#crickets and grasshoppers were one of my favorites as a kid because of how fun they were to catch | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

motwblog · 4 years

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A railroad stretched along the hill behind Tiff’s house. If there was still a train, it never ran. Grass grew tall between the tar-darkened planks, and in the summer, the trees on either side created a tunnel of bright green leaves.

Following the tracks about a mile south led to the suburb where Erica Wahl lived – making it something of an expressway between the friends. They would meet up and follow the railroad further to a 7-Eleven – where they would buy Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and cigarettes using Erica’s sister’s expired ID. The cashier was a kid from their high school, who they recognized but had never spoken to outside of these clandestine transactions. If he noticed the expiration date, or the sharply-differing slope of Erica’s nose, he never said anything.

Occasionally, Tiff and Erica’s friends would join them on the tracks – but usually, it was just the two of them. During the endless drag of summer, their walks were almost nightly. At a point where the tracks stretched high across a river, they would sit on the edge and let their legs dangle off, where Erica would take out the cigarettes and hand one to Tiff, who would light it with the small purple lighter she kept at the bottom of her backpack.

It was June, then. Smoking was still new enough that the nicotine made them buzzy and lightheaded. Dusk was setting in, and the crickets were starting up.

Erica took a drag.

“My parents are getting a divorce,” she said cooly, letting the smoke out with her breath.

“For real this time?”

“Yeah,” Erica said. “I mean, I think. They were fighting really loud.”

“Shit.”

Erica tapped the cigarette, which did not yet need to be tapped. “Yeah,” she said. “My dad is, like, definitely having an affair.”

“You serious?”

Erica nodded. “I mean, maybe,” she said. “Probably.”

Tiff tried to blow a smoke ring and failed. “Are you, like, depressed about it?”

“Yeah,” Erica said. “Probably. Maybe.”

They were quiet for a minute – then Erica continued.

“Matt asked me out,” she said.

Smoke hit the back of Tiff’s throat and she doubled over, coughing.

“Ohmygod– are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Tiff said, clearing her throat, waving her away. “Jesus. What did you say?”

“I said it’d be weird,” Erica said. “I don’t know. I guess he’s kind of cute. What do you think?”

“It’d be weird as hell!”

“No but I mean, do you think he’s cute?”

Tiff shook her head. “I don’t know, I can’t even think about it. He’s Matt.”

Erica leaned back on her hands. “I’m not gonna say yes,” she decided. “It’d be weird.”

“Yeah,” Tiff said. “No shit.”

The crickets filled the silence until Erica interrupted it again.

“Who do you think is cute?” she asked.

Tiff winced. Erica kept bringing it back to this lately, no matter how hard she tried to steer the conversation. She knew she was supposed to care. She couldn’t figure out why she didn’t.

They used to talk about everything.

“I don’t know,” Tiff shrugged.

“No, but like, who?” Erica pressed. “What about Dirk?”

“Ew. No.”

“Wait, really? What’s wrong with Dirk?”

“Nothing,” Tiff said. She always seemed to give the wrong answer. “He’s fine, he’s just – it’s Dirk.”

“Okay, so what about–“

“Can we talk about something else?”

Erica looked at Tiff in surprise – then turned away, as if there was something more interesting to look at in the trees.

“Sure,” she said. “Whatever.”

“Cool,” Tiff said.

The river rushed below them. Tiff watched a grasshopper crawl up onto the tracks. It paused, fluttered its wings, then leapt away.

When it became apparent Erica wasn’t going to say anything, Tiff gave it another try.

“Josh’s party is next month.”

“Mhm.”

“I’m thinking… I can definitely get Ryan to get us booze if I start doing his chores now.”

Erica uncrossed her legs, turning back toward Tiff. “Do you think he could get us tequila?”

“Probably.”

“What about, like, if we got orange juice, and then made tequila sunrises?”

“Oh, definitely.”

“Because I can never drink vodka again. Remember at Rachel’s?”

When Erica laughed, Tiff laughed too.

