jealous or needy," you admit. "But it hurts when you have sisters' nights and don't invite me. Or when you have inside jokes that I'm not part of."

"Oh, baby. We never meant to exclude you," Kara says, her voice full of regret. "We thought you were busy with work or just needed space. We didn't realize you felt this way."

"Well, I do," you say, your voice trembling slightly while you try to hold back the tears. "And it sucks. I miss you both. I miss being part of your lives."

Kara reaches out and takes your hand. "We're so sorry. We love you and we want you to feel included. We'll do better, I promise."

Alex nods in agreement. "Absolutely. You're our sister, and we want you with us. Always."

Their words bring a rush of relief and you can't keep your tears in check anymore. "I just want to feel like I matter," you say, your voice breaking.

"You do matter," Kara insists. "More than you know. We're a team, and we need you."

Alex squeezes your other hand. "We'll make it right. No more sisters' nights without you. From now on, we do everything together."

You feel a weight lift off your shoulders. "Really?" You ask, heart daring to hope. They both agree so vividly with their heads, you can't not believe them fully. "That's all I wanted. I just want my sisters back."

Lena and Lucy return from the karaoke machine, eyeing the three of you with curiosity but giving you space. You share a small, relieved smile with your sisters. For the first time in a long while, you feel hopeful that things will get better.

Kara is the first to get up from her seat and pull you into a hug. Alex joins right after and soon you're sandwiched between your sisters and it's so nice you even forget you're in a bar.

But it's only for a brief second, until your friends come closer and join the hug. Soon after Kara runs to the karaoke machine to pick a song for you three to sing together, and Alex pays you another beer.

You can't believe you were away from your sisters for over a month, because nothing is good enough that it doesn’t get a hundred times better when they're around. You hope they are always around.

[chaifootsteps]

Since I only saw Beetlejuice movies (both of them now), I wanted to check out the animated series and see what made you ship those two.

I was able to see only clips of episodes on YouTube, but it was enough because I understand now lmao

I will fight anyone who will see Lydia and Beetlejuice's relationship as a pedo or grooming situation. Lydia is CLEARLY in charge, there isn't a case of touching without consent, and she can freely summon and send BJ away. He is ready to fight sand worms for her, and she would gladly stand up for him.

There was that one scene where BJ broke a promise that he would stop scaring Lydia's parents, and she sends him away in anger. And he is so confident that she will get over it and summon him again soon, but it doesnt happen and he just STANDS THERE IN FRONT OF A CLOCK AND STARES AT IT, what a pathetic wet cat of a man, I laughed so hard at that scene lmao

although I still prefer them more as friends or BJ being that one crazy uncle

You get it. Lydia's the one with all the power in that relationship, physically and emotionally, and she's not even the slightest bit afraid to use it. The episode where he breaks his promise is the only time she ever banishes him in anger and it's about 40 seconds before he's staring at the clock and sobbing in front of the many, many framed pictures of her he has around the roadhouse.

And just friends Beetlejuice and Lydia is totally fine and valid! The important thing, at the end of the day, isn't whether they're boxing tongues...it's that these two characters love each other, are better for knowing each other, and whenever they're together, know that they're home.

[crystallinemoonlight]

sometimes i'll think about how, at the start of episode four, pete offers to help porsche guess who he might have kissed at the pier the night before, and i imagine a crackfic where porsche goes on a quest to find out who it was by kissing his colleagues one by one - starting with pete of course that man was ready to sacrifice himself for the cause when porsche had questions about casual hookups later in the episode, offering himself up without hesitation

he visits them one by one; pol is confused... but intrigued, it's like one of tankhun's series! arm already knows it wasn't him but insists they check it anyway... just to be sure, right? you never know. ken says he'll break his face if he tries anything (very suspicious, porsche makes sure to highlight his name). big doesn't know whether to be angry or confused, he wasn't even there??? no he and ken didn't sneak in halfway through because of a secret crush, this isn't one of tankhun's series! tankhun asks what they're doing and if he can join but porsche isn't about to open that can of worms.

maybe at some point kinn catches on and realizes porsche doesn't remember but is rating the others based on if they kiss better or worse than the ~mystery person~, which is giving him an ego boost up until porsche declares that one of his friends is actually a better kisser and therefore can't possibly have been involved (said friend is very confused about why khun kinn is giving him death glares for the rest of the week)

you can even throw in some chan or vegas or anyone else if you want to, just go crazy with it, i think that'd be really funny especially if porsche just casually blasts vegas after they make out for a solid minute saying "no you're good but the other guy was just less desperate you feel me, sorry bro".

[steviewashere]

🪱🪱Worm Wednesday!!!!!🪱🪱

I was tagged by the lovely @hotluncheddie! Hello, I'm sorry for the rambling mess this is going to be. But I know I missed this like two weeks ago, so bear with me.

Okay, I'm going to try and be normal here. I have, honestly, so many worms in my brain. They're dancing and stomping and I'm just going fucking nuts with how much is in my brain at the moment. And also I took excedrin this morning for my migraine and that had caffeine in it and it's more caffeine than I would normally have—anyway.

Y'all already know one of my brain worms, the whole omega verse sensitive nips omega Steve thing. Which, I will plug the post here because I don't have the energy (yes, I do, but I don't want to echo myself) to share all the craziness about that in one post.

I'm also thinking about young Steve Harrington, which is kudos to this post and lots of people's tweets over on the twitter. I won't go into it, same reasons as the omega verse thing so just...again, bear with me.

But! But the actual brain worms I'm having currently, in this very moment, also have to do with another post I made on here. I want to go more in-depth with, though. So, some days ago, I came across an Instagram Reel that was a clip from the YouTube video interview between Jon Bernthal and Dungeon Master Deborah Ann Woll.

So, brief brief summary of this video is basically: Jon Bernthal says that he wants to play D&D, Deborah Ann Woll then gives him a scenario of walking through the woods and while he's walking he hears snap of twigs, and then she basically prompts him with "What do you do?" And he responds, now I can't remember exactly what he says, but I believe it had something to do with investigating the source of the snapped twigs.

Anyway, the video is excellent and you all should check it out. She basically explains D&D in a way that would make sense to anybody, in the matters of asking a player or a potential player what they'd do in certain scenarios, then bringing in the "rougher" elements such as the History checks or Perception checks in the game.

And I want to write something along the lines of Steve approaching Eddie about D&D. Maybe he wants to play because Dustin keeps bugging him about it, but he's too nervous to accept. Maybe he just wants to know what it's like. Maybe he even wants to be a substitute player one of these days just in case somebody can't show up. Something, y'know, where he's approaching Eddie. But he's really, really confused about where to even begin. He's got a character sheet, he's looking at the manuals loaned to him or he even bought himself, he's looking at all these stats and all these options and he just doesn't know where to begin.

Also, brief intervene here, I would be basing this off of 5e rules because that's what I play and frequently toy with. So...don't be mad at me if I get something "inaccurate for the time". I, first of all, honestly don't care. And second, I was not alive in like 1977 when the game first came out. And there's nobody in my life who played it then or possibly has played it ever outside of 5e. Moving on.

So, he tries to explain his character sheet to Eddie, obviously getting a bit overwhelmed in the process. But Eddie stops him. Says something like, "Hold on, okay? Let's just take a baby step here. I'm going to give you a scenario and then I want you to tell me what you'd do."

And he lays out that same, or even just something similar, to what Deborah Ann Woll gave. (I'm going to base this off of the video. Very original, I am.) So it's something like:

"Okay, you've got a small dagger attached to your belt, it's concealed within a hilt. And on your back, there's a bow and a quiver—or a pouch—of arrows. You're walking through the woods. It's dark, heavy clouds hanging overhead, moon obstructed, you can barely see your surroundings. There's leaves under your feet, gravel, sticks. But then, before you can step your foot down next, something crunches in the distance on your left. What do you do?"

There's a pause. A long moment where Steve is considering his options.

"It's a far away sound, right?" Steve checks and Eddie nods. There's a little hmph from Steve as he continues to think. "Can I tell how far away it is? Is there a way to distinct the length of it?"

Eddie maybe smirks, eyes already glowing. "Give a perception check." And at Steve's befuddled expression, leaning in and brows furrowed, Eddie continues on. "So, you're going to roll one of those dice that you always see the kids with. The D20, that's the one you'd use right now. 20 is the highest you can get"—

"The best I can get. And 1 is obviously the lowest, so the worst."

"Right! So...let's say you were to pick up a D20 right now and roll it. You get a...a fourteen. And your perception, one of those skills on the top of your paper"—and Eddie would grab Steve's character sheet, to point out the number he already placed there—"this one right here. And on your paper, it looks to be pretty high. A sixteen is what you have. So...I'm going to ask you to add three more to your dice roll."

