#this doesn’t make any sense I will be deleting

[vcrnons]

,

[formereldestdaughter]

ok wait i need to hear more of your thoughts on peeta owning a bakery....

This is one of those rare times where I’m pretty sure this anon isn’t someone I know personally bc I’ve subjected anyone who will listen to my rant about the Peeta Bakery Headcanon. Anyway, you’re gonna regret asking this anon bc there are fucking Layers here.

I know this is probably a controversial take based on the number of fics where I’ve seen it, but I simply do not think that Peeta would open a commercial bakery after Mockingjay!! Like on a metatextual level, I don’t think it really fits with the point of the ending of the series. It actually sort of fascinates me that it’s just such a common headcanon because the ending of Mockingjay is exceedingly vague. I think that vagueness invites us, as readers, to imagine a better world post-revolution. A world where Katniss would feel confident that her children would be safe from injustice, where she’d feel confident that her children would never know want the way she did as a child. A just world. A kinder world. Can a capitalist society ever be just? Is a capitalist society where a disabled teenager has no other means to subsist himself (or feels like there’s no other way he can be a contributing member of his community) really the post-revolution world we dream of? Is that really the best we can imagine?

(This got so insanely long I’m adding a read more lmao)

I get that showing a better world is not always the point of post-mockingjay headcanons/fics. Like there are plenty of really great post-mockingjay fics I’ve seen where, yeah, part of the fic is that society like ISN’T all that different or all that much better. I’ve seen that really well done! Hell, I’ve written them myself! It’s easy to imagine how a lot of aspects of society would not get an overhaul, a lot of the same structural inequalities would continue to exist. One headcanon that really stuck with me (I can’t remember which fic it was from) was that Peeta sells basically mail order baked goods to people on the Capitol, sending them iced cakes and pastries by train, because there are still people who were “fans” of theirs during the Games. And idk this doesn’t actually have much to do with my point lol but I liked it because it’s kind of fucked up and like! Yeah! It makes sense! If he needed money that would be a good way to make it! War often makes people rich, often for horrible reasons, and often it’s people who already have capital in the first place.

Anyway, more about the hypothetical bakery because alright. I bring up the fact that “yeah society not being all that different post-revolution and still being an unjust capitalist hellscape” could be a reason why Peeta re-opens a bakery because that’s actually never the types of fics where I see the bakery headcanon. Fics where Peeta opens a bakery are usually trying to make the exact opposite point. Like. Things are getting better, now he can open a bakery! Look at how much better the world is now, plus he’s got a bakery! Peeta is healing, that’s why he can open a bakery now! And I am so, so sorry to inform everyone who’s never had the grave misfortune of owning a family business, but there is truly nothing further from the truth lmao. Like just putting aside the immense amount of emotional baggage that Peeta has about his family, running a small business is an insane amount of work in any context and being a baker especially is physically grueling and involves early hours (and long hours) that aren’t really the best fit with the multiple ways that Peeta is disabled now. (I could go into this more because I have a lot of thoughts. But I will spare you.). I also think it’s seen throughout the books that Peeta is someone who needs time to pursue creative outlets to process his feelings and someone who values leisure and values quality time with his loved ones. And having grown up in his family’s bakery, I think he’d understand the reality that running a bakery wouldn’t leave much space of those pursuits and wouldn’t leave much space for him to have the things that keep him healthy and stable. I think he’d know that the way he is now— after two Games and the war and unspeakable torture at the hands of a dictator—isn’t compatible with the lifestyle necessary for running a commercial bakery.

And tbh with that in mind, I don’t think he’d push himself to re-open a business (one that would be a constant reminder of his dead family and his complicated relationships with them that got no closure) that would require him to sacrifice his physical and emotional well-being. Like I think he might look into the possibility, I think he might even start trying to open a bakery out of a sense of obligation/duty, maybe harboring some idea that this is who he was supposed to be, who he would've been without the Games, or that it’s this last piece of his family that can live on, or that it’s this last connection to his family so he can’t let it die too. But ultimately, I think any attempt to open a bakery wouldn’t get very far. Maybe he'd start wading into the logistical nightmare that is small business ownership and realize it's not for him (because it's probably also true that as much as him and his brothers were involved in the business, there's almost certainly parts they weren't involved with and didn't see, i.e., filing taxes). Or maybe looking into opening a bakery— how triggering it is, the stress of it— causes a downward spiral. Maybe he hates how much he's worrying everyone by unraveling. Maybe having a breakdown from the stress of just trying to open a bakery makes him realize, yeah, maybe in another life he would have ran his family’s bakery but the way he is now just doesn’t work with running a bakery, not without great sacrifices he's not willing to make. I just can’t see a bakery coming to fruition.

