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firedragon1321 · 1 year

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Hey Kids! Who Wants to Learn What it Was Like Getting into Digimon in America in 2007?

This is my Digimon origin story. Click to read my tale of woe, Youtube videos, bootleg figurines, and the birth of the Tai thirst.

IN THE BEGINNING

So I was too young for Digimon Adventure’s original airing. I was around five, and- at that time- I wouldn’t watch anything I thought was “a boy’s show”. Yet, I was okay with The Powerpuff Girls and its brutal opening sequence. Buttercup was my favorite. So ???

Little me was stupid.

Pokemon came first, and- without it- I wouldn’t have gotten into Digimon. There’s a Youtube Pokemon parody that sucks, but it mentions Digimon and Agumon. Here it is if you want to suffer-

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My sister knew that Ash’s blatant OOC got under my skin, so she would play this 200 times a day. It was enough times for me to wonder what an “Agumon” was. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because you could barely hear the word “Agumon”? He doesn’t even show up in the video.

So I looked up Digimon. I discovered the In-Training and Rookie-level Digimon first, which was good because they resemble Pokemon the most. I fell in love with the cute blobs and critters. This led me to wiki pages for the DigiDestined. The first one I found was Sora, followed by Tai.

Yes, this man. But Kizuna didn’t exist yet, so it was when he was a cocky little shrimp. That cocky little shrimp moved into my brain and hasn’t left.

But this was 2007. Digimon didn’t air on Saturday mornings on Fox Kids anymore. How could I possibly access the adventures of Tai, Agumon, and the rest of the gang? Well, there were two answers, and both sucked absolute shit.

METHOD 1: JETIX AND THE TIME SLOT OF DOOM

Any anime fan of a certain age- namely from before streaming- remembers a time when anime was only on at an ungodly time. Midnight, 2 AM- whenever normal people weren’t awake. This was common- and somewhat understandable- with anime loaded with violent content, in order to keep it away from the kiddies. But Digimon is specifically for children. Yet, it still got this treatment.

At least, any season before Data Squad did.

Digimon was owned by Disney at the time, and they aired it on Jetix (which was one of the higher channels you had to pay extra for). Data Squad- the newest season- got a normal air slot. This may be due to the fact that Disney had a hand in its dubbing. In fact, Marcus Damon shares his English VA with Axel from Kingdom Hearts, and references his famous catchphrase in one episode. (Go to 0:27 to catch the line, plus avoid having your ears destroyed.)

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If you wanted to watch Adventure, 02, Tamers, or Frontier, they were only on at Stupid AM. I kept my interest in Digimon a weird secret at first- probably because Tai awakened my hormones and I felt embarrassed. My mom caught me at two in the morning watching a children’s cartoon, but she thought it was...something else.

After explaining the issue, we taped the episodes on old video cassettes. I still have them around somewhere. So we did find a way around the time slot of doom. Unfortunately- once Disney XD came into the picture- they nixed everything but Data Squad, which only aired for a very short window. After that, they were pretty much done. Digimon wouldn’t air again until Fusion dropped on Nickelodeon, and Fusion was never one of my favorite seasons.

Which brings me to-

METHOD 2: YOUTUBE PART 1/3 VIDEOS

Yeah. I had to deal with these.

I didn’t know about pirate sites. There was no Crunchyroll back then. The only episodes I had on tape were those obtained via Method 1. Because Digimon requires watching all of its episodes to understand the story (unlike Pokemon, which is more loose with its storytelling), I needed a way to fill in the blanks.

Enter Youtube.

Youtube’s videos were a godsend. I watched them while waiting for after-school activities. I even used the software at school to make a crude AMV begging for a continuation to Tai’s story (this was before tri. threw me a monkey’s paw). There was just one teeny issue, and any anime fan from this era knows what I mean.

Part 1/3 videos were the only way to access Digimon episodes on demand in 2007. While it didn’t bother me much back then, it was nonetheless a pain in the ass. For the whippersnappers- Youtube videos containing old anime episodes cut them into pieces (usually two or three, but sometimes four), forcing you to dig through the recommended videos or the uploader’s account to get the whole episode. This is still the only way to watch some old anime for free. Fighting Foodons and the English dub of Mon Colle Knights come to mind for me.

...I like kiddie anime. Digimon and Pokemon both had a hand in that.

ADDENDUM: FANSITES

Digimon had little to no active internet presence in 2007 outside of ancient shrines. I would read shitty fanfiction on Angelfire relics. This was also my first exposure to bad fangirl practices, which came through sites like The Lost Temple of Ishida. This was its splash page (found through Wayback Machine- the site itself is dead).

The best/worst part of this is “come in my pretty ones”, which is just so out of character for Matt that it’s funny. But at the time, I only had a instinctual understanding of what OOC was. It was the thing that made the Pokemon parody so annoying, but I had no name for it. So I had a weaker bullshit detector than I do now, which let me enjoy more fanfics with plenty of OOC trash in them.

Everyone starts somewhere.

I didn’t interact with any Digimon fans- as the sites were old and inactive- which was probably for the best. Their ancient scrolls introduced me to fandom basics, like shipping. I tried my hand at it, shipping Taiora in part to deal with my Tai thirst. That didn’t work for reasons listed below.

ADDENDUM: TAI THIRST

I had a crush on Ash as a small child, but that was innocent since I was small. Once Tai came into the picture, I was a bit older. My crush on him was- different. Like “look up pictures of his naked butt in the uncut version of Ep. 8 and save them to a friend’s computer so I didn’t get in trouble” kind of different. (I’m sorry, friend.) The fact that this content was only in the Japanese version made it doubly taboo.

(Actually, this image is about the same quality as what I had access to, lol.)

I went hog wild at first. I wrote bad poems and had a binder full of screenshots. I wrote my first initial and his in hearts on my notes. It was pretty bad. Over time, I figured out this was kinda cringe, which intersected with general shame at my sexuality waking up.

So I shipped Taiora. I thought- by putting Tai in a relationship with another girl- I could segregate myself from my raging crush on him, and all the uncomfortable thoughts that came with it. Unfortunately, this pairing didn’t click in my mind. I was plagued by daydreams of Tai being deathly ill, which was my brain’s way of saying “hey- maybe forcibly shipping Tai to deal with your personal BS is a bad idea?”. So I moved on to Mary Sue stand-ins, which had the same result.

The one good thing about being 11 in 2007 means I (sort of) grew up in real time with the character. Tri. dropped when I was 19 (kind of odd, but there was only a two year difference between me and tri.!Tai’s age of 17). Kizuna was only two years ago. Both of us were in the adult world in our own ways. Tai’s like an imaginary childhood friend, and he helped me through a lot of things. I know he’s fictional, but I really felt like I grew up with him.

By around tri., I decided I didn’t give a shit anymore, I compromised by keeping my fangirl thirst to Tai exclusively. Since I had a lot of background with the character in addition to thirst, it was more “acceptable” to me. tri. Determination...helped.

I just completely lost my mind with this screenshot. This led to the towel my friend gave me, which I haven’t used but can’t get rid of. I’m in a more comfortable place on this subject than I was in 2007, even if it’s not perfect.

ADDENDUM: MERCH

Finding merch in 2007 was a pain in the butt. It wasn’t really widely available in the same way as Pokemon. So there was only one option- eBay and its bootlegs.

