#to get pokemon you're not supposed to have at this point in the game. bc FUCK YOU‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️💥💥💥💥💥

[moe-broey]

Yesterday I remembered Soul Silver existed

I love how my team is like... a mix of basic and huh. Where'd you get That..... that's kinda the gimmick behind it though! Plus, making choices I typically wouldn't make. Like, usually I'd pick Umbreon over Espeon, I've never actually used the red Gyarados in a playthrough before. There are some Pokemon in Johto that are near impossible for me to say no to though (Chikorita line they could NEVER make me hate you.... Togepi line is Always a given for me. But even then, I'm p sure you're not supposed to have the stone to fully evolve it at this point -- I traded one in!)

Most notable team members...

This was a lucky find! I wasn't even using the Radar. Impulsively I REALLY wanted to shiny hunt one, so I set up the garden to get Porygon encounters (that Pearl is semi-fresh as well), and... literally. Just a few random encounters. I fucking ran into this guy. Insane. I've kinda opted not to fully evolve it! I think it's soooo cutes... I love Porygon-Z too, but I also had one on my team in that Pearl file I mentioned LMFAO. So it was neat actually! Getting a feel for how Porygon-2 is different than Porygon-Z! I also just love.... the rubber duckie of it all... the. It's literally called a drinking bird? The desk toy. Okay. Well I love that too! It's very cute!!!

This one.... you know it. We all know it. The HG/SS starter hunt. REALLY fun hunt! But man. To be so real Iggy is bittersweet, to me. I went through a really rough patch where I couldn't get myself to enjoy Pokemon anymore when I first came out as trans. I tried really hard to make what was given to me... work. So a lot of my old Pokemon/save files had my deadname as the OT (and even if they didn't, they'd always be the girl trainer). It's kinda sweet, though. I've long since nuked that save. Iggy is the soul (hah) survivor of it. A second chance at life, perhaps? It was really nice to actually use him on a team, after being dormant all these years. And... yeah okay fine Typhlosion is fucking good. Okay. I'll admit it. Still I will live and die by my pokey ass flower dinosaur it's CUTE. OKAY. WHATEVER... (which is to say! Newfound appreciation for the Cyndaquil line! It's a Pokemon I never felt especially strongly about prior!)

And! The rest!

Again just most basic run of the mill Johto team ever. Special shoutouts to Shrimp for carrying my ass against Lance (everybody say thank you Ice Fang). Poly2 ALSO carried during that fight though (everybody say thank you Discharge -- also Poly2 is surprisingly defensive? Huh!). Everyone did their part though! (... Chikpea's part is to look cute). Also having an Espeon on my team (miss Lulu...) DOES fill me w an INCREDIBLE YEARNING for the radioactive toxic slutch bitch.................... I really didn't want to stop everything and hunt for it for god knows how long though. Not here. Not now. Another place... maybe.

The BIGGEST reason I wanted to just buckle down and tear the bandaid off though (save was abandoned like right at Victory Road lmfao), is. I really want to See. If I can get the endlessly time consuming and convoluted Safari Zone set up before/just in time for June. I think I started a little late if I want it fully decked out, but. Really the biggest struggle I run into lately w Pokemon is just feeling... aimless. I Can have fun if I have a set goal in mind. But I think the sadness of having to uproot everything and start over and over and over again just never left.

I need NEW sadness. EXCITING sadness. EXHILARATING SADNESS. I have to do Safari Week. I Have To. I HAVE TO‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️IT WILL FIX ME BY BREAKING ME I HAVE TO DO SAFARI WEEK AND I HAVE TO DO IT ALL THE FUCKING WAY OR SO HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I actually did a hint of Safari Week last year in Leaf Green, no goal in mind, very noncommittal (also didn't find anything, for better or worse lmfao). I only have one cart as well. Nothing fancy. I think it could be more rewarding (and less painful. Maybe.) if I could do hunts across dif games! I'm compelled by the Hoenn Safari too, but... feels like.... too much set up.... <- guy who's picking the infinitely more set up heavy option LMFAOOO

BUT I THINK. SS HAS POTENTIAL. ESP in the variety of Pokemon you can encounter if you put the work/research in. Plus is just an objectively cool game to have shinies in! I also just kinda like the idea that it gives me something to work towards, maybe. If I lose a shiny, I'll want to reclaim it. Reclaiming run away shinies can sometimes be a yearly process, when you partake in Safari Week! There's also just very specific things I like about Safari hunting actually... like the understanding that just SEEING specific Pokemon as shinies is an incredible rarity, nevermind actually catching them. Think Chansey, but also the white whale of the FR/LG Safari, the 1% Dragonair fishing encounter (not a single person has caught that specific encounter yet!!!!!! And I am not going for it. I'm leaving that to god's strongest warriors.)

