#wew long post is long

[murkystarlight]

Sleeping habits headcanons for the New Order!

Or like.. idk. Pajamas. Habits. You know? I don't know \_(°>°)_/

Jesse - hugs something in their sleep. Just loosely holds it(used to sleep with Reuben so is capable of not holding things in a death grip while asleep). Sleeps in a loose shirt and baggy sweatpants. Just very big comfy clothes will do. Often steals clothes from their friends wardrobe. Just to see how comfortable they are^^. Does some mumbling and shuffling if they dream. Other than that they're pretty still and quiet. Sleep pattern is quite irregular. But manages to sleep a full 2hours of sleep each time. Has a few nightlights to turn on at night before sleeping. Not all the time. Mostly when they're lonely, sad or scared.

Olivia - sleeps with blindfold on. Nothing overly decorated. Just a plain blindfold. Maybe some ruffles. And glitter. Okay- maybe a little decorated. Due to her overworking, sometimes she ends up falling asleep in her daily clothes. But she finds it uncomfortable. Likes to sleep in something fluffy/fuzzy. Quite the stylish sleeper. And maybe a sleep cap too. Rambles a bit while sleeping. But doesn't move much. Maybe the occasional turning left, then turning right. But no big movements. Sleep pattern... she does have a schedule. It's kept pretty well. Except when she's caught up in her work. She misses the chance. Until she gets back in touch with reality... she stays awake and work. Though she does try her best to clean up and sleep once she is broken out of her daze.

Axel - very free. Sleeps when ever he wants. But. Once he falls asleep, he most definitely will end up sleeping a full 8 hours before waking up. He is a heavy sleeper. You just CANNOT wake him up. You need very specific methods if you really need to. Doesn't move much or talk while asleep. But he snores. He- well I- sorry. But my brain kind of sees him similar as my dad- and I think Axel would often sleep with just... just his underwear. Or +his shirt along with it. Probably a normal short sleeved t-shirt. Even in winter. Short sleeved. Dunno why tbh... mhm. Likes holding something while sleeping too. Nothing too big or heavy. Maybe a blanket.

Petra - nightgown. I don't care what you say. She wears a nightgown. Capiche? Capiche. Something simple. Just like a long black nightgown(though only when there isn't anyone else there with her maybe?). Often wears simple shirt and shorts too. Actually- she doesn't sleep much when she's on adventure. But when she does.... now. She has two ways of sleeping. Most of the time she's quiet and still. Like. Dead still. (They had to wake her up a few times to check if she was alive.) She wakes up very easily. Light sleeper. Probably a habit from having to sleep in caves and avoid getting ambushed. Can tell if she's needed or if there is commotion around while she's asleep. But second one, if she wears out completely or gets knocked out, she sleeps deep. Too deep. But now she can't stay still. She is.. uh... all over the place. All of the time. She wakes up on the other side of the bed. The blanket sprawled around somewhere randomly. Also really loud. Mumbling, talking, groaning... slight snoring.. because she's able to sleep peacefully? And she normally stays on guard even when asleep but during this she feels safe? Or secure in some cases. Or because she just wasn't expecting to fall asleep like that. Also sleeps while holding something, tightly. Very tightly. Maybe like.. a small rock in her hand? Or clings onto a person or a body pillow. Anyways. Survival instincts and keeping on edge most of the time, even during her sleep. Probably ended up sleeping in every day clothes or maybe even armor when she couldn't find a place to sleep while outside. Isn't the best but.. it's okay. Oh- right! She sleeps with her bandana on

Lukas - stripes. Yes. Striped pajamas. And the... Santa hat looking sleeping hat. But he doesn't mind if he sleeps in his everyday clothes. He will sleep in jeans and not complain. Mhm. He also sleeps in the weirdest poses. Says it's comfortable(doesn't mind it). Talks a bit in his sleep, though it's more like whispering. Doesn't move while he sleeps. Probably so that he doesn't disturb Dewey when he sometimes sleeps nearby. Purring can be heard. Either from the cat or the man himself. Cares more about the place he sleeps in than the stuff he wears. But- he likes fluffy fleeces maybe?

☆finishing☆

Jesse's opinion of sleepware!!

(All borrowed from friends who totally agreed)

Axel - his clothes are big. Almost like a nightgown or a oversized shirt for me. So that's a plus. It's comfortable. Also. His shirts have a lot of fun, cool designs on it. I like them. Would recommend(to who??)

Olivia - actually, we often share our clothes(similar size). It's quite nice trying on each others style. But it's true that she.. doesn't let me take it without any notice. Which- is exactly what I do all the time. Plus, her sleepwear is warm from the fuzz and fluff. Eye shade tickles too much for me though. Plus... I kind of prefer the light

Petra - so. While I was going through her closet. Guess what I found. Nightgown! It's pretty classy. Don't know why she never wore this during sleepovers but- it's very nice. Makes me slip a whole lot. But I get to wear it. Besides, it's for sleeping. It doesn't matter if it's too long and I.. keep constantly slipping on it...-

Lukas - okay. His pajamas are..... surprisingly warm. Ooo his fleece is also really soft and warm. Kinda strange that most of his pajamas are stripes. And all in the same color too. He has ones that aren't stripes sure.. but the ones that are stripes? Why is it all the same color??

Gabriel- I went on ahead to steal- I mean. Borrow, some clothes from other friends. Gabriel has pretty simple clothes. Just shirt and pants. Colors are pretty simple too. But they're definitely good for sleeping. Very comfortable

Soren - is that a robe??! ...eh. who cares. I look good in it 🙃

Ivor - surprisingly, he doesn't sleep in his "breathable" clothes. He just has a normal set of pajamas. He also has a nightgown. Fancy too

[meeeeeeese]

So I want to talk about the altar of Glaust, because it's incredibly important to the story and yet it almost never gets brought up.

What I think most people know about the altar is that its a forgotten artifact that was responsible for Glint, and by extension, Aurene being freed from the yoke of Kralkatorrik. While you can visit it in Arah, it kind of exits the story from there with no character ever thinking to use the sole artifact with the power to grant corrupted creatures free will again. However there's a few details that I think a lot of people miss that I find kind of interesting at least.

The first thing is that the altar itself is only a part of the process, it's just a component of a spell or ritual that does the actual work of cleansing the corruption.

Secondly, the spell needs to be performed at Arah. Though I don't know whether that's simply because the forgotten built the required altar there or because Arah is special somehow.

Personally, I think that there's something special about Arah that's required for the spells function beyond the mere presence of the altar. Zhaitan's presence indicates that it's almost definitely a ley-line nexus, and something about the land there was special enough to call the gods to tyria. So I think it'd make sense that they'd have to do it in Orr (which also suggests, given the forgotten attempted to purify Kralkatorrik, that ol'Kralky used to be active in Orr during the last dragonrise before flying up to the blood lands for his nap)

I think that would go some way as to explain why we're not using this incredible power, as the only way to do so is to venture through an unchained-infested city all the while lugging about whatever corrupted creature you want to cleanse.

And while I'm on the subject of why the altar isn't in the story more, there's also the fact that making corruption being curable more of a thing really changes the nature of dragon minions. Where before they're poor victims who can only be put down for everone's safety, the altar's presence makes them victims who, if you put in enough effort, you could save. Which would probably change the focus of the story quite dramatically as we have to weigh protecting still uncorrupted people against trying to save the corrupted from their fate.

(though imagine if we used purified branded to create living dragonsblood weapons, warriors uniquely suited to fighting branded who are immune to corruption because I don't think Kralkatorrik can brand them twice)

(as a sidenote, if you haven't done the forgotten path of the ruined city of arah you might not know that the altar is blimmin huge, check out the pic below with risen giants for scale)

Finally, just an interesting/annoying note is that we never got any explanation as to how the forgotten purification works, does it block the elder dragon from issuing commands to said minion? Does it work to nullify the dragonvoid lurking at the heart of the creatures magic? Replace the corrupted dragon magic with more benign ley energy? Who knows! Not us, and we likely never will now that we're moving away from the dragon storyline. And I promise I'm not salty about that.

So yeah, that's pretty much it, the altar's a pretty cool object and, for how little it comes up, a really important part of Aurene's ascension to non-mad elder dragon. Hopefully it'll one day get more attention, if only so we can have the commander go "Wait why haven't we been using this the entire time"

[astralflows]

at the end of life's journey…lies only death.

[wewebaggit]

Genuine question, what made u ship byler? Since u do seem the type who doesn't see the show with byler tinted glasses.

Will's gay and loves Mike. 💙💛

[sapphirestarz11]

I was tagged by @mewkwota awhile for this, and I was a bit busy with a bunch of stuff on my mind including art... but I'm free now, so without further ado, let's do this! ^v^/ Her post on it is linked here!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Favorite Color: Pink! A surprise I know considering Sapphire.EXE's color palette is mainly filled with blues, but it's actually pink! Second is yellow, third is light blue, then is purple, and last is black!