Steve squints at the paper. He doesn't take long to do the math, muttering a little under his breath. "Okay...I'd have a seventeen for my perception check." And he looks up to Eddie for confirmation, in which he gets. "And if it's possible out of twenty...that means I can probably figure it out well, right?"

Eddie nods with a smug hum. "You're already a natural." He leans back a little from Steve. Eyes away in thought. Goes on, "So, I'll know right away, based on that number you give me that you're extremely perceptive. I tell you...okay, the sound you hear is roughly ten feet away on your left."

"That's really close," Steve murmurs. "I think I'll...I'll ready that bow on my back. Take it off, grab for one of my arrows. Poise it."

"Mmm...And as soon as you get your bow in the right position, you begin to make out what seems like a pair of eyes. From the darkness between the trees, those eyes emerge closer and closer, revealing the large figure of a sixteen foot owlbear. Its feathers are spread wide, splaying defensively. Eyes glowing, it seems, yellow and bright. The body girth of a bear, but the head and mannerisms of an owl. It trills and squawks in your face. What do you do?"

Anyway, it would go from there. Tried to figure out a monster that wasn't an owlbear because that's what was used in the video. But uh...my brain is not being original right now, so that's basically the whole example from the video. But I just adore that video so much, the simple, yet impactful way she taught the basics. And I think it could translate so well to Eddie and Steve messing with D&D together.

Sorry for a long ass post lmao

Tagging (no pressure): @puppy-steve @scoops-aboy86 @ataliagold @marvel-ous-m @pearynice

@wheneverfeasible @rogueddie @sidekick-hero

[hearted-anon]

Tickletober Day 2: Surprise

Words: 1047 Note: Maybe Minho would've suited better but whatever they're cute T/w: Weird position, rough tickles Ler: Jeongin Lee: Seungmin

“Jeongin-ah! Where is my mic?!” Seungmin yells down the hall, frantically scrambling around for his missing microphone. They both had a solo stage coming up soon, and he could hear Felix’s voice fading in and out, a telltale sign that his stage was already near done. By what luck Seungmin had wasted, it was out, as he had lost his mic mere moments before his performance would start. He had flipped the preparation room upside down, even patted down a very surprised and flustered Changbin, who ran away when fingers reached his arms in search of a missing microphone; he had an inkling he had taken it given their Tom and Jerry bond, but of course he had to be wrong this one time. 

After doing two unsuccessful rounds of checking, he caved and asked the only other person that was in the room: Jeongin. He hadn’t thought much of it till he saw the fox cunningly smiling and snickering in a corner on the soft couch, and that was where he got the entire idea from. Despite shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly and leaving the room to ‘get a cup of coffee’, the puppy didn’t believe it for a second, immediately scouring the room once the maknae left. 

“Looking for this~” Seungmin’s head tried to turn when he heard a taunting voice called out to him from behind, trying to tug his head out of the pillows that he tried to worm into in an attempt to find his missing microphone. It was no surprise that it was of course none other than Jeongin, the older one letting out a grunt when the head of a mic rubbed into his side ever so tantalisingly. Seungmin should’ve expected that the results would obviously become like this, it was as obvious as seeing black on white, but still he had given Jeongin some leeway; he was still wrong. 

“G-Give it back, Jeongin.” Seungmin hissed, more of coming out as a whimper knowing that his entire waist was vulnerable to whatever the sharp-witted fox had planned for him. Pushing at the cushions, he realised very quickly that he was indeed stuck, and would only get out if the maknae eventually decided to pitch in and lend him a helping hand. However, he knew better than to trust Jeongin of all people, the man was full of surprises, and definitely had one in store for the vocalist today. 

“When you’re vulnerable, at my mercy like this? Sorry Seungmo, but an opportunity like this comes once in a blue moon, and I might just have a surprise for you~” Jeongin chirped way too enthusiastically to be considered anywhere near friendly, before Seungmin heard the sound of microphones being placed down; that cannot be good. The nickname rang throughout his ears, the maknae would never use any sort of name that didn’t have a hyung at the end unless he was feeling mischievous, angry or just downright bratty; and it was evident which mood he was in. 

“N-No I have a solo stage to ATTEND! Jeohohongin!” Seungmin shrieked as soft fingers dug into the cloth of his sides, kneading the skin with a tender pace that was sure to drive him crazy. The sensations sent the older into a fit of lower pitched giggles, muffled into the couch as his body failed to get out of the couch; seemingly stuck between the pillows. Well if only he could see how the fox was planted on top of his hips so that the puppy wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Hmm? I’m giving you the perfect surprise warm up! You should be grateful, hyung..” Jeongin feigned innocence in an overly sappy voice, making purposely off pitch hums to their duo song in their ‘maxident’ era, ‘Can’t Stop’. It made Seungmin’s ears want to bleed, and it only worsened with the electrifying sensations coursing through his body. He regrets it very much, teaching the maknae his way of pranking people, finally receiving his own fair share of it as giggles rang throughout the room. 

“Stohohop it! I-I hahave a solo stahahage soon!” Seungmin whines, it was rare to ever catch him in such a position where he was pleading already from gentle sensations, but he couldn’t help it. The sounds of upbeat music from the stage outside echoed and rang in the vocalist’s ears, a deathly close reminder of what was going to happen if the torture didn’t stop soon. His arms flailed around desperately, but his weakened state with fingers digging into his sides so gently tortuous it made him want to ascend. 

“But hyung, I saw the timer, Felix still has two more minutes to go! Surely you’d give me just a minute to let you live through your surprise, right?” Jeongin rebuts, moving his pesky fingers to the sides of his stomach, tapping the skin before vibrating harshly into the relatively thin clothing of his shirt; Seungmin had said he would reveal more skin this year after all. A stifled squeal came from below before cackles came from the couch, the poor vocalist kicking his legs as much as he could.

“STAHAHAP IT! YAHAHANG JEONGIN! PLEHEHEASE!” The maknae froze at the sound of his full name, pausing for a moment before helping the vocalist out of his exposed spot, and the sight was both lovely and terrifying. Seungmin’s face was red down all the way to his neck, tear stains littering on his hair in dew drops from his position being almost upside down. He could tell that the puppy needed this break, settling him on the couch before placing the microphone gently onto the older’s lap. 

They both rested on the couch in silence, Jeongin scratching and massaging the other’s scalp soothingly while Seungmin let out a few shaky breaths here and there, letting the flush on his entire face calm down into a paler shade to bring the duo some relief. Just as the vocalist’s face turned back to normal, the resounding sounds of claps and screams for cheers sounded, making Seungmin jump out of his seat and onto the stage, ignoring the questions from staff of why he looked like he just ran a marathon. 

Oh Jeongin was getting it after their solo stages, Seungmin vowed for it to his little surprise.

[myobscureimaginarium]

A commission for @akumanie to accompany the fic, Elysian Key by Alice O’Really. Akumanie is currently translating the fic into English for us! Please check out her translations.

"It will be amazing. I will be a great witch and you will be a powerful wizard. And one day the whole world will know us! What do you think, Severus? Will they know our names one day?" The commission is based on the upcoming chapter 10. You can find the rest of the scene under the cut:

Lily ran across the lawn in the park, waving from a distance. She reached Severus, grabbed his arms, and spun  around with him.

"It came, it came, it came!" she shouted as she spun. Her long red hair fluttered wildly in the wind, her green eyes shone with fierce, mad joy.

"I said it was coming," Severus said breathlessly, the moment she let him go. "Will you show it to me?"

"Sure!" She nodded eagerly. She took a crumpled letter from her pocket, religiously inspected it for the millionth time, and solemnly lent it to him.

"We'll go together," she said enthusiastically.

Severus had read her letter from Hogwarts over and over again.

"Great," he announced, raising his face and grinning.

"I'm so happy, Severus!" She grabbed him around the neck. He returned the hug without the slightest hesitation.

"It'll be great, Lily, you'll see. You will love it there, you don't have to be afraid of anything."

"I'm not afraid," she said indignantly. "First of all, I'm very smart and I can handle everything. And secondly, if I can't handle something, you can handle it. Come on, let's sit down. I brought something."

They settled on the freshly mown lawn, and Lily pulled out a bag of candy.

"They're not as good as your beans, but then, there’s no danger that any of them will taste like manure." She winked at him.

"And that's certainly reassuring." Severus nodded seriously, and they both burst out laughing. As they sucked caramels together, Lily rolled onto the grass on her back, looking up at the sky, a letter lovingly pressed to her heart. Severus lay down next to her.

"It will be amazing. I will be a great witch and you will be a powerful wizard. And one day the whole world will know us! What do you think, Severus? Will they know our names one day?"

"I doubt that," he said calmly.

"Me too." Lily grinned. "But that would be great, don't you think? Everyone would know who Lily Evans is. And if they heard the name Severus Snape, they would freeze in horror! Oh, spare us, mighty one!