Idk idk, I just think it's neat. And maybe I like the idea of taking immense emotional damage. It's enrichment... for me...... but I also really like the idea of participating in a community driven event, too! I don't know how strong of a presence it has outside of youtube, but! Shiny hunting while watching someone else shiny hunt will never get old. To me.

[themissingnumbers]

[ @pkmn-monochrome - interaction thing i can't send as an ask bc long and images]

The dark of the Pokemon tower is never something that has bothered Red. Never something that would, certainly not after seeing much worse and being much older.

At this point, really, it's a kind of eeriness he'd come to miss. It reminds him of simpler times- days when a young boy only had to fear things like ghost stories, and shadows that lurked in the dark.

He knows very well that this place is not the Pokemon Tower he knew, of course. He's not stupid. This place was only built in its image, the miserable ending of a game dyed in grey and built out of spite.

He runs a hand along the wall of the staircase he descends, feeling the cold stone, yet also the intangible data, dull static and code under the fingertips. Watches in quiet fascination as the textures distort and corrupt under deliberate contact, the broken foundations of Generation 1 reacting to him, (same as always,) but a touch more stable from the fusion of the bastard remakes keeping it grounded.

Any damage caused is meaningless, the existence of it debatable as a whole, as he passes through a loading zone. Half of him watches everything fade to black, the other half just continues down the steps that are as tangible as anything else here is to someone within the game. Everything is right- just as it should be.

Either way, it's not like it's his game to break. That would be plain rude, especially with the risk of killing someone!

Intrigue in this world, curious as it may be, isn't why he's here.

Nah. He's more interested in something else.

Or, someone, to be more precise.

Having finally found who he'd looking for, Red steps off the stairs and into another layer of this endless graveyard, whistling as he finally lays eyes on a certain monochromatic individual.

"Y'know..." he chides from across the room, "A graveyard's a pretty cliche place to spend eternity, don't you think?"

He snorts at his own remark. "Course, I guess it's not like you had a choice. The sadsack that made this game could've picked something a little more outside the box, is all I'm saying. Do you think they'd bury bodies in the Viridian Forest, maybe? Or swimming offa Route 20, try a little watery grave... Oh, Champion's Road could be pretty morbid!"

He sighs and folds his arms, shaking his head at himself.

"... Nah, I'm joking. I can see the vision. I could give less of a shit about this place, anyways..."

His eyes gleam, and a menacing smile spreads across his face.

"I'm more interested in you. A glorified reskin of Pokemon Tower ain't shit compared to you. A little bug told me about some sentient Red-Leaf kinda amalgamation with the memories of a real person, and I just had to look into it and come to see for myself. Lo and behold..."

He spreads his arms out in some kind of almost-mocking grand gesture.

"Here you are! Cody, right? In the flesh, or... I suppose your problem is the lack thereof, heh."

He begins to approach, moving slowly and never once looking away. He stalks forward, every step careful and deliberate, teeth bared in a grin that holds no happiness but oozes with amusement.

"I've got so many questions, I don't even know where to begin. You're really something special... One of a kind, fully aware of everything. Knowing what life both here, and out there, is really like. I've seen players that would kill to even get a chance to stand where we do, but... You want out more than anything."

Scratching his chin, the man walks around them at a slight distance. Red gets the thought that Cody wouldn't want something like him anywhere near them. At least he can respect that.

"Suppose the courteous thing would be to ask a question- that's the tradition around these parts, right? Constantly interrogating you so you don't have to sit here, alone with your..."

His eyes flicker to the two GHOSTs at Cody's side.

"... Thoughts. And the like."

He hops onto a grave nearby, sitting with his ankles crossed. Respect towards the dead be damned, every tomb in places like this were about as sacred as Halloween decorations.

"Here's what I'd like to know, Cody."

His smile widens further- for a brief moment, the glitches on his body seem to spread to the air around him, cutting through the gray with burning streaks of red, white, and yellow.

"You have your hacker's memories. Some of them. ANY of them. It's enough. You'd know what it was like to be them. You know what it was like to be human. You know both worlds."

"What is it like? To be real? To be something more than code. How different is it from this?"

"What was it like to be HUMAN?"

He jabs a finger forward, pointing at them as the static that flared up around him quickly subsides, clearing the air back into the typical oppressive atmosphere of the endless graveyard.

"I want to hear it from you," he finishes cooly, "someone who has been on both sides of the screen. You could tell me better than anyone."