Last Song: There's a few for this one honestly... I listen to a lot of music, mainly video game OSTs, but if I were to pick the last one I listened to, it would be this. I'm a HUGE Gen 4 fan, so listening to this was a trip down memory lane for me.

Currently Reading: Huh... I guess that would be Danny Phantom: A Glitch in Time and Unico: Awakening, since I got those graphic novels at the same time. They're really darn good too!

Currently Watching: Nothing really! I'm about to continue playing BN4 for friends, so I guess I'd be watching my own gameplay...? I don't know!

Currently Craving: Ice Cream Cake by a long shot! My birthday already passed, but I would love some ice cream cake... or some ice cream in general!

Coffee or Tea: Tea for sure! Coffee I have every now and then, and I have with milk (cream if it's not there) and sugar! My tea I have with a lot of honey and some lemon juice! Perfect for when I'm sick or have a sore throat!

A Hobby I'd Like To Try: I'd like to try singing again, and I'm currently on and off with practicing how to skateboard! I've been decent at singing but I'm not good with the high notes. I'd also love to pick up my ocarina and alto saxophone again. In addition to that, I wanna make music again too! I used to do that via this old Flash-based site called Musicshake, but it doesn't work anymore. I don't think the devs care about it either, meaning it's not usable in the modern day.

An AU You've Been Plotting: Well I got a few of those! AUs of Sapphire.EXE and her NetOp Miles in various adventures have been up for a while (same with Ashton Atherstone), whether they're different takes of them in Battle Network, or them in the Pokémon world; those are the AUs I've been plotting. Also I made the Pokémon AU version of Hub and Lan as well! That's been super fun to work on!

------

As for people to tag in this: @lucina-trs, @stitchedlynx, @sminny-wew, @dunedragon, @grammars-doodles, @cylikaart, and @thatnerdyrobo! Thank you again Mew for the @ and to those I @'d, you don't have to do it if you don't want to!

[roxas-von-einzbern]

You've ocs? Wanna talk about them?

Oh, yeah 😎

My first OC is Nora Vargas, who was born as a sort of mental self-insert. She's a 25-year-old, neurodivergent young woman currently studiyng for graduating in History at Rome's Univesity. A solitary soul, she has no friends outside the roman cats, guardians of the equilibrium between the Aboveground (basically, the world we live in and know) and the Underground (a hidden, magical world located mainly underground and wich is a crossroad for other dimensions) in the city of Rome, for whom Nora sometimes goes on "errands" as payment for a debt. Nora descends from a line of witches who lived between the two worlds, but, because of her father's disappearance when she was 5, she was kept totally separated from the Underground from her mother.... until some years ago.

Then we have Stingy Jack (at least my version of him): a silvertongued ghost condemned to walk the world for having outsmarted the Devil himself twice. Despite being a manipolative thief, an alcoholist bastard and having no problems with violence he apparently disapproves of mistreatment against women.

Leucrocuta the Fox and Skugge the Wolf are a couple of fey mercenaries and lovers who live to cause mayhem. Leucrocuta is actually the bastard son of a fey noble, the Fox-King, and a human seeress and shaman; he secretly dreams of killing his father to avenge his mother. Skugge wasn't aware of his otherwordly nature at first: to him, he was simply a common wolf, despite his ability to assume a human form at will, invulnerability and exceptionally long lifespan. After his forest was burnt down and his pack decimated he decided to venture in the human world, meeting Leucrocuta (or Leuca, as he calls him). They decided to become mercenaries and assassins for hire and never parted ways since.

Jamie is an awkward fey transboy mad scientist a la Entrapta from She-ra. Originally Crown Princess of his kingdom, since it allows female-only monarchs he essentially abdicated when he came out, but that's okay: he never liked the idea of being a ruler. Jamie would like to spend his life doing strange experiments because why not with the assistance of his bodyguard and romantic partner Moorchild, but fears the day his relatives will come for him....

Speaking of Moor (diminutive of Moorchild), they are a shapeshifting enby dragon, sold to Jamie's kingdom extremely young (though they're still a child for dragons standards) as a political hostage by their mother, chosen for being the "runt" of the litter. As soon as they learned how to shift their appearance they trained for becoming Jamie's paladin, since he was the only one kind to them. When Jamie fled his kingdom, so di Moor, in order to live with him.

Aaand that's all for now, folks! Wew, what a long post!

[ccorinthian]

re: late 20s - if you'll indulge a nobody for a minute: yes, but don't let that damage control foil new attempts to take chances. i was really tired of myself in my mid 20s. i was always bad at holding down 'normal' work, so i said fuck it and went back to school for the student loan money to keep me afloat. i went with an impractical program, but one i knew would keep my interest long enough to see it through (and defer repayment.. lol). i really enjoyed it, did much better than i expected, and graduated at 29... in the spring of 2020. wew lad, i've had some hard years but that was by far the hardest. if only i had gone back to school for x instead, if only i hadn't waited so long to get my shit together in the first place.. nearly 30 and nothing to show for it. and... well what do you know. a year later, i got a job i enjoy in my field. been here for a couple of years, making way more money than i ever thought possible. i'm still kinda tired of myself some days, still getting my shit together, but i thank my mid-20s self for continuing to sow when i wasn't sure i'd be willing or able to reap. anyways, no need to post this or respond, it just struck a chord with me.

Ur gonna make me cry thank you so much for sharing. I’m continuously trying to get back on my feet, overcome some deep rooted mental health issues, get a job, get friends, have hope, etc etc & it feels like I’m constantly being pulled back down while the past have its claws in me. There’s so many opportunities I didn’t take because of my avoidant behaviour and I am so scared that that was all the chance I had. I’ve got two degrees I don’t know what to do with and barely any friends. I live w my mum and I’m unemployed. It feels like it’s going to be like this forever. But I keep trying, I know that I’ve got it in me but I’m tired and scared. And as much as I work against my ageism I feel that I’m running out of time. I’m probably doing the most work I’ve ever done while reaping the least reward for it. But I think I’ll come out on top, I have to.

[h0nne-tatemae]

To the boys I loved before,

Hey there, you must be wondering who is this guy holding a pillow over his head? He happens to be one of the most important people in my life at the moment. He is the reason why I had the guts to make big decisions in my life. He is one of the reasons why I am currently finding my peace. He made me feel so safe and calm na I can’t remember the last time I felt like that. He makes up for everything I crave and look for. Grabe, where to start? I just came out for a relationship that drained me emotionally, this boy slid into my dms like wew. At first akala ko talaga was just to flirt and no emotional shit because I’m way past that now. Pero when I got to know you, from the same birthday to you listening to honne, I knew you were gonna be special sakin haha. Kainis naman oh, just when I thought I could never feel love again, bigla kang sumulpot. I was so ready to be single for the rest of my life and just have fubus nalang haha. You came into my life in an instant and I don’t have any intentions of letting you go na. People say na everything’s so fast when it came sayo. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you know the person, I feel like as long as you feel that connection then you’re good. Thanks to this person, he’s bringing out the good in me. I stopped thinking about alcohol! Alam mo ba, I started to like mornings na because of him? I appreciate long talks and drives now because we basically do it most of the time. Basta there’s like a lot of things that I appreciate about him. I’m positive that he is my person. Hopefully this won’t be my last post about him.

[enteroctopusdarkysilis]

✨Space ships (and hangars, too !) !✨

(Or, last post for the space station)

<Previous< [4/4]

Under the cut are closeups of (practically) all ships and hangar from the station !

Before anything, the third post is somehow completely gone, even if I do have proofs that I did do it. Well, it was already posted late, and I don’t have the courage to do it again — and it’s not like people would care much anyway, so how this station is holding up will remain a mystery~

Anyway, closeups.

Hangars (groupes by similarities)

This first batch here contains the 'empty' hangars. Left is meant to be a closing/opening hangar, which I usually keep in the back because it's not the most interesting one; while the right one is the bare hangar. There are two of these across the ring, in which I sometimes pluck a ship, though it's hard to keep them in place because of the station's inclination.

Next is a batch of random boxes and other scifi-y grates and boxes. To keep the boxes in place, I use modified 1*1 bricks (because the floor is is made of horizontal pieces, aligned with the outer tiles). Minor variation are present in the middle hangar, where a third of the floor is composed of 1*2 modified bricks to add a tiny bit of texturing. While these might a tad repetitive displayed like above, they actually are separated by three other different hangars, so the repetition is barely visible.

A bit similar to the previous ones, these have (in my opinion) more interesting details. Left is two racks of large barrels, supposedly fuel. Middle had another barrel (made with flowers pieces) and a yellow cable, which was surprisingly hard to add because it pushed the back plate (which holds a lot of the hangar together). The last one is a stack of long crates, and an observation deck (I'm guessing the original sticker comes from a small star destroyer).

Last batch, and probably the best of all, the containers (scaling from not too crowded to very crowded). These are the same size as the big ship's. There are very few attachment points to the ground, as most of them are held by other containers above or bellow, although the middle hangar had two modified 1*4 bricks in the floor. The original plan was to get them all aligned, but it looked terrible, so I went for this more haphazard placement, which works better.