"You're crazy." Severus shook his head, smiling from ear to ear. "You're an awfully snotty little witch, you know that?"

"And you're a terribly terrifying tiny wizard," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"With a giant nose." Severus sighed. "They'll laugh at me again."

"You're a dummy. Of course you have a big nose. You are Severus Snape, an exceptional wizard. You can't have something as vulgar as an ordinary little nose." She rolled onto her side, reached out, and pushed her index finger to the tip of Severus' nose until the skin around it whitened. "Like this, it’s absolutely fine. And I will beat up anyone who laughs at you."

"Wizards don't beat each other up, Lily Evans. Wizards curse each other. That reminds me! Did you try the Worms in Hair spell yesterday?!" he blurted out eagerly.

Lily chuckled. "You should have seen her, Severus, I thought it would be her death...!"

"Great!" He nodded with maximal satisfaction. "She shouldn't have locked you in the basement."

[fishyvamp]

I do my best to keep the readers as vague as possible, but I do have semi-set personalities for each that dictate the readers' actions and how they interact with the world. There is a decent variety of personalities, but everything else about them is vague. (I keep trying to write for survivors, but the killers are louder). So I'm just going to talk about them because they are doing the worming things and will be making reappearances.

Critter is calm, level-headed, and curious. They're not afraid of much, just easily flustered at times. They're very much words of affirmation and acts of service kind of lover. They kiss and love on every inch of The Hillbilly that he'll let them. They are attracted to Max Jr. and have been long before the Cowshed incident. The cowshed just helped them make the move. Critter is also a very private person. they're not ashamed that they're dating a killer they just don't share if they're not asked.

Bunny is skittish, but a horndog. He tries to keep it in check, but something about masks and not knowing who's behind it has him with more than a few wet dreams about masked killers. He has slept with Meg, and it involved her mask and a locker that may or may not have ended with the two of them getting hooked. Ghost Face takes full advantage of Bunny's libido, especially during the trial. Bunny is into it and finds himself satisfied even if he doesn't escape. He doesn't tell the other survivors he's fucking a killer and is ashamed that he's even considering dating Ghost Face.

Brat is well a brat. They are also unhinged AF. They have exactly zero chill when it comes to romance and have on more than one occasion brought flowers to trial just to flash them in front of Trapper while the others watch. they do not care if everyone knows they're dating Evan. they love the man. they want the entire realm to know that's their boyfriend. they follow the rules and play to win even against Trapper and get upset if Evan goes easy on them. Also, Brat is a cheerful bastard who loves dad jokes.

Copycat is a bit crazy, she's a killer whose whole shtick is mimicking other killers to draw out emotions. She thrives on the fear the survivors get not knowing how she's going to play next. She's also vicious when it comes to the trial. No mercy. She honestly thought The Legion was one dude who could shapeshift and would get angry that the entity didn't let her do that. it only clicked when she snuck into Ormond and saw Frank and Joey going at it. She wanted to be in the middle. She is very much the kinkiest of all the readers I've introduced so far.

[allwormdiet]

Interlude 5

What the hell kinda cape name is Gregor the Snail, anyhow

Man. That's gotta fucking suck that you can't even go get toothpaste or whatever without having to deal with the whole world singling you out for your appearance

Who the fuck blackmails the parahuman they're running errands for, that guy is stupid

Wow, that's. Actually I don't hate this way of talking about fat people being looked down on. Like it sucks that it happens obviously, but it does happen, and the fact that people feel uncomfortable talking about Gregor as a mutant or whatever but feel no shame in mocking him as fat is. Telling.

And it's a shame anyone has to put up with that, much less get used to it like Gregor has.

This rules actually. Get bent, assholes

Little odd to see Newter as like. A teenager who's letting people get blasted on his hallucinogenic body. Not sure what's going on there, but as long as nobody's getting hurt?

Chevalier I get, knight imagery is a classic for superheroes, but what's being referenced with Myrddin?

...Okay I checked Wikipedia and I guess Myrddin was a mad Welsh prophet and some kinda forerunner to Merlin. So is the hero Myrddin a precognitive, or does he have a wizard aesthetic going on but thought calling himself Merlin was somehow too basic?

Questions for later

Okay so he's letting people pay him to trip out on his saliva. Weird, but. Sure.

Man, that's gotta fucking suck.

Poor Elle :(

I totally forgot that "the place" was actually addressed in the interlude. Still easy money it comes up again at some point. Parahuman asylum? Something's going down there.

Interesting that she's trying to bypass the Manton effect. Even more interesting that it's technically possible to do so, but nobody understands how. Power research must be a really frustrating field to work in, huh

Fucking wild that Gregor just decided to do this and Faultline's not even pissed off about it. That's the mark of a good team, I think, or a scarily unhealthy one. Either way.

So here we have the first hints of a conspiratorial organization that sells superpowers and turns people into amnesiac monsters.

Except now they're getting better at not doing the monster part but keeping the amnesia in.

Jesus fucking Christ this is nuts, though

Concluding Thoughts

So this is Cauldron, right? As mentioned before my pre-existing knowledge of Worm is patchwork but I know Cauldron is a secret organization mucking around with power stuff and I'd be shocked if there was two of them, that'd be crazy redundant.

Which then leaves me wondering what the hell they're doing that means they're selling off superpowers. Like, that's fucking nuts. The power of demigods on tap and you use it to get rich? That's so. Prosaic.

I do like Gregor, though, much as this interlude was meant to introduce probably-Cauldron and give us insight into another Brockton Bay team, he's got an interesting perspective as the result of a unique position in the world. Even alongside other "monster capes" he stands out as different.

...I hope Newter isn't doing anything scummy when people are tranced out, I like him and I would prefer to keep liking him.

Anyway. Wrapping up Arc 5 on the next post

[heavysighing-dreamyeyes]

heyyy!! I love your writing <3 here’s my humble contribution ->

750 event: okay, so as a latina and knowing that jason canonically speaks Spanish fluently (aside from other languages), i go crazy picturing him dating a latinx.

I imagine him hiding that piece of info from them at first for >strategic purposes< like listening to them gush in Spanish about how hot and handsome and perfect he is with a friend or cousin over the phone, all while he’s right next to her pretending to be oblivious, hiding his smug smile.

Hence, I can think of two ways in which he reveals his little secret:

-> his s/o is giving him an attitude due to stress or smth, curses him for being stupid in Spanish, and he puts them back in check by gravelly replying “estás segura, cariño?” (are you sure about that, sweetheart?), effectively stunning them into silence (i know i would lol)

-> ooor they’re having a hard time and he just comforts them through pet names, like “cariño” or “mi amor” etc., and soft reassuring words

This is totally self-indulgent as you can see!! If he called me ‘princesa’ in either situations I’d melt lol

Now if you don’t mind me sending the 300: you can give me a trope based on the fact that i’m a tall girly with brazilian jiu jitsu skills and a tendency to be defiant

thanks a lot, have a great week <33

Hi! Thank you!!

Jason definitely calls you pet names and words of endearment in other languages! I have a little drabble on it here. But I adore him using carino and mi amor. 🥰

If he hides it at first, it's purely because he was so shocked to hear you gushing about him, that he forgot to tell you he understood every word.

And You Are: The Secret Identy Trope

Jason Todd has a crush on another vigilante. They're quick, efficient, and know how to throw a punch. But he also has a crush on you. You, his quick-witted, funny, and sweet best friend. It's a bit of a conundrum he hasn't figured out how to deal with.

Little does he know, you ARE the vigilante he's crushing on, and you're having a similar problem. You're head over heels for your best friend, but Red Hood has been steadily worming his way into your heart. (Cue shenanigans and identity reveals)

[seefullforecast]

S.H.

Part 2 Mr Cool

Steve x oc

part 1

"Let me get this straight. You were some lab rat and have had these powers for as long as you can remember, you managed to escape and now after all this time you're back because you have a 'bad feeling'." Steve was no longer shouting. Instead he just seemed confused and Mia could understand how that felt.

"I mean that is all grossly simplified but yeah pretty much." Mia responded trying to pull her wet jacket off her whilst under the restraints of her seatbelt. 

"okay so um this bad feeling you had, that's why you were in the woods?"

"You know I think you've maybe had enough so I'm gonna pop that question in the classified pile." Mia knew opening up the can of worms that was monsters was too much in one night for Steve.

"Classified yeah okay whatever I don't believe any of this." he grumbled his focus still on the road. The rain was getting lighter now but it was still quite dark out.

"You don't have to." she stated matter of factly.

"what?"

'I said you don't have to. I just needed a getaway car so thank you for that. And anyways even if you go to the police or tell your friends or whoever it's not like they're going to believe you. Even I know how crazy this all sounds." She chuckled to herself as she played out in her head what it would be like for Steve trying to explain all this to the police. 

