#this post probably doesn’t make any sense

[detta-pica]

“You need to do your oldschool detective schtick,” Satoru says, still rubbing his leg. Suguru wants to do it for him. As much as they touch, reaching out to each other constantly, he always wants his hands on Satoru’s skin. Suguru doesn’t think he’s ever felt so covetous of anything else. And Satoru knows. He must know. There’s no way Suguru has managed to hide this when his aura floods with adoration at the most innocuous of prompts. Defeated, he picks a spot he can’t see--under the bed they’re resting on--and pulls at the hidden stores of magic that make up a part of his soul. Dragon jumps up onto the mattress moments later and immediately settles against Satoru’s side, purring with the subtlety of a lawnmower. Satoru laughs, sinks his fingers into the cat’s white, fluffy fur. The touch ripples across the very core of Suguru’s being, unfairly soothing for how many boundaries it crosses. “You’re helping,” Suguru says, as sternly as he can while a piece of his soul preens under Satoru’s attention. He grabs the thick file folders from the desk, full of information about the case, and begins spreading them over the empty bed. “Use your big brain for once.” “Well shit. With that kind of encouragement, I’d better.” Perhaps sensing Suguru’s momentary weakness, Satoru summons his own familiar, a slick black cat with purple eyes. Six takes a moment to brush up against Suguru’s shins, then retreats to one of the pillows. It’s funny that the cats not only look like their human counterparts, but also behave similarly. Dragon, clingy and obnoxious, sticks close to Satoru’s side, big blue eyes unblinking. Probably it says something about Suguru, since it’s his familiar. And Six’s behaviour should be a reflection on Satoru. Suguru has his theories about why the cats act the way they act. He’d rather die than speak them out loud.

Another witch AU snippet for WIP Wednesday. It's from a pre-time skip story that I've been sitting on for months now, but can't post.

I've realised that part 8 is going to be a lot longer and more complex than I thought, and I absolutely need to have it fully drafted before I publish any further stories in the series, in case I need to sneak in foreshadowing or adjust some things. So it might take me a little while.

In the meantime, I'm planning a little something for the 7th of December and Christmas Eve.

[shrimshrim4fun]

Headcanons for Camellya:

Note: How do I see nothing about her 😭 Nobody writes about her, does nobody want content about her? I’m planning on posting about her more this week, anybody interested at all 😓

SFW:

-A very bit tease. Makes light jokes about how you do certain things but cannot handle other people teasing you. Even if it’s jokingly, she will glare at them and is proabably planning how she’s gonna torture them

-Loves clinging onto you especially when she’s napping. The vines from her body sprout out and wrap around you to keep you close not wanting you to leave. Her head usually pressed up against your chest as you both lay in the sun

-Your house is now filled with different flowers and plants. So many flowers everywhere. Even though there are so many the scent is pleasant like an alluring perfume. She loves it when you help take care of them with her. “How considerate of you, helping me water all of them. I hope you’re as excited as I am waiting for them to bloom…”

-Hates it when you’re out of her sight. She’ll find some way to keep track of where you’re going. In some way absolutely despises all your friends saying that they’re keeping you away from her and that you should get rid of them. Shes also really possessive always having a hand around you in public or clinging onto you. She’s obsessed and hates when you leave her side. “They’re trying to deprive me of the one thing that can make me happy. Oh isn’t it so mean of them…but don’t worry I can make them all poof if you let me”

-Sometimes she gets hurt on purpose because she knows you’ll give her extra attention that day to tend to her injuries. She never gets injuries but she’ll make injuries on herself and dismisses it if other people ask. But with you she’ll be so exaggerative when you ask her about it and you’re the only one that she allows to treat her injuries. She love seeing the worried look on your face as if you actually cared. Usually these injuries are large and bloody. She’ll look at you fondly with a smug smile on her face as you tend to them. “Aren’t you gonna kiss them well? I promise that I’ll feel 100 times better if you kiss it better for me”

NSFW:

-Very expressive and loud. She doesn’t care if others can hear her, she’ll only giggle before getting louder. Will tell you how much she loves what you’re doing and how happy she is. “Oh yes~ you’re so good it’s making me crave more…MORE”

-A massive masochist. Love any and all pain you inflict onto her. The more it hurts the better. Temperature play, whipping, paddles, anything you want. Probably a sadist as well but more enjoys it when you inflict it onto her. She moans so much more every time you cause pain on her body. Will stare at herself in the mirror afterward to admire your work.