Ships

These first two are the smallest of my little fleet. The top one is two 2*1 plates held by black 1*1 mod plates. It's small, it's smooth, and it works quite well with the station. I'm probably gonna make other of these in different colours someday.

The next is one of the first I made, using some shiny pieces. The two chromatic studs on the reactors are differently shades of chroma silver on purpose because this is meant to be a much older ship (compared to other most of the other, smoother ships).

This is a much larger one. More of a military design, I mostly played with angles on that one (and added big reactors for fun purposes). The transparent light blue used here is the same as the fuel barrels of the station, and are the most used on the ships I have. Lore would say it's because it's the most common fuel used in the universe; pragmatism would say it's because it's the most common transparent colour in my boxes.

More blue reactors ! The top one is my one of my favorite. Only 7 pieces, including an old aquaraiders piece which I had to use as a ship the moment I found it. It's simply ship-shapes ! Given the colours, you could imagine it's an old model (not as old as the small one). The bottom one is a very thin one, with a Y piece which can allow for many cool shapes (like this one) !

Weird alien ships ! The first one is curvy~~ It's a nice concept which is quite common, but I really like the idea, and thus made one. Notice the green reactor this time, because alien fuel. Next one is more organic (or at least trying to), using mostly car pieces (and an orange reactor, wew !). It's also quite compact, with a single mod 1*1 brick as the core. The final one is by far my favorite (and not only because it has a purple trail). While hard to because of my lighting, the three main parts of the ship are separated by clear studs. I originally made it without the in-between studs, but then it fell the the floor, broke, and separated, and it looked much more futuristic. Consider this a very advanced ship of a peaceful species, or something like that.

[godtier]

if anyone read the RE6 meta post i made last night and thought "wew boi that was long af"

there's a reason why i said it wouldn't be as long as the mmx meta post i was working on

because this is how many words i'm at for part one:

(after editing out the non-meta portions like the intro)

for reference, this is how many words that RE6 meta post was (also after editing out the non-meta portions):

so yeah uh

i've been sitting on it because i feel like no one would read it in its current form and i've been trying to pare it down in a way that makes sense LMAO

[meeeeeeese]

Tell us about Rugan and Falx, and their relationship? (@commanderhorncleaver)

Warning: long post ahead, I hope you're proud of yourself

So, Rugan probably sires Falx around the several month break between EoD and What Lies Beneath, so he's likely born sometime before or during the next expansion. Falx gets put in the farhar (iron legion, same as he sire) like most other charr, though Rugan makes an effort to be far more present than would be expected among the charr. He tries to be as supportive as possible, for example when he heard that Falx had a talent for necromancy Rugan went away for a month and custom made a training staff designed specifically to boost his magic.

Falx grows up pretty popular, being the cub of a famous charr and able to drain the life out of anyone who'd pick a fight with him, almost every cub at his farhar wanted to be friends with him. Thus began the ego problems as he could clear most training excercises with ease and whenever he ran into trouble his ever dutiful father would always be there to offer support and give him a leg up with some new device he was working on. These issues only got worse and by the time he graduated from the farhar he was convinced he was the best thing since gunpowder

Most charr either buy in to his displays of bravado and think he's the coolest, or they think he's an absolute pillock and don't understand how he could possibly be Rugan's cub. Maybe a 40/60 split between the two.

While Falx can be just the worst sometimes, he isn't without his moments. For one, he genuinely cares about his warband (the claw warband) which is made up of some of his earliest friends, made before his ego ballooned so much, and they tend to curb some of his worst impulses. He also has at least some of the heroic impulses of his sire, if people are in desperate need he will help, even if he'll also use it as an opportunity to build himself up. People who know him tend to be disappointed if he shows up to help because they KNOW that he'll bring it up later as an example of why he's just better than them.

As for the present day relationship between Rugan and Falx, Rugan still acts as a safety net for Falx, giving him and his warband all the best gear and sometimes even joined them on particularly dangerous missions (usually ones it's Falx's fault his warband is on in the first place "yeah sure we can clear out the catacombs, do you even know who I am?"). Rugan's basically trying to keep him safe and be there for him the only way he really knows how, even if a failure or two might be good for his development. For Falx's part he does genuinely appreciate his sires efforts and idolises him to a certain degree, part of his ego comes from him thinking 'well my dad's the best thing since sliced meat, and by proxy, so am I!'. One of the many things that you can mention to set Falx off (including but not limited to; his height, his muscle mass, his fighting prowess, his performance in bed and his tolerance for alcohol) would be badmouthing his dad, he does not tolerate that in his presence.

[iangago]

Sept14, 2023

✅Jog sa ulan hayup

Lah. Long time no post na ko. Momove on na nga ata eh. HAHAHA. Kaso nang gulat nanaman to sa ginawa. Di ko na talaga naisip na gagawa to ng paraan para magkita kami. Tho nagpapahapyaw nga ng yaya ng jogging pero wala kami naplano soo, grabe nanaman ang timing samin.

Grabe trust issue ko tapos legit pala. Wews. So tagpo sa Lianas, lakad pauwi sakanila. Grabe inulan pa ng legit. HAHA. Tas pag uwi, pahinga tas napasama pa sa dasma. Tas merienda tas uwi na ko. Grabe naman this boy. Mahal padin ako.

[talenlee]

Prototype 22.11 - DIY Touhou

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: Prototype 22.11 - DIY Touhou

Doing something different this time.

I am first up going to tell you what I wound up making and show you some examples of it. I’m going to explain where it’s at, and that’s all going to come before the fold. The full diary, which is a repost of material written over on my Cohost, is going to follow after. And we’re going to talk about sites like Cohost at some point in the next month or so, wew lord.

What I made this month is a prototype game design for a simple card game with a homogenous play form, focusing on hand management built on a classic mathematical puzzle you might see in the games Spot It and Dobble. The game has room to expand mechanically if it needs it, with each card having room for a rule or game mechanic to add to each character.

The game is composed of a deck of functionally similar cards; each card has a unique front and back. Each front face shows an alchemical summoning circle that describes a reading of a calamitous time, and a description of that in a set of keywords. The back face shows a magical girl from a mystical other realm (with art from the Touhou AI art bot) who represen two of those alchemical symbols and two of those key words.

The first turn of the game, you deal a number of these cards so their summoning circle faces are visible to the table, then deal each player a hand of magical girls, back-face-up. The deck is passed around from player to player, who get to do things to manage their hands, while they try and build a hand of cards that lets them ‘claim’ one of the quests as done.

That’s the game play experience, and cycle. I like that this needs no special components, and if it’s put in to a tuck box, it won’t need tons of setup. I also like that this prototype has room to develop: Each card could have a unique mechanical rule, a flavour or name joke, and the list of adjectives and alchemical symbols gives a lot of room for non-meaningful differentation.

Good idea, I like it, I did not get the time to order a prototype, but thanks to practice on Straight Outta Tucson, I have a tool available to me that can make turning this from ‘list of filenames’ to the actual cards very conveniently.

Dev diary follows!

Entry 1: Oops This Got Long

Okay so check out this thing:

How to make the card game Dobble (and the Maths behind it!)

Watch this video on YouTube

What I’m curious about is when it comes to these dobble cards, for each card, is there something that card excludes? So let’s say you have a dobble deck, and you flip say, half the cards face-down. Is there some property you can assert about the face down cards that doesn’t apply to the face up cards?

So let’s ay the face up cards are currency, and let you buy face down card, but you need to spend (say) 3 cards; is it possible that there’s a meaningful difficulty with the face-down cards, or can literally any three-set of cards guarantee that?

Hmmm

Entry 2: Prototyping This

Okay, so after the post went up on my blog about it I kept working on this puzzle to come up with a useful card game I could make out of these parts. This is a version of the dobble deck that can be made with a set of 13 cards, 13 symbols, 4 symbols on each card.

Now, a bit of prototyping indicates that the simple puzzle of ‘can I construct one of these four-set cards with a hand of four cards’ is suitably interesting. Like, as a solo game, there is a learning phase where you have to go through the deck and understand what you definitely can’t do. If it was more complicated, and the game wasn’t directly under your control (ie, not solo any more), then it seems that the mechanic that drives the game just needs to be ‘what choices do you make about your turn.’

The next step is a theme and visual assets. Since part of this was working with AI assets, I’ve been thinking about ways to approach that in a way that create a potentially useful upgrade path. I think this game is going to have a lot of room for fiction if the system is this simple.

Entry 3: But What Art ASsets To Use?

AI Art assets are fraught to work with; the easiest way to do it is to buy packets after someone’s done the cultivation and post-processing for you. But what I wanted to discuss with this month’s project was the idea of art with an upgrade path, where the AI art could serve as a stand-in for the prototype stage of the game, but has a clear ‘upgrade path’..

Courtesy of @starwitch it was brought to my attention that there was a pre-existing corpus of interesting AI-generated art that had an upgrade path and wasn’t, you know, being trained on dubious sources. I grabbed the AI Touhou robot corpus.