There was a woman who was somewhat of a family friend at the time. She was my ticket to all the Digimon figures I wanted. But of course- eBay being eBay- the figures I got my mitts on were fakes. I didn’t care, as long as I got tiny Tokomons and Patamons to play with. As a kid, I was drawn more to the cute, more Pokemon-like Digis. Blame Tai (again) for making me obsessed with the giant dinosaurs.

This was my only ticket to any form of Digi-merch, except the odd book here and there. Except the Bin that Got Away.

I remember someone was selling Digimon figures at a giant yard sale. My mom only allowed me to buy two of them. So I chose a large Terriermon- who I’ve since lost- and WarGreymon. I liked WarGreymon due to his connection to Tai (it all comes back to Tai).

The catch is this WarGreymon was a digivolving figure that went with a MetalGarurumon. At the time, I didn’t like Matt, and connected the Digimon to him. My reasons for hating Matt were really dumb, since he’s a lot like me personality-wise. Matt always fought with Tai, so I thought their relationship was more antagonistic, like Ash and Gary. Not to mention I didn’t like Matt’s fans. My only exposure to them was The Lost Temple of Ishida. So I purposefully picked out the MetalGarurumon bits of the digivolving figure, only taking WarGreymon.

Some other lucky kid bought the whole bin, so now my WarGreymon can’t digivolve. But I can take comfort in the fact that he was equally screwed.

CONCLUSION

Being a Digimon fan in 2007 was tough. If I wasn’t an autistic kid who hung out with other, older autistic kids, I might never have found anyone to talk to about Digimon. Luckily, times have changed. I now have all of Adventure and tri, on DVD, and Kizuna on my PS4. On top of the old tapes, I have one or two official tapes I got from consignment shops, including one of Tamers. I figured out Digimon merch could be found if one knew where to look. I have the blursed towel.

As I keep collecting things and thinking about what these characters mean to me, this story will keep growing.

#digimon #my digimon origin story #multiple videos #mentions the evolution of my fangirl thirst #might not want to open this at work #it's not graphic but you never know #tai kamiya #matt ishida #fan origin story #taiposting #Youtube

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fullofsunsetwhispers · 2 years

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what sorta game would xs be? adventure? rpg? beatemup? indie point and click? pokemon-like?

Well, there are two already existing xs games. One of them is a typical beatemup in which you also have to take account of your surroundings because there are a lot of traps. The other is also a beatemup, but with more plot and it's multiplayer. XS VA's have more to say in that one. You can interact with objects and throw them at your opponent. The only difference between the two is that showdowns in the former one look like a series of mini-games. You have dance-offs, boat rides, goo-zombies simulations, and a tic-tac-toe showdown. In the latter - at least for me it looks more chaotic, for the fact a lot of characters tend to run across your screen.

But if I were to design the third game of this franchise, I would opt for a mix of an indie point-and-click with showdowns having mechanics similar to the pokemon game. That way you could either lose or gain a wu (or more wus). However, as a fan of platformer games, I would say it would be interesting to see showdowns that involve chasing in the way it is presented in newer Rayman games!

(Btw Rayman Legends music levels are bangers yo) (and Rayman's ability to shrink? Yo that would be any xs character using the changing chopsticks) So, yeah I'm of opinion that a new xs game should include more exploring either by clicking on objects or by simply finding hidden corridors or caves. Rayman sea levels? Just give Rai, Kimiko, Clay or Omi gills of hamachi and you're set on the water adventure! Jack's fishbots (jackie hun those are dolphins but ok I'll let you be) and later Dyris as bosses to defeat. Nice.

Deadly vines with thorns are chasing you? Welcome to Gigi the heylin seed's level! Have fun exploring the catacombs and attacking the plants. Consider it Plants vs zombies sequel lol

Each playable character would have their own inventory in which there would be 3 wus stored (and maybe some healing items?) Fighting isn't necessarily needed (for a fact we have that in original games) I would be more thrilled to have more chasing sequences and puzzles (for example you have to learn from interacting with game elements how to open the wu vault or maybe in a new wu location there are several ancient traps and you have to deactivate them OR YOU ARE AT JACK'S PLACE and you have to find a way how to deactivate booby traps in order to move forward)

Aaand if you want to cross through guarded doors you have to find a way to make the guards leave their stations. For example, set a little fire one room away. If the guards are chase's cats you can throw a ball of wool so they could be more focused on their play rather than their job (but first you have to find that wool and take it with you!). Or you have to play statues with some of Chase's jungle cats (and Cyclops) because once they spot you - you get a hit. In order to get a pass through them, you have to use a shroud of shadows (however! the catch is, it can last only for a couple of seconds when you move. If you want to recharge the invincibility you have to move still for a while. if you fail to do so and the enemy sees you, welp you have to run away and do the same all over again. (See Ratatouille pixar game for reference - the mini games with a chicken, cats, dogs etc)

For funny parts of the game, it would be neat to interact with NPCs. Remember that time Omi got lost in New York? That alien fanatic dude from My homie Omi episode? Let him sell us something - that would be hilarious lol. As a matter of fact, I think Chucky Choo would be a nice shop owner. Yeah, his stuff is expensive but that would give some power-ups. For the first time, he would scam us, sure, but with the plot progression, he would become an ally. Actually, every location should have a shopkeeper. Vlad could find himself in that role, I think. He would sell babushkas' cream for Dojo's scales problem lol and maybe hot drinks that would give monks' a speed-up!

Ok, I'm just throwing more ideas and it turns out it's more of a babble rather than a coherent post, so let me summarize. That idea of putting xs universe into Rayman games came from my realization that in every Rayman level everything moves, collapses, and changes place. In order not to die you have to jump from one platform to another at a right time. In the XS cartoon, something similar occurs - that's why monks and heylins have to be pretty flexible and mind their surroundings. Those who were more focused on their opponent usually got interrupted by something that crashed into them or the opponent pushed them resulting in their falling down etc. So, you can find that in Rayman games.

That was my rant, thanks for reading.

#ask #xiaolin showdown game #that was a tough one #what i want in a game is interesting storytelling gorgeous graphics and challenges that make you think #and xs has a potential #they could even make a rip-off of the showdowns that already happened in the show #just make them pretty and enjoyable #that post may be inconherent also for the fact I can't decide what would be better suited #you know what would be funny? strolling around Chase's lair and then the narrator tells you we shouldn't go to the kitchen or bedrooms #bc it's inapropriate lol

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blazehedgehog · 3 years

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As an Internet veteran and draw-person, I really need to ask: what anime influenced you and many online artists circa 2000s? There's a specific style from those early 2000s webcomics and fanart I'm looking for and trying to replicate, and your old art fit in that "style", in my opinion. Thank you!

It’s hard to narrow it down, but it’s also not that hard to narrow it down. Anime was a much, much smaller industry back then. The “boom” was just beginning thanks to efforts by the Scifi Channel and Cartoon Network to bring anime to television in timeslots that people would actually watch.

So here’s your crash course in casual anime history, I guess, from someone who definitely isn’t like... obsessed with anime. Or isn’t anymore, but was back then.

For me, it all kind of started with, like... Dragon Ball, and this was a show that struggled to gain any traction at first. Where I lived, it aired at 5am on Sunday mornings. If you knew a kid that watched Dragon Ball, there was a solidarity there like, “Yup, you get it.”

Then DiC got the license to Sailor Moon and started airing it in the weekday morning slot I would typically describe as “right before you catch the bus.” You’d wake up around 6am, maybe 6:15, and watch whatever was on at 6:30 while you ate breakfast. As the credits were rolling, you’d head out to catch the school bus. Sailor Moon was what I remember doing that with the most. That combined with Dragon Ball formed my foundational interest in anime.