-Loves leaving marks on your body especially if it’s any that someone else can see like hickeys on your neck. So so so many claw marks on your back. A lot of the time she draws blood on these marking and will lick the blood away. Loving the metallic taste in her mouth. After sex, she sometimes stares at them with a proud smile. Isn’t too much of a biter but will occasionally nip your neck to catch you off guard. “Oh your even more beautiful like this, I wish to make you bleed my dear~”

-Mirror sex is a huge turn on for her. When you bend her over and slam the strap into her ass. My hand tugging her hair up as she sees herself in the mirror. The saliva slipping down the side of her mouth and how messy you two are entangled together like two vines.

-Aftercare consists a hot bath together and laying in bed. Usually with her laying against her, as she traces the red claw marks on your back as she hums softly. Your hand gently rubbing her back as you reassure her. The smell of her shampoo engulfs your senses as you nuzzle into her neck

[ekaterin1701]

Yes, she does 🤦‍♀️

A couple of comments to the original post point out that the show-runners couldn’t go any further with Sam and Jack’s relationship, it gives Sam a love interest who doesn’t get killed off, and the portrayal of toxic traits like stalking as romantic happens in a lot of romance books and films - all true!

I also think the events of ‘Grace’ are significant - not just the hallucinations, but the moment when Sam wakes up in the infirmary with Jack by her bed, and he reprimands her for saying his first name. To me, Sam interprets that as Jack clearly communicating that he doesn’t want to be anything more, or that they can’t be anything more.

The other key issue is that Sam is in her mid-30s at this point, and if you’re considering having children, that’s the time you need to make a decision about it.

From her point of view, she’s been rejected by the man she has feelings for, she’s got to an age where she needs to think about having children sooner rather than later if she wants them, she probably doesn’t have much time to meet potential dates… Pete isn’t perfect, but he’s not completely put off by her weird life and comes across as a Nice Guy. It makes sense in that context.

Hey so quick question, stargate peeps.

In chimera, we meet pete. He ends up being angry at her for not telling him when she says it could risk his life, tells her he's leaving but doesnt really, calling a background check on Sam, stalks her to a stake-out and stakes out the stakeout, probably also has followed her to chayenne previously, comes up to her when she's obviously in the middle of an op, gets himself injured and sam goes "aww, youre so cute" AND KEEPS DATING HIM?!

[sidecharactersdomatter]

I started reading Alice in Wonderland because of Lydia the Bard’s latest song, and a desire to watch the titular 1951 animated movie. Here’s what I noticed about the development of Alice’s villain persona:

In the very first chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, we learn that Alice reassures herself saying, “Come, there’s no use in crying like that!” And “I advise you to leave off this minute!” In a somewhat strict and harsh tone. (Which hints at her darker half)

In that same chapter it’s revealed she admonished herself she started crying during playing croquet with just herself that “…for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people.” (Another quote from chapter one that reflects the animatic for Lydia’s song)

Alice’s dark half fully emerges throughout “I only paint in red now” managing to manifest a physical form thanks to Alice deep seated confusion of surviving Wonderland and harshly criticizing herself in every puzzling situation. This is made clear when the mad Alice self physically attacked her as shown hitting our innocent Alice at the Mad Hatter’s table and trapping her in the looking glass. This manifestation of Alice’s twisted half grew because of Wonderland negatively effecting Alice, “Why there’s hardly enough of me left to make to one respectable person!”

Lydia really did her homework creating Alice’s villain song because Alice’s harsh scolding made her mental state go from bad to worse in her AU. Now I want to free the actual Alice from the looking glass, affectionately embrace her before helping defeat her Wonderland self.