"Yep okay you are totally crazy." he confirmed to himself. 

"Whatever could you just drop me off somewhere central in town, I need to find a hotel for the night." She was done with his comments and crossed her arms already regretting her actions leading her into this situation. 

Steve glanced at Mia. She was about his age. She wore a pair of jeans and a white tee, her jacket now strewn across the backseats of his car. Her hair was flat and dripping and along with being covered in mud she also had blood all over half her face.

"I cant believe I'm about to say this." Steve muttered to himself looking up to the sky hoping that if god was real he would protect him in the future from anything that may occur as a direct result of what he was about to say. 

"Look it's the middle of the night and you're not going to get anywhere to stay at this time looking like that. I'll take you back to my place but..." He was cut off. He was beginning to realise this was a bit of a pattern.

"no way."

"no way? What do you mean no way I thought you needed somewhere to crash."

"I do but I'm not going back to yours I don't know you. How do I know you don't drive around at night trying to pick people up to take them back to your lair."

"Lair? what is this the Texas Chainsaw Massacre?"

"Oh my god the fact you even thought of that confirms you were thinking of it." Mia shot at him accusingly.

"That doesn't even make any sense. Besides you have literal super powers. If anything I am still scared that you are going to kill me."

"Fine okay let's make a deal, I crash at yours tonight, I don't kill you, you don't kill me and I'll keep my mouth shut about the fact that you either need your eyes checked or your licence taken off you." Mia didn't have any other leverage on the boy and knew she would need something to try and keep him quiet. She came back to Hawkins for a reason and would be screwed if Steve was the reason she failed within her first few moments here. 

Steve contemplated it for a second and nodded his head with a tight lipped smile mumbling a few okays. He tapped the steering wheel to a random beat in his anxious state. He was still up a height over everything he had just witnessed but a small part of him knew he would feel guilt and regret if he was just to leave the girl on the side of the road not to see her again. She has literal super powers. You only see that shit in the movies!

A few minutes of awkward silence passed between the two. Mia pretended to take interest in the scenery out of her window. Steve kept glancing at her then back to the road still with so many questions on his mind.

"You're right though." he tried to start. She gave him a quizzical look. "Apart from your hero and or villain origin story we don't actually know anything about each other." Steve's eyes  were wide as he spoke, Mia noticed, clearly still spooked. Maybe small talk was what they needed.

"How about we play a game. We each get to ask the other a question and the other has to answer it, yeah?" He suggested.

"That's not a game that's just us having a conversation. What's your idea of fun if those are the kind of games you're playing?" Mia knew he was digging and did not want to put herself in a position where she was showing all her cards too early. She was taught from an early age not to trust people. 

"Look I'll go first okay, um okay let's see um." Steve rattled his brain. There was so much on the tip of his tongue that he actually needed a moment to organise all the mess. "Favourite ice cream flavour go!" He managed to force out and was actually a little proud of himself for doing so.

"Ice-cream flavour?" she really didn't know why he had asked that. She couldn't understand why of all things that would be the first thing he would want to know in this so called game of his.

"Don't think! Just say that's the whole point go on." He was frantically nodding his head in encouragement. God this boy was like a golden retriever. 

"Okay well I think that uh..."

"I said not to think!" he caught her off guard. She began fumbling her words and he kept pressing for an answer. 

"Ice cream flavour go!"

"Maybe..."

"Just go! On instinct what's the first thing that pops to your head."  

"I don't know oh my goodness let me just..."

"Hey do I need to go over the rules again look I'll go first." There was no anger between the two despite the heightened voices. Granted they were both shouting but more like a couple of younger kids who are overly excited and are about to be scolded by an adult nearby. 

"Chocolate!" Steve yelled. 

"Chocolate?"

"Woah what's wrong with chocolate?"

"Nothing nothing I just didn't peg you for the kind to sit and indulge in chocolate ice cream." She shrugged.

"I do not indulge in chocolate ice cream okay? You say it as if every night I sneak downstairs to steal a tub of ice cream then hide the remains so nobody suspects anything. It's ice cream! Everyone loves ice cream." Steve tried to defend himself but once he had finished his little rant continued to glance between the girl and the road catching a growing smile on he face.

"What? What are you smiling at?" He questioned. She began laughing now. Not for the first time since seeing this girl he was confused. 

"You totally do sneak ice cream!" She managed to tease between her giggles.

At this point Steve could only roll his eyes. Getting something out of this girl was like trying to draw blood from a stone. It was impossible.

"Excuse me for trying to get to know the stranger I have in my car."

"And you thought the best place to start would be with my favourite flavour of ice cream?"

"You can tell a lot from a person by what they choose."

"Evidently." she stated given all she had learned about Steve from his answer. "But I guess I would have to say chocolate too, now that you've made such a song and dance about it." 

Steve let out a breathy laugh in response. This random girl in a matter of minutes knew how to get under his skin. He thought she was crazy but maybe he was a little mad himself for going along with it all. At least that's what he was telling himself.

"Home sweet home." Steve announced as he pulled the car into the drive. Nothing but the few street lamps lit the way. The rain seemed to have gotten lighter for the meantime but Steve had remembered the news that morning predicting a bad storm throughout the night. 

The two teens hopped out of the car and made their way into the home, Steve leading the way. Mia took note at the size of the house when she first entered. It was spacious and clean and photos and pictures littered the odd empty space. 

Steve shook off his jacket to hang it up and noticed Mia must have left hers on the backseat of his car as she stood there shivering before him. 

"Nice place, nobody else is here right?" She seemed worried he noted. From what she had explained to him in the car about being held captive as a child he assumed she didn't take too well to strangers. That and the events that occurred on their short drive home.

"Yeah no, parents are on a business trip so as far as the eye can see is all King Steve's" He dropped his keys onto the side and lead her into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and took out a couple cans of coke, passing one to Mia. 

She refused to touch it. Her eyes locked on the can and Steve noticed. Blinking and clearing her throat she pulled back choosing to ignore the gesture altogether. 

"Can I use your bathroom?" She timidly asked. This girl didn't seem like the same girl that was in his car. She had recoiled and looked like a claustrophobic person  who had just got trapped in a broken down elevator. 

"Yeah, yeah sure right this way." He spoke softly leading the girl upstairs. "Theres towels on the top shelf for you to take a shower and I'll leave you a change of clothes outside of the door for when you're done." He brought her into the bathroom.

He went to walk out but paused at the door when she called his name.

"Steve..." she gulped. "Thank you, by the way." She felt vulnerable and exposed despite being fully clothed and having not actually told him too much about herself. But she had. He knew she had powers and didn't belong anywhere other than a government facility as far as she was concerned. She just needed a place to stay and warm up. Steve was the best she was going to get, she didn't need anything more than that.

"Yeah of course." he blinked still speaking in his same soft tone. "Uh theres uh stuff in the cabinet if you need a bandaid of anything." He motioned above the sink where they were kept for the cuts she had gained due to her time in the woods. The full extent of what happened he was still in the dark about. 

He gave her one last look before pulling the door behind him shut. He went into his room to grab Mia a change of clothes. One of his old crewneck sweaters and sweatpants would do. He also took out a pair of socks and laid the folded pile of clothes outside the bathroom door where he could hear the shower turning off. Whilst she was finishing up he went to grab some spare blankets and pillows.

Mia was just drying the ends of her hair when she actually had a moment to see the gash on her head. How could such a small cut bleed so much. She wiped the mirror above the sink free from the condensation and closed her eyes tight. Something she had grown to learn from an early age was that she didn't always need first aid kits. Smaller cuts were simple. Focusing her energy she pictured her face in her mind and saw herself without it. When she opened her eyes the cut was gone. 

"Good as new." She smiled. Pulling on the clothes Steve had left her she had to roll the waistband over a couple of times so she wasn't tripping over them. She folded the towel she used and left it on the side not knowing where the boy kept his laundry. 

Opening the door she came back out into the hallway and was not too sure which of the rooms Steve was in at first. She saw a light coming from the end of the hall and followed it assuming she would find him there. She was right. As she stood in the doorway she saw him making a bed on the floor out of numerous pillows and blankets. It all looked quite excessive actually. His back was to her and he hadn't realised she was there yet. She took a moment to glance around his room.

"What's a blondie?" She questioned whilst startling the boy. When he turned to the voice he found her standing on his bed pointing to one of the posters on his wall. He thought she was joking. He thought she was trying to lead him into some sort of trick to try and embarrass him. 

"Yeah right." He grabbed her arm pulling her down from the bed and crossed his arms. Mia stood waiting for him to expand. "Wait you're serious?"he asked judging by her confused face it did not look like Mia had any idea who Blondie were. 