So the idea now is that this game presents you with scenarios that require the involvement of Some Touhous, and all it takes is the invention of some ~50ish Touhou OCs that can be themed around two words.

Entry 4:

Okay so if every card has eight key signifiers on them, and two on the back, I’m going to want to make this information as processable as possible. To me that means if possible, multiple axes of access.

A good example of this is how, for example, a playing card gives you it’s number but also shows that many symbols on its face — it’s different ways to present redundant information in a way that’s easier for you to understand. A lot of colour blind accessibility has induced this as well — often a thing will have a colour AND a pattern.

Each card has functionally two pieces of game info on them: it’s type (a quest with a lot of needs, or a character who can meet two of them), and the needs on it (eight for a quest, two for a character). In simplest form these designs can just be those ABCD cards I showed.

What I think I want to do is to present that information in two different ways, and right now I’m thinking text and gems – little graphical shapes that can be told one from another…

… And now I need fifty seven keywords, and what’s more, fifty seven distinct symbols that don’t (for example,) become rotationally ambiguous (like any given triangle looks a lot like a lot of other triangles).

Entry 5: Mathematical Demands and Practical Demands

Okay, but here’s a new problem, and one that I think exists for Dobble as well.

mathematically, my design works and creates 57 cards. But if I make this game available for sale and distribution online, I’m going to want to use a vector like DriveThruCards or GameCrafter. And if I use those folks, I’m going to need this thing to fit in a standard set.

The nearest number to 57 on Gamecrafter’s standard boxes is 54. That right there is a problem because obviously, it means that there are three cards that need to be cut.

Today, what I did was grabbed a 72 card tuck box from DTC I already had, for Burning Daylight, and loaded it up with 57 cards. That’s 15 cards’ thickness in difference, which could be a space for a rulebook… but that’s a LOT of rulebook for a game that’s designed to be so simple.

I think this is a tolerable solution; I think given this game is meant to have a very homogenous play pattern (you shuffle the whole deck, deal some quests off it, then players play with cards they draw off the deck), having the whole thing in a tuck rather than a pro box feels like it could work… but a pro box would be nicer because it clearly communicates ‘this is not an ordinary deck of playing cards’ (a problem I’m dealing with a lot lately).

Entry 6: Pricing Art

One of the things that I want to do more of with this kind of prototyping is gather some meaningful, reasonable answers about potential costs, for documentation. So, for this project, I’m looking at around 57 cards, each of which has a little image of a Touhou on them as game assets.

So I thought I’d put it out there to ask, knowing that you don’t have to answer, and knowing that I’m not likely to follow up on it, if you’re an artist, what would you price this kind of work for a game project? Don’t worry about whether or not I can pay or you have the time, I just want part of this development process to include showing people what artists can expect to offer.

(Also if you see another artist offer a price you were scared to suggest, I recommend you probably aren’t charging enough and can afford to price your work higher)

Note: This did not get any responses or interest. This is probably due to the way Cohost handles tagged posts in a reply.

Entry 7: Developing Functionality on Cohost for Game Devving

If you tag a reply It won’t show up on that tag. This means that I can’t use subsequent posts in a reply thread like this to reach new people; replies are definitionally confined unless they invite you to share.

This is okay! I don’t want to change how Cohost Works (on that front at least; I’d love my stuff to be searchable). Now, if I want to put a post in a new thing, I should provide a link to the previous posts for context.

ALSO: This thread gets SUPER HUGE and unamangeable so I should be using ‘read more’ tags to compact it. And also not do things this way next time.

Entry 8: Symbolism!!!

you know what Touhou has a lot of in its various differnt weirdo UIs? Clocks! And Alchemy symbols!

At this point my idea for the card face is where these symbols each correspond to one of the descriptive terms.

next step: Put these in a frame, and then work on my list of adjectives and creating all 56 game titles that use these keywords.

Entry 9:

I feel like it could almost be more procedural generation if I have this list of keywords. I guess I should mock up a single card as an example.

Entry 10:

At first I imagined I might want to make these cards rotationally symmetrical – where the title text sat at the bottom and up at the top so players on either side of the card could read it. But I think that these symbols need

I might make the centre a clock face as WELL as an octagram, but I want to avoid giving people the wrong impression by including clock hands. That looks like game information and it absolutely isn’t important. Every card in this game is ‘equal’ in the current structure.

There’s redundant game info on this card. The keywords and symbols correspond, and are presented separately so if you find the symbols hard to parse, you can read the text, and vice versa.

Entry 11:

the really long chain-of-words names is interesting but they’re time consuming to tailor. What if instead, the keywords are just there as reminder text, mechanically, and the cards get a fun generic name instead.

Entry 12: Closing in on the end of the month

I have the template, the art, and the symbols, and the basic structure of the faces. Structure works, time to pour something into it to try and solve the prototype problem. So today, I sat down and made the list of game adjectives, which gives us the two defining characteristics of the 57 Touhous in this game. There’s a HUGE LIST down under the fold explaining a huge list of character names (from a random name generator).

More below the fold, of character name, then the two adjectives for the character:

Miyazawa Koken (Musical, Dizzy)

Henmi Satsu (Dizzy, Fearsome)

Nakatomi Rin (Fearsome, Busy)

Maeno Atsuko (Busy, Flirty)

Akagawa Wakana (Flirty, Smug)

Hayashida Kofuyu (Smug, Salty)

Koki Eru (Salty, Gossipy)

Ouchi Tooka (Disastrous, Jazzy)

Date Sumiko (Jazzy, Scatterbrained)

Seto Nanao (Scatterbrained, Picky)

Mase Hide (Picky, Swag)

Kitagawa Ari (Sleepy, Relaxed)

Kibe Hainako (Relaxed, Giggly)

Uramoto Reina (Giggly, Serious)

Kaneshiro Tadako (Lively, Witchy)

Wakaizumi Tamae (Witchy, Artistic)

Mikami Sakiko (Charming, Fearless)

Yutani Yui (Fearless, Ghosty)

Takahata Dori (Ghosty, Chaotic)

Konuma Rina (Dedicated, Poetic)

Tachibana Mayo (Poetic, Mumbly)

Matsuno Urara (Mumbly, Grumpy)

Kamenashi Gemmei (Grumpy, Silly)

Muratagi Miyu (Silly, Boastful)

Wada Enri (Boastful, Shouty)

Wakaki Kiko (Competitive, Nerdy)

Haga Kazumi (Nerdy, Unhinged)

Yukimura Hatomi (Unhinged, Belligerent)

Kamata Aisa (Belligerent, Thoughtful)

Tone Fuki (Thoughtful, Athletic)

Nagano Kana (Athletic, Styling)

Okuyama Iyo (Styling, Competitive)

Nakauchi Wakana (Shouty, Fabulous)

Kobayashi Dai (Fabulous, Brainy)

Okuma Fukuko (Brainy, Offbeat)

Mizusawa Hizuru (Offbeat, Huffy)

Kugo Masu (Huffy, Charming)

Kimura Ryoko (Swag, Gullible)

Higa Yusa (Gullible, Sassy)

Yumoto Akemi (Sassy, Lively)

Arita Michizane (Chaotic, Sparkling)

Yamaji Hiroyuki (Sparkling, Dedicated)

Watabe Kenko (Serious, Chuuni)

Komori Nobuyoki (Chuuni, Mysterious)

Yoshihara Hoshiko (Mysterious, Cringe)

Kaminaga Otsune (Cringe, Sleepy)

Nishikawa Nanase (Artistic, Messy)

Ota Yone (Messy, Playful)

Kozutsami Wakuri (Playful, Driven)

Yasuda Kino (Driven, Disastrous)

Miyahira Kuni (Gossipy, Delicate)

Ashikaga Akiko (Delicate, Forgetful)

Kirishima Egao (Forgetful, Glorious)

Shiroma Urano (Glorious, Flowery)

Sada Kinuyo (Flowery, Gamer)

Enatsu Mutsumi (Gamer, Weirdo)

Ichinomiya Yumeji (Weirdo, Musical)

Entry 13: The Other Face

Other card face!

In case you’re pointing out ‘hey, this looks ugly,’ yeah. This is about setting up the card to ensure the information that needs to be communicated is all there. Think of it as blocking, or setting up the spreadsheet. The aim is to make sure that this can be all put into a CSV and then outputted clearly.

In this case, what this card face needs is:

The character image

The two alchemical symbols for her magic

The name of the character

The two keywords (which are text versions of the alchemical symbols)

Room for flavour text

In the card file, this would be the odd-numbered faces, with the other face being the even-numbered; that makes this the obverse and the other face is the reverse. Technically, that makes this a ‘card back’ but also the card back looks like a front because they vary more.