Around this time (1995, 1996) you were starting to see anime start to seep in to the mainstream elsewhere. There was a commercial I remember for, like, an anthology of anime classics like Akira...

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And, y’know, when you’re like, 14 or 15 and you see a commercial like this -- cartoons! With blood! And nudity! It’s like, holy crap. Most of the classics we know today (Akira, Ghost in the Shell) were only really available via mail order like this back then.

More shows started getting localized for TV, too, like Ronin Warriors was one a lot of my friends got in to. It was considered “The Manly Sailor Moon.” And then there was, of course, Samurai Pizza Cats. Eventually Saban stopped dubbing Dragon Ball altogether and moved straight over to Dragon Ball Z, and that gained enough popularity that I think it eventually shook it out of its Sunday Morning time slot to somewhere a little more visible by general audiences.

Coming in to 1997 and 1998, anime was really starting to gain some momentum. The Scifi Channel had begin doing their “Saturday Anime” show, which aired at 3am every Friday Night/Saturday Morning. They probably figured it was one of the only ways they could get away with showing violent cartoons.

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For me, this was where I got my first “real” taste of anime. They had a stable of about 5 or 10 movies and OVAs they’d run. Venus Wars, Vampire Hunter D, Project A-KO, Robot Carnival, Tenchi Muyo In Love (my favorite), Project L.I.L.Y. Cat, Beautiful Dreamer, Galaxy Express 999, Fatal Fury The Motion Picture, Record of Lodoss War, Dominion Tank Police, Roujin-Z, Demon City Shinjiku, Gall Force...

That felt like the bandaid got ripped off. Suddenly we were all buzzing about anime. Hey, have you heard about this movie called Ninja Scroll? There’s hardcore sex in it! No American movie, live action or not, could ever match the body horror of Akira! Hey, does anyone remember Robotech from the 80′s? That was actually anime, too! Wow!

Cartoon Network was smart enough to take notice and snatched up the rights to air Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z at reasonable, non-morning hours, and they dug out Voltron and put together a simple block of anime. I don’t even think it necessarily had a name, it was just an hour or maybe 90 minutes of anime a day, and it exploded. Right place, right time. So Cartoon Network expanded.

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They added more classic anime, and some shows that were similar in tone, and called it Toonami. Robotech, Ronin Warriors, The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, Reboot, Thundercats...

And this became the place to watch anime. Which is when we enter the era you’re asking about, the early 2000′s. This is where it starts to feel like a little too much to cover, because it came hot, heavy, and fast. There was a thirst for anime that was hard to quench because production companies were small and choosy about what they’d dub, but at the same time, a sort of gold rush was starting.

When I think of peak, classic-era Toonami, the stuff that really influenced me artistically, it was shows like Outlaw Star, Ruroni Kenshi, and Gundam Wing. I’m sure I’d also have friends speak highly of Big-O, G-Gundam, and Yu Yu Hakusho, three shows I never really got in to.

Eventually, Cartoon Network (and Williams Street, then called Ghost Planet Industries) began to realize that there was a growing library of anime they couldn’t show in the afternoon because it was too intense for the kids. There was also an undoubtedly vocal contingent of anime fans who were frustrated when their favorite shows had to be edited for broadcast. This gave birth to Toonami: The Midnight Run, the precursor to what would eventually become Adult Swim. The Midnight Run became home to uncut (or simply less-cut) episodes of afternoon shows that restored blood, alcoholic references, and the few cases of more extreme violence.

Midnight Run started getting exclusive shows, too. When I think about what Midnight Run (and later Adult Swim) was known for, it was shows like Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, and again, though it wasn’t really something I saw a ton of, Paranoia Agent.

Other networks did try to cash in on the anime craze. I think Tech TV/G4 tried to get in on things with Serial Experiments Lain and a few other shows, but to be honest, it never hit as hard as Toonami did. Then there was obviously the work of guys like 4KIDS, with the Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon shows on Saturday Morning, but those felt noticeably different in vibe and in tone (something that only got more pronounced when Kids WB started a Saturday Morning Toonami block that was even more aggressively sanitized than what could be shown on Cartoon Network).

Beyond broadcast TV, the stuff I remember being popular among my circle of friends were things like Tenchi Universe, Ranma 1/2, Slayers, Saber Marionette, and.... like, Di Gi Charat and Chobits? This was probably right around the era of Azumanga Daioh, too.

Unfortunately, much past 2003 or 2004 is where I started falling off of anime. The feeling of it being “new” and “special” was starting to wear off, and there was enough coming out that the standard of quality was beginning to drop. Whereas small studios like ADV and Manga Corps. could only afford to bring out the best of the best, we were starting to get junk like Duel Masters, Rozen Maiden and Tenchi Muyo GXP.

I remember friends speaking highly of shows like Bleach (heh), .hack, Full Metal Panic, Midori Days, Tenjo Tenge, Yakitate Japan, Eureka Seven, and Air Gear, but I can’t tell you anything about them, personally.

Either way, I’m sure I’ve given you more than enough to chew on.

#questions #anime #toonami #scifi channel #syfy #4kids #kids wb #foxbox #saturday anime #Anonymous

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the-ashen-gm · 4 years

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How To Make A Game That Players *Can’t* Ruin - NPC Schedules and Avoiding the Railroad

TL;DR - When writing a new scenario for your players to interact with, don’t make assumptions about how they’ll react to it. Instead, write out a schedule for your NPCs to follow and just let your players react as they like.

Part 1: The Virgin Railroad

We’ve all been in that situation as GMs where the players do something we don’t expect that “ruins” everything we planned. Your notes for a session that starts a new adventure might have looked something like this:

The players arrive at the adventure location

The players see something happen

The players understand what is happening

The players react

The players’ reaction pays off and they learn something new

They decide to take action

For example:

The party arrive at the town of Lamas

At the inn, they see two suspicious men talking and one gives the other a note

By their scent, the werewolf paladin of the party realises that the two men are wererats

The party call out the wererats for what they are and attack them, looting the note off their bodies after the fighting is done

They read the note and find out that they were planning to attack and infect an innocent person with their curse as punishment for not keeping up with “protection insurance payments”

Now realising that there’s a wererat mafia at work in town, the party enlist the help of the local law enforcement to help them root out the rats

That seems fine, right? But this framework is fragile.

What if the players don’t attack the wererats right away? They haven’t done step 4.

What if the party’s rogue thinks that the suspicious transaction is a mere petty crime that they might be able to muscle into and profit off? They haven’t done step 3.

What if the werewolf paladin wants to ally with the wererats to learn more about her own curse? They’ve done step 4, but not in the way you wanted them to.

What if the party do nothing? They’ve stopped at step 3 (or maybe even 2).

Where do you go as a DM then? What do the NPCs do? How do you get the players back on track? Do you cancel the session and re-write it? Do you improvise? Do you tell the players to do the thing they were supposed to do?

[Image ID: a Rowlet, the grass-type owl Pokemon, looking distressed and clutching its head with tiny hands/wings. End ID.]

This is you right now. Adorable, but not having a good time.