And when the chill of dusk set in, they didn’t feel it.

By August of that summer, Tiff’s phone had gone quiet, and the tracks lay vacant. She spent most of her time in her room, fan whirring at top-speed, posters fluttering on her walls.

With her parents out for the evening, and Ryan holed up reading something insufferable, she was almost beginning to look forward to Kevin’s frequent visits to her doorway, where he would announce his boredom and collapse dramatically to her floor.

When it became clear nobody was going to message her on AIM despite the carefully-chosen lyrics of her away message (“when everything's meant to be broken / i just want you to know who i am”), she finally conceded.

“We’ll walk to 7-Eleven,” she said. “But you can’t tell mom and dad we left the house.”

They made their way up the hill and onto the railroad tracks. Kevin spent the first half-mile rattling off his favorite Pokémon while Tiff regret the decision – until they came to a bend, when he asked abruptly:

“How come you stopped hanging out with Erica and all of them?”

Tiff stopped walking. Kevin carried forward, oblivious.

“I don’t know,” she said as casually as she could, resuming her pace. “She’s like, kind of lame now.”

Kevin skipped up onto the steel beam of the tracks, balancing with his arms out. “I thought you guys were like, best friends,” he said, not looking back.

“Yeah, well, now we’re not.”

“Did you get in a fight?”

“Yeah.”

“What about?”

“If you keep asking questions, I’m gonna tell mom and dad you went on the internet instead of doing your homework.”

Kevin jumped off the beam and back onto the tracks again. He let his feet drag, kicking up the gravel between the planks.

“Fine,” he said.

“Good.”

He was quiet – for a moment.

“You know, you used to be fun to hang out with,” Kevin said. “Everyone sucks once they go to high school.”

Ahead, the trees on the side of the tracks began to thin. Through the clearing, Tiff could see the beginnings of the roofs that marked Erica’s suburb. In a few moments, she would see the fence of her yard.

She wondered if everyone was over there now. Erica and Jess, stretched out on the trampoline, eating otter pops and tossing chunks of flavored ice to the Wahl’s aging terrier. Dirk and Matt, lounging in the sunbleached patio chairs and talking shit about their classmates. About their teachers.

About her.

When they finally reached the 7-Eleven, it felt smaller somehow. Tiff didn’t recognize the cashier. The soda she grabbed from the fridge was under-carbonated and overly sweet. She handed it to Kevin on the walk back. To fill the silence, he hummed the theme song to a show she didn’t recognize. He’d been humming it for weeks now. He’d keep humming it till summer ended.

The tracks stretched on forever.

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inikavulpixelreviews · 5 years

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Let’s Talk About Pokemon - The Bug Type

Oh boy, it is indeed TIME for the finale of all these type reviews. Covering my absolute favorite type of them all: Bug!

I had always had a loving fascination with insects and arthropods since I was a young child. I'd not be shy to let them crawl on me so long as they weren't outright menacing like a particularly dangerous spider or some variety of ant with some mean chompers. I was THAT KID that caught caterpillars, fed them until they became butterflies, and then let them go. The kid that tried (and sadly failed) to keep an ant farm. I only kill bugs in my house that are being particularly invasive (and even then I always feel awful doing it); the rest I just escort outside. I don't care what any “whoa kill it with FIRE!!!!” kinda commenter says, spiders are pretty much welcome to stay in my room.

How sad is it that as I see it, one of the perks of having an outdoors day-job is I regularly get to make friends with insects?

Point is, bugs are good. They're good for the environment, and important to Pokemon's history itself. The man credited with creating Pokemon, Satoshi Tajiri, cited the major inspiration for Pokemon being his childhood memories of collecting bugs. OF COURSE bug would get its own dedicated element in this sort of RPG! As well as being one of the more populated types in the series.

It's just sad that it's not exactly THE most meta type out there. It's weak to a lot of types that are bad to be weak to like Fire, Rock, and Flying, but don't have much in the way of resistances or type advantages. The one real perk they have resistance-wise is blocking Fighting. They're at least good against some types that are handy to have a counter to. Either way, I pretty much CAN'T go a whole playthrough without picking up a bug buddy. It's impossible.

