#yknow the guy he worked for for decades at this point and who wouldnt give him the benefit of doubt that he was being framed for a crime

[prismagic]

Hahaha don't get your connection to the weave permanently severed you're so sexy hahaha

[frienderbender]

hey frienderbender is it ok to ask for some lore/information on your magpickles 🥺 I’m very invested in those goods ( off the topic but can I just say I am in LOVE with the way you draw Skwisgaar my heart is just fluttering to fast when I see him 🥺💞 Anyways muah you’re wonderful artist thank you have a lovely day/evening )

oh sure! first off thank you so much for the sweet message! that made my night :'] i love drawing skwisgaar and im glad you like how he looks in my style haha

anyways im assuming youre talking about my general lore for them in the canon timeline, so ill talk about that under the cut

i think they first met some time in the late 80s while pickles was still with snb. they met after a show specifically. magnus introduced himself as a fan, and that was true! but (quick tangent for some general mag thoughts) it brings up something that ive always thought about when i look at mag. magnus definitely gives off the vibe of being the guy who was always just Around in the music scene, especially in the rock and metal scene of this era. like, hes a mysterious dude but he has connections. he will play with random bands sometimes. he knows so many fucking people in this industry (not saying hes friends with all of them though); what im trying to say is. Everyone Has A Magnus Hammersmith Story. hes the type of guy that gets talked about in podcasts decades down the line. ok all that to say he was able to get backstage because he just Knows People. and he introduces himself as a fan blah blah pickles and magnus drink and do some drugs and honestly i wouldnt be surprised if they at the very least made out with each other the first night they met.

so pickles is like, pretty into him right off the bat. magnus was too, but i think on his end INITIALLY he was more just interested in hooking up but they exchange info and keep in touch and all that. so. this is RIGHT before snb implodes. and theyre still meeting up fairly regularly and becoming closer and doing a lot of drugs and drinking a bunch. typical rockstar stuff.

but pickles had been on a steady downward spiral at this point (he was already like this before he met magnus), and in one night snb is no more. having burned all those bridges in his band (for now), pickles turns to his only friend left: magnus. and i think its at this point, when pickles comes to him, wrecked by the dissolution of his band, that magnus kinda starts to realize he might actually feel something for him too? seeing him like this, seeing pickles from fucking snakes n barrels, so raw and real and not at all like the fiery redhead he met that night after their show...it just feels different somehow. like yeah he was attracted to pickles from snakes n barrels, but he realized he had grown to care about pickles from tomahawk wisconsin. he liked that one better, there was no bullshit. no hiding beneath layers of glam makeup and hairspray.

so its the two of them against the world. its the early 90s at this point. on a whim, pickles decides they should leave LA and just drive. wherever. just away from the city because LA fucking sucks. he takes all his money and he and magnus get in his car and just start driving. they end up in florida eventually, because its the other side of the country. or something. they get an apartment, and for a couple of months they live together and its. kinda nice. its different, for sure. but not bad. magnus and pickles both always kinda skirted around the topic of their relationship. they never called the other their boyfriend. but i feel strongly that they did tell each other that they loved the other, once. and they meant it.

so heres where things get tricky for me. how did dethklok form? what was the order? who met who first? i dont know!! i wish i knew! its something i have a million scenarios for and i wish we got a canon order of the members joining at the very least so i can model my headcanons around it haha

with that in mind though, i do think magnus and pickles were a bit of a package deal. like, whoever joined first was able to get the other in. so. yeah. they joined dethklok some time in the early to mid 90s now.

they have a pretty decent few years. theyre still.......something....even in their new band. like they arent open about it and hook up when the other guys arent around and all that.

its around this time though that i think magnus is really starting to go through it. combination of feeling frustrated because of the bands status at this point, general untreated mental health, etc. anyways i think the stabbing incident occurred some time in the mid 90s, probably like '95 or '96 or something. so.....he gets kicked out. obviously. and those are the terms they end on for awhile.........

but uh. you see. pickles never completely cut ties with the dude because. well. what do you do when this happens to someone you care so deeply about. and i think probably a month or so later, magnus actually contacts him for the first time since the stabbing incident. and maybe i have a comic script and thumbnails about this encounter what about it. magnus tells him he wants to see him, so pickles slips out that night to meet up at an old bar they used to go to a lot. may or may not be the depths of humanity uhhh anyway. theyre talking for awhile but it just kinda devolves into honestly more one-sided arguing on pickles end. hes frustrated and sad and confused because fuck! magnus! why would you do that? why, when the bands just starting to take off? it becomes this whole like. you arent the same guy i knew. and in that moment it quietly hits them both that like. we arent who we were, and we dont know what to do about that. magnus asks if pickles would want to join him and leave the band, and pickles tells him to go fuck himself. and thats the last thing he ever said to him.

and thats where the magpickles lore/relationship timeline ends. i realize it really did kinda turn into a timeline but also i did write a timeline during a slow day at work once like two months ago but. anyways. this is basically that.

but uh. yes. i love them. they make me sad but in a good way yknow. its like. its one of those situations where i feel like under different circumstances, they probably couldve made it work in their own weird way. they have such a specific dynamic, whether in their background together in the canon timeline or just me fucking around with AUs and being like hmm what if i actually gave them a scenario where they could have the time to develop AS an actual couple. im rambling but i just love these two so much. this is so long.

i feel strongly they wouldnt get back together in any sort of canon capacity, but i do think they still have feelings for each other in that way you do when you remember people you loved in the past. old friendships that dissolved with no resolution. the person you still have things you want to tell them, even though you know you will never get the chance.