The reverse has:

The eight symbols for each card

The text matching those eight symbols

A flavour text entry explaining the ‘name’ of the card

The art I’m using is from the AI Touhou Twitter robot, as a it’ll-do stand in for examples. But I’m noticing that to get the vibe right for this, overwhelmingly, I’m going to need to do a lot of bespoke Touhou OC creation here, then get art of each one. That’s a lot of work I’m not good at! But the important thing at this point is the structure.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[rafaelafranzen]

In which I answer many questions about books

I came across this survey from @drawlight and I thought it’d be fun to fill! Fun fact: I’ve been an unabashed devotee of literature and stories all my life and am a stalwart champion of connecting people with stories – I’ve spent most of the last decade attending and volunteering at literature festivals and crossed fingers, am trying to get a job there. I don’t do the tagging thing, but if you’d like to fill this tag me back so I can discover your literary world!

I, like everyone else, am drowning in Good Omens right now, including the script book and original publication, so I’ll omit them from my responses for a bit of variety.

1. What book are you reading now?

Kraken – China Miéville. Yet another book about an impending apocalypse set in London, because I’m a sucker for undercurrents of fantasy in places I’ve walked in. This one’s a dark comedy about a squid-worshiping cult, where the initiating event for The End of the World is a forty-foot giant squid specimen being stolen from the Natural History Museum.

2. What are your favourite books?

I’m a bit of an odd duck in that my favourites change all the time at different points in my life. I hate to do the thing where you divide things up by genre because I think stories are valid in so many shapes and forms but it’s an easy shorthand – a few top favourites:

Literary Fiction: Spill, Simmer, Falter, Wither – Sara Baume (a book about a misfit man who brings a misfit dog into his life. I’ll never get tired of recommending this. The poetic turn of prose in this book is astonishing, and I’m reminded of it every time I read something by Drawlight, actually).

SF/F: Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman (again pushes all my right buttons with undercurrents of another world in places I’ve been) and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu – the titular story in this anthology made me cry on the train, in public – you can find it in full here. It’s a quick and heartbreaking read about the tenuous relationship one so often has with their parents.

Short Story: The Great Hargeisa Goat Bubble – Julian Gough (A economic satire and the first fiction piece ever published by the Financial Times, which was subsequently adapted to a Radio Play by the BBC which is also available in the link if you prefer listening. Will make you clutch your sides with laughter, teach you about securitizations, futures and hedge funds and global market forces without the need for you to get a degree in economics first, and ensure you never look at goats the same way again.)

3. How did you learn to read?

Other than the obvious – school, my mother used to take me to the library each weekend when I was a kid and let me borrow 4 books using my library card, and another 4 books with hers. I’d devour all 8 and rinse and repeat the next weekend.

4. What foreign languages do you read?

I studied Chinese as my second language for 12 years and subsequently lost pretty much all of it due to lack of usage after. I can still muddle my way through a menu but that’s about it.

5. What’s the funniest book you ever read?

The Teenage Textbook – Adrian Tan (I’m sure I’ve read plenty since that are better, but this is always the first one I think of. A bit of local nostalgia.)

6. What books have changed the way you look at the world or the way you live your life?

Without a doubt, This Is What Inequality Looks Like by Teo You Yenn. It is a non-fiction book told through the lens of people in poverty, and just as equally, from vantage point of the privileged, us folk who are more or less living in the median of society and the different frames of ‘common sense’ that need to be considered from these perspectives. It is a book about how acknowledging poverty and inequality leads to uncomfortable revelations about our society and ourselves. And it is about how once we see, we cannot, must not, unsee. It is a book that might sober you up for the rest of your life.

It was one of the books heavily drawn on to produce a play titled “Underclass” which I once described to a friend as “the wokest shit sandwich you’ll ever eat”, and I mean this in the best kind of way – it’s the most difficult pill I was ever made to swallow. It left me questioning every assumption I had about poverty, inequality and human dignity, left me squirming and uncomfortable in the way we gloss over the marginalized, and forced me to ask hard questions about the systems of society and who provides for those who fall through the cracks. I saw it a year ago and I still can’t stop thinking about it.  

7. What books have affirmed what you believe about life or the way you look at things?

Not entirely sure how to answer this one, I take away bits from every book and media property I encounter. I suppose if I would recommend anything, especially from the perspective of a writer, that rejection is par for the course so long as you keep forging on, and keep at it, then Stephen King’s On Writing. And on the love for the parts of your life that are odd, glorious and to be cherished, Sue Perkins Spectacles. Her letter to her dog Pickles in the book, available here, is one of the greatest confessions of adoration I’ve ever read, and will speak to every love you’ve held close in your life)

8. What are some of the scariest books you ever read?

To be frank I don’t read much horror, though I used to as a kid. I don’t have enough memory of any specifics to give titles.

9. About how many books do you think you have read in your life?

I’ve not the slightest idea. Probably hundreds.

10. About how many books do you own?

Currently, probably between 50-100, only limited by my bookshelf and now much it can hold. Most of my major book-purchases come around during the Singapore Writers Festival, so annually I drop between $100-200 on new books signed by authors I’ve met in person. Every 2-3 years I cycle out books from my bookshelf I no longer care to go back to and donate it to the book exchange shelf in my local library to make room for new titles.

12. How much would you say you’ve paid in library fines in your life?

Probably less than $5. I’m pretty neurotic about returning things on time.

11. How many books per month do you usually borrow from the library?

Probably less than one to be honest, but when the Writers Festival swings around, loads, to get an advance look at the authors that are coming I may enjoy the work of. Nowadays I usually buy my books.

13. Do you read in bed?

A resounding yes. It’s how I screwed up my eyesight as a kid!

14. Do you ever read while walking or driving?

Sometimes when walking but often I’m just scrolling reddit or catching up on current affairs and UK politics (I don’t live there but I can’t help following it). I don’t drive but I do read books when I commute on public transport.

15. OK, let’s get real. Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever read a book?

What, pray, be a strange place to read a book?

16. Do you listen to audiobooks?

Not particularly, as I find I can absorb information much faster reading words on a page. I also find it hard to multitask when something’s being read out because I want to pay attention to the story. I do, however, listen to radio plays adapted from books!

17. Has anyone ever read aloud to you or you to them?

Plenty, being on the receiving end of readings from many authors from attending the Writers Festival and events at independent bookstores. For me reading: loads of times workshopping my own work while I was pursuing my creative writing minor in university.

18. What was the most difficult book to read?

I attempted Lolita by Nabokov when I was about 14 or 15 and don’t think I got past the first 50 pages.

19. What books do you intend to read but keep putting off?

Craptons. Including the aforementioned Good Omens which I’ve owned for 7 years but never finished. Others that have been sitting on my shelf for the longest time now include The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and The Book of Dust by Phillip Pullman (Lyra, my chosen name that I now use professionally, came from the protagonist of Pullman’s His Dark Materials). As you can see my stable of books mainly tend towards SF/F.

20. Do you buy new or used books, paperbacks or hardcovers, leather or collector’s?

Absolutely! I buy mostly new – see Writers Festival book acquisitions from the earlier question. Mostly paperbacks but occasionally hardcovers if the price difference isn’t too dear. Secondhand bookstores are a dying trade here so I don’t get much opportunity to shop for used. I’m also constantly wary about how much room I have on my shelves and pick my purchases carefully. I usually don’t buy collectors editions because I don’t like having to be precious with my books -  they’re there to enjoy, to crack the spines in and get their corners banged up from being hastily stuffed into bags. With special editions I feel an odd obligation to keep them pristine.

21. How do you feel about writing in books?

Depends. If it’s a book I specifically want for reference, especially non-fiction I don’t mind marking them up. Otherwise I typically don’t.

22. Do you lend books?

I do! There have been books I’ve lent out for years and not sought back though. I do prefer to get them back eventually because books I do keep on my shelves usually hold the memory of the time I had with them, and are usually paperback editions whose covers I enjoyed and are no longer in print. It never feels quite the same to just get a new copy.

23. What were your favourite books as a child?

I read with such volume and variety when I was a child I actually hardly remember specific titles. I’m sure there was Dahl in there somewhere. An awful lot of Blyton and Nancy Drew/Famous Five which are now horrendously outdated but from which I still hold onto fond imagined memories of British summer days and mysterious nights, which are experiences I still sort of seek out when I go to the UK on rambles or hikes.

24. What children’s books do you enjoy as an adult or young adult?

If we’re talking specifically Children’s books and not YA, almost anything written by Kes Gray (Oi Frog!/The Trouble with Daisy series) and Julian Gough (Rabbit and Bear series, whose first book is a great introduction to the concept of gravity, hibernation, and the nutrition of rabbit poo). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Terry Pratchett’s Discword series, which includes several YA titles but even the main books in the series are fantastic reading for kids I think.

25. Do you ever read the ending first?

Oh gosh, why would anyone do that to themselves?

26. grab the book nearest to you (I picked something non-GO related), go to page 29 and type line 17 (if there isnt a line 17 type line 3)

“You always tell me that when someone is special, then the system has to make an exception." Connect (Julian Gough) – a cheeky one-of a kind signed edition I got from Julian’s apartment in Berlin when I visited him a couple months ago, combining the UK book jacket with US deckled-edge hardback. He started out as a writer I admired, then a mentor, and is now a fond friend.