Part 2: The Chad Schedule

I’ve heard advice before that you should consider four things for every encounter: Fight, Flight, Friend, and Freeze. These refer to coming up with what will happen if the players fight your NPCs, run away from your NPCs, try to make friends with your NPCs, or do nothing respectively. I think this is a fine way to set up encounters but it’s not my preferred method because it comes too close to writing a script for my players’ actions. Like the example above with the wererats, I’m making lots of assumptions about my players and the 4 Fs method somewhat does the same. What if the players fight but then run away? What if they run away and come back to fight later? There are too many possibilities for me to consider all at once.

My solution: write out what the NPCs will do if the party never even showed up. This may seem like odd advice, but bear with me. What we’re trying to do is to empty our mind of any expectations we have of the players and just write out the situation they’re being placed in.

Let’s go back to the wererat situation and rewrite it with this in mind instead:

The leader of the Greyfang Guild, a demonic rat king, learns that local alchemist Elania Knox hasn’t paid her protection money in over 2 months. It decides that she deserves the worst punishment they can give: infection with the wererat curse which will surely lead to her being banished from town.

A wererat of the guild heads to the tavern to pass a note to their man in town telling him the plan.

An hour later, at sundown, they meet outside Elania’s house. When the full moon rises they transform into their hybrid forms and break in, whereupon they infect Elania with the curse via a series of bites. For the rest of the night, they frolic in the sewers and steal from poor people.

Elania tells her only friends, Ben and his husband Cillian, about the incident the next morning. The three of them attempt to cross the nearby forest to meet with the Order of the Lycan for help but are killed by wild animals.

Yes, this is pretty bleak stuff. This is what the world of your campaign might look like without your players’ intervention. Good people get abused by those with power and no morals, having no one to stand up for them. You, as a DM, probably don’t want this series of events to come true and nor will your players when they catch wind of them.

But this is the trick! All your planning is to create something that you want your players to ruin. You don’t want Elania to get infected, you don’t want those wererats to go on an unimpeded crime spree, and you certainly don’t want Elania, Ben, and Cillian to die meaningless deaths at the hands (paws?) of wild animals. What you’ve done here, if you follow this method of writing a plot without the players’ involvement, is create scenarios that your players can disrupt (or perhaps “ruin”) in order to create a new narrative. If it’s done right, this method can create an exhilarating game for both the players and the GM, plus it works with pretty much any RPG that assumes the players are the heroes of the story in the same way D&D does.

Something to bear in mind while running this sort of game is that the NPCs will always try to get the schedule back on track. If you foil the wererats on the first night, they’ll return with their resident mage who can create moonlight as a spell during the day. If you stop the rats on their crime spree, they’ll up the ante and attempt an ever bigger crime the next day (perhaps even extorting the locals for aid in the scheme). If you rescue Elania, Ben, and Cillian from being killed in the forest, you’ve still got the Order of the Lycan to deal with (perhaps they’ll be even more dangerous than what lurks in the dark). This is a good thing. It means that you’ll pretty much always know what the NPCs want to do. When in doubt, check the schedule. The NPCs will always try to go back to the schedule, especially the bad guys.

So, to sum up:

Write NPC schedules, not PC plots - write what the NPCs would do if the party never showed up.

You can enjoy watching your PCs ruin everything you had planned, if you plan for them to ruin it.

You deserve to have fun as a GM and creating a scenario that you can’t easily predict can be part of that.

At its best, this technique makes your world feel a little more alive because your NPCs do things while the players aren’t looking in a way that feels natural.

#in the writing of this post i was called a shit gibbon by a redditor so i hope you all appreciate my sacrifice #dnd #D&D #dnd5e #D&D5e #5e #NPCs #GMing #DMing #RPG #TTRPG #RPG advice #npc schedule #improv #improvisation #spook house #d&d

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imjeralee · 3 years

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Comfort in Despair: Chapter 25 - The Exorcist

Leon x F!Reader

Disclaimer: Do not own Pokemon

Summary:

Galar is rich in folklore and tales of the supernatural.

As a Pokemon Researcher who specialises in ghost types, this is a great opportunity for you to investigate and learn more about the paranormal.

Along the way, you meet Leon (in the most awkward way possible) who becomes embroiled in your adventures.

^ Basically this story is about ghosts :/

NOTE: ok so Genshin Impact has consumed my soul and I updated this on Tumblr a bit late sorry!!! There’s several warnings here to be shared with you all:

WARNING 1 - this chapter contains a real exorcism prayer and you should not read this prayer out loud unless you are a catholic priest.

WARNING 2 - I've never used an ouija board and I don’t plan to. You’re welcome to share with me your ouija board stories if you have tried one before but I myself don't know if they're just board games or really a gateway to let things in. Anyway people say exercise with caution so please do so should you ever decide to use one for whatever reason.

WARNING 3 - there is mention of blood, I toned down the exorcism here

Rating: General/Teen

@marydragneell here is the latest update

The Exorcist

…

[Legend of the Void:

(Ezra's version, which introduces concepts such as the merging of two universes to explain the origins of man + pokemon subservience to humans)

Before the concept of time existed, before anything existed, there was Something, and you may as well say this 'something' was a god, a divine being or interdimensional entity, and this entity created a Universe under the right circumstances and conditions, and he would proceed to create humans.

And for a while, the Creator of Man was happy until he saw the evil ways of humanity and he saw this evil run rampant in his world. Regretful and upset, he decided to destroy the very thing he created with a flood.

However, the Creator of Man didn't choose to restore this world. After he destroyed it, he left and found another Universe - a Universe that was similar to his own, except it was inhabited by strange creatures which we know as pokemon. Now they already had a creator, and their creator was called Arceus, who emerged from a void after our Creator did. And our Creator saw that this Universe was just as peaceful and beautiful as his previous one.

He decided to give his creations a second chance so he made humans all over again and placed them in this world. But mankind are a destructive species, the human heart is filled with evil intention and it always will be, and the humans began creating devices to enslave the pokemon race in order to utilise them as tools.

My notes: According to the Church of Circhester, this 'version' is completely unorthodox. It is 'baseless fabrication and blasphemy' and Ezra was condemned as a misanthrope.

Sometimes I wonder where Ezra gets his theories from because this is highly controversial. It's fascinating that to this day and age, scientists are actually still trying to figure who caught the first pokemon, what was the first pokemon caught, and why (ie, how did early humans gain this knowledge, who told them and/or did anyone tell them, what prompted them to capture a pokemon?), and how did they manage to do so in the first place.

Could the discovery of catching pokemon be similar to coincidences that happened throughout history, such as how cavemen discovered fire, how Newton discovered gravity?

(edit: there is a myth that Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. For his transgression, he was to undergo eternal torment as punishment - ie, bound to a rock and have his liver eaten out everyday, only for it to re-grow hence an ongoing cycle. He was freed by the hero, Heracles).

Interestingly enough, flood myth also exists in many cultures albeit with different variations (pls refer to: The Epic of Gilgamesh).

Also, I'm pretty sure Team Plasma advocated that pokemon were oppressed and should be liberated from their trainers but then again they were also being led by a psychopath with his own selfish motives.]

…

A few years ago.

The weather is thunder and lightning, coupled with intense spitting rain.

And he was sure he locked the cemetery gates before he left but now they were hanging loosely from the chain.

Ezra grumbles to himself, eyes narrowing.

It can only mean one thing: an intruder.

The rickety gates squeal on their old hinges as he pushes them open and steps inside. His heavy footsteps plod through the old, withered path of Greyson’s cemetery as he heads for the mausoleum. That’s usually where they are.