[isaacathom]

like, if i were to basically redo it to just be a fun fantasy romp - id take it back to its original sort of time setting rather than having it be urban fantasy. Finley died in an expedition about 10 years earlier, making Crystal and Akian into orphans. theyve basically been living with the D’Lore’s since then, so Akian and Chase being really fucking close makes complete sense (and was likely why they started living wit the d’lores in the first place). in that last decade, like 5 yearsago or so, SKye joins the family after the whole uhhhhh Sorix/Naten situation. my poor boys. so crystal and skye already know each other. they arent super close, mostly because skye’s a moody lil bitch sometimes, but they know each other and are passing friends. crystal works with the d’lore’s apothecary, since the d’lores are like, biiiiiiiig boys. mayors or some shit. big boys. not a king, tho. well, actually, maybe? that could be interesting. or perhaps like a pricipality sorta deal. ill think about it.

since the d’lores are royalty here, kidnapping Akian and Chase (the crown prince boy and his gf) makes complete sense. theyre a perfect ransom and way tohold the entire city/region hostage. its a crisis. skye and crystal, who are really pissed about it, decide to take proactive action. which brings them into contact with Violet, who runs a small library with her “aunt”, Dawn. Violet helps them find some information about some of the weird shit the two reported seeing before their sibs were kidnapped, and gives them a shit ton of advice on what they could do. because violet is the best.

smth smth happens, they come into contact with Will, who is an expedition man just like Finley, and also the guy with th complex relationship with Skye. the three manage to convince Will to take them along into his second trip into a portal he’s discovered north of the town, because violet thinks it’ll have useful info and then begs to come along to see it. sothe 4 go in. suhbitch, its the heaven realm, and here they meet Skye’s mother, Alexa, who has still been dead for 200 years because, lets be clear, Skye’s dad fucked a ghost. fucking crazy. fantasy is wild. and she helps give them some pointers. maybe suggests they head to Quartai, which is the Big Boy Kingdom. a probably more overtly magical/religious place, more info on Ryaris and shit, stuff like that.

the 4 go there. then im not sure how stuff resolves from there. they probably still end up heading to the southern isles, which is an even more Big Magic place that has all these portals. in between then, violet seems to disappear, following an(other) encounter with Princess Alara, angry wind mage of the hour. which isnt great? but thats because Violet realised something was off about Alara (in a way specific to Violet) and she went out alone after the others went to sleep to find her and demand answers, and then, well, shit escalates.

they finally get to the fire realm and find the castle. before they can sneak inside, Alara catches them and promptly kidnaps Crystal, under the rationale that, well, Crystal is actually quartaian royalty, she’ll be a good ransom as well! :) skye and will (and i guess ash if hes just floating around, i dont Know)get tossed in the jail cell with chase and akian. Violet, who has now assumed the position of Princess fucking uhhhhh she has a name. fuck. T- Tacha??? yea ok whatever. Princess Violet’s out here, trying desperately to avoid the consequences of abandoning the group and trying not to get seen by any of them. but after overhearing her mum and sister interrogating Crystal about shit (and probably revealing Crystal’s heritage at that time, tho idk how id tie that shit in proper) Violet decides to stop being a coward. easily talks her way into the jail, frees everyone, get them all their stuff back, and make arrangements with some sympathetic guards that escort the exhausted Chase and Akian to a portal that will plop them out near-ish to the capital city, where they will be quickly found. bonus points if one of the guards, being a local to the area, offers to then personally escort them to the palace and hand them over. if yes, then violet likely gives him something that is proof of divine intervention (like, a symbol that cannot be manufactured by a human? and that is proof that Ryaris was involved and has returned them, smth like that, idk)

then the three of them work together to free crystal from Alara, who is acting as the primary antagonist. Ryaris is getting cold feet like noones fucking business, which is why she hasnt made a single appearance apart from kidnapping the two at the start. Alara’s filled in the rest, in part because Alara can pass for human (shes more a demigod than a minor goddess, in contrast to Violet), and because Alara was a LOT more into the plan from the start. probably using some info they gathered in Quartai or in theheaven world (it definitely has a name, i dont remember it) to convince Alara that, well, no, Dalace is absolutely fucking lying to you, stop it. which is easier than you would think, because Dalace’s lies were revealed the instant Violet returned home.