[another-bloody-multimuse]

True Intentions

So, the latest Pokemon Masters event gave me Feelings, and therefore I had to write something for it.

Needless to say, this contains Pokemon Masters event spoilers, verbal/mental abuse, and one reference to physical child abuse.

And in case the “read more” breaks, this is also tagged as a long post.

N stepped into the cave, his heart thudding. He could see the oh-so familiar cloaked figure in the distance, and he swallowed hard. He was not alone, for which he was very grateful, but companionship was not doing much to assist his nerves. 

‘You’re sure about this?’ his companion dubiously asked. In Nate’s opinion, N was making a huge mistake, and it was not yet too late to turn back.

‘Yes. This is the answer I’ve come to. I’m sure,’ N insisted, and Nate held back a sigh. Damn it. ‘...Thank you for coming with me, though.’

‘It’s fine,’ Nate replied. ‘I wouldn’t want you to go and see him alone.’

‘Mmmm,’ N murmured. He knew only too well that Nate had a point. ‘We need to be careful when dealing with a man like… him.’

N had tripped over his words. He was uncertain how to refer to the man they were meeting. “Ghetsis”? “Father”? As much as he wanted to call the man “Father”... it was too soon. Much too soon for that.

‘I’m still a little worried,’ N confessed, after a pregnant pause.

‘Yeah, well no matter what happens, I’m on your side,’ Nate promised.

‘Thank you…’

Any further conversation was cut off,  by a sudden interruption. 

‘N! You’ve come to see me!’ a voice called out. For a moment, N froze; when they entered, Ghetsis had his back to them. His and Nate’s conversation had been in whispers, and he had assumed Ghetsis had not seen them yet. 

He shook himself out of his reverie, his face calm, stoic, as he turned to lock eyes once again with the man he called Father, his abuser.

At least in appearance, Ghetsis had not changed. N sincerely hoped that was the only thing that remained static. Incredibly tall, Ghetsis towered over those he met, and his own son was no exception. He still used a cane. N’s gaze lowered to the gloved hand that held onto it, as his mind helplessly wandered to thoughts of what was hidden beneath the cloak. Was Ghetsis’ health the same? Had it improved? Or perhaps worsened?

That was the most likely scenario; Ghetsis always had a great love of expensive wines, scotches and other such alcoholic drinks, and it had taken its toll on him. Combined with one arm, the nerves permanently damaged by his Hydreigon, Ghetsis was an incredibly unhealthy man. 

N lifted his head, staring his father in the eyes. One was still covered, and the other just as vividly scarlet as he remembered. It was difficult for him to maintain eye contact, but he forced himself to push through it. 

‘I’ve come to let you know my answer,’ N declared. He had taken a quiet, deep breath in before speaking, to ensure his voice would not wobble, nor crack.

His head had been spinning, ever since Ghetsis initially approached him. Wanting to be a father to him again…

Though in order for him to be a father “again”, he had to have been one before. N knew that, deep down. But it was a thought he tried to keep pushed to the back of his mind. 

‘Let’s send out our Pokemon,’ N added, when Ghetsis remained silent, just observing him. 

Zekrom and Kyurem were both released from their Pokeballs, two thirds of the Tao Trio coming eye to eye with one another again for the first time in years. 

‘Well? What’s your answer?’ Ghetsis demanded. Still so impatient. 

‘...I don’t think it’s possible for us to become a true father and son so easily…’ N cautiously replied. His nerves were threatening to spill over, and he grabbed the brim of his cap. Something to focus on, while under his father’s scarlet gaze. ‘But… if you’ve really had a change of heart, and are seriously prepared to face people and Pokemon, then… maybe one day, it will be. That’s why I need you to show me that you have love in your heart -’

Ghetsis, the lower half of his face hidden by his incredibly high collar, clenched his jaw together tightly. How the fuck was he going to do that?

‘- through battle!’

Oh. The former Plasma leader relaxed. That was alright, then.

‘Father!’ The word escaped N’s lips, as he called out to the man before him. Ghetsis’ eyes slid shut.

‘I am grateful you’ve given me this opportunity…’ he started, his voice soft. N’s demeanour changed a little - Ghetsis was accepting what he said? Then maybe, just maybe, he had been telling the truth, after all! If Ghetsis could work on his issues, and treat those around him like human beings, and N himself like one, instead of an extension of Ghetsis, then -

‘Thank you for this chance.’ Ghetsis’ voice pulled N out of his thoughts again. The Plasma leader’s face twisted into a wicked grin, as he leant forward on his cane, a malicious glint in his eye. ‘To capture Zekrom for myself!’

No. No, please, God, no -

‘What?’ N gasped. The words left him winded, as though Ghetsis had struck him with his cane.

And it was a feeling he remembered all too well.

‘Now! Restrain Zekrom!’ Ghetsis commanded, his voice thunderous, as N tried to wrap his head around what was going on.

How could you be so stupid? Of COURSE Ghetsis was going to betray you, it’s what he DOES! the former king mentally chastised. How could he have been taken in so well? How, even now, with years free from Ghetsis’ influence, could he still be so easily manipulated? 

As Ghetsis slammed his cane down on the rocky ground, several unfamiliar figures in black and white masks suddenly leapt out, having been waiting for Ghetsis’ signal. More Pokeballs were flung into the air, as more Pokemon were sent out, between N and Ghetsis. 

Crackles of electricity zapped around Zekrom, the giant legendary held in place. N had frozen up again, feeling helpless, lost for what to do. 

‘Zekrom!’ he cried. 

‘It can’t move,’ Ghetsis said, a sinister chuckle coming forth. ‘I took special measures to use Pokemon that can hold it in place.’

N’s hands clenched into tight fists, shaking. How could I be so stupid? The entire thing had been a scam. Not only had Ghetsis prepared his Hydreigon to counter his team, not only had he made sure the Shadow Triad had Pokemon that could take down Zekrom, he had now done the same thing again on Pasio, to ensure he got what he wanted!

And like a fool, I fell for it, N’s mind traitorously whispered. 

‘What d’you think you’re doing?!’ Nate angrily snapped. He looked as though, if the Pokemon were not there, he would run at Ghetsis and try to physically attack him. 

‘I can’t believe you’d actually do such a thing…’ N’s voice was flat, hollow, belying the deep sense of betrayal that was rooting him on the spot. 

‘Of course I would!’ Ghetsis taunted, cackling. In typical Ghetsis style, he seemed to be relishing rubbing salt into the wound. When he spoke again, his voice was a disdainful sneer, not making the slightest effort to mask his contempt for his own child. ‘I only put on that ridiculous act so that I could get my hands on Zekrom! That is all you’re worth to me! As if we could be a true family! Me? With a freak like you?!’

N’s jaw was clamped tightly shut, only barely managing to contain an outburst of pain at Ghetsis’ words. He had heard that insult too many times.

“He’s nothing more than a freak without a human heart!”

“DON’T TALK LIKE A PERSON, YOU FREAK!”

He had lost count of just how many times that word had been wielded like a weapon against him throughout his entire life. Every time he had attempted to talk to his father, particularly about his ability to talk to Pokemon, it had always gone the same way.

And that was no doubt the reason why, as an adult, he was still being called a freak. Because Ghetsis had always refused to believe his claims. 

The fight had left N, and he did not bother to counter his father’s harsh words. But Nate was livid. 

‘How dare you play with N’s feelings like that?!’ he yelled, launching his Pokeball into the air, Braviary bursting from it. ‘I’m going to help N protect Zekrom!’

With an instruction to attack, and N still paralysed, Nate began to battle the Team Break grunts that had gathered under Ghetsis’ command, and easily took them down. As the last opposing Pokemon fell, Ghetsis’ expression twitched, ever so slightly. 

‘...Not bad,’ he conceded. ‘I can feel your anger!’ And it fuelled him.

‘Next is the pair holding down Zekrom!’ Nate declared. The Team Break trainer in question looked concerned as Nate attacked again. 

‘That’s enough.’

A new, commanding voice interjected, as yet another Pokemon appeared. The sleek, yet threatening form of Mewtwo landed between Ghetsis and Team Break, and N and Nate, pushing the latter two back. Mewtwo extended one arm, launching a hard blast of psychic power, taking Braviary down. Trying not to panic, Nate recalled his Pokemon before it could hit the ground, as N gawped at the newcomer.

‘Is… is that…?’ His voice trailed off, his eyes wide in horror when he recognised his father’s ally. 

‘Stay out of my way,’ Giovanni warned, his voice a low snarl. He looked almost exactly as N remembered. He had not seen anything of Team Rocket himself, not even on the news; Ghetsis had done too good a job when Team Rocket were around, of keeping N secluded and ignorant of the outside world. But the boy had heard things from his sisters, and done his own research since escaping Team Plasma. 