"Okay I'm gonna put it down to the fact that you most likely have a lot of other stuff on your plate rather than the fact that you are just plain ignorant but they're a band." he tried to explain assuming there was probably lots of music she didn't know about. 

She gave him a look to show she was slightly unimpressed. 

"Right well, I grabbed you some blankets and made you a little bed, or if you'd prefer there is the couch you could always..." He changed the subject.

"No this is fine yeah thanks." The two of them both awkwardly stood nodding slightly. 

"Okay no I cant do it. I cant do it." Steve broke first raising his voice. Mia could only roll her eyes and sat herself onto Steve's bed. She crossed her legs and watched as he paced in front of her.

"You just get in my car in the middle of the night after running into the road and do this weird witchy woo voodoo shit then suddenly you're sleeping in my room tonight."

Mia started picking at her nails zoning out of the rambling ahead of her.

"And don't think I didn't notice you have magically healed. What the fuck is going on I need some serious answers if you're staying in my bedroom." He ranted slightly out of breath and coming to a stop in front of the girl. 

"Why, do all girls need to have an interview before sleeping in your room?"

"God dammit!" He knew it was useless but he was so frustrated nonetheless. His hands made fists at his sides as he threw them around above his head seemingly trying to shake out the frustrations. Mia could honestly not believe the fact that this boy was breaking down in front of her and she was the cause. The thought made her giggle slightly to herself. 

"Would you sit down already your pacing is hurting my magically healed head." She grabbed his raised hand and forced him to sit opposite her on his bed and also cross his legs.

"Thank you, I"m cool, okay I'm good."

"Sure looks it Mr cool." she referred to his weird outbreak but he decided to ignore the jab. "Since you have made me a bed and have given me some clothes I think it is only fair that I give you three questions." She felt sick as she spoke. Mia really was not a people person but thought she would get a better nights sleep if Steve could also maybe sleep. 

Steve was surprised at that. A little part of him couldn't help but think it was a trick though. She was probably going to let him ask all his questions and then refuse to answer anyways. 

"You mean it?" he cautiously asked making eye contact.

"I do, ask away." She felt obligated to open up somehow no matter how much she was reluctant to do so. 

"What exactly is it that you can do? These powers you have?" she had predicted that would be one of the questions. 

Mia thought it would be better to show Steve rather than tell him. Steve watched her close her eyes tight and take in a deep breath. The light above him flickered and the radio alarm clock he had began tuning frequencies until the sound of a local station came through. His bedroom door slammed shut and his bedroom curtains shot open. Steve made his way to his window in awe at the streetlights one by one going out like it was a synchronised light show. 

"Woah..." he mumbled turning back to Mia. When she opened her eyes all the lights returned to normal and his radio shut off. She wiped the small blood that had started dripping from her nose. "So um that was cool." he stated actually impressed by what he had just seen.

"Cool was probably the last thing I thought you were gonna say." She muttered more to herself.

Steve with a burst of energy now jumped back onto his bed where he was sitting before, ready for his next question.

"How long have you had these powers?" he wondered still astonished at what he witnessed from her.  

"For as long as I can remember really. I escaped the lab a few years ago and to be honest haven't used them since meeting you. I was always scared something bad would happen like I would lose control and they would find me." As she spoke Mia had wrapped her arms herself and looked down as she spoke as if she was ashamed. Her voice was soft and meek like a hurt mouse. 

"They would find you, what the people from the lab? When you say escape, do you mean you were trapped there because of what you can do, did they hurt you?"

"They were bad men Steve and I saw my chance and took it. Leaving the others behind." Mia had a solemn look on her face as she spoke still holding herself tight.

"Mia, if you ran away why are you back?" Steve thought back to finding her running from the woods of all places, the more he was finding out in drips and drabs the more it didn't make sense and the more questions he had. 

"I told you I had a bad feeling. Something about this town, about that lab..." She didn't know how to explain it to him so he could understand. She looked up to see his eyes transfixed on her urging her to go on. "I've always felt so guilty for leaving and now felt like the right time to do the right thing." 

"Well that's not vague at all!" he exclaimed.

"I think that's your three questions Harrington Steve Harrington. Now if you do not mind I shall be going to sleep now." Mia didn't want to go any further. She knew he was probably even more antsy now to interrogate her but she couldn't let herself. Steve seemed nice enough and didn't want to drag him into any sort of mess she knew she was going to cause. 

She pulled back one of the blankets that Steve had put on the floor for her and lowered herself down. Steve sighed and found himself following suit in his own bed. 

As the two of them lay in the room the storm outside continued to grow worse and yet it felt so quiet to Mia. She closed her eyes in hopes of trying to sleep. She knew it was futile as if she did try to sleep it would just allow the nightmares of the monster she had been seeing for weeks to take over her head again.

Disturbing the silence Steve began hitting his pillow trying to fluff it up. Then he began shuffling his covers so it was sitting right over his body. When he started turning in his bed to find the comfiest position that was when Mia had enough and decided nightmares in her head were better than whatever the fuck she was currently experiencing. Steve wouldn't settle and she knew she was right in liking him to a golden retriever earlier. 

"I just find it weird how that cut on your head..." He finally broke the silence

"Dear Lord help me find strength not to murder this boy!" She yelled into her pillow rolling onto her stomach. 

"Hey we made a deal not to do that!" He shot upright pointing an accusatory finger in Mia's direction. 

[tactician]

did you know that generation four of the pokemon games features more ribbons than any other generation? in diamond/pearl/platinum alone, you can get 38 new ribbons - and in hgss, you can add one more to that pile for a whopping 39 ribbons. this is a truly crazy amount of ribbons and i feel like i went a little crazy while gathering them. but, with that being said, i sure did gather them.

this post is all about reides the kingdra's journey through sinnoh, johto, AND kanto!

as a quick aside, you can check out my other ribbon master posts in my ribbon master tag. you can also see the posts on my personal site; those versions have a bit more pictures since they're not Contained by tumblr's limitations.

anyway...!!! my gen4 journey with reides began in my childhood copy of diamond. my trainer - named 'juke' after a handle that i had back in those days - picked up reides at the pal park, along with fangs the salamence, albatross the latios, origin the metagross, persana the suicune, and princess the zigzagoon.

i was really thrilled to finally be using one of my childhood playthroughs; back in gen3, i opted against using my childhood file in sapphire, as i wanted reides' original trainer to be recorded as 'Jamie' - and my sapphire file didn't use that name, either! another bonus to this was that diamond was already in the postgame, so i could get to work on grabbing my sinnoh ribbons as soon as reides made the trip over there.

immediately, i got to work on getting the first of the daily ribbons. these ribbons are very simple to get. all you have to do is talk to a woman named julia - who lives in a little house in northern sunyshore - on each day of the week. each day corresponds to one type of daily ribbon. the first ribbon that reides got was the smile ribbon!

julia is a really sweet character, and i really enjoyed my little routine of popping in and chatting with her. i was able to nab each of these heart-warming ribbons while i tackled other ribbon tasks.

the daily ribbons weren't my only routine, either! i also visited the masseuse over in veilstone ever day so that she could boost reides' affection for my new character. (i understand why affection resets when you trade your pokemon over to a new file, as they're technically a whole new trainer... but it still made me feel a little sad... like, reides. it's me!! it's JAMIE!!! the person who worked SO HARD to get you all those ribbons in gen3!!!)

once reides' affection was maxed out, i went over to... dr. footstep. dr. footstep is a guy who lives on the route outside of pastoria city. his whole deal is that he can read your pokemon's feelings for you by looking at their tracks - even if they don't have tracks. (reides, for example, doesn't have tracks. so, yeah. dr. footstep is... talented?)

an important note about this ribbon is that it actually isn't affection-based from gen5 onwards. instead, it's based on how many LEVELS you gain with the pokemon - becoming attainable when you've raised it at least 30 levels from when you met it. this is obviously deeply horrifying, as it means you can totally miss your chance for this ribbon if you trade a pokemon in that was past level 70 (due to the level 100 cap). an exception to this is if a pokemon is 'voiceless' (e.g. if the pokemon is a magnemite, or a beldum, or one of the regis, etc etc) in which case it... somehow reverts back to being based on friendship.

you'd think that the footprint ribbon would be based on *steps* rather than levels, as not only does that make more sense, but it also prevents poor pokemon from being locked out of it forever... but whatever. it's kind of hilarious that the mark of reides' affection for me is summed up by a ribbon which is essentially A Foot but that's a whole other can of worms.

during all of this, i was also grinding out pokedollars so that i could afford the syndicate ribbons. the ribbon syndicate is located over in a very posh mansion in the resort area of sinnoh. i met the 10-ribbon requirement for entry into the syndicate easily, but i then had to take on the challenge of raising enough pokedollars so that i could afford the hilariously expensive trio of ribbons that they had for sale. i had enough pokedollars to afford the first two - the gorgeous ribbon (10k) and the royal ribbon (100k). the last ribbon, however, was priced at 999,999 pokedollars... namely, the most money your character can carry on them. getting my hands on this ribbon would require some work...