Part of Dalace’s plan to escape from her imprisonment is to have Ryaris (and her daughter, tho that was a later addition) force a whole bunch of humans into constructing and using portals, which would weaken the seal and also give Dalace more power. then she can break out and wreak havoc. her end of the deal is that, once restored to full power and free, she would bring back Evelyn and Violet. Evelyn being Ryaris’ human wife, who died like 5-6 years prior to the start of the story, and which was actually caused by Dalace in order to force Ryaris’ hand. but that conceit was that Violet and Ryaris were both dead. But Violet is here, perfectly fine, and with 0 trace of any magical interference. Violet was been alive the entire time, just out of Ryaris’ sight and in a different place than where Alara ended up going undercover. essentially a stroke of bad luck.

so, yknow. Violet has overheard Ryaris talking to Dalace, and has already found out about the fact that her revival had been promised. so its like, ‘what proof do you have???’ ‘well, im here, arent i?’ ‘:|||||’ if its then additional that, after violet left the party, the other three found out that Dalace doesn’t have the ability to revive, and that revival as a skill would require the death of Losa (light goddess and just general death lady), they can use that too. combine forces. violet uses her knowledge of the agreement, and the others use their acquired knowledge of the limits of magic. bam. maybe even some prior history, like ‘the stories say that Dalace went mad because everything died in her care. if she could revive the dead, surely this wouldnt have been an issue?’ ‘..... fuck youre right’. i mean they almost definitely have to fight her too because Alara’s a bit of a pain in the ass. people probably almost die. hardcore.

everyone chills out, they go convince ryaris to maybe chill. thats very easy because ryaris literally just wanted to settle down with her wife and two children before shit got messy (and i mean, Same). very easy to convince her off the mess train. but, of course, she’s already done a lot of the damage. the ransom for Akian and Chase has been active for like, at LEAST a week, possibly even more, she’s already reaped a solid chunk and started making good on her promise to Dalace. so the damage has been done. Dalace will get out soon. so they decide like, ok, lets fix it. time to go like, punch her in the face.

and then they beat dalace or reseal her or something. im not sure? dalace’s issues with the world are so deeply seated, her anger so much a part of her, that you cant really turn her good again. and to kill her would be nigh impossible and extremely disastrous. so really its like. do we trap her again but More this time, do we force the gods to actually intervene this time instead of acting through Champions? its rough. a godly intervention would only work if the group had been to each of the realms, because then they’d have met or affected each god in some way. but theyve only been to light and fire worlds. any more than that and it just gets like..... convoluted...... it was the original idea but idk. smaller main cast, makes even less sense. going to the worlds of each of their patrons makes SOME sense??? which then means id need to add a trip to the earth world (perhaps this is where they go from the southern isles. since they dont have a fire portal. and then they lose violet in earht world?). which then only leaves out the water and wind worlds. but the wind goddess is explicitly on Ryaris’ side, having freed Ryaris from her own constraints after a Whole Bunch of Shenanigans. so they dont actually need to convince the wind goddess, Xen i think, to support ryaris. Caliyo, the water goddess, is a little harder to finagle. she doesnt really agree with Ryaris for what i hope are Obvious reasons. in theory keeping Ash as a member of the party would potentially fix that, since he’s an active and practicing water magician prior to meeting the cast, and it’d be fair to guess that she might have a hand in that?in the community he’s from. sort of a mini water realm? Caliyo could also possibly be convincedby like, Losa and....Elra? earth lady. to just maybe think about just fucking talking to Dalace, for fucking once. its been fucking millenia,just talk to her and maybe youll convince her to stop being a shit. idk. Dalace is complicated? and a pain in the butt.

like, if Ash remains part of the squad (which does skew the cast 2:3 male, and 1:3 male when Violet leaves, which Pisses me Off) he can act as throughline to Caliyo. i dont see why not. his community is very much magical. buuuttt you could also potentially get around having him be in the party by having the same connection be present in the Southern Isles, which is a separate magical community that hides away from the continent. and if you think about it, how would you hide an island? other than straight up illusions.mist! caliyo is a perfect patron for the southern isles, thus removing Ash from the story as well in a clean 1 2. which also removes the dragons, which is.... a shame, definitely. big fan of them. but it also makes some sense to remove super overt magic stuff, if people are supposed to believe is superstition or extremely rare. a northern tribe that rely on dragons doesnt gel with that. they can still exist, i guess, but as a completely separate entity. though that does then raise the question of how the party of 4 get from Quartai to the southern isles. in SB, they flew there on the backs of some of Ash’ dragons, which also allowed them to cross the fucking sea between the isles and the coast. unless theres a secret way? like, hey, a secret bridge. use the portals to return back to the capital city, tie up some loose ends (employment and ‘WHERE THE /FUCK/ HAVE YOU BEEN?’ sorts of ends) before heading south to the coast and then trying to find the path across. Skye or will would be good for that, though Violet is also a stellar candidate due to the sheer magnitude of her magic. she’s basically a minor deity. its crazy. it depends on like, narrative usefulness? i guess? like, violet was the one who put them on the path to realise the kidnapper was Divine in some way, and put them in contact with Will. Will got them into fucking Heaven Light World, which got them to quartai, where they were able to get more info (or maybe even skip quartai altogether, tho thats smth else to deal with). so at this stage, crystal and skye’s sole contributions have been to kick the whole thing off. at best, skye mightve suggested they go to a smaller library than the Royal one, since, well, theyre already known to the royal one and the librarian likely tells them to stop bothering everyone and go back home (stay safe from kidnappers, etc). so Skye finding the path to the island, with all that light boy goodness, might work? crystals skillset can then come in handy when they travel to earth world, since she’s an earth mage. she can learn magic and possibly even learn about her heritage there. smth smth. depends how long theyre there.