I know a lot of fics include Peeta deciding to reopen a bakery as a big step in his healing or include him rebuilding a bakery as part of his healing process but honestly, I think the opposite would be more true: I think Peeta either trying/failing to open a bakery or ultimately deciding not to open a bakery would be hugely healing for him. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way he is now as a person, his new limitations but also his strengths. I think it would be a huge part of him accepting the way his life his now and accepting that he likes his life the way it is, that he’s satisfied with his life without needing to own a bakery. I think it would be an important part of him coming to terms with the loss of his family. I think he knows he can never have things back as they were and I don’t think he would try to recreate them, especially because his family’s legacy isn’t a business. I think he’s emotionally intelligent enough and self reflective enough to realize that what mattered to him about the bakery— taking care of others by feeding them, being integrated into his community and being actively involved in it, brightening people’s days with delightful things whether that’s beautiful cakes or hearty food or delicious treats— and the things he learned from his family through the bakery, are things that he can carry on in other meaningful ways.

(Do you regret sending this ask yet, anon? Because if not, you will soon. I’m not done yet. There’s more.)

I wasn’t really sure where to put this next part in what is rapidly becoming an essay because it sort of combines the points about like “what do we imagine a post-mockingjay society to look like” with the practical difficulties of starting this bakery but here’s another thing: do people really think that the Mellarks owned the land the bakery was on?? Like, sure, the merchants are the petit bourgeois of Twelve but I still don’t imagine they really own anything. In a society where houses are assigned to people upon marriage, where property ownership and capital are so closely interconnected with citizenship (as shown by the Plinths who, by having immense capital, are able to leave their District and become citizens of the Capitol) do people really think the Mellarks would be allowed to own the land their bakery is on?? I always imagined it sort of like a tenant farming situation: the Capitol gives them the raw materials for the bakery and in return the bakery give them some absurdly high portion of their profits, or the Capitol sells them a year’s supply of raw materials at a premium on credit and at the end of the year the Mellarks have to use the money they made with those materials to pay it back, except it’s never enough to turn a profit so they always have to buy next year’s materials on credit and the cycle continues.

We (understandably) get a really skewed view of the merchant class through Katniss’s perspective so I can see why people come to the conclusion that his family owned the property and, as the last surviving member, he would’ve inherited it. I’ve seen the inheritance thing in fics a lot or a hand wavey “well Twelve was decimated to no one owns anything anymore so it can be his” or even like an almost sort of reparations type situation where he’s entitled to the land as a surviving refugee of Twelve. But I don’t know. I guess I don’t think it fits with everything else we know about Panem that the Mellarks would’ve owned that land and I think the question of whether the government would’ve let him take ownership of the land post-revolution brings up a lot of issues about the structure of society post-Mockingjay that I find more interesting to explore in other ways, especially when, from an emotional perspective, 1) I find the idea of Peeta not opening a bakery more compelling and 2) I don’t think it really fits his character arc by the end of Mockingjay to reopen a bakery, as I went on about at length above lol.

On the flip side: literally who cares!! Do whatever you want!! Headcanon whatever you want!! I get why people go for the bakery!! It’s fun, it’s wholesome, it’s a built in bakery AU that isn’t even an AU. It doesn’t matter if it’s practical or realistic!! It doesn’t need to be practical or realistic!! It’s fanfic of a dystopian YA series!! My unfortunate affliction is that I grew up in a family that owned a restaurant and that I have multiple degrees in the social sciences so I can’t see the bakery without being like “What about the overheard? What about the start up costs? Who’s spending long nights balancing the books? Is Peeta covering shifts when an employee calls in sick? Is Peeta the sole person working there until the bakery is open long enough (often a year or more) to start turning a profit? How does that sleep schedule work with his nightmares? How does that work with Katniss’s nightmares? What happens when he has an episode and suddenly needs to take the day off before he has any employees? Does the bakery just remain closed for the day? Can the profit margins withstand regular unexpected closures? Can the supplies withstand regular unexpected closures?” And if the answer is “Elliott none of those things matter he’s not doing the bakery because he needs the money but because he wants to”, then my question is why does he want to? Does he not get the same sort of satisfaction out of feeding his loved ones? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would rather give away baked goods than sell them?? Doesn’t Peeta seem like someone who would prefer to make cakes for people’s special occasions upon and then when they insist on paying him for it, he only lets them “pay for the ingredients” which actually cost significantly more than he says they did??