This Giovanni did not look too dissimilar to the man he had seen in photos. Perhaps a little older, his face slightly more lined. A few flecks of grey in an otherwise jet black head of hair. But the biggest difference, was the symbol emblazoned on the breast of his jacket. Not a red R, but multicoloured. Reds, yellows, greens and blues, one colour transforming into the other. 

Rainbow Rocket Giovanni rolled up a sleeve. In doing so, he revealed not just the fact that his arm was so heavily tattooed that his skin colour could not be seen, but more importantly, the Mega Bracelet enclosed around his wrist. 

‘Giovanni?’ N questioned, as the man in question approached, coming to a stop beside Mewtwo. ‘W-What are you doing here?’

The realisation that an already bad situation had just gotten worse caused N’s voice to crack. Which in turn made Ghetsis smirk. N was afraid. Good.

‘I just so happened to meet Ghetsis, while recruiting Team Break members,’ Giovanni explained. The apparently leaderless team had been like a gift for him. Already organised, already with their own Pokemon, all they needed was someone to take them under their wing. Someone to guide them.

And who better than Giovanni?

‘He told me all about his plans. And if he’s able to get his hands on your Zekrom, then that works out perfectly for me.’

In just getting him this far, this Ghetsis had already proven himself to be much more useful than the one he had already met and recruited into Rainbow Rocket. But, Giovanni was a smart man. He knew that the Rainbow Rocket Ghetsis had already tried to manipulate him, and was absolutely prepared for the current Ghetsis to try and do the same. Ghetsis no doubt had his own hidden agenda, but he was certainly not the only one. 

‘Yes, so I should thank you for gathering these pawns, and sharing your information with me,’ Ghetsis smirked. ‘I’ll be sure to return the favour. Now, our preparations are complete! I will soon possess a legendary that combines two powers!’

‘No…!’ Nate gasped. 

‘The fusion of Kyurem and Zekrom…’ N murmured, the memories of the exact same thing happening before flying through his mind. 

‘Watch this moment closely!’ Ghetsis cried out, as he approached the trapped Zekrom, Giovanni keeping close behind him. 

‘Zekrom!’ N called.

‘Ghetsis, don’t do it!’ Nate added. He knew too well that there was no way Ghetsis would listen, but without his Pokemon and badly outnumbered, there was not much else he could do. 

‘Kyurem! Absorb Zekrom, use Absofusion!’ Ghetsis ordered, an unhinged, determined grin set upon his face. 

‘Now’s my chance,’ Giovanni quietly said, watching the scene intently. He snapped his fingers. ‘Do it.’

Mewtwo reappeared, floating in the gap between the two other legendaries, facing Kyurem down. 

‘What the -?’ Nate spluttered. N looked similarly taken aback.

‘They stopped them from fusing?’ he questioned, not entirely certain whether he believed what he was seeing. 

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Ghetsis spat, glowering at Giovanni. He slammed his cane on the ground again. ‘Giovanni!’

‘Well, you see… I too have a plan,’ Giovanni replied. ‘I know how you operate, Ghetsis. Perhaps a little too well, and the way I see it, once you have both of these legendaries under your command, your next move will be to secure more pawns to make use of. And as these Team Break members answer to me, I know that it’d be me you target next.’

Ghetsis remained silent, teeth bared. As Giovanni observed him, he could see that he had been completely right. Granted, it would not have been out of character for Ghetsis to lie, and claim he had nothing of the sort planned, but he surmised Ghetsis would only have done that if he were calmer. And the ex Plasma leader, as he was currently, looked apoplectic with rage. 

Ghetsis’ raging, hateful silence was the only answer Giovanni required.

‘So, I intend to take Kyurem and Zekrom before that can happen!’

‘How cunning,’ Ghetsis hissed. ‘But it’s too little, too late.’

More masked members of Team Break appeared, again, on Ghetsis’ cue, standing beside him, as Giovanni’s eyes widened, just for a second. 

‘What?’

‘You are not the only one who has a talent for convincing people to join you,’ Ghetsis gloated. ‘I am more than capable of that, too! A faction of Team Break is already under my command!’

Oh, shit. This was not what Giovanni had in mind. He knew exactly what Ghetsis was planning, yet the son of a bitch still out-witted him!

Despite his inner panic, the Rainbow Rocket leader’s expression continued to be a smug grin, as though it was all a game they were playing. He would be damned if he was going to let Ghetsis know that he was rattled.

‘I guess I underestimated you after all,’ he admitted. ‘In that case… Mewtwo, get them!’

‘Rise! We must defeat Giovanni!’ Ghetsis roared. 

‘...So they’ve broken their alliance,’ N mused, as more Pokemon were sent out. With the attention mostly taken off Zekrom, N felt he could breathe a little more easily. ‘...I suppose they were never actually allies in the first place… 

‘I want to help Zekrom, but there are way too many Pokemon over there…’ Nate fretted. 

‘Go, Volcarona!’ 

Another new voice entered the fray, as a familiar Volcarona appeared over N’s head, striking the Team Break Pokemon. As they were knocked out, N and Nate spun around on their heels to see the former champion, Alder Castillo, striding forward. He was staring directly at Ghetsis, his expression set into a look of grim determination, with a young redhead behind him. 

‘Alder! Silver!’ Nate greeted, a wave of relief washing through him to have some backup. 

‘I had an unpleasant feeling that something bad would happen,’ Alder stated. The sensation of foreboding had been with him ever since he learnt Ghetsis was back. He knew that N had been ambivalent about forgiving him, and having a proper father and son relationship with the man again. And Alder did not want to completely squash his hopes of that happening. He had been direct with stating that he did not trust Ghetsis, but seeing the look of utter defeat in the young boy’s eyes, Alder had to wonder just what he had missed. That maybe he had not been severe enough. Perhaps he should have explicitly told N not to trust his despicable excuse for a “father”, even for the faintest fraction of a second. ‘I’m glad we made it in time. We took care of the Team Break members at the entrance, but reinforcements are on their way right now! We need to get out of here!’

Silver, the young redhead, was not paying any attention to Alder. Nor was he even paying any attention to Ghetsis. No, his gaze was firmly on Giovanni, and his expression was one of hatred. 

‘Oh?’ Giovanni questioned, glancing over. He was uncertain how to react, so he kept the same usual smug demeanour. This boy was not his Silver, but was a Silver. And clearly things had gone the same way between him and his Giovanni, as they had in the Rainbow Rocket leader’s timeline. 

‘I have more important things to worry about right now, than him,’ Silver declared, without giving one single fuck about the fact that his voice was loud enough for Giovanni to hear. Not that Giovanni seemed bothered. He was used to it from his own Silver. ‘Come on, hurry up!’

Now freed, N turned back to the rest of the group to see Zekrom land before him.

‘I’m so glad you’re okay…’ he murmured, relief sparkling in his eyes.

‘Let’s get out of here,’ Nate urged. 

Sensing that the situation was no longer in their favour, the Team Break grunts who had followed Ghetsis began to retreat, much to his annoyance.

‘Tch… Worthless fools,’ he growled. 

‘Now that a former champion has arrived, I suppose I have no choice but to give up on Zekrom,’ Giovanni decided. For now. ‘Kyurem, on the other hand, will be mine.’

‘I warned you before…’ Ghetsis started, his voice dripping with rage, before suddenly ramping up to a scream, ‘NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE ME!’

The cane struck the ground, as Kyurem roared. Alder winced at the noise, but Giovanni seemed unbothered. A snap of his fingers later, and he was gone, along with Mewtwo. Alder glanced back, seeing N approach, and noticed how the boy looked mentally exhausted. It was no surprise, Alder guessed that N must felt like he had been put through the wringer.

Because he had been. He was about to speak up, to try and reach out to N, when Nate interrupted with another insistence that they should leave. He was right, the less time they spent in the cave, the better. Giovanni might have been gone, but there was still Ghetsis to contend with. 

N stopped before he reached Alder and Nate. And, without breathing a word, he turned his back, and strode over to his father. 

‘...What?’ Ghetsis questioned, a look of annoyed confusion on his face. N refused to clarify, but stayed by his side. 

‘What are you doing? Just leave him!’ Silver irritably told N.

‘Yes, what are you doing?’ Ghetsis agreed, clearly as baffled as his son’s friends. 

‘...I want to save Kyurem, regardless of whose Pokemon it is. Even if that means I have to help you...’ N finally answered, without looking at any of them. Part of him had to wonder what the hell he was doing, siding up with Ghetsis, after how Ghetsis had betrayed him, insulted him, and openly laughed about it. He told himself that he was not doing this for Ghetsis’ sake, or even his own.

This was for Kyurem.

‘...I won’t call you my father, Ghetsis.’ That was fine with the Plasma leader. His skin always crawled when that word left N’s mouth. Disgusting. N turned and looked at him. ‘But if you co-operate, I’ll help you get out of this!’

‘I see. Very well. That’s convenient for me,’ Ghetsis replied. No “thank you”, but of course not. N had never gotten a “please” or a “thank you” from Ghetsis in his life, and he definitely did not expect that to change now. ‘Let’s take him down, N!’