[sweet-hearts-and-destiny-knots]

While outlining the Kalos arc, I fell into a new Leaf ship by accident 😭 It made me think about your quote about Pokemon being an otome game, which is funny bc I don't often meet people who are so chill with shipping as a concept lol, I'm not even a shipper in writing, more of a ship teaser but sometimes its just fun to discuss and imagine you know? I remember you saying you had multiple routes, but the guys we know were the "main boys" I'm curious to know what other rare pairs you like! And then while catching up on your blog, I saw you listed some out, "a vast assortment" 👀 are there more you're holding back on sharing? It's no trouble, we'd be happy hear them out! What kind of ships did you have the honor of bestowing a name upon :D My newest Leaf ship is x Alain. Still looking, but I've considered ship names like...BlueLuster, Solstice, Equinox...trying to go for that subtle symbolism. Steven references him in ORAS as an easter egg if you show him a shiny Beldum I think, so I'm like...lmao, what if I give game!Leaf her Kalosian boyfriend too (joke joke, but 👀) funniest thing to text the Kantrio gc. The boys will flip. There's not a lot of eligible bachelors in Kanto huh? I've only seen Leaf ships with Brock and Bill for the guys, Misty and Erika for the girls. Been slowly finding out how much ship teasing is in ScarVio, how lucky for the self-shippers XD they should do that more :3 Also aw man 😔 yeah the girls and the region locked Pokemon. I've seen someone HC that Galar has a rule banning entry of certain Pokemon into the region to explain the lack of a National Dex. Does your AU have anything like that? If they'd given us Alolan Leaf </3 she'd at least see something...I also saw what you said about naming Gloria's Intelion "Julian" and lol, I feel that, before their names came out I was thinking OOOH TINKATON. I'll customize the player as Steven's lil sister <3 and name her Josee <3 but before that, I was like, if regular custom, then maybe Julie? So her canon name was a surprise XD Ooh, and about Silver. While nostalgia might definitely play a role, the Silver fans I know like him bc of the plot potential of him being Giovanni's son and the subtle character arc he goes through. He never abandons his Pokemon despite calling them weak, gets the classic Golbat friendship evolution, his arrogance reads more like trying to prove a point to himself bc of Gio literally leaving him in a random parking lot at age 8-9. A lot of his speech actually mirrors what Rocket grunt NPCs tell you in-game. The switch from saying "I" to "we." The Dragon's Den, Dad Lance adoption speedrun everybody likes. I suppose there's also the potential "Red/Leaf are related to Gio" theory with the Scientist Gideon mistaking us for Gio's kid, until remembering the red hair bit. I always assumed it was bc we shared those facial features, or the eye color. Another possibility is that Silver was on that island and we were the only kid the scientist ran into, which raises the theory that he's been watching the player hiding in Gio's office somewhere the whole time. If you're a Chikorita!Silver truther, its evolutions pokedex mimics him too. Meganium, the final evo, releases a soothing scent. Bayleef, the midway journey, releases a scent that makes you want to fight. I know there's a lot of analysis ppl have done, but this is all I can remember off the top of my head. Now I'm wondering how the relationship between the KanJoh generation is written, how does their story play out? Is it just like the games, with Green going @/Lyra like he did with Red, "you look kind of like her...just a bit."

Oh, what a detailed message! But I believe the reason why I seem so "chill" with shipping as a concept is due to the fact I haven't forgotten this is meant to be a fun activity. Certainly there are some pairings as well as dynamics I deeply despise, however I prefer to place my focus on what brings me happiness.

All the pairings I've accumulated thus far involving the protagonists are listed in a past post, which you seem to have read. The ones I've bestowed a name to are:

LeafStoneshipping (Brock x Leaf) Barriershipping (Avery x Gloria) Wieldershipping (Volo x Akari) BrilliantDiamondshipping (Adaman x Akari) CandyTruffleshipping (Melli x Akari) Tracksuitshipping (Drayton x Juliana) SnowQuartzshipping (Grusha x Juliana)

Additionally, no, there is no such rule in place which prohibits certain Pokémon not native to Galar or Paldea. At some point Akari, or rather Hikari, visits the latter with Sariel, her Alpha Togekiss, who very much enjoys the vast varieties of food available!

I personally perceive Silver as a fascinating character for all the above reasons and more. Nostalgia also doesn't exactly affect my view of him since I didn't have the opportunity to play HeartGold and SoulSilver until relatively recently.

But with how strangely members of the fanbase behaved towards Kieran before the release of The Indigo Disk, as well as Volo in ways I don't even want to discuss here, I couldn't help wondering if Silver is lucky enough to escape that sort of discourse simply due to the time period he was introduced to the series.

It's actually interesting you ask about the relationship between the Kanto and Johto characters in Sisterhood, because I wrote a post just the other night involving Leaf, Green, Kotone, and Silver which I intend to share sometime soon.

Thank you for showing such interest!