So yeah my point is that it’s a matter of personal taste! It doesn’t fit the way I see the series but that doesn’t mean it’s like wrong, I’m not an authority on Peeta lmao.

It’s also a matter of personal taste in the sense that I find the themes that most resonate with me at the end of Mockingjay (and the end of Peeta’s arc specifically) more interesting to explore in other ways. Grief, living with loss, relearning yourself, finding hope, figuring out your place in a dramatically different world when you don’t even know who you are anymore, healing, building a new life after such complete and total destruction of your old life— those are all things I find compelling about the end of Mockingjay but for me the bakery isn’t the most compelling way to explore them.

Not to say I find the concept of the bakery totally uninteresting. I have this fic about Johanna that I’ll probably never finish where the point sort of is that, yeah, her life really isn’t all that much better after the war. It’s been years at this point and she’s still miserable and she doesn’t know how to be a person but by the end she’s trying to figure it out. And towards the end, Peeta tells her that he’s spent years sort of passively, half-heartedly trying to figure out how to inherit the land his family’s bakery was on, only to find out it was never theirs in the first place. They’d been renting it the whole time and he’d never even known as a kid. So he sort of passively, half-heartedly went on another wild goose chase to find the owner and now, finally, after years of writing to various government agencies and being sent in circles and things being barely functional, he’s managed to track down the owner. Now it’s owned by the daughter of the man who owned it when he was a kid because the original owner (who was likely up to some sketchy war crime shit) died during the war and she inherited it (the irony…). He got in contact with her and asked how much it would take for her to sell it and she told him she’s not interested in selling but in light of the situation, in light of the fact that he’d have to build a new building in order to operate a bakery, that she’d cut him a deal— she’d only require 50% of the bakery’s profits as rent instead of the 80% his family used to pay. And of course Johanna is outraged, that’s not right, the owner shouldn’t be allowed to do that, they should do something about it, they should fight back. And Peeta is like. Not interested. He was actually sort of relieved that opening wasn’t very feasible. Getting the answer was a lightbulb moment where he saw that over the years of trying to look into this, he’s built a life that he likes— one where he’s stable, where his loved ones are stable, where he’s cared for and can care for others— and he doesn’t really want to change it drastically by opening a bakery anyway. He just needed an answer, one way or another, before he could get some closure and move on. (And the point of the conversation is Johanna is having her own lightbulb moment that it’s okay to move on, it’s okay to change, it’s not a betrayal of the people and things she’s lost but that’s not my point here!!).

But anyway. That’s obviously not about running the bakery— it’s about the choice to not run one.

Anyway!! Anyway… are you satisfied anon? Is this what you wanted?

Lastly, here is my most important qualm with the bakery headcanon: must Peeta be gainfully employed? Is it not enough for him to be Katniss’s boytoy? Can’t he just paint and garden and bake and hang out with his girlfriend all day? Is that really too much to ask?

[hollyleavees]

Something I’m super excited to see be elaborated on in the DLC are all those loose ends left in the Scarlet/Violet book, and I’ve had an insane number of ideas pinging around my skull like a game of pong trying to piece everything together so please bear with me for a sec.

The most interesting page in the Scarlet/Violet book for me is the “Phantom Memory” excerpt, where Heath writes this:

I can’t really decipher anything from the sketches, but from what I can guess, I’d say that the diagram in the top left is either a detailed reconstruction of the third legendary’s hexagonal shell plates or a possible inspiration for Sada and Turo’s Tera Orbs.

But onto the most interesting part of this page: Heath’s conversation with an unknown second party in a location he claimed resembled “a dream”. Whoever he spoke with, they made absolutely sure that he left with the information on that page, whatever it may be, even going as far as to—assumedly—borrow his body and write it down for him.

This page isn’t the only one to mention Heath’s separation from the research team, though:

“A Disk Pokèmon?: While separated from the research team in the crater’s depths, I found a strange…entity. Whether it was a Pokèmon, or even alive at all, I know not. It bore a shell with layers of overlapping hexagons, and gleamed brighter still than gemstone. Viewed as a whole, it resembled a mysterious, brilliant disk.”