Absol trots beside him, her jaws clamped over the tarnished iron handle of an old lantern; she keeps it dangling in front of her, lighting up the path though it’s not much use to him. He lives in a world of darkness, and he's used to it.

It should have been a normal night, which would have been nice because he wanted some peace and quiet for a change considering how busy he had been for the past few weeks. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts and he wanted to enjoy a pack of beer and cigarettes.

Not tonight, it seems.

He will tell those pesky young lads to go play elsewhere.

But wait, it’s something else.

Absol has been somewhat agitated the moment they approach the cemetery, but now she cannot stop growling.

“What is it?” he asks, but it doesn’t take too long to figure out what it is. “Goddamnit.”

This is just what he needed.

He delves a hand into his pocket and whips out a thin strip of paper covered in sprawling red symbols. Bringing it to his lips, he murmurs a quick enchantment under his breath before it bursts into flames and a smoky smell permeates the air. A bright, glowing light illuminates the symbols and he promptly tosses it high into the air.

Despite the wind, it flutters limply in the breeze for a second and then the impossible happens; the glowing symbols daintily lift themselves off the surface and float in the sky. They thoroughly increase in size, the symbols imprinting the air before they vanish into wisps of smoke.

The talisman proceeds to burn up and all that is left is a crinkly ball of fire which bursts into long and thin lines of flames that zips effortlessly through the air and stretches all the way past the graveyard’s borders.

“That should do it,” Ezra murmurs before he rubs at his aching hip. “C'mon, let’s go.”

He wanders further into the graveyard with his pokemon, pondering to himself what he might find though he is aware the answer to that is essentially nothing remotely good and along the way, a few ghost pokemon emerge from the tombstones and watch them worriedly.

They’re aware of the disturbance tonight but can do little to stop it, unfortunately as it requires human intervention, and is literally out of this world.

A few Haunters point him to the right direction but he doesn’t need their help because he can sense where this unwanted and hauntingly powerful presence is. He may have lived in darkness for a long time but he can see it as clear as day: a twisting, coiling mass filled with nothing but malice.

It is also not alone for Ezra can also sense another human being; a warm and kind but very tired and exasperated soul, about to be devoured.

He hopes they’re not too late and Absol leaves his side and he can hear her padded paws bounding away from him against the pebbly path; she leaps off the ground and snaps her jaws at this person.

There is a brief howl and something weighty slams over the ground.

Absol has subdued the culprit.

Ezra arrives and his hip is still acting up but nevertheless, he limps over and he sees this little warm and pure soul squirming helplessly on the ground as it is slowly being enveloped by the dark presence.

Whoever it is, they cannot even speak, reduced to a gurgling, rasping mess.

He uses his foot to nudge at this poor, unfortunate individual that is writhing helplessly on the floor of his cemetery though he knocks over this thick, wooden plate of some sorts at the same time and there is the sound of a glass rolling.

An Ouija board.

“Help!” a girl screams. “Oh god! Help- aaaghh!”

Morbid wailing follows as she’s forced to contort under the demon’s influence and a few bones snap and she begins crying but the sound lodges in her mouth and she emits a guttural rasp, her throat rattling violently.

The old ex-priest grabs a talisman from his pocket and smacks it over her forehead which ceases her violent fits for temporary.

“Hey, kid. Sit tight, I’m gonna get it out, you hear me?”

“O-okay!” she squeaks, and though he’s surprised she can even respond, she returns to the incoherent snarling and growling. As he tries to grab her, she makes several routine attempts to bite him.

Avoiding her as much as possible, Ezra bends down and lifts her into his arms with the help of his pokemon who helps nudge her into his arms.

“Steady now,” he says as he carries her into the mausoleum, which isn’t too far ahead.

He hears her croaking and choking, fighting the entity within as he settles her into the huge stone chair inside. Absol closes the door behind them and then trots over with a thick coil of rope which she collects from one corner.

He thanks her and begins strapping the girl carefully and securely into the chair with rope, keeping her wrists and ankles bound as she kicks and flails, hurling curses and obscenities at him, screaming and roaring and shrieking in a feral manner.

His pokemon stands watch as the girl starts slamming the back of her head against the stone, growling raucously.

But Ezra remains calm and lights various rows of candles that line the walls, pulls his silver cross out and clutches it tightly in his old hands and kneels in front of the altar, his weak knees hitting the dirt. Since his vision failed him, he hasn’t moved the statue or the water trough anywhere else.

He chants a prayer under his breath and dips his fingers into the water. God bless him. God save her soul. He does the sign of the cross and then heads over to the duo and blesses his pokemon as well, which she appreciates by purring affectionately.

Grabbing an old brush, he dips it into a bucket of old red paint in the corner and begins painting a sigil on the ground as quickly as he can around the chair.

Once he’s finished, he dumps the brush to the side. He moved to stand in front of the girl who has ceased her wild shrieking in favour of hissing spitefully at him.

“Be silent,” Ezra commands in a loud, booming voice, before he tosses some of the water over her.

And so it begins.

“In nómine Pátris, et Fílii, et Spirítus Sancti. Amen,” Ezra chants with his silver cross in hand which he proceeds to thrust in front of her face, “Exsúrgat Deus et dissipéntur inimíci ejus: et fúgiant qui odérunt eum a fácie ejus. Sicut déficit fumus defíciant; sicut fluit cera a fácie ígnis.”

Outside, the muffled clap of overhead thunder can be heard, the wind howling.

He continues, “Sic péreant peccatóres a fácie Dei-“

“If you think that will stop me, you’re wrong," says a deep voice.

Dabbing his entire hand into the trough of holy water, Ezra steps forward and smears it all over her forehead before he presses the rest of his palm firmly into her face. The demon shrieks and withdraws.

That’s what you get for interrupting me, Ezra thinks to himself but ultimately cannot say aloud: he must continue the exorcism prayer regardless of how long it could take.

“Júdica Dómine nocéntes me; expúgna impugnántes me. Confundántur et revereántur quaeréntes ánimam meam,” he murmurs, “Avertántur retrórsum et confundántur, cogitántes míhi mála. Fíant táamquam púlvis ante fáciem vénti: et Ángelus Dómini coárctans eos.”

The door suddenly flies open and the brutal, icy wind swirls inside, wiping out all the flames of the candles in a split second. Absol glances around in high alert but Ezra remains still. Raindrops batter his back as the door slams in its frame repeatedly.

The walls tremble from several wicked blows as though an unseen assailant is rampaging outside, circling the mausoleum whilst repeatedly slamming a hammer against the stone, yet Ezra remains calm.

“Fiat via illórum ténebrae, et lúbricum: et Ángelus Dómini pérsequens eos. Quóniam grátis abscondérunt míhi intéritum láquei sui: supervácue exprobravérunt ánimam meam.”

Realising the priest is undeterred, the monster unleashes an unearthly howl and a glass shatters somewhere. It’s bellows and roars reverberate throughout the walls and resonates thoroughly in Ezra’s ears.

Since he lost his sight, his hearing amplified; the shrill sounds of nails scraping against the stone and the chaotic tugging of the rope rises to inescapable volumes as the demon furiously struggles against its bonds.

Ezra continues his prayer, “Véniat illi láqueus quem ignórat; et cáptio quam abscóndit, aprehéndat eum: et in láqueum cádat in ipsum-”

He briefly picks up the coppery stench of blood and very soon, a wet substance splatters over his lips and cheeks and eyelids. It laughs, and another splodge hits the side of his ear.