...but admittedly not that much work! by using the vs seeker on an elderly couple on the route right next to the pokemon mansion, you can actually grind pokedollars out super, super easily. they pretty much funded the final syndicate ribbon for me and it really wasn't a painful grind in the slightest. if only real life worked like this...

these side ribbons were honestly a lot of fun to gather as the days went on! they made me wish that we had more stuff like them in future generations, to be honest! i know some people think that they're kind of just 'filler ribbons' which aren't all that meaningful, but i had a great time getting them all. my little talks with julia and my puzzlement over dr. footstep's lore(?) were certainly meaningful to me, and it was pretty awesome to cap out on pokedollars for the final syndicate ribbon! i think ribbons like this offer a unique little break from ribbons that are focused on streaks in battle towers or the standard hall of fame entries, as iconic as those may be.

anyway, on the subject of hall of fame entries... reides obviously had to go grab the sinnoh champion ribbon! i decided to take on the sinnon league with the whole gen3 squad, including princess the zigzagoon.

reides just so happened to be looking RIGHT DOWN into the spotlight in both of these pictures that i took. that wasn't even planned... i guess he just really liked the pretty lights.

with the sinnoh league tackled, the super contests were up next. i was really excited to gather these ribbons, as gen3 made me a HUGEEEE contest fan. with that being said, i knew that sinnoh's contests were a whole lot different from hoenn's contests. despite gathering a TON of accessories for these contests as a kid (THANK YOU, JAMIE OF THE PAST!), i was woefully clueless as to how to win them. i had to do a bunch of research, as the good ol' rest + snore combo wasn't going to carry me through the appeals like it did back in gen3... and i'm very pleased to say that i was able to find a great strategy for winning these things!

the best strategy that i found was provided by Guy_Gin_Smash over on the pokemon ribbon subreddit. it can be found as a reply to this post! i'm attaching a copy of it here just in case that thread is ever made inaccessible in the future, but please go give it an upvote if you use it and it's of help to you, too!

Regardless of the Pokemon, here is my advice for what worked best for me and my Ribbon Masters: ・Move 1: A move that increases in appeal when used first (Thunder Punch, Dragon Claw, Flash Cannon, etc.). This is your "comeback" move when you do poorly in an appeal round. ・Move 2: A move that increases in appeal when performed last (Revenge, Gyro Ball, Assurance, etc.). This is your "Hit while the iron's hot," move. Use this when you do really well in a previous appeal and need a finisher. ・Move 3: Psych Up/Bulk Up/Swords Dance/Dragon Dance/etc. It doubles your next move's score and helps set you up to use Move 1 first in the turn order next turn. Use this when you end up second or third in the turn order. ・Move 4: Protect. It increases in power depending on how low the judge's voltage is, and even on Master Rank there's normally at least one judge with no voltage available to pick. Use this when you get stuck in the second or third turn order -- preferably with a Psych Up boost.

following this template, reides' gen4 contest moveset consisted of hydro pump (part of his learnset), natural gift (bought at the veilstone department store), dragon dance (part of his learnset), and protect (bought at the veilstone department store).

of course, the appeal portion was only one third of the contest itself. i also had to take part in the visual round each time. i wasn't too worried about this, as reides' gen3 sheen transferred over to gen4... which meant that i didn't have to make him a single poffin. like i said before, i also loved gathering the contest accessories as a kid, so i didn't need to grind out any of those either. still, i was sure to skim over this page on serebii, which told me which accessories would score the most points based on the theme provided at the start of the contest. the other part of each super contest was the dancing portion, which was basically just a little rhythm game that didn't really bother me once i got into the swing of things.

i enjoyed these contests a lot, but i do feel like a lot of content was crammed into them. the visual stage in particular is a fantastic addition to the contest format, as i really loved putting accessories on reides, but the time limit that they place on dressing up your pokemon made it unnecessarily stressful at times. with that being said, here are a few costumes that reides wore to various contests.

he's a true model imo.

they were a little bit time consuming, but reides was able to get through these contests pretty painlessly. i didn't lose a single one of them, though i absolutely soft-reset my game every time johanna (the player character's mother) showed up as a fellow competitor. i saw a lot of people say that she posed a huge challenge and i was NOT gonna take my chances. sorry, mom! lmfao.

at this point, reides had a sizeable bulk of the gen4 ribbons... and it was time to face the inevitable. my most dreaded portion of my ribbon master journey: the gen4 battle tower ribbons.

like i said in my gen3 post, this ribbon master challenge is my first foray into the battle tower mechanic in these games. even with my limited experience, i've heard plenty of stories about gen4's battle tower ribbons. all of the tales of streaks breaking due to the ai suddenly 'cheating' had me really nervous - especially since they really ramped up the difficulty in gathering these ribbons for gen4. gen3 had 2 battle tower-related ribbons. gen4, on the other hand, has 6. SIX. i knew i would be here for a while, even if i got lucky and my streaks never broke.

this guy pretty much summed up my thoughts on the matter.

still, i had faith in my team - my beloved companions who made the gen3 battle tower ribbons a lot easier than i thought they'd be. i held my head up high and carried on!!

before entering the tower proper, i knew that i had to change up my team's movesets. gen4 introduced the physical/special split, which meant that the typing of moves no longer dictated if the move was physical or special. for example, BEFORE this split, every single ghost type move was a physical attack move. AFTER the split (i.e. in gen4 and onwards), each move itself was assigned as a physical or special attack regardless of the move's typing. going back to my ghost type example... this meant that you could find ghost-type moves that were special attack moves, too.

my physical attacker, origin the metagross, had to get rid of their shadow ball attack asap, as it became a special attack. i replaced it with zen headbutt but planned on replacing *that* with iron head once i had enough bp for it. i also replaced metal claw with bullet punch. this left them with this moveset:

origin the adamant metagross - earthquake - bullet punch - zen headbutt --> iron head - explosion

as for albatross, i had the opposite problem: his dragon claw was now a physical move. since he is a special attacker, this didn't fit with his stats - so i replaced it with dragon pulse. his final moveset for the battle tower was therefore this:

albatross the timid latios - psychic - dragon pulse - thunderbolt - ice beam

i also refined reides' moveset, getting rid of the moves that i used for the super contests and giving him a set that was more suitable for battle.

reides the bold kingdra - surf - ice beam - dragon pulse - hydro pump

again, as a reminder, i went with a bold nature on my ribbon master kingdra because it suits his personality more! but on the topic of bold legends... i took some time to refine my suicune's moveset, too!

persana the bold suicune - surf - calm mind - rest - sleep talk

i opted to try out a bit of a bulky set for my suicune, since i heard really good things about it!

with my pokemon's moves all sorted out, i walked through the battle tower's doors. first up on the list was the singles tower. i got two ribbons by battling my way through it; one for each time i faced the iconic tower tycoon, palmer. i got the first ribbon - the ability ribbon - after facing him on battle 21, then the other - the great ability ribbon - for facing him on battle 49.

after defeating palmer twice in the singles tower (and being scared half to DEATH while facing his cresselia on battle 49), it was time to take on the doubles tower. i had to win 50 battles in a row there. i'm pleased to say that the metagross + latios combo was still the stuff of legends - though reides and persana also came in clutch MULTIPLE times!

eventually, we got the double ability ribbon, even if we had to face a whole lot of daunting foes during our climb. every time i saw an ice type, i braced myself for a sheer cold inexplicably gaining crazy-good accuracy... and every time i saw a bulky staller, i braced myself for the long wait for those hp bars to go down. sobs.

the third battle tower ribbon that i took on was... a bit of an odd one. you get the multi ability ribbon once you win 50 battles in a row while using an npc as your partner. this meant that my little latios + metagross strategy would no longer be viable, as i would have to rely on another trainer's pokemon to get to 50 wins. i had riley as an option when i took this challenge on, so i decided to pair up with him for the whole tower. he ended up making for an INCREDIBLE partner! in particular, his absol was a huge help. the climb wasn't without its scary moments, but we clutched it out and got through it.

shockingly enough, my streak somehow didn't break at all during my multi ability ribbon climb! given all the horror stories that i heard about this ribbon in particular, i was SUPER relieved. i'm not sure if i got really lucky or if riley is just really, really good - but, either way... thank you riley!!!

