#hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!!

[iliketrainmen]

@draw-the-squad-like-this That's gonna cost ya 300 pokedollars

(Pro tip: click on image for waaay higher quality because I just know Tumblr is going to eat ALL of the pixels when I post this)

Roark cannot get his revenge on Volkner due to being unable to swim.

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #gym leader gardenia #gardenia #gym leader volkner #volkner #digital art #i can prophesize that Tumblr is going to yoink the quality of this and make it look 144p when i upload it #prompt reeked of these guys energy and I was obligated to draw it

[tumblunni]

Okay it seems we don’t actually have a full res pic of all the pokedex and that pic actually was compressed to the point of unviewability even on desktop tumblr?? And clicking through the link it seems it’s really hard to run this supposed rom file of the beta, and there’s debates about its authenticity cos the file claims it’s the ‘spaceworld demo’ yet we have limited pics of that demo and the titlescreen was different. So it seems weird that this would be labelled as that very specific demo, unless it’s a.. beta of a demo, i guess? That could be possible cos people are saying it literally just crashes when the world map runs out, instead of having your usual ‘thanks for playing this is where the demo stops’ message. So AAAA I wish I was smart enough to understand all this technical talk, and to do the hex editing stuff to actually play the rom myself! But for now I guess I’ll just wait with baited breath and hope there’s more updates as people pick it aprt.

it would REALLY suck if it turned out to be a fake rom hack or something, tho. i hope that’s false and the confusion is just cos it was a fragmented rom or a demo for a different event than people think it is, or something. But tbh it would be a prime time to release a fake demo hack, since we recently had the first new slice of beta info on the early generations that we’ve had in decades. it would be a good time to ride the hype on the speculation about ‘gorochu’. BUT then it doesn’t seem like a rom hack because wouldn’t it actually be a straight up rom, then? like actually playable without a bunch of editing and datamining and running through five emulators at once? i would think it would be harder to fake a non functioning rom that’s still rescue-able, yknow? and why would they even do that, nobody would even be expecting a non-functioning rom so it wouldn’t add more authenticity. We haven’t ever got ahold of any beta roms for the gameboy games so we don’t have any preconceptions about what file type nintendo stored them as. But then on the other hand it seems really unlikely that we’d suddenly get a burst of new info on stuff that was never even remotely mentioned before by nintendo. But then again nintendo itself just did that with gorochu! And TCRF is a really credible source, and they actually dug up that screenshot of beta girafarig SO MANY YEARS after we first heard nintendo talk about the concept, and it matched perfectly with what we were expecting. And it just dropped out of NOWHERE overnight and left zero signs of where the user managed to find it, yet was still proven to be legit...

Also like seriously half of the gold and silver beta art looks completely non-legit, its all in a wildly different art style! I don’t know if anyone’s ever found out why that is? Like does it just mean they had multiple artists at the time and were still experimenting before they settled on sugimori as the main one? But gen 1 had already had a full set of sugimori art by then. but then again later interviews had nintendo revealing that ‘half of gen 2′ were actually designed in the process of making red and green, and they just got cut out because of cartridge space. (So basically, beta stantler + 30 others were what became missingno.) So it could be entirely plausable that these gen 2 mons were designed BEFORE some of the gen 1 ones, and thus had different art...? Though there’s also the theory I had which i haven’t seen anyone else talking about. Considering how the Spaceworld Beta has been super shrouded in myth and we only have first hand accounts of what the pokemon vaguely looked like, maybe these ‘beta artworks’ are actually fan art someone made while attending the convention? like not fake betas or anything, i mean someone was trying to quickly jot down the mons while the demo reel played, cos they couldnt take pictures. And then all the confusion of passing info between japanese and english fandoms in the early days of the internet could mean this stuff was archived as ‘early official art’ and not ‘artist’s recreation of unreleased promotional material’. I just started thinking about this because the screenshot of beta girafarig ended up being EXACTLY the same pose as that artwork of it. And it’s very rare that sprites exactly mimic the official art, especially back in the gameboy era where the sprites were rudimentary and inconsistant between versions. So it seems more plausable that this maybe proves the art was drawn by someone seeing that sprite?