idk. you can probably remove quartai from the mix altogether??? and have them go straight from Light World to heading south of the capital. does sorta remove the quartai buildup though? with the whole ‘youre the descendant of a runaway prince’ thing. since it justified crystal being removed from the group and likely the first person to find out about violet being a god, which can then feed to like. Shit. theres no other reason to separate out crystal and not, say, Skye. crystal and skye hold identical levels of relevance to thespecific kingdom theyre from. theyre commoners. crystal is in slightly higher regard because akian is practically a princess and even before that her family were good friends with the royals (because, yknow, Finley is a runaway prince who sought refuge in a neighbouring kingdom, lol). skye is just like, some guy, even though he lives in the palace too. theyre just commoners in high esteem of the king. so like, if you were going to separate Crystal out from the group for that, you should also take out Skye, which means in practice youre just chucking Will in a dungeon on his own. which just seems rude. the boy has suffered enough.

the idea was that bringing Crystal into Quartai, a place she has never been but that her father had once promised to take her to (which i can set up). and that by placing her in that environment, maybe even engineering a scenario where she is taken to the royal library (which i guess is like, a public library run by the royals? i dont know) and is spotted by Alara, who has been living in Quartai for the last year or so to gather intel. and, by the nature of how it is, theres royal paintings on the wall showing the late queen, Crystal’s grandmother, and theres an immediate visual connection. Crystal looks just like her dad. someone else (or alara, if it works) might even comment on her being new to quartai with a sort of ‘are you sure youve never been to quartai before? you look like you’d fit right in’ and it couldbe assumed as a personality thing. especially if in terms of personality, crystal doesnt appear to mesh with quartaian society at all. and if the line is by a character with no humour. which means Alara would actually be a perfect fit. it would be a genuine question and observation - Crystal looks Quartaian, whatever that means. while in quartai, they find out its connected to the earth goddess Elra, which helps convince them that they should maybe ask Elra for advice, since she seems like a goddess who has a lot of input and would know about goings on. crystal is then revealed to be an earth mage later (either southern isles or in the earth realm itself) which is like an Ooh boy. you could possibly hammer it further home by, if they DO meet Elra, her confusing Crystal for quartaian royalty. either by assuming she’s a specific Queen (her grandmother) or just a general ‘oh, youre a princess of quartai, then?’ ‘w- no?’ ‘oh? my apologies’. though if elra is going to notice any lineage she’s going to recognize the tall white haired youngster with piercing eyes and an overwhelming magical aura is the daughter of the goddess of fire. so. might distract her?i think it would be too on the nose for Elra to straight up call her out. 

though i could definitely make Crystal not looking local a thing? because she’s not. culturally she is, but both of her parents are full blooded quartaians who fled across the border because Keiran (correctly) anticipated that him marrying a commoner wouldnt go down well. Akian and Crystal both look quartaian. but they also look nothing like Will, who is from another demographic also not native to the kingdom. but his demographic is more prevalent, like there are far larger communities of them. Akian and Crystal just look out of place. Skye technically has a sort of otherworldly quality, but thats partly because his dad fucked a ghost. i cant get over that. but he still looks local enough, because he looks like his mum! and aside from being a ghost of sorts, she was from that kingdom, just 200 years in the past. so theres been drift, and he does look slightly off relative to everyone else, but to an extent you can assume thats just an individual thing. especially since his family is unknown. Akian and Crystal’s parents are known. their apperance is familiar. and that appearance is distinctly foreign. theres no real PROBLEM with that, because theyre good friends with the royal family and have been living in or near them for their whole lives, but its notably. their specific complexion, hair colour, and eye colour? not common ‘round these parts. that sorta thing? could work??? especially if relations with quartai are sorta weird. like..... we’re cool....... but also dont move here? with the exception of Kieran, because the implication is that he’d been a lot friendlier than his mother (and his cousin) and when he comes knocking on the door going ‘listen man i just fled the country can i crash on your couch with my girlfriend for a few days’ the kings like ‘yea dude go ahead. you can explain tomorrow at breakfast. just us’ ‘thanks dude i really appreciate it’. maybe its a quartaian thing. not big fans on these guys. so they just stay in their place and dont leave much. people from this kingdom can come to quartai, sure....... you cant STAY for that long, but you can come visit.......... sure.