once he got the multi ability ribbon, reides' gen4 battle tower conquest came to a sudden halt, though. you see, the remaining two ribbons - the pair ability ribbon and the world ability ribbon - went beyond the scope of my lone file of diamond. the world ability ribbon focused on a wifi-based challenge (which i'll get into later). the pair ability ribbon was similar to the multi ability ribbon, except i would have to get a streak of 50 wins alongside another gen4 file. i couldn't fight along with another npc; it had to be someone i connected with through co-op play. for my purposes, this meant dual-wielding dses. but there was a bit of a catch, here, as - despite owning every other gen4 game, including TWO copies of soulsilver - i didn't have another gen4 game in the post-game like my diamond file. that meant that none of my other gen4 games had access to the battle tower.

upon realizing this, i decided to take the opportunity to replay soulsilver. as i mentioned in my last post, hgss are my favourite pokemon games of all time. you might think that it's odd that i didn't have a fully decorated post-game, in that case - but i have an explanation for that! you see, i loved hgss so much as a kid that i repeatedly transferred out all of my pokemon so that i could replay the plot of the games as much as i pleased. kind of hilarious, i know... anyway, since i also needed to get a ribbon for beating red in hgss' post-game, reides was destined to be part of yet another storyline team.

after planning out my soulsilver storyline team and deciding that i wanted to raise a steelix, i decided to send reides over with a metal coat so that i could evolve an onix early on. pro gamer strats, i know. i picked up a cute little totodile (who i named tapioca!) as my starter and sent reides over to johto as soon as i unlocked trading!

admittedly, i was utterly thrilled to see reides in soulsilver. i didn't care that this would add a HEFTY amount of hours to my ribbon master challenge - not in the slightest!!! being able to explore my favourite region with a pokemon that means so very much to me was a dream come true - especially since hgss has such a flawless implementation of follower pokemon.

i really enjoyed my playthrough and amassed a team that ended up meaning so very much to me. while i kept reides in my party, i obviously didn't use him all that much in battles, as i wanted his younger pals to get experience and catch up with him.

costume the eevee was named after a kid i saw on halloween, who was in a really cute eevee costume! i picked up my eevee that night after the trick-or-treaters left, and my friend cody suggested that i name the eevee after that kid's costume. (fyi, costume ended up evolving into an espeon!)

here are some more pictures of my soulsilver team and me during the course of our amazing journey through johto.

prior to beating the elite four and unlocking the battle tower, i decided to take a little peek at it and instead ran into this guy, who was really, really eager to take on the challenges.

given the sheer amount of grinding that i had been through, along with the amount of grinding that i knew was in my future... i can't say that i shared his enthusiasm. but i respected him for it nonetheless.

eventually, our johto quest led us to the pokemon league. sadly, there is no ribbon linked to beating johto's league and entering its hall of fame, but it was nice to take on everyone regardless.

after a really dramatic showdown against lance in his AMAZING room full of golden dratini statues, we entered johto's hall of fame.

after hours upon hours of time spent in johto, i could finally approach the battle tower again - this time with the goal of getting the pair ability ribbon on reides. grabbing my 3ds, i set up a local wifi room on my copy of diamond (apparently, using a copy of diamond or pearl as the 'leader' means you get to face easier trainers when compared to a platinum or hgss leader) and connected into it on my copy of soulsilver. origin and reides reunited with albatross and persana, and we got ready to get our streak of 50 wins.

the battle tower link multi challenge was actually probably the easiest one i've ever done on the course of reides' journey thus far, though that may have been due to the sheer amount of FOCUS i had on it, LMAO. i really didn't want my streak to break, so i took absolutely zero risks... except for when i had to. and boy, did i have to at one particular point of this climb. on battle 49(!!!), most of my team was knocked out, save for reides. i took a picture, as i wanted to show just how the odds were stacked against my boy. but then... he did something amazing.

reides outsped and took down zapdos with surf (which also dealt damage to registeel), then traded a bunch of attacks with registeel - only to clutch out a win with the luckiest hydro pump i have ever witnessed. he kept the streak alive!! (for context, surf's damage wouldn't have been enough to take down the registeel at that point. if reides' hydro pump missed, registeel would have knocked him out, too.)

soon afterwards, we ended up winning the 50th battle in a MUCH less scary manner - and reides got the pair ability ribbon!

this left me with one last outstanding gen4 battle tower ribbon... the world ability ribbon.

the world ability ribbon is technically unattainable now, as it requires the use of nintendo's now-defunct wifi servers. basically, to get it, you connect to nintendo's servers and download a room consisting of 7 battles. by battling through a bunch of these rooms, you can rank up. once you get to rank 5, your team gets the world ability ribbon. due to the servers' being inaccessible though 'official' means, it's not required for a ribbon master challenge. but people have made fan servers that you can connect to in order to try for the ribbon anyway. the one major drawback to connecting to these servers is that the ds can only connect to wifi hotspots that use either the now-outdated wep security protocol or no security at all. as a result, a lot of people don't really have the means to connect to them... and i was one of these people!

now you might be wondering: why bother with this ribbon if it's not necessary for completing the challenge? the answer is pretty simple. beyond it being a matter of pride, in future generations, all of your pokemon's contest and battle tower ribbons from gen4 and gen3 get consolidated into two memory ribbons. these ribbons are depicted on a silver plaque if you're missing any ribbons and a gold plaque if you managed to get them all. ...so, you're seeing where i'm going with this, right?

people really, really want the gold plaque.

L;FDGKDFL;GK but real talk - pokemon home recently let pokemon with 7 battle ribbons get the gold plaque anyway, so it's just something that people encourage attempting if you have the means. since i didn't have a readily available wifi hotspot that was compatible with the fan servers, i was very much on the fence about taking it on. i decided to procrastinate on making a decision and, instead, wandered out of the battle tower and towards a whole new region: kanto!

the only new ribbon in hgss is the ribbon you get for beating red - and you can only challenge him once you're done with kanto's gym challenge. while journeying kanto and battling these leaders, i also took a bit of a breather in order to complete one of my favourite little sidequests in the pokemon games.

if you collect five of these shiny leaves and put them on your pokemon, your childhood friend back in new bark town will craft them into a beautiful golden crown for your pokemon. unfortunately, no ribbon is attached to completing this sidequest, but it's an absolutely incredible one that also grants you this gorgeous certificate.

empowered by his shiny new crown, reides and i kept up with our kantonian journey - facing each and every gym leader. there's something so special and bittersweet about kanto's status during the johto games. everything is so familiar... but also so different. it was particulary sad to face blaine off in one of the seafoam caverns, as cinnabar had been overrun by a volcanic eruption. but the hope that blaine had for the future of his gym was inspiring, too. it really gave kanto a lot of depth; a sense of its people still having to face challenges, even after your journey as protagonist had ended back in red, blue and yellow.

eventually, we met up with the final gym leader: blue, himself!

upon beating him in battle and getting my 16th gym badge in soulsilver, i gained access to mt silver. i knew that red, the ultimate pokemon trainer, was at the very peak of this lonely mountain teeming with high-levelled pokemon.

i journeyed to the peak as soon as i could. i had every intention of spending a lot of time training in mt silver and even gathered lucky eggs to make the task easier - but, in the end, i couldn't resist challenging red the very moment that i found him.

i'm very, very pleased to say that red still lives up to his status as a legend. his team makes for a very, VERY difficult fight; it's incredibly satisfying to face them all. time and time again, it always lives up to the hype. after duking it out, i managed to emerge victorious... albeit by the skin of my teeth. for being part of the team that won this battle, reides got the legend ribbon.

i was sure to take a picture with the rest of my team during our trek through mt silver, too! without them, this whole journey wouldn't have been possible, after all. we also took a photo together in pallet town, right outside of red's house. since my personal pokemon journey began in kanto with pokemon red version, it was quite the emotional shot. i was really happy to have such a great team with me!

this marked the end of my soulsilver storyline playthrough, but i wasn't quite done with gen4 just yet. i was finally at the world ability ribbon crossroads. feeling emotional over my progress up to this point, i decided that i would try to take it on, as i wanted reides to get that gold plaque from gen6 onwards and i didn't want to bypass an optional ribbon unless i absolutely HAD to do so. this meant that it was time to research just how the hell i would connect to those fan servers.

eventually, i found a thread on the ribbon master subreddit talking about an incredibly simple method of connecting to them. they said that you could use a flashcart or homebrewed 3ds to inject your save into your pc. from that point on, you just needed to run your save on the melonds emulator and use its wifi feature to connect to the dns featured on the poke classic network. (it's also worth noting that you need a rom that's been patched for online play - you can use the wfc patcher to do this). i decided to give this a try, as, before this point, i had no idea that emulators even supported wifi without a billion complicated workarounds. even if it didn't work out, it was super interesting to me.