Heath mentions that the entity he encountered prior to falling unconscious doesn’t appear to be alive, and this distinction leads me to think that this creature—most likely the third legendary—is who he spoke with during his out-of-body experience. And like I mentioned earlier, for some reason this entity wanted him to leave Area Zero with information relating to the terastallization phenomenon, which is directly tied to energy being exuded by the crystals in the Great Crater of Paldea. Similar to how Eternatus discharged Galar particles that could be used for Dynamaxing, this third legendary is the root of this energy. Which leads me into my next thought:

The “This energy can alter the function of living things…” part in particular is what caught my eye. This energy affects organic life as a whole, not just Pokèmon, who terastallize; so then what effects do humans experience under these same circumstances? Does it relate back to Heath’s loss of memory/consciousness and him suddenly having that unexplained page of information?

I think it does, because Heath isn’t the only person who may have inexplicably garnered knowledge due to the crystals:

I originally interpreted this piece of dialogue as “Humans don’t have the technology or energy necessary to accommodate such a technological leap quite yet”, but the AI’s use of “knowledge” implies its a lack of intelligence that’s the problem. Therefore, it’s suggested that after being exposed to the crystals, Sada and Turo suddenly had the intellect required to craft the most advanced AI ever produced. I wonder if they experienced something similar to Heath and spoke with the same unfamiliar entity that he did. In the first research lab base, you can find the first of the professor’s journals in which they actually refer to the entity by name; it’s scrubbed out, though.

The history classes also have some tid-bits that may relate back to this topic too. Raifort mentions in one of her lectures that after researchers discovered terstallized Pokèmon in Area Zero, they tried to bring them to the surface; once they brought them all the way back up, though, the crystal had vanished. So terastallizing was only possible down in Area Zero, where the energy was concentrated and easily accessible. That was 87 years ago; now in the present day, not only can terastallized Pokèmon be found wandering Paldea, but whole swathes of crystals are forming above ground due to energy leaks from Area Zero. I don’t think it’s ever stated when terastallizing began to occur outside of the crater, but I’m curious if Sada and Turo’s invention of the Tera Orbs—or the construction of the time machine—may be connected.

And that’s not all; the crystals’ relation to time travel is also significant, as alluded by Arven’s dialogue in the post-game, when he’s going through his parent’s research articles in the academy lobby (I don’t have screenshots, unfortunately). Somehow, prior to and independent of the time machine, Paradox Pokèmon have been appearing in Area Zero and Area Zero only. Additionally, the AI brings up that the Great Crater is shrouded by a barrier of some kind, a barrier that a few Paradox Pokèmon have managed to breach, such as Great Tusks and Iron Treads. I assume the Disk Pokèmon is able to traverse time to some degree, whether it be seeing through the past and future or—like a time-related version of Hoopa—dragging specimens through time to the present.

Finally, all of this culminates into this question: for what reason would the third legendary need to impart knowledge about it’s own power to humanity’s brightest? I think it ties back to another page in the Scarlet/Violet Book:

These metal plates are scattered throughout Area Zero, and they keep reminding me of the stakes trapping the Paldean Treasure legendaries up on the surface. They can’t be destroyed easily, and the metal that they’re made out of wasn’t able to be identified by Heath and his team.

So, my theory is this: the Disk Pokèmon, for whatever reason (possible ecological collapse?), was confined to the deepest part of Area Zero. The metal plates dispersed around the site conduct the unseen barrier surrounding the Great Crater, and its this barrier that keeps the entity imprisoned; chances are, the legendary’s own power was harnessed against it and used as a source to fuel the barrier. However, Paradox Pokèmon—some of them, at least—are able to circumvent it and break through, and as the AI states, if enough Pokèmon do, the barrier will shatter. The Disk Pokèmon was likely weakened by the plates, though; it’s only able to bring so many Paradox Pokèmon into Area Zero at a time. In order to escape, it’ll need outside help, and through it’s gift of foresight it knows that a human—one blinded by a dream of paradise—will be key to destroying the barrier surrounding the crater. All it needs to do is pull some strings: give Heath the necessary information about the crystals to publish in his Scarlet/Violet Book, thus introducing the means by which the time machine + Tera Orbs can be built and stoking the professor’s interest in the crater; “introduce itself” once the professor is down in Area Zero to start research for the Tera Orb project, allowing them to further understand where this energy originates; and offer its insight to the professor after their team and research/romantic partner leaves them on their own to build the time machine—it too dreams of paradise, a paradise where it can be free, and so its willing to offer knowledge in exchange for their dream to come true. Through the Tera Orbs and the construction of the time machine, energy is being expelled from Area Zero, which then means the plates have less to power the barrier. And with each Paradox Pokèmon that is brought to the present through the time machine, the barrier is able to keep less and less from slipping through. With a brittle barrier and an influx of Paradox Pokèmon, the Disk Pokèmon is set to escape…until you shut down the Paradise Protection Protocol, and it’s seemingly game over. But with control over time and abstract communication, the legendary isn’t short of options: maybe it would pull the deceased professor into the present from the past to finish what they started? Maybe it would try to communicate with the other parent and research partner, the one that left? Or, maybe it tries to reach out to you, the player, and tricks you into releasing it? In short, I need more of that “human + legendary Pokèmon cooperate for a common interest” villain dynamic.