which, if quartai is kinda.... i guess just straight up racist??? xenophobic? one or both. if quartai is straight up racist, than crystal’s appearance as a fullblooded quartaian would be quite notable! because its like, oh, youre a local! wait, y- youre NOT a local????? what the fuck do you mean youre not a local????? from - from sp- ok. sure. alright whatever you say lady. move the fuck along then. people see this ragtag group with this one quartaian lady and assume, oh, a local with some friends from out of town. well, if thats the company they want to keep, sure. cause it looks almost correct. it almost makes sense. but then you hear her speak, in a distinctly non-quartaian accent, and its like ‘hold on a sec’ but then she’ll say some words with a quartaian twang, relating to adventure, and you have No idea how to process that. what. its wild. doesnt come across in raw text but, you know.

im sure i can roughly justify going o quartai. theyre a generally more spiritual kingdom, with prominent reverence in a specific goddess who is tied in with the geography and economy (Elra), and the royal family are supposedly her descendants on some level. theyd have more specific information about the gods, the history of their involvement in the world, some shit about Dalace (not in depth, tho, just that she took over at one point and it was a Bad time). it depends how much info they can get from light realm? i mean, they arent REALLY supposed to say much. they arent even really supposed to interact with the living. which does make you go 0>0 at Alexa. hot damn. willing to break big rules for some living dick. legendary.

i mean i feel like its better if they DO go to quartai, because it allows them to encounter Alara, who has basically bribed and conned her way into a position of power through some whack shit and has integrated into the community to get some of the Juicy Information. they can meet her in a safe environment and find that she’s weird, they can learn a bit about shit, crystal being quartaian can be emphasised in a sort of coy way (im a shit writer sooo it probably wouldnt read very coy lol) and there can even be some foreshadowing for Violet’s position as minor fire deity. since thats almost definitely what catches alara’s attention. a tall, light haired individual with burning green eyes and an implaceable aura? fascinating. but when Violet doesn’t catch any of Alara’s references (to like, the gods and shit), Alara assumes she’s mistaken and perhaps she’s just sensing a strange combined aura. its not till later in the earth realm, when they meet as protagonist vs antagonist, that she realizes no, she was right on the money the first time. because at this point in the story, the main cast have actually started using magic, and theyve already found that Violet’s use of magic is effortless. and with their magic unlocked, so to speak, violet’s aura is fucking incredible. none of the others can see it, with the possibly exception of either Will or Skye, depending which way dark/light fall re: seeing shit. but Alara is an incredibly well practiced mage and demigoddess, and she knows how to see it, and violet’s is intense. its unmistakeable. alara isnt 100% sure what if she recognizes the aura, for the simply fact that violet disappeared when they were 9 and alara hadnt learnt to see/feel aura at the time. but she thinks she knows what it means. shes confident that violet is some demigod. which god? unclear. until Violet throws a fireball at her and tells her to fuck off.

the only other possible ways for violet to be a fire demigod and NOT being the daughter of Ryaris, are for her to be the daughter of Xen (goddess of wind) OR be a distant descendant of Ryaris via her mortal parent, who is also her mother, and which might overrule the godly disciple of the godly parent. the latter is nigh impossible because Ryaris has only had two children to her knowledge, unless she blacked out during 200 years exile and accidentally boned down. she’s pretty sure she didnt, though. not that thats a topic that comes up, exactly. but ryaris only has two kids. Alara has no children, and Violet is not the right age to be the daughter of Alara’s sister. she is, however, the approximate age to BE Alara’s sister. so is sheactually, or is it cosmic coincidence that two demigods (the fire/wind twins and someone else) were born around the same time? who knows! alara has no idea. violet doesnt have a damn clue either. ita rough.

uhhh this got very lost VERY fast. uhhh tl;dr return the story to its original full fantasy setting (not urban/modern fantasy). akian is the girlfriend to the prince of a kingdom, with crystal being her sister. skye being in a weird state of being commoner but living with royalty, just like crystal. akian and the prince are kidnapped by Ryaris in order to force the kingdom into an awful ransom agreement whereby they will do a bunch of suspicious shit. crystal and skye believe they saw part of the kidnapping take place, and attempt to get information. after a bunch of the royal staff tell them to stop worrying and go home, they go find a non-royal library run by Dawn and her ‘niece’ Violet, who help them find some info. Violet, being very much in the know, hooks them up with Will, an adventurer and cartographer who is planning a visit to a portal he located north of the city. after a lot of negotiating/arguing, Will agrees to let the three of them come along, and off they go. a whole bunch of shit happens, involving a trip to neighbouring kingdom Quartai, where Crystal is treated strangely in relation to the party and they first meet Alara, posing as a foreign noble who takes an immediate interest in Violet.