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

Batman Annual #25

Before Talia took him in, before he was dunked in the pit to have his memories restored, even when operating purely on survival instinct, he always split a meal with the other homeless people. It may not have been essential to his survival, but caring about and helping other people when he couldn’t even help himself was just always such an intrinsic part of Jason’s core.

[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?

[bayfuzzball7050]

@jotaromonth day 25 - week 4 (Character - Favourite ship :33)

Eepy jotakak is my reason to live

Bonus:

I LOVE THE IRENEVERSE LESBIANS :3333

[hylianane]

A big part of the Haikyuu rewatch is watching the characters interact and worrying that I fandomized their relationships too much in my head, particularly with the Karasuno first years because Hinata and Kags keep Yamaguchi and Tsukishima at arm’s length for so long. But then I remember. Oh wait the squad is literally Hinata’s phone background by the end of the story. You don’t put a picture of just some dudes in your after school club as your phone background.

[leceittthinksthisisnifty]

Toph’s love language being physical violence

[male-duckk]

thinking abt joe/carlos

[thedreadpirateholmes]

I like to say that words are hard. But that’s not necessarily what I mean.

What I mean is that emotions are difficult to grasp even without words, and trying to put them into words so that another might understand them seems impossible at times.

We could make up words to express what we mean (I know there are some who are trying to do so), but then we must come up with definitions for them.

How am I meant to define the grasp the moon has against the ebb and flow of my heart, plucking its strings with every fleeting glimpse through my window at two in the morning? The kind of call that dances in the blood, jittering the feet, wilding the eyes? How am I meant to define the cracked rib tightening that enthralls my chest every time I let the thought of Society tell me no, of Age tell me no, of Normalcy tell me no? How am I meant to define the panicked scream clawing at my throat every time I think the phrase “I want to live”, remembering that I am living, but I’m also dying with every tick of the clock on the work week wall that slides the lock into place for hours at a time?

What should be the word for longing to dance under the moon, unburdened and uncaring, until the thunderous heartbeats break through the heavens and the stars unleash the deluge you’ve kept hidden from the daylight - cheering and chanting until you collapse breathless and giddy, giggling mist and defiance into the morning air?

What other word would be able to encapsulate the breadth of finally letting yourself live?

[castleofravens]

i don’t like keefe in kotlc canon bc he’s manipulative often and everyone acts like it’s fine and nobody really calls him out on it and yes i am aware he’s a product of his environment and he doesn’t know he’s doing it however if i were to raise my hand and accidentally hit someone behind me or smth i still hurt them and that would still require an apology, just bc you didn’t intentionally do something doesn’t mean people weren’t harmed by it

[solarwynd]

There is such a good alternate version of the OG track in here minus the dance mixing (not that it was bad cause I think the production is good) but if they wanted to use it in place of the OG.

[wuzhere75]

I tend not to get into “WOF meta” that much since I tend to find that stuff kind of cringe. However I came to the realization that part of what made the original books stand out, at least in my experience, was how “morally grey” the conflict was. Not in the way that morally grey characters are prominent in the conflict, but in that every obvious solution for a conflict and every side of the conflict kind of sucks. There’s a lot more obvious “good vs evil” in arcs 2 and 3, or at least a more definite “morally good” end goal. Over half of the first arc was the central characters just trying to survive, something darkly reflected with more villainous groups like the Nightwings. Nevermind the actual goal the protagonists are supposed to solve, of which there is no obvious good solution. The one group that should be outright helpful to them, the Talons of Peace, is probably one of the most dangerous groups they could encounter. Almost every authority figure, from their parents to queens, the dragonets encounter are at best unhelpful. The only ultimate message is one about the strength of friendship and that war is hell.

[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.

[mecub]

Sometimes I think about the things that I’m insecure about and realize that they’re sort of like something I would write for an English paper— there’s enough evidence I’m favor of them that they can make sense and be proven, but only if you justify them with enough complete bullshit