Further potential proof- the ‘beta art’ of Silver:

Now that’s not only a wildly different art style but he’s drawn with super big cutesy eyes and cheek blush. I mean that could indicate his personality was completely different back then, or it could indicate this was someone drawing their own interpretation of a different official art, who didnt know what role this character would have in the actual game. Also we’ve heard people saying that Silver’s gender was unknown at the time of this first beta appearance, so that could potentially mean this fan artist draw him shoujo-style cos they headcanoned the new rival would be a girl? or just that the androgenous style of his appearance would equal a personality that was typical of an androgenous anime character- i.e a cutesy shy boy or a rowdy tomboy girl, etc. Tho tbh that whole line of theory confused me because this beta silver seems to have similar short hair to his redesign way later. I don’t think this design would be remotely perceived as ‘androgenous’ if the art style wasn’t drawn cutesy like this. So maybe this was indeed the early art style? And man, who knows, maybe the inconsistancy of sugimori already existing just means that they weren’t gonna keep sugimori in the second game? The very sketchy nature of these artworks could make sense if it was an attempt to completely redesign a new style for the sequel, so every generation would look different. I wonder what genre of anime every other region would have looked like! I’m imagining some sort of mysterious Clamp-esque style for sinnoh maybe, since its the ‘relic region’? And maybe unova would have even been american cartoon style!

Anyway in summary bunni is very confused and also bunni really fuckin misses silver’s old long haired design and will NEVER FUCKING UNDERSTAND why they gave him the exact same hair as roark and mars in the same generation they introduced roark and mars. (I dunno why people don’t include roark in the family headcanons. Mayb just cos his without-hat look is only seen briefly in anime?)

[iliketrainmen]

Friends got me on Regretevator so thus this image was born

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #digital art #regretevator

[iliketrainmen]

I allowed Steven near the beast that terastallizes people

I like to think Colress made both this and Roark's sygna suit (which is featured below btw)

Haha Johnathan these are geologyshipping memes

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #digital art #traditional art #traditional/digital art #steven stone #champion steven #sygna suit concepts #pokemon masters #geologyshipping

[iliketrainmen]

Silver finds an interesting book in the school library. This leads him to discovering his brother's blunder years.

(An actual comic from Train? What is this, 2022?)

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #digital art #rival silver #silver #cps au #comic

[iliketrainmen]

Discord whiteboard shenanigans

——

Alt text for those that can't see

"Remember kids: you're the reason for your parent's divorce!"

"It only took me 12 years to disappoint my dad, ill have you know."

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #digital art #discord whiteboard #tw divorce #yes that is infact kermit the frog on the bottom right

[iliketrainmen]

"My precious hematite..." Steven mumbled beneath his breath, burrowing his face into the soft skin of Roark's neck. The mattress beneath them squeaked with every movement, it's blankets clumped together near the end, having been kicked down there earlier due to the heat. Surprisingly soft hands pet the nape of his neck, which were as warm as the arms wrapped around his upper back.

"Hematite?" Roark questioned, sounding almost perplexed— if not shocked. Steven had been trying for a while now to work out a mineral or rock to compare him to, said it was his "main duty in a relationship". Hematite was a broad kind of mineral, however... and by broad, Roark knew of at least two varieties, "which kind?"

"All," Steven murmured, lips stretching into a grin. That simple question was more than enough justification to ramble. Unfortunately, he was tired at the moment, so he'd have to nonsensically babble about it on a later date. Preferably in the morning, "but specifically oolitic and specular. They remind me of your eyes."

"Really now?" There was a hint of disbelief in Roark's voice, something Steven wouldn't stand for.

"Mhm," Steven's head lifted ever so slightly, getting a better view of Roark's face, "your irises are the color of oolitic and your pupils sparkle like they're specular."

"Really?"

"Really."

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #drabble #steven stone #geologyshipping #little snack for the steven/roark fanatics out there

[iliketrainmen]

Had a vision

W/O text under cut

With color Without color

Roark and Volkner's pokemon cards sponsored this post

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #traditional/digital art #gym leader volkner #volkner #i think roark's half asleep face should make him look like the most unapproachable individual in the world #the one time where Volkner isn't the dead-inside one of the two #based on one of my favorite meme images of all time

[iliketrainmen]

Mob Psycho 100 Manga edit but make it generation 4

Steven's version:

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #gardenia #gym leader gardenia #steven stone #wallace #traditional/digital art #what the heck is Roark and Steven's ship name #i will consult the Roark counsel on this at a later date #ship art #geologyshipping

[iliketrainmen]

Sygna Suit Roark and Nihilego reference sheet + ex colors

Always looks a little off his rocker; it doesn't matter where nor when. Could it be due to the poor-paying jobs he works on the daily to afford rent? That little kid named Timmy who said he sucked as a gym leader four years ago? The fact that he ingests well over the healthy amount of neurotoxins each battle? Who knows!