more shit, they end up in some hidden magic isles south of the continent, which then leads them to the earth realm, where they seek an audience with the goddess of earth Elra, on how they can get an audience with Ryaris, goddess of fire, and most likely the kidnapper. more shit. alara appears again and they have a brief confrontation. that night, violet disappears. after failing to find her, they resolve to press onwards (leaving fucking missing persons signs all over this foreign land and even informing Elra about it). go to fire realm, get captured by Alara, who separates out Crystal in order to interrogate her about her lineage to confirm a suspicion she has that Crystal is long lost quartaian royalty (si). violet is brought in to help, much to their mutual distress, and then alara kicks violet out for just doing an awful job of forcing crystal to talk.violet then breaks everyone else out of jail, sends Akian and the prince home with some guards she trusts to take them back safely, and then they go rescue Crystal. final showdown with Alara. convince alara that Dalace, goddess of darkness, has been lying out her fucking ass the entire time and cant do anything she promised. alara reluctantly agrees to confront Ryaris about it. Ryaris admits thats all true and that she knew from the start Dalace was a lying piece of shit, but, i mean...... yknow....... your wife dies and you havent seen your daughter in over a decade........ white lies are nice. also alara was the one who got sucked in. its complicated.

then they go ‘aight time to fuck with dalace’ and then i have no idea. probably all the goddesses (who theyve met throughout the story) come and tell dalace to stop being a cunt? roll credits.

[isaacathom]

honestly im torn on whether a gym leader should actually be removed during the course of the game. like that sounds dope???? and 8 is the clear candidate, mostly because 5 hasnt done anything (which is in itself part of the problem) and 7 has also done absolutely nothing to deserve it, but 8 has. and it would actually be kinda interesting.

theres 3 options for removing 8 - before you get there, WHILE youre there, and after. like, while youre on the road, you hear that a gym leader was arrested. you arrive in that town a while later to find a decadent, gaudy gym with an apologetic Gym Man out the front, explaining there is no gym leader due to the arrest, and that standard practice is to shut down the gym until the matter is resolved. the matter would then either be resolved following the City thing (meaning you do the 8th gym AFTER the story climax), or right then, with the Champion or some other Elite arriving with a new gym leader. a candidate for this position would be Bronwyn, Jun’s wife. im kinda into that. shes a good candidate regardless.

thats option a. option b is During. and by that i mean, you challenge the 8th gym leader, this absolutely guadily dressed man, completely insufferable. you fight him, you wipe the floor, and as hes handing you your prize tm, the door bursts open. its the Org. theyre here for him. you watch as he’s taken away, screeching. when you leave, Zeke/Elliot greets you re: that and also the base thing. here, the reason for you going to the base would e to find out whats up. so Zeke sending you makes sense. so Zeke’s like ‘hey [Player], did you get your badge from him? you didnt? shit, maybe you should go catch up to those Org folk. theyre in [the base].’ and you go and walk in and it looks fairly normal, but theres noone there. you explore, you find a secret entrance (think like in Mahogany Town except more obvious), you go in. then you go through and thats when you end up finding Felicity, who is doing some last minute prep with the grunts who are going to the City (Dante is, at that point, with a separate team of grunts - the forward scouts for the area where the legendary is. Small Fry, we recall, has already been arrested by you previously), and when she locks you up after you beat her. the way you get out, in the end, is Elliot, who was tipped off by Zeke. see, Zeke saw you enter, and Zeke waited for a bit, but you never showed. he peeked in and found the secret entrance and got fucking spooked, so he’s called Elliot. noone has exited the building (theyre all leaving by another exit). so finally Elliot arrives, Zeke explains whats happened, and Elliot goes in, finds an empty ass base, a dropped 8th gym badge, and eventually you. yay! gives you the badge and then you both leave. and then shit happens. i kinda like this, though then the question is where the 8th gym leader ended up going. and also why the org would choose to arrest 8 THEN, right as theyre about to go head to head with the Team? unless Rhia is fucking with them. since shes sorta head of police. it would be kinda fun if Rhia decided that if she’s about to fuck up the org, she may as well use its power while its still there to be used, and arrests 8 as a last act before shit goes tits. idk. the timing doesnt REALLY work, i think. the zeke bit works, though.

option c is after. after the other stuff. once the Org/Team shit is settled, and basically after you beat the elite 4, the International Police arrive en masse to sort this absolute mess out. its during this sweep (and the seizure of Org property for the investigations) that 8′s theft is discovered, and hes promptly arrested and replaced. however, if this is the case, id suggest that the 8th gym remains closed for the duration of the post game missions w/ Lyndelle, and that once that questline is resolved, the 8th gym reopen with Bronwyn as its leader. i dont think youd be able to battle her, but she’d give you dialogue and an item (for rescuing Lyndelle, mostly) and itd just be chatter. whether she’d still be poison type? i dont think so. i dont think that type suits her. hmmm....... maybe Dragon? that’d be kinda kickass. idk.