It also comes to light to me that, when you look over the whole roster of buggies like this, it turns out not one Bug is really designed to be “gross” or unappealing outright. I mean, I guess shed cicada skin can be uncomfortably crusty to the touch, but other than that, hmm. Nah, the closest we get is “arthropod menace” and that's about it. How do was have a COCKROACH Pokemon in the series at this point and the type is more or less squeaky clean as ever?! I guess I kinda do appreciate that Gamefreak rather legitimately celebrates insects as some really neat and fascinating creatures. Bugs aren't gross, they're cool! Bugs aren't nasty, they're neat! It's heartwarming to know a series as big as Pokemon sees insects and arthropods in more or less the same light as I do. Heck, I'm sure you could credit the series to warming up PLENTY of other people to be less squeamish toward bugs. Or at the very least think twice before they go squashing one that's minding its own business.

...That said, I wouldn't say no to them making more gross-looking bugs.

Top 10 Favorite Bug Types:

HNNNGH. This is too difficult. I can't. I gotta highlight more.

The Other Top Favorites:

There. My heart is a little more at peace now.

The Bottom 10 Least Favorite Bug Types:

Okay Fine

The 10 Bug Types I Wish Were A Little Bit Better:

Because the only Bugs in the whole type that just outright aren't my jam are Volbeat and Illumise, and that's it. The rest have just a little tidbit or two that I'd change or do a slight redesigning outright to get em to be up to par with other Bugs. Additional mention to Mega Heracross just because I'd almost rather Mega Heracross was its own, unique Pokemon instead of an alternate form of Heracross.

The Cutest:

Gen 5 is so good with adorable Bugs oh my goodness.

The Coolest:

The Prettiest:

The Spookiest:

...See what I mean? There is a CRIMINAL lack of spooky bugs in the Bug type!

Weirdest/Most Unique:

Shuckle is still a mystery.

Most Inventive Use of the Type:

How many times have I gushed about Shedinja's design throughout this whole review series? It's hard to make “the fact that it's a Bug” a real inventive thing by itself since it's a rather matter-of fact state of being for monsters like this. But these bunch in particular REALLY take advantage of their bughood and really show the designers at Gamefreak did their homework or just in general had some really neat ideas. Araquanid being a reverse of a real-life diving bell spider, a mosquito that sucks blood to increase its FLEXING capabilities, a cockroach that is a self-grooming neat freak just like real cockroaches are. Escavalier and Accelgor lumped together because of their specific interaction reflecting a real-life interaction between a beetle and its snail prey; albeit the ending is a little bit happier for this snail than in real life. Kricketune is a sadly unsung little stroke of minor genius in how a violin beetle gets to actually BE a violinist that plays its own violin body. Kricketune's just overshadowed by its own memey cry, sadly.

The Buggiest of them All:

I'm always perfectly fine with stylized body types when it comes to bugs, but I can also take a moment to appreciate the Bug types that are convincingly insectoid. Plus y’know. It helps when the odd bug type has the correct number of legs.

BUG TYPE WISH LIST:

NOTE: These Type Wishlists were written out before any news on new Pokemon from Sword and Shield. The Pokemon revealed over time will not affect these wishlists. Just to present them unaltered despite spoilers and in the interest of getting the wishlist out there, and to see which items on said wishlists get fulfilled by Sword and Shield!

[Inhale]

A Grasshopper/Cricket:

Despite their english names, Kricketot and Kricketune aren't actually crickets, but are actually moreso designed after beetles. So we've still yet to have any true orthoptera species of insect in Pokemon yet!! And that is a CRIME because Grasshoppers and Crickets are criminally underrated just because they're fairly common insects. God I could comprise of list of just some neat orthoptera I like. You could even kill two birds with one stone here by having an inter-species evolutionary line where a cricket evolves into a grasshopper!