Raising a hand, Ezra wordlessly smothers the blood away with the back of his hand. “Ánima áutem mea exsultábit in Dómino: et delectábitur super salutári suo. Glória Pátri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto.”

Then he presses his cross over the demon’s head, forcing it to shriek uncontrollably. It kicks and screams, quaking fiercely against the restraints. He applies more pressure, the cross is warm under his grip and steadily growing hotter.

To his utmost surprise, the little warm light he had seen earlier is beginning to return and it is fighting back, growing larger and larger as the seconds pass.

“Come on, kid, I know you’re still in there. You can do it!” he yells.

She keeps growling and snarling, foaming at the mouth. Gnashing her teeth repeatedly, she emits a deranged howl, struggling viciously to reach him.

“Come on! Fight it!”

The walls of the mausoleum quake violently, the ground underneath his very feet trembles. Absol starts growling, leaping around in alarm.

Ezra listens to the excruciating sound of cords straining and eventually coming undone; her fist shoots out and her fingers, sharp as claws, stabs into his gut, and twists.

He grunts with pain, but does not let go.

Easing his other hand into his pockets, he pulls out another talisman; it glows faintly from the enchantment which he promptly slaps over her forehead and with a powerful bark of “Relinquo!", a dark shadow shoots out from her body and into the air with a bloodcurdling shriek.

Freed at last, the girl keels over, her head dipped low, blood gushing from her mouth.

And Ezra stumbles backwards, lifting a bleeding hand off his stomach. He sighs heavily before he feels his head growing light, his body weightless, and he promptly collapses over the floor.

…

When he wakes up, he can feel warmth all around.

He is lying on something soft.

A bed.

He has not slept in a bed for a long time.

It smells like lavender and jasmine.

He despises it.

"You're awake!" exclaims a voice.

It's the girl from the cemetery.

Purring sounds can be heard near his bed and he reaches over; a fluffy head affectionately plops itself under his palm and rubs itself against his callused skin. Ezra grunts under his breath, groaning as he shuffles around under the blanket and attempts to reach for her, though his limbs are weary.

“Cassie,” he utters, and Absol climbs onto the bed, sprawling over him. He gently pats her head and strokes her snowy white fur.

The room is silent until he hears the legs of a chair screeching against the floor and the girl does her best to quietly leave the room. She returns in roughly half an hour however, after he’s had a check-up.

By then, he’s exhausted and wants to rest.

He hears the door squeaking open and she pokes her head in, then steps inside the room and closes the door behind her.

“What are you doing here?" he asks tiredly.

"I needed to see that you'd be okay," she says, "I thought you were dead. I'm…I’m really sorry."

"It'll take more than that to kill me."

"Thank you for saving my life."

"As long as I'm around, nothing's gonna happen to you, kid."

"Thank you, sir. Um...Can I ask you a question?"

"About what?"

"About the...demon.”

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything. I want to know if it was the one who took my sister and my father. And if it was, I want to know why it did it and I want to get them back."

“Listen, kid. Don't dabble in stuff you don't understand, especially this."

"I know and I'm so, so sorry. But…can you teach me?"

His unfazed expression doesn't change.

"Please teach me.”

He hears the chair legs squeaking again coupled with a lot of fumbling; she’s flat on the ground before him on her hands and knees. How troublesome, he thinks to himself with a sigh.

"You want to learn how to exorcise demons?" he grunts.

"Yes."

“You?”

“Yeah.”

Utterly astounded, he takes a while to reply and rubs the back of his neck. "Do you hear the kind of stuff that is coming out of your mouth right now?" he growls and she looks up, confused. "You're saying something along the lines of 'I want to destroy a creation of the universe'. Do you know how impossible and crazy that sounds? Do you?"

"A creation of the universe? Are you talking about Arceus? Why would Arceus create something like that…do you mean it’s an undiscovered pokemon of undiscovered type???”

“Hell no. Goddamnit, kid, I mean it came before Arceus.”

“What do you mean, ‘before Arceus’? Arceus came from an egg and before the egg, it was a void of nothingness-“

He sighs heavily. “There was something before Arceus, before the void. You always explain one event as being created by some earlier event, right? So before Arceus, there was some kind of infinite period where time did not exist but during this period, there was something there…do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

“…Not really.”

“Exactly. You’re obviously still in shock and speaking nonsense. Go home, kid. Go back to your family.”

Yawning loudly, he pulls the blanket closer over his body and turns round in his warm and cosy bed, his back to her. He’s careful not to lie on his stomach though.

"But I'm serious," she says.

"So am I," he replies.

...

After he’s fully healed and discharged, he returns to the cemetery; the Corviknight taxi drops him off a few metres away and he taps his way across the Wild Area with Absol and his cane.

When he arrives, he realises the girl is also here.

At first, he ignored her and let her be. He did his daily caretaker duties, watering the plants, pulling weeds and sweeping the tombs.

He didn't know what she was doing here - she probably observed his daily regime - and one day she brought some cleaning supplies with her and began assisting him with the upkeep of the cemetery, especially with some of the heavy lifting.

Today, he’s forcibly awoken when he hears her sweeping the area around the mausoleum and shoving dust everywhere and he grumbles sourly under his breath. He had already told her a few times to go home but she keeps coming back. She keeps coming back to clean, to lurk around the graveyard, to help him.

“Stop that,” he snaps at her, “you’re disturbing them, and I already swept it yesterday.”

She stops dusting at some tombstones. “Sorry, I thought-”

Ezra grumbles, scrubbing at his mangy face with a dirty palm. Reaching for a beer by his calf, he grasps blindly for the can and lifts it to his mouth, downing a sip. “Get over here, kid.”

He hears her stepping towards him and he glances up, looking at this annoyingly bright light before him.

“You really wanna learn that badly, huh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“No need to be so formal, my name is Ezra.” With a heavy sigh, he dusts himself down and stands up, using his cane to support himself. “And I am…or was, the pastor of the Church of Circhester. I was also a member of the International Association of Exorcists. Do you understand who and what you’re dealing with?”

“Yes, sir – I mean, Ezra.”

“Now, tell me who you are and why I should teach you.”

He hears this little gasp of awe before she tells him her predicament. She tells him her name, who she is, where she came from, how old she is.

She rambles at some point and he has to occasionally steer her towards the focal details and periodically, she’ll become flustered, especially when speaking about the night when she saw her father and sister devoured by a Dusknoir. Once she’s finished recounting her tale, he nods.

“It was a demon, right?” she says, though she sounds unsure.

“Probably. Didn't your family have any pokemon?"

"...Sableye and Haunter went missing, and Cutiefly and Sinistea were in PC boxes," she says, "Please teach me. I want to learn."

He studies her quietly, then holds his index finger up in the air. “Fine, but I must warn you: my teachings are difficult and I’ve had several idiots coming up to me just like how you did and they’ve all failed-”

“I'm not an idiot and I won’t fail you.”

“-Yeah, let’s see about that, kid.” Holding up two fingers now, “Second, if I’m to teach you, I want you to swear to me you will take no retribution against Dusknoir. I don’t mind if you want to research one or whatever, but do not take your grudge with the pokemon. It’s nothing to do with it.”

“I understand.”

He moves on to hold up three fingers. “Third, that being said, you cannot use what you learned to harm humans or pokemon in any way. You must use it for good. I can tell you have a gift and under my guidance and training, I believe you will reach your full potential.”

“Okay.”