Doesn't wear his helmet outside of battles or when he's underground.

Yes, he does have a lot of fun with the flowy coat. It's his favorite part of his new sygna suit.

He's not a big fan of the hole on the back of his coat. He always has to be careful not to rip it when doing laundry.

Close-ups + Notes below

Notes:

Underneath his jacket is a tank top with a small boob window. More of a neck window than anything as it doesn't show much of any chest.

Notes:

Being Nihilego's partner comes with many side effects: physical changes are one of them.

If Neurotoxin Overload (N.O.) is used during battle, Roark's hair will get stained indigo for about 1—2 hours afterwards.

Strangely enough, his eyes also start glowing a dim yellow afterwards for about 30 minutes. He thinks it looks pretty cool. His father has a heart attack everytime he sees it. (Flashlight eyes, FLASHLIGHT EYES—)

Usually, these physical changes are never permanent or long-lasting. If one were to upgrade one certain spot on his sync grid to allow for 2 usages of N.O., however...

Notes:

Neurotoxins function similarly to... well... most toxins out there in the world. Nihilego's neurotoxins highten emotions to an extreme degree, which can cause people to act in ways that might be deemed reckless or 'crazy'. Roark is not immune to this, even if he's built a tolerance due to getting hit with them everyday.

This emotional high can last up to 2—3ish hours after a N.O. Sometimes, his hair color can be a good indicator as to whether or not the neurotoxins are still in his system. It's not uncommon for Gardenia or another one of his friends to keep an eye on him until its over as impulsive behavior becomes his middle name.

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #traditional/digital art #reference sheet #sygna suits #concept art #pokemon masters #gardenia jumpscare in one of the drawings

[iliketrainmen]

Exceptionally bad first roll

Based off of the image under the cut

I found it on Google trying to look for something else for a bud and I knew I had to draw it

#cw: Weed #cw: drugs #pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #gym leader gardenia #gardenia #gym leader volkner #volkner #the noise #wait how the hell did he get here? #(was possessed to add him after realizing the coloring felt really similar to Pizza Tower's) #digital art #energyshipping if you squint real hard

[iliketrainmen]

Chat I lied about Roark needing to win so here's the concept art/stuff I was talking about in regards to a sygna suit

So... here's a design for Sygna Suit Roark and Nihilego! Because I thought it would be really funny if I paired him up with his tormentor and he got Nihilego instead of Lusamine. He'd be a 5 star unit with an ex because... well... sygna suits are five stars and it'd be cruel to make him the outlier. Haven't made a ex recolor, but I suppose it'd flip around the colors a little bit. Pale blue is replaced with purple and vice versa. Probably leave everything else alone for the most part. Maybe make his shirt white.

Very heavily based off of Nihilego's design + color palette. Did take some creative liberties with it though so it didn't feel too similar to his original design. Emphasized Nihilego's poison typing when it came to the leggings, so there's some added purple and a wavy pattern for the singular thigh high. Also wanted to add in details that would point to his geological origin without being too obvious, so there exists two geology-related design choices in his outfit. Brownie points to whoever finds em. Couldn't decide between Nihilego's blue and Roark's yellow for the highlights, so I used both.

Below is me rambling how he'd work in game, so if you're only here for the art, I'd recommend stopping here.

So you've chosen to listen to my hour long rambling. Arceus bless you and by the gods you will be here for a while.

When it comes to his sygna suit, I want it to feel different but still kind of reminiscent of his original kit. With him and Rampardos, he's essentially a nuker that nukes himself in the process whilst dealing a ridiculous amount of damage. That's the part that feels the most memorable about his kit, so I'd want it to transfer over to his sygna suit counterpart.

So... the only logical next step is to make him a ridiculously good support pair that nukes themselves with their abilities. A kit that's focused on maximizing buffs for the sweeper before the pair kicks the bucket. Something not very good for multi-stage progression levels, but phenomenal for boss levels.

Its not really finalized (this is a concept post, after all), but here's some ideas I'll shoot out.

One (1) singular attack move that all characters must have

Acid Spray — 1 bar

Ridiculously weak, only use if you're in a pinch. Something must have gone terribly wrong if you're using this.