Termites:

I'm still bummed Durant's evolutionary path is painfully underwhelming compared to actual ants. Where's like, the Queens?! And big-headed Majors?!? Either an expansion of Durant's current forms or a new set of Termite-mons would be really nice!

A Fly:

How weird is it that we've still yet to get a common house fly?! We technically have Cutiefly, but I'd love to see a more traditional-looking house fly. Or any other number of fly species if you're feeling adventurous!

A More Traditional Mosquito:

Buzzwole is absolute gold and I don't at all mind it, but I'm still feeling a bit of an itch (hah) for a more traditional looking mosquito. My first shot at making a mosquito monster in the form of my own Fakemon was incorporating the aquatic larval form as a scuba-diver that eventually evolves into a water-drinking and squirting big mosquito. MAINLY because I didn't think Gamefreak would ever even slightly elude to blood if they ever made a mosquitomon, yet here we are.

A Wheel Bug/Assassin Bug in general:

I just point out Wheel Bugs because they're easily my favorite kind of assassin bug, distinguished by the big gear-shaped hump on their back. But I'd love any assassin bug, really. Just look at their goofy faces.

A Giraffe Weevil:

I'm sure tons of people have seen pictures of this thing around the internet. And if you still haven't there it is. You will lay your eyes on this stupid thing and you will immediately understand why we needed a Giraffe Weevil Pokemon like, four generations ago.

A Bombardier Beetle:

While it may not look like much of the surface, this beetle is packing a venomous spray that it ejects from its abdomen to ward off predators! We could always use more Bug/Fire types, so why not pick this thing up and a flame-spewing or actual-bomb-chucking beetle!

A Dragonhead Caterpillar:

There is an irritating lack of insectoid dragons in the Pokedex that are actually classified as insects. You passed up DRAGONflies multiple times, guys! So fine, I guess I gotta pull out a more obscure wish; one of these bad boys! The Dragonhead Caterpillar is easily one of the sickest looking caterpillars out there, and totally befitting a Bug/Dragon type as is! The one sad thing about this is, like the antlions, it's another case where something's larval stage is a lot more neat looking than its adult form; for A Dragonhead Caterpillar would eventually become one of these:

...Yeah, while the Plain Nawab is pretty, its significantly less impressive looking than its caterpillar form, huh? Still no reason you couldn't just elect to give us a draconian butterfly while you're also at it! I guess I wouldn't be TOO upset even if an official Pokemon version of this bug wound up with a more fun base stage than its final stage.

Any Wooly Caterpillar:

I don't care which one you pick, a big ol fuzzy caterpillar is something CRIMINALLY missing from Pokemon at the moment!!

A Devil's Flower Mantis:

Mantids are some of the micro-world's coolest monsters. It's a shame then that the three mantid monsters in Pokemon so far are 1. A lizard with some mantis parts on, 2. More of a lobster, and 3. Not actually a mantis. And that sadly the latter means orchid mantids are out. While I'd be overjoyed to see any new mantis Pokemon, I think a Devil's Flower Mantis would be my personal go-to for a new mantis. It's just so god dang WICKED looking!

This Mind-Controlled Snail:

Because this thing has to be demonstrated in gif form to really portray the oddity of what's going on here. Although, the description is on the gross side, so here's a fair warning to skip past if you're squeamish.

This particular species of parasitic flatworm preys on snails. When they're eaten up by these unsuspecting mollusks, they'll soon find themselves getting their brain taken over by the pulsating worms that wriggle inside the snail's now-bloated eyestalks precisely to make the snail more enticing to birds to eat. Not only that, but the parasite also hijacks the snail's brain. Snails normally prefer damp and dark areas where they're relatively well-hidden away from any predators. These parasites force the snail into bright and wide-open areas like the tops of bushes specifically to make it as easy a meal as possible. They multiply in the bird's stomach before beginning the cycle anew when the bird, ahem, “drops” them off.