“Four, I will teach you with the utmost effort and I also expect to receive full commitment from yourself. I will not make do with time-wasters or mediocrity. Do you understand?”

“Yeah.”

“And lastly, promise me you will not in either way, attempt to summon entities for any reason. Do not use Ouija boards, do not dabble in sacrifice, do not try to open any portals. Hell, do not attempt any of those things.”

“I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.”

“Now, some of my teachings are limited. I can teach you how to protect yourself and protect others. Are you happy with this, knowing that there are limitations as to what I can teach you?”

“Yes, I am.”

Ezra studies her again before he nods to himself.

He’s said quite a lot but he knows she understands. “Good,” he murmurs.

“So…when do we start?”

“We start now.”

He disappears inside the mausoleum and re-emerges with a dirty rucksack; he pulls out a tattered old journal along with an old, portable cassette player which he hands to her.

“Your first task is to read this and listen to the tapes. Learn the symbols, learn the prayers. Come back whenever you’re ready and show me what you got.”

“Got it.”

She comes back in five days, which was a lot earlier than he had expected considering his previous ‘disciples’ either came back in a week or two, and some barely returned in person, opting to hand his book and tape back by leaving it at the gates.

He hears her approaching and sits up whilst Absol sleeps in a corner, and she says, “I finished it.”

“What did you think?”

“It was interesting.“

“...You didn’t think it was disturbing?”

“No.”

There is a brief silence.

“Hm…not sure if that’s a good or bad thing,” he murmurs under his breath.

The tapes were full of recorded exorcisms, consisting of unearthly screaming, howling and shrieking courtesy of the victims.

He says, “Recite Saint Michael’s prayer to me.”

She does so, with almost near-perfect pronunciation.

Ezra listens intently and nods when she’s finished. “Not bad. Now let’s hear Signum Crucis.”

“In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancta-“

“Sancti,” he corrects her.

“Sancti,” she repeats.

“Not bad. Again.”

She recites the short prayer once more, this time with no errors.

“Gloria Patri,” he grunts out next, grabbing his beer and flipping the lid off.

And they continue going through some prayers until it’s almost sunset and she’s a little exhausted and he’s finished his pack of beer.

“You did well, kid. Come back tomorrow.”

“Really???”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you!!”

“Don’t thank me yet. I’ll be testing you on the symbols and their meanings. Then there’s a final test.”

“Okay!” she exclaims excitedly, and after exchanging some short words, she bids him farewell and he hears her leaving, her footsteps echoing loudly in the quiet graveyard.

The next day, she returns and passes the symbols assessment with flying colours as he had expected considering how quickly she’d picked up the Latin prayers.

And the next day after that, he teaches her how to use talismans.

As the weeks roll by, he continuously subjects her to tests on latin prayers and symbology. Then he teaches her some blood magic.

Soon, weeks turns to months, and she’s picked up a lot of his teachings in a short period of time, which impresses him greatly.

She begins to accompany him on exorcisms which undoubtedly at the beginning, does disturb her a little but the more she sat in and watched (and sometimes assisted with), the more she began to see such things as a normality and he also allows her to work on her own cases albeit under some guidance.

Before he knows it, he has transformed this little girl into an exorcist.

“Well done, kid. You’ve exceeded all my expectations. I’m proud of you," he says with a nod of his head.

She cheers, but then remembering her tutelage, she bows deeply with gratitude, eyes closed. “Thank you, Ezra. I wouldn’t be where I am now if it weren’t for you,” she replies, “what’s the final test?”

“Final test?”

“Yeah, you mentioned it a while ago.”

“….Hm, so I did,” he says, before he gets off the steps, dusting at his palms and weak knees. “Let me show you something. Come on, Absol.”

He motions her to follow him and he heads to two marked graves near a statue of a weeping angel which is covered in a sparse layer of moss.

She joins his side and she scans the names etched on the stone. One name in particular stands out. “Cassie??” she murmurs, before she casts a glance to the pokemon that stands by his side.

Absol looks up, and regards her with its steely blue eyes.

“My wife and daughter,” Ezra murmurs, his white gaze staring emptily into space. “This is a dark path. There will always be death. This is my final warning to you: if you choose to walk this path, be prepared to lose everything. Is this something you can do?”

There is a brief silence until she says, “Yes.”

Ezra hesitates; she observes him for any noticeable reaction but he is immobile, standing stiffly with his hands clasped together in front of him.

“...Very well," he utters. "Come with me.”

“Where to?”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

He hasn’t left the cemetery other for reasons than to go to the soup kitchen or to buy his beer and cigarettes, so he asks her to call for a Corviknight taxi since he doesn’t have a Rotom phone.

When the taxi arrives, he asks the driver to take them to the Dusty Bowl and they’re dropped off at the outskirts.

“Why are we here?” she asks, but he ignores her and begins to head for the desolate path.

She trails after him and despite being blind, she’s stunned to see that he seems to be aware a great deal of where he’s going. A sandstorm begins to rage but Ezra is unaffected and continues to wander down the plains, using his cane to avoid any obstacles such as rocks, trees or tall grass. Whilst she tries to cover her eyes, blinking through sand and grit, she helps him along the way of course, but he doesn’t seem to require her assistance at all.

Occasionally, wild pokemon will peek at them from behind the dry and crusty grass but they don’t dare to approach.

She glances around with much wariness as he leads her further and further away from the winding path, the barren wastelands, the dead trees and soon, he has led her into oblivion.

The sandstorm worsens and as she looks left, right and up, she cannot see a single damn thing in front of her; if she did not keep her gaze pinned on the ghostly silhouette of her mentor tottering in front of her a short feet away, she was certain she would have lost her way.

“Ezra, be careful!” she yells above the loud winds and the whirling sands.

“I’ll be fine,” he says, though his voice is hard to hear.

Her nerves begins to eat at her and they’ve been walking for seems like an eternity and she isn’t even sure if they’re still in the Dusty Bowl or the gym challenger’s path anymore, perhaps they’ve moved onto the Giant’s Mirror or the Stony Wilderness, but the sandstorm is endless and she calls after him once more.

“Ezra, where are you taking me?”

“Keep moving, we’re almost there,” he grunts at her in response.

Her question is finally answered when he stops in his path and grows still, holding out his arm.

“Wait.”

She watches him, listening, but nothing happens.

“Okay, come over here.”

There is a bad feeling in her gut as she sidles up to him and to her utmost surprise, the sandstorm begins to subside, revealing a large cenote before them.

Her eyes widen.

He’s standing at the very edge, his foot shoving some rocks and dust into the large pit before them; if he had taken one step further, he would’ve fallen inside. She looks around in shock. The sandstorm had disappeared in a blink of an eye, instead it had been replaced with a lingering misty fog that surrounded them. She knew the Wild Area was erratic but this weather was abnormal to the extreme.

Her shocked gaze strays to the blind man. His glazed eyes are focused in front of him, oblivious to the deep.

“I want you to go in there,” he says.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes,” he mutters. “You can take the stairs.”

He nudges his head to the right where a spiralling ‘staircase’ consisting of huge, mismatched slabs of rocks sticking out from the walls of the pit appear to offer a way down inside.

“Do you wish to turn back?” he asks, sensing her hesitation.

“No.”

“I’ll be right behind you.”

She nods and steps towards the first rock, which is dusty and covered with yellowing grass, and she uses one foot to test out the footing, giving it a few stern prods with her toes. The rock seems stubborn enough and once she deems it safe, she makes her way down.