24 power (Special and Poison type)

100% accuracy

No additional effects

The other move that isn't really an attack move

Pain Split — 3 bars

The reason it's three bars is because I can smell how broken this is going to be. I can smell it. Good heavens, is it Sunday already?

Equals out the Health points between Roark and the target. Works how it works in the mainline games. If the opponent has high health and Roark has low, they level out to the middle ground and vice versa. Probably broken on bosses. Do I have a fix? Nope. Do I care to fix it? Nope.

--- power; this move is based purely on health

100% accuracy

No additional effects

Support moves that aren't actually pokemon moves

Hemlock-Tipped Rock (2/2)

Raises all stats of all allied pairs by one stage. When below 50% health, this raises all stats by two stages.

Removes 25% of Roark's total health, regardless of how much HP he has remaining.

Neurotoxin Overload! (1/1)

PERMANENTLY increases the speed that the move gauge recovers bars (for the rest of the match, at least). Move gauge fully replenished.

PERMANENTLY halves Roark's total health and remaining health. If he had 800 total health with 400 health remaining, he would end up having 400 total health with 200 health remaining. Potions and/or healing moves will not recover the total health loss. (For the rest of the match, at least).

The strongest double-edged blade in the game if this got added in. Nukes the units health for instant refill + permanent speed increase of regeneration for move gauge. Using this in tandem with both Hemlock-Tipped Spears will kill Roark but set the remaining strikers up for a sweep. Just like Arceus intended.

Sync Move!!! Yaaay!

Crystallized Sludge Wave

200 power base move

All opponents

The less health Roark has left, the more powerful this move is

—

Okay awesome, the moves are all finished. If you came here for those, you can move on. The rest of this post is going to be about skills.

—

Skills, hooray?

Skills are great, aren't they? You barely notice them if they're trash and notice if they're the reason a character is busted. Anyways.

Passive

Follow me

Attacks that strike multiple allies instead hit only Roark and Nihilego for all of the damage it would have done.

Say, in a normal scenario, a move would hit ally 1 for 100, Roark for 100, and ally 2 for 100. With this ability, allies 1 and 2 take no damage, but Roark takes 300.

This cannot be good for his health. This sync pair + sygna suit cannot be good for his health. Has anyone checked to see if Nihilego has injected poison into him? It must've if he's willingly having this skill.

Theme skills

Poison

Sinnoh

Gym Leader

Sygna Suit

Supernatural

Lucky Skill Recommendations

You can't really force lucky skills onto sync pairs as... well... they're luck-based and depend entirely on the build you're using. Here's what I'd recommend if he ever got in game.

—Power Reserves 2 : powers up moves when user is in a pinch (aka, has little health). You can imagine why I choose this one.

—Revenge Boost 4 : 50% chance of refilling move gauge by one upon getting hit. Points to passive skill.

Ex Role

Not touching this one because even after extensive googling I have no idea how this works.

End note

So, yeah. There's the concept stuff for a Roark sygna suit with Nihilego. Probably will be refined if I ever take another look at this, but this is what I got.

If you read this far, I hope you enjoyed! This post was a nice callback to those smash moveset concepts I used to make back in the day.

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #pokemon masters #concept art #if Sygna Suit Roark and Nihilego becomes canon I'll go nuts on main #sunday theorymon posting type character concept #traditional/digital art

[iliketrainmen]

Waiting for them to play gangnam style

W/O color underneath cut

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #digital/traditional art #actually think there might be 6 considering we managed to win a poll against Olivia

[iliketrainmen]

So very late at night but regretevator is still fresh in my mind so take another piece of art ft. Roark's boyfriend

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #steven stone #geologyshipping #ship art #traditional art #my usual bedtime is so much earlier than this im too eepy to color this rn #champion steven

[iliketrainmen]

Banana bread

Reference

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #gym leader volkner #volkner #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #traditional art #can be seen as platonic or romantic #energyshipping #Volkner is getting his plumbing fixed so hes staying at Roark's for the time being

[iliketrainmen]

Volkner bet Roark 20 bucks he wouldn't accept the deal to appear in Trainers magazine. Little did he know, there are very few things in this world that Roark wouldn't do in the name of a crisp 20 dollar bill.

Alt version below cut

Alt version that looks a little more like a physical magazine

#pokemon #gym leader roark #roark #hi the five roark fans on tumblr!!! #digital art #yall are getting fed good tonight #CW: a bit suggestive #Roark thirst trapping to rub even more salt in Volkner's monetary wounf