but yea. hmm. b is interesting because it feeds into the plot, but it doesnt really make a lot of sense UNLESS 8 is actually a Team member? which would then make him a perfect fall guy for Dante and Felicity. you remove him from the gym in the guise of arrest, tell him you’ll pretend it was a mistake later, send him off to do his job, he goes to the legendary, and is promptly arrested as the head of the Team. and because he IS actually a Team member, and DOESNT know Dante (its assumed) then it would actually succeed. but on that front, i kinda prefer people being assholes without having to be in the evil team. and if hes NOT a team member, his arrest no longer makes sense in terms of the timing. unless the intent is to send a few Org members away so that they can then Arrive in the city to drive back the team? like reinforcements? could be interesting. but then, still, where did 8 go? if hes team, he’s gone to the legendary to help back up the Squad. if he’s not, where the fuck did he go? does Elliot free him on his way through? there aren’t actually cells in the base though, you were actually locked in the Office (where you met felicity, and which she teleported out of before disabling the teleporter). so where would they have put 8?? it just seems contrived to me

a is boring and would result in somewhat awkward pacing. i find the idea of having to fight the 8th gym after the story climax to be...... awkward...... which might seem strange given i like heartgold but i never said it was my favourite pokemon game, huh. it also happens in xy, funnily enough. did it happen in bw2? i think it did. wait fuck of course it did, fucking marlon. god i keep forgetting about fucking marlon. god i really did not like marlon at all. but yea. idk. it feels like a drop on tension if you go from the evil team climax to the 8th gym, because the 8th gym isnt climactic. but if you go from team climax to gameplay climax w/ victory road and the elite 4, THAT has some tension and release. that feels like better pacing, to me? idk. my only real examples areeee gen 3 and gen 7, actually........ hmm.... HMMN actually hold on what the fuck am i saying. oh, bw1, ofc, my bad. but like, the pokemon games i dislike the most (dppt and xy) both do it and it feels stupid in both cases. ‘theres a blackout’ fuck off. yall heard of battery power? fuck. actually wow fuck both blackouts in those games are stupid. it all makes sense. it all clicks. anyway what im saying is C is probably my preferred option, so long as it IS built up to at some point. like, some dialogue somewhere mentions the growing discontent with 8, so that when you wake up after beating the e4 and the news is going ‘breaking news: 8 has been arrested for siphoning funds into his personal bank account to fund his extravagant lifestyle’ the player doesnt go ‘what the fuck’. though i guess the fact he’s dressed like a prince in a manor-esque gym surrounded b sorta dingy streets shoooullldd clue the player in that something aint right about that mans finances. something aint adding up. someones added a few zeroes.

anyway back to bronwyn. what type she would be doesssss wholly depend on the e4. 1 member of the e4 is confirmed, and thats Rhia/Elliot, who are multi type trainers. so thats that specialisation taken care of. Bronwyn would not be a poison type trainer, because shes supposed to turn this city the fuck around. uh. OOH!!! FAIRY!!!! fuck!!! of course!!!!! she should a fairy type gym leader. fuck. though, oooo, what if the Champion is the fairy type? shit. shit shit. nn.

hmm. well, ok. one of these 5 trainers (3 e4, champ, Bronwyn) needs to be fighting. one should be ice, perhaps a foreigner (sinnoh? which discounts Bronwyn, who is from Unova.... though......... lotta ice. got a vanniluxe and everything...... HMMMMMMMM) Electric might be good, since that isnt represented at all in the gyms uh. fairy, of course. and... hmm. steel? that was sorta Elliots thing but id be fine with an actual steel expert. though that would be sorta weird since the implication with the e4 is that they’ve basically been unchanged since Elliot retired, until the OTHER guy also retired. so there being another steel expert doesnt make much sense, and i dont think it super fits Bronwyn. uh. tit. graaass? grass might be a good fit for Bronwyn actually, if its all about like, regrowth. thats a nice idea.

ok, Bronywn is grass type. so then the 4 e4c members are fighting, ice, electric and fairy. which ones the chaaaampion???? fairy?? fairy is probably best. nice.

i like that. i also think that maybe you SHOULD be able to challenge bronwyn at some point. maybe you can fight her, to ‘christen’ her gym. she wouldnt be difficult, i wouldnt think, but it’d be a nice fun thing. would she give you a badge, though? hmm... maybe she gives you multiple items instead. idk. that’s up in the air.

i do like that idea though. it WOULD be important to highlight that 8 wasn’t a member of the Team, though. idk how to really provide that distinction, and i suppose it doesnt matter much? plus, if you look at it, 8 has allowed the Team to build a base on town without batting an eyelid because 8 doesnt care, so, yknow, facilitation. gj, git.