...and, hilariously enough, it worked out on my very first try! i seriously felt like the 'technology is incredible!' guy who lives in every single starting town of every single pokemon game. i found myself suddenly having the means of getting this elusive ribbon despite gen4's servers being defunct. how incredible is that?! i couldn't be more grateful to the people maintaining those fan servers.

the setup was the first part of my world ability ribbon challenge, though. as awesome as it is to be able to connect to the wifi rooms, those rooms are also NOTORIOUS for being filled with hacked pokemon. popular ones include machamps with the no guard ability (which means that its moves never miss) running sheer cold (a move that can ohko your pokemon; they typically have a very rare chance of hitting) and spiritombs with wonder guard (an ability that makes it so only super effective moves can damage the pokemon with it; spiritombs in gen4 have no weakness).

there are ways to counter these hacked pokemon, however. you can outspeed machamp before it can land sheer cold (or run a focus sash on your pokemon, which will make it survive a sheer cold with 1hp), and you can also decimate spiritombs with wonder guard if you use fire fang against it (fire fang SOMEHOW bypasses wonder guard in gen4; a little happy mistake of a glitch, haha).

in an incredible moment of serendipity, i also found a counter-meta team for these hacked pokemon which included latios AND metagross! i was thrilled, since i already had albatross and origin all trained up. while i had to steal a shuca berry from a wild ponyta trotting about on mt silver, that was easily done. i started training up a garchomp, too... but then i got lazy while ev training him and ended up trying out the rooms with reides instead of a fire fang user. (i'm well aware that this was a really big risk LMAO - if i ran into a single hacked spiritomb, i'd have to take an immediate L and raise that garchomp before facing the room again.)

in selecting the rooms that i wanted to challenge, i opted to download those in the late 20s to 30s range, as those rooms are said to have less hacked pokemon within them. i wasn't sure if that was just a rumor, but i tried it out anyway.

in the end, i had a blast. i really liked seeing everyone's nicknamed pokemon in the rooms that i downloaded. i'm not sure if it's because of the 'late 20s to 30s range' strat or what, but i ran into ONE single hacked pokemon, who i will now proceed to shame:

YEAH. I BET YOU'RE SORRY.

luckily, 'i'm sorry' the machamp wasn't a threat and he didn't get a single sheer cold off on my team. he did, however, land a will o wisp on origin, which had me wondering if he was even running sheer cold to begin with? either way, we beat him up real good!!!

i don't want give that machamp the only shoutout re: this ribbon, though! i also want to show off some of the pokemon that i ran into while working towards rank 5. i believe these pokemon are also taking on the ribbon master challenge.

this is only a small selection of the pokemon that i saw, but i still really loved to meet them all. it made me a bit emotional, too, as i thought about future ribbon masters running into reides the kingdra. :') i can also vouch 100% for the anti-hack team that i posted; if you're struggling with getting this ribbon, definitely give that team a try!!

after grinding through these rooms, my team eventually hit rank 5. reides got the world ability ribbon... the 6th and final gen4 battle tower ribbon, which was also the final ribbon of his gen4 journey.

as you can tell from this absolutely massive post, gen4 was a journey and a half. my god. i'm well aware that most of my time spent in this generation was likely during my soulsilver playthrough, as i wanted to raise a proper team and take my time with the experience, but oh my goodness gracious. i should've known it would've been a monumental task, given the sheer amount of ribbons available... but it still took me by surprise. no regrets, tho. none at all.

i sent reides (and the rest of the pals accompanying him on this ribbon master quest!) to unova, which doesn't have any ribbons. this quick stop-over was still necessary in order to put everyone in pokemon bank, though! once they were there, i sent them over to kalos. at the moment, reides is chillin' and getting ready to take on the generation 6 portion of this quest. in particular, i'm excited to take him to omega ruby, as i got him in emerald version and he's a hoenn baby!

so, yeah! that's how reides' journey though sinnoh and johto played out! i'm super excited to keep on going with this ribbon master journey. just like i said last time, i hope that you'll keep on cheering him on, too!!!

[cephalotyrant]

hiiihiii who out of azurido is more likely to ask the other if they'd still love him if he was a worm? Me personally i think it'd be azul just because he just seems to deal with insecurity and stuff more but a weird part of me can't help but imagine riddle doing the orange peel test on azul

And imagine riddle seeing azul's octopus form T_T he already knows azul is an octopus but actually seeing it for real??? And azul's reaction???? and riddle hesitates or smth and AZUL THINKS HE DISLIKES IT RAHHHHHHH-

Also you've probably scrolled thru their tag onn ao3 but there's this one super good completed longfic featuring them called Petals and Pearls by bedtime_at_four_am (That reminds me BRO I NEED TO GO COMMENT ON IT RAGHHHH) it's a fake-dating au

but yeah they're just goobers aghhhh

and part of me can't help but imagine pre book-6 azurido as like the popular onesided radiostatic trope in hazbin but less.... yk villainy/hateful and more just competitive azul with riddle being so confused where Azul's just trying so hard to get one over on riddle and just constantly scheming while riddle is like... wow that guys weirdly smug i wonder why anyways

like-

Azul: IM GOING TO MAKE THIS BOY PAY FOR UNDERESTIMATING ME JUST YOU SEE

Riddle: Wow he seemed a bit angry. I guess someone made him eat hamburg steak on a tuesday or something

anyways tyy and sorry for taking ur post as a chance to invade ur inbox

YIPPEE A RESPONSE AND ITS FROMMM YOUUU! <3 THE AZUL-ER EVER!

You mention ao3 and I can't help but remember the fact that there is already an Would You Love Me if I Was A Worm fic. (worm dorks) It is Cater's influence on Riddle but the other way around? Hm... Riddle's a very doting person to animals and the worm being his boyfie? yeah he'd take the question extremely seriously and swear his loyalty to worm-Azul. The orange peel test... yeah. Less of a 'test' and more 'Riddle's just not used to peeling his own oranges'. Like he gets a craving for them and royally messes up his first attempt so Azul does it in his stead. After laughing at how bad he is, of course. (But stopping right before he gets too upset about it. I think Azul would be very careful with boundaries, considering his past with bullying and his abilities to read other people's cues.)

Azul is bigger than Jade and Floyd in their merforms... tiny Riddle. I think he'd be shocked to see just how much bigger this previously only 5'9 slimy businessman is. and it'd scare Azul.

F... funny you mention Petals and Pearls... I've been meaning to touch it up and edit it a little.... yeah.... uhm. I check Azul/Riddle on ao3 daily nightly evening-ly. I was there when it was written because ITS IN MY GOOGLEDOCS. HAHAHA. 🥲🥹

...Being everywhere as a contributor to a rarepair is hard. 'Super Good' I'M FLATTERED AND TEARING UP.....

On the bright side. While drowning in wips from all sides I'm already drafting my NEXT ONE. It's the exact opposite. No one believes that they're NOT dating (it's the newspaper's fault..) 🙏

Never watched Hazbin! But (Idia or Cater, cant remember) have mentioned that they've only been classmates in their current year, which means it's totally possible that Riddle used to Be Azul's classmate. Add the fact that they were pre-overblot, and it goes crazy. Like rough draft but imagine,

"I'd appreciate it if you focused on the professor, Azul."

(What Azul hears) "Don't waste my time, stupid octopus. I'm already a housewarden you're not on my level. loser."

And Azul vows to get him. The end.

Which makes a funny juxtaposition because Jamil’s ACTUALLY like "Leave me alone, stupid octopus. Just leave me alone. Loser."

Please take over my inbox whenever you want. This padded room is lonely.

[fyrets]

June 2024 KS Check In Review

Time flies and we're back here again and OHHH MY GOD ITS CRAZY

We're moving to the stuff I care about uhhhh MOONTAILS! THEY ARE LOOKING GOOD!!! This one is my favorite palette so far. They are so ice creams

NEW BOVINES!!!!!!! SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I previously wasn't really into the kit artwork but something about it now is so sweet I love it a lot.

BUT YOU GUYS ALREADY KNOW WHAT I'M GOING INSANE OVER

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT.

FYRETS REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i feel so so so so so so crazy im insane im gonna be sick im gonna die im gonna die im not gonna make it ohhh my god they're so beautiful i need them now right now please please please please please I'll do anything I'll do anything I'll do anything I NEED THEM NOWWW RIGHT NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Uhh then we have some backdrops that are pretty neat. Giving me Italy. Sorry its jojo worms.

Incense! I actually kinda don't like how they look like as items but its like caring about what flight rising eggs look like it's not a big deal.

Recolors! Very neat! I'm actually kind of intrigued by the fact the cats modeling the accessories are a very dark black or white. Of course this is the first time fully showcasing a bunch of recolors but I kinda wonder if my ramblings about the regal set last update influenced this decision on presentation. I guess I'll never know!

and finally.......... Reddit. I don't have much to say on this one actually. I'm pretty open to the concept but I get why people would be hesitant. I don't know. I'll have to try it out myself to have a strong opinion on it.

aaaand thats about everything interesting from this update imo. pretty good! i think the new faq dropping was a bit more exciting though.