Obviously there's a lot of parallels to draw here from this and Parasect. But heck to it if I'd say no to a new, freaky mind-controlled hypno-snail. It'd be such a cool effect on an ingame model to see their eyes pulsating in color. You could even go ahead and make it a candidate for our first Bug/Psychic type!

A Stick Bug:

It's not super pressing that one gets in. I just think stick bugs are neat.

A Black Widow:

I know we got Ariados, but something feels missing from the spider roster in that we don't have a traditional creepy crawly-type spider. A Black Widow is about the most stereotypically creepy spider out there, but I'd love to see it for its potential either way.

A Peacock Spider:

One more spider while we're on the subject of spiders. And offset a spooky spider with a cute one! There's all sorts of fun takes to have on a peacock spiders.

A Pelican Spider:

No hold up. Wait a second. One more spider because I had literally discovered this thing as I was writing this very list. Look at this thing. Look at this spider. What the hell. What the actual hell. What is happening. What. I want one now.

APPARENTLY this Pelican Spider is a species of spider that specifically evolved to eat other spiders. Its weirdly long “neck” and extended mandibles are designed to keep its prey at a long length away from itself so they the spiders it catches can't retaliate with their own bites. That's so neat. I could see how you can intemperate that into a gameplay sense; make it specialize in biting moves and have an ability that makes all biting moves no longer make contact. Maybe that's not HUGE but.

A Dobsonfly:

Again, no pressing reason I can think of other than dobsonfly are underrated, and getting a nice Pokemon to go with em would be cool.

Gah, there's probably a good billion or so I could continue to think up but I SUPPOSE it's gotta stop at some point.

“How on Earth did we wind up with some internet person talking about insects for about half an hour's worth of reading?”

ANYWAY, that's the final of the type reviews. Sword and Shield are just two weeks away, believe it or not. It’ll be a while before I’m back into the funk of making reviews. As I’ve said before, I’d like to take a month or two to really absorb all the new Pokemon they have on offer. For a brief little preview-opinion, the new Pokemon are overall pretty dang good so far. There’s already a couple I’ll be excited to talk about, but if preview event-goers are to be believed, there's’ apparently a TON of new Pokemon to look forward to.

ANYWAY Future-talk:

I dunno if I’ll do something in the meantime review-wise. I would go back to look at the recently discovered Beta Pokemon from Red and Green and Gold and Silver, but I feel like I’ve not got a ton to add to that conversation in particular. (Literally the only hot take I can really come up with is the Baby Vulpix is kinda lame)

I MIGHT look into doing character design reviews for some non-Pokemon properties. I felt like it was eventually gonna happen at some point, I’m just not sure about it happening YET given SwSh are so close and once I’m ready for those reviews I’d have to put the non-Pokemon project on hold. Tell me what sorta series y’all would like to hear my thoughts on for character design. My personal biggest candidates are looking at the creatures from the Pikmin series, the various boss characters from all the various Mega Man games, and looking over the Champions from League of Legends, as well as reviewing the monster cards of Yu-Gi-Oh.

Mega Man would probably be the easiest. Robot Masters don’t exactly require deep analysis to critique their designs. (Though that wouldn’t stop me from getting rambly.) It wouldn’t be until the X, Zero, ZX, and Battle Network/Starforce series that the designs get crazy detailed.

YGO and Pikmin would be easy too, the only issue would be figuring out a format for what order to do them in.

League would easily be the hardest to do. Cause being the completionist that I am, I would want to cover EVERYTHING. Old versions of the characters, NEW versions, as well as every single skin. The problem is figuring out an order to put it all in. The easiest would just to do iit in alphabetical order and cover the skins of each champ as we come across them. But I’d ideally like to do everything in chronological order. Start with the first 40 champions and then pan out to cover each one in order of release, skins included. It’s just really difficult to find a consistent timeline on League content, especially for skins. I dunno. That’d be something I’d have to look into.

Either way, no matter what I end up going with, I’ll see you next time!

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#Pokemon #bug type #The Bug Type #Pokemon Reviews

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