[isaacathom]

ok so. gym 5 is a gym leader who blatantly ignores the needs of their community. so their specialisation should be sorta weird, given their location. something unrepresentative, lets say. id say electric but i also feel like ive seen enough power plants and towns surrounded by deserts with electric gyms to go nah (thinking specifically Elesa and Clemont, i dont remember the others except soffy but he’s not part of THAT specific mesh). Bug would be funny, couldnt easily do that. Poison might also be a good type in terms of themeing, but i also think that MIGHT work better for gym 8, since theyre actively rotting the town and shit. hmm. yea, i feel like Bug works best for an ‘out of place’ type. most of the others, like Grass, would serve a useful purpose? so unless the intent is to show that 5 has the tools to benefit his town and doesnt use them??? that might actually be interesting, admittedly. that is /sorta/ covered by Will, but Will also isnt a Cunt (except in his very first iteration, and only for like 5 chapters, rip you asshole).5 is like Will’s general self absorption taken to the next level, since Will at least does his job and helps when he wants to, which is occasionally. 5 doesnt help because 5 doesnt want to. so Grass would actually be interesting. Grass is usually quite early in games by im not /super/ fussed, considering my psychic gym is the second gym.

could possibly go further with this negligence idea. after all, what is a gym leader without a gym? his gym would be weirdly sparse, and weirdly quiet. the only other person there is that Gym Guy. you could walk down a long empty room, with evidence of stuff being moved long ago. at the end, its the Gym Leader, sitting in veritable paradise, on his own. his decadence, really, while everything else is dusty and quiet. outside, there are small pockets of green, but in his gym its just BLOOM, but only where he is. and of course, you’re there to fight him and deliver the package from Felicity (shes probably trying to buy his loyalty, which i cant imagine being difficult if shed come herself). and of course, he tells you to take it up north, to a scrappy little town that ekes out an existence by the river side, far from everyone else. you’d deliver the package to a sort of town mayor, who laments the state of the West at present (which is really only that town, gym 5, and like, another town. the rest are all the other cardinals). itd also be where you get the Team stuff, with Elliot refusing to go with you. Elliot was actually probably with you at the Gym 5 town, and when you said you had to go to the lil town, he goes ‘oh’ and he just gives you directions and rushes off. poor guy. but you deliver the package to the mayor, who thanks you, gives you something for your trouble, sends you back to actually fight 5 before going back on your way.

the idea with 5 is that he is solely focused on himself and the status of being a gym leader, and thus ignores the community. the difference between them the old 6 (thats Sonya’s gym) is that nothing major has happened yet to tip the scales drastically. should any major event take place in that town, in which 5 would have been helpful, and the event ends really badly because of his lack of involvement, then bitch is out the fucking window, you feel me.

with gym 8, its far more malicious. the selfishness goes to that NEXT level, where instead of it neither improving or really badly affecting the people, its directly responsible for a lot of bad. they COULD be tied to the Team, but i feel like that’d be a bit of a cop out and wouldnt explain the Orgs general idea of sorta removing Gym Leaders (as they currently act as a buffer between org and populace. its a popularity thing honestly). unless they were SUPER setting up that gym leader to get reamed, like Small Fry does when you intervene and get them legit arrested. and that could be interesting, especially as a counterpart to Isaac’s Org centric position. but, idk. Isaac isn’t actually part of the Org, just an affiliate (because the org realised they had a measure of respect within the community and decided they probably couldnt engineer a scenario that would make the populace turn on Isaac, and thus decided to befriend them and make them part of them loosely). but you cant be an ‘affiliate’ of the team. thats not how that works. youre in, or out, really. technically org affiliation is team affiliation but thats also not really the same thing, its complex.

i figure its more.... the idea of the East, on the whole, is that its poor and poorly connected. it has an abundance of natural resources, is very pristine and natural, but its few built up areas are sorely provided for (which isnt true of the actual east of victoria oh my god). the idea then is that the Org likely provides like, ‘development funding’ to this east hub town (where 8 is) in order to facillitate its growth, in addition to funding Jun’s hospital and sending a couple of the Org Police (like Rhia). but who does the funding go to? sending it to Jun would ensure it is properly distributed, and he does have the respect of the community, but he isnt actually its leader. its leader is the gym leader, 8. and 8 is probably misappropriating funds. pumping money into the Gym and into their own life style and personal projects and views for the town rather than what the town needs. its not QUITE at a tipping point, but its getting there. the grumbling about the lack of action is becoming public, yknow. if Jun is present (not sure at this point) he’d probably vaguely mention it, but hes cordial and wouldnt go around openly slagging the gym leader. its problematic, for certain. its essentially the idea of 5, except its on a broader scale. the city is dark and a lil grimy. but the gym is a shiny monument to opulence, gleaming, inside its just absolutely decked. its wild.

theres not really much more to it. gym 7 is technically in a similar state, in that the town isnt exactly on the upnup, but its probably closer to Sonya’s situation - bad circumstances with a good leader, or at least a good hearted, well meaning leader, in 7′s case. towns a lil run down, but it gets by. actually probably closer to 5, except with the opposite leader morality, but with an equal lack of action (not for lack of effort, mind you)