‘N and Ghetsis, standing side by side…’ Nate muttered. The idea left him unsettled. It was wrong. He brought the Pokeball with his unconscious Braviary in it up to his mouth, whispering to it, as he used a revive. ‘Just a little longer, we need to help N…’

‘Hey!’ Silver called out, as Nate and Braviary took off. 

‘It’s too late to stop them. Let’s just make sure that they have a safe escape route,’ Alder told the redhead. 

‘The plan is to hold off Mewtwo until he can’t come after you any more, alright?’ N told his father.

‘Yes,’ Ghetsis crisply agreed.

‘Well, why don’t we put it to the test?’ Giovanni questioned, as he was joined by his own Team Break grunts again, now they had recovered from the previous fight. ‘Let’s see what your little father-son team up can do!’

Nate’s Braviary, and the two other legendaries opposing Giovanni started the battle, fighting ferociously against the Rainbow Rocket leader and his underlings. It was not long until it was just the legendaries against each other, and with Mewtwo outnumbered, it was Giovanni’s team that fell. 

‘...Hmph, I suppose that does surpass my expectations,’ he reluctantly confessed. 

‘After him!’ Ghetsis then commanded. 

‘No! You remember what I said earlier, don’t you?! We’re getting out of here!’ N countered. 

‘What?’ Ghetsis hissed, angry that N spoke back to him. But he could see that this time, N was not going to be moved. ‘Fine.’

‘Too bad,’ Giovanni said to himself, as the others left. ‘This would have been so much easier had you stayed here...’ He glanced to the cave exit. ‘Go after them.’

‘Hey!’ 

Giovanni had assumed that it was just him, Mewtwo, and his underlings left. That the others had all left with Ghetsis and N. So he was surprised when he saw himself suddenly face to face with his son.

‘That’s enough. Your plan failed,’ Silver glared. ‘Let them go, or else!’ 

To Giovanni’s surprise, the Pokemon that Silver released was none other than Ho-Oh. 

When did Silver obtain a legendary of his own? Giovanni thought, as Ho-Oh flapped its wings and released a loud cry. 

‘...Change of plans,’ Giovanni decided, recalling Mewtwo. ‘We’re leaving.’

His decision confused his underlings, who had been readying themselves for another fight. 

‘B-But sir…?’ one hesitantly questioned.

‘The more people you command, the harder it is to control them. I think learning that much is enough for today,’ Giovanni replied. He tilted his head, glancing to the side at Silver. ‘Besides… I’m very pleased by what I’ve seen today.’

Silver pulled a face, and blinked. Was Giovanni complimenting him? For standing up to him? Obtaining Ho-Oh? But once the shock quickly wore off, his expression turned back to angry. He was not going to be taken in, be swayed by Giovanni’s words! This man had no idea who Silver was, if he thought a few pretty words could appease him.

It was probably a lie, anyway.

Silver headed outside the cave again, where the rest of the group - unfortunately, still including Ghetsis - were waiting for him.

‘I think they’ve stopped coming after us now,’ Silver declared, without offering any explanation as to why he had stayed behind. None of them needed to know about him challenging Giovanni. Or what Giovanni had said to him. 

‘I see. In that case…’ Alder pointedly looked back at Ghetsis.

‘You want to come after me, now? I can’t allow that to happen,’ he warned. ‘Perhaps we can come to a truce for today. What do you think, N?’

‘...I know that you haven’t changed, at all,’ N said, and Alder was relieved. He had been concerned that siding with Ghetsis to protect him might have caused N to start reconsidering, again. He wanted nothing more than for N to have a father he could be happy with, but as long as his father was Ghetsis, that was just not possible. ‘If you do anything to harm the people or Pokemon here, I will be the first in line to stop you!’

‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ Ghetsis replied, tone thick with sarcasm. Clearly he did not believe N to be a big enough threat to him. ‘Then, farewell.’

‘Wait, Ghetsis!’ Nate then called. Ghetsis paused, not turning back around to face them, but instead peered over his shoulder, to see what Nate wanted. ‘I hate you. I’ll never forget what you did in Unova! But you’re still N’s father! You raised him, and spent all those years together!’

Ghetsis had no idea where Nate was going with his tangent, and neither did N. N’s childhood had been spent cooped up inside one room. A very spacious room, admittedly, but still locked away from the rest of the world, and fed only whatever information Ghetsis deemed worthy of him knowing. As much as N longed for change, he was no longer blind to the horrendous circumstances that stole his childhood. 

So why was Nate bringing it up?

‘Are you really going to say you felt nothing when the two of you were fighting side by side?!’ Nate demanded. ‘It’s not too late to change your ways! Please, at least think about it!’

Oh. N braced himself. He was certain that Ghetsis was going to scoff, laugh hysterically at such a ridiculous notion, and he knew it was going to hurt. 

‘Nate…’ N began. 

‘Ghetsis!’ Nate repeated, when he got no reply. And N’s heart sunk to his stomach, when sure enough, Ghetsis began to chuckle. At last, he turned back properly to face them, and erupted with laughter.

‘You naive fool! Our relationship is nothing more than that between a master and his tools! What happened here changes nothing!’ he barked, before turning his evil scarlet gaze onto N. ‘As long as I can keep using you, I don’t care what you call our relationship! I do whatever I please! I am not your ally, not your friend, and I am certainly not your father!’

In unison, N and Nate both tugged on the brims of their headwear. Nate in embarrassment, and upset for N, and N to try and cover his face. He was attempting to be as expressionless as he could, but the hurt shone in his eyes.

‘How dare you -!’ Silver began, readying to go into a full force rant. 

‘Despicable,’ Alder quickly interjected, unwilling to let the youngster draw too much of Ghetsis’ attention. ‘You’re the one without a heart!’

‘If that’s all,’ Ghetsis sneered, their anger and words bouncing off him. With another - but more sardonic - farewell, Ghetsis was whisked away by Kyurem, leaving them free of him at last.

‘I had a bad feeling this might happen,’ Alder sighed. ‘N, my apologies. I think I should have stopped you before you went to help him.’

‘Don’t apologise,’ N said, to Alder and Nate. ‘It was my decision. Please, don’t be sad on my behalf.’

‘...Nate, are you crying again?’ Silver questioned. He looked embarrassed.

‘You truly have a kind heart,’ N gently told Nate, ‘one that resonates with others. You got angry for the people of Unova, you yelled at Ghetsis for me… and now, you’re even crying for me...’

‘I can’t help it! It’s just all so messed up!’ Nate wept. ‘You’re not asking for anything special! You just want a normal relationship with the man you call your father! It’s not asking for much! Why can’t you have that too?!’

‘Nate… It’s okay.’ It was a lie, but a lie told for N’s own sake as well as Nate’s. Right now, he felt like being strong for his friend distracted him from his own pain. ‘I may not have a father, but I have good friends like you.’

‘N…’ Nate sniffled.

‘Yeah, you can survive without a father,’ Silver chimed in, and N nodded in agreement.

I’m blessed to be surrounded by such kind people and Pokemon. That’s enough for me. I suppose… a father figure was just never meant to be.

...But it was nice to hope for it.

[13thdoodle]

How did Danny (after waking up) handle the news about 31? Also what about Sam and Tucker?

Hmmm i havent thought of it much mostly because i hadnt figure out how much he had gone through there, how long, and if he had met any of his clones there

im making this up as i go bare with me ok

When he first woke up danny wouldnt think it was real at first. like him in the hospital? with his family? wowee what a dream. until he saw 31 with the white suit n snapped him out of it. Danny got suspicious like what is going on?? is this some kind of sick test? 31 tries to explain but he's wearing sunglasses and his voice detached from emotion (out of anxiety n habit) in attempt to sound calm but it riled up danny instead. Jazz n his parents gotta calm him down n explain like no he saved you ur safe now its ok. 31 just stayed quiet the whole time after

Danny was like ?????? took him awhile to actually realized its real. n took a bit longer getting used to 31 being in the same room but like... not feeling like hes back in lab

would be easier except 31 just. refused to leave danny's room, let alone leaving him all alone. he worried about danny's safety in case maybe other branch of giw come n take him again. basically lowkey personal bodyguard much to danny's dismay.

Took Danny awhile to realize 31 is just.. awkward kid underneath. They probably wouldve get along faster if he didnt always wear the white suit.

.....danny gotta stay in the hospital for awhile like sped up healing or not they gonna be very concern. tho i guess they probably still release him faster than they would like coz the whole.. hospital vibe dont mix too good with his previous exp on giw. so they release him sooner. they probably got danny a therapist or sth to help recover after hes released from hospital

sam n tucker probably would react the same as danny was, very suspicious at first but loosen up later on. maybe three of em end up rotating guard duty or sth 'cause if let alone 31 wouldve stayed up whole week to make sure danny safe

I like to think Danny kinda figure out n notice 31's awkward polite n sometimes stiff talking is him just... not knowing how to talk like normal kids. These two probably spends most time with 31 sojsbsbs