Is it way too plot-heavy and definitely farfetched for a DLC? Oh definitely, but the idea of an immaterial legendary Pokèmon taking advantage of humanity’s thirst for knowledge in order to free itself or achieve some other motive sounds sick and now I’m obsessed with it.

[look-better-in-gold]

one thing i think one piece fans forget is that for most of the characters in it having the d initial doesn’t mean anything. we don’t find out it’s anything to think about until skypiea while robin is talking to gan fall (who met roger) and he says “d.? i see. one letter of his name… that can’t just be a coincidence!!!” and laughs. we only know what we do bc luffy’s the main character. i guess you could argue kureha saying roger’s name is gol d. roger at the end of drum counts but it’s brushed off and you’re not like. encouraged to think about why it’s different. she only knows this bc she’s a REALLY old lady who was around when roger first set out. and gan fall met roger. law knows about it from cora, Who Used To Be A Celestial Dragon. nobody who knows about it is a normal citizen. the world government wants it to be a secret. they successfully wiped out 100 years of history. “the will of d.” or those “eat like a d.” jokes are NOT something everyone is making!!! GUYS. WE ONLY KNOW BECAUSE WE’RE THE VIEWERS. WE’RE WATCHING THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. NOT EVERYONE WILL KNOW WHAT THEY DO!!!!

[twistedappletree]

lmao

[xgoldenlatiasx]

I feel like I’m at a point where OCD has taken over my life so so badly but I can’t get the help I probably need because of my current living situation, and the only thing I wanna do these days is engage with things I enjoy to at least help me get through it until I am able to, but even with that the moral aspect of my OCD keeps telling me I’m a terrible person if I engage with fun stuff for TOO long

[joskippy]

I hope the amount of research I have to do for c:u! shows because it’s the most frustrating aspect of this project LOL

[jesstasticvoyage]

I hate how bothered I am about Sam not being nominated. It just doesn’t make sense how Riley and Camila were nominated (don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for them) but for him to not make the cut?? The three of them worked together to create that dynamic we watched unfold in the show!

Just frustrating for Sam to not get recognized for the hard work he puts into every single project he does. And I know he doesn’t choose these projects for awards or praise. Not anymore. And he’ll continue to cheerlead those who do get their recognition because that’s the kind of man he is. The kind who will show nothing but love and support for others.

I don’t even know what the hell this post is. I’m tired, cranky, and annoyed. I better go to bed

[milflewis]

feeling v . hmm. interesting

[withoutatrace-pkmn]

when you die and come back wrong but you were already so fucked up it made no meaningful difference

[scionshtola]

i guess if i had criticisms of or like. wishes. for the writing on shtola it would be that i would like to see more how her being blind actually affects her and for her to face something that really made her struggle with her convictions

[diari0deglierrori]

Seriously…. And then they ask why I’m mad so often

[hedgewitchnecromancer]

Love that Pinterest just doesn’t accept any user feedback

[itsahotsecondafter]

.

[priestfrommidnightmass]

and if it helps. if you think i talk abt him like a crazy person you genuinely should hear how my parents talk about him oh my GOD. any time i say his name they both literally Aww and have to gush abt him for a minimum of two minutes. i’m not even joking like. every time. sometimes i don’t even have to mention him first they just bring him up and talk about how they love him. even my dad who usually is not invested in any of my relationships and has to ask “who” when i mention a friend gives him these cutesy nicknames. and when he didn’t wave back at my dad while standing outside the party i was being picked up from my dad was genuinely upset for like two days because “he didn’t know who i was”. he’s friends with them both on facebook. when i’m in a ‘in love with this guy’ competition and my parents walk in

[lilgynt]

oh i can’t do an interview tomorrow would there be any other day available? “yes tomorrow at 10”yeah no still unavailable tomorrow