It’s steep and she carefully tackles each step one by one, having to hold onto some dry vines that dangle and stick out of the edges of the wall until she arrives at the bottom of the pit.

Looking up and around, the sky is painted a strange and ethereal purplish, blue glow… perhaps from the aurora borealis, though she’s never seen it warp into this sort of shade before. Usually it is a streak of colours in the night sky…neither a star can be seen in sight either.

She also realises the pit isn’t as deep as she thought. She’s fairly certain gym challengers would never find this place nor would anyone in the right mind would even want to go in here.

She steps closer towards the middle of the pit, her feet crunching under gravel and stones, and stares at the walls of the pit.

There is an entrance, resembling a zigzagged slit in the wall. It’s big enough for a lone individual to slip inside but that’s just about it. She cannot see what’s inside; it is far too dark.

“Is this a pokemon den?” she asks, gesturing to the entrance.

“No.”

Her mentor’s voice sounded very close; she promptly turns to see Ezra hobbling behind her. “That was quick.”

“Give me a second,” he mutters as he brushes past her and steps towards the large and gaping hole in the wall, stopping just a foot or so away. “Stay there and don’t move, don’t make a sound.”

She goes silent, and she did not dare to peel her eyes away from the cave entrance where a figure is emerging from within.

A withered-looking Lucario with a greying muzzle and dirty golden fur steps outside and into the pit, wielding a wooden staff that is as tall as itself. It's what trainers coin as a 'shiny' pokemon, and these pokemon are extremely rare, especially in the wild. Puzzled, she watches as the pokemon greets her mentor.

Ezra's mouth moves but she cannot hear what he’s saying.

Then he stops and Lucario nods, and the man and pokemon turn to glance at her direction.

She strains to hear what they could possibly be conversing yet there is nothing, not even a pokemon cry, not the slightest rustle of the wind. Nothing.

It is silent.

The silence is suffocating to say the least and eventually, Lucario nods his head after the prolonged period of stillness. The pokemon turns and returns into the cave, disappearing into the darkness.

Placing his cane on the ground in front of him, he balances his palms over the handle. “Lucario has granted you entry.”

“…What?” she asks, a little anxiously.

Inhaling silently, Ezra replies, “There are greater things in our universe, greater than you and me. Even greater than pokemon.”

“What’s going on? What is a Lucario doing all the way out here? Where’s his trainer?”

“He doesn’t have one. This is his home,” Ezra mutters. “Now listen carefully. This is Gossamer Cave. A relic can be found here. A long time ago, I used it to destroy a demon that terrorised my wife and child. However, it is a highly dangerous weapon and you have to be ready to wield it, to understand its power and origins. If this is something you want, then you must go inside and fetch it.”

There are questions buzzing aplenty in her mind. “What does it look like?”

“You’ll know when you see it. My question for you is, do you wish to wield such a weapon? You might not like what you find out.” He mutters, before stepping aside, allowing her entry regardless of her response, regardless if she goes in or not.

She bites down on her lip anxiously but he does not offer any further words, no further advice or warning. She ponders to herself briefly, thinking about her parents, her sister and how they are all depending on her. Although she is nervous, she must cast aside these sinking feelings and surpass. She must be brave when no-one else is, when no-one else can. She must do it for them.

"I'm going in," she declares, and she passes him and enters the cave without further ado.

It’s dark.

She's greeted with the hypnotic splash of water dripping from the ceiling onto the floor and the marauding howl of the wind from outside that echoes and slips through the cave.

Lucario sits on a large rock to the left with the wooden staff balanced over its paws. It’s eyes are closed, deep in meditation. As she passes by, it does not acknowledge her presence.

Expecting Zubats or some other types of cave-dwelling pokemon, she’s stunned to see it is devoid of any other critter except from the aura pokemon.

A linear path lies ahead but she hits a dead-end.

Confused, she pats the wall in front of her, looking up and around. She checks for any cracks, any hidden passages. She checks every nook and cranny and leaves no stone upturned. She raps her knuckles over the walls, hoping for a hollow thud, a secret trap door perhaps?

There is nothing.

Disappointed and perplexed, she returns to the entrance.

“There’s nothing there," she says.

“I see. Then it’s not time yet. You still need more training, kid. You have a long way to go.” Ezra replies, unsurprised.

“I really don’t understand.”

“When you hear it, you will.”

“Hear what?”

“Tell me when you do, okay?”

Frustrated, she says, “Stop being so cryptic! What’s in the cave? What’s this relic?”

“You’ll find out when you’re ready. For now, forget what you saw and focus on your training. Focus on getting better, then you can come back.”

“Fine.”

Slipping his hands into the pockets of his withered coat, he begins to leave. She follows him with a sigh, mostly out of exasperation. Before she leaves however, she tosses a quick glance over her shoulder towards the abyss.

She was expecting to see something, maybe a shadow or a little flicker of light, maybe Lucario would come out again.

However, there is nothing.

...

Present.

You’ve grown quiet.

Leon watches as your brows scrunch with confusion, your expression souring. “What’s wrong?”

“Gossamer Cave,” you utter, before you grab his arm and exclaim loudly, “Gossamer Cave! That's it, Leon!"

Releasing him, you stand up, rush up the stairs and towards the bookshelves; he follows, watching you stop at a random shelf before you speedily skim through the books on the shelf, inspecting the titles quickly.

“Aha,” you murmur under your breath, pulling out a thick and burly red book from its place; it is an atlas of the Wild Area.

You beckon him over as you open the book, unfolding it to its full proportion over the floor. It’s not the most updated map but it’ll do for now.

Leon squats down beside you as you flip through the pages.

“Ezra took me to a place called Gossamer Cave ages ago. I can’t believe I forgot all about it. We took a Corviknight taxi, got off at the Dusty Bowl and we walked for a long time and there was a sandstorm, and then all of a sudden he stopped at a large pit. I’m supposed to tell Ezra when I start hearing things. He was so cryptic I didn’t understand what he meant back then but now I do. I can understand Gengar; I can hear what he says. That’s what Ezra meant. Leon, I’m ready.”

“Ready?” he murmurs, as you finally pinpoint the location on the map and begin scouring the page.

You nod. “I’m ready to face it -- whatever it was that took my family away. I can fight it now. I just need to find Gossamer Cave.”

Leon’s expression is a conflicted one. “When the officials mapped out the Wild Area for the gym challenge, they never found any place called Gossamer Cave.”

“It must be there, I saw it with my own eyes. It was a cenote, but there was this entrance that led to a cave and I went in. It was guarded by a Lucario, and a shiny one too,” you reply, “I need to find it. There’s something there, and it will help me.”

…

Meanwhile, in Greyson’s cemetery, Absol has been biting and tugging at his coat all night, in a vain effort to force him to get up and leave. She has sensed something. However, Ezra merely chills on the steps, drinking his beer and she gives up, having grown rather weary, and has settled to curl up next to him. It’s then his ears pick up the sounds of footsteps a distance away.

The footsteps stop; a lone individual stands a foot away from him.

“Hello, you must be the exorcist of Greyson’s cemetery,” says a distorted, muffled voice. "Remember me?"

The voice is unrecognisable. Ezra inhales deeply, scrunching the beer can under his fist. “…Something I can help you with?”

“Yes,” the voice leers. “You can die right here and now!”

A massive unseen force promptly smashes the steps of the mausoleum in half, sending stone and debris flying into the air; it stands, retracting its claws with a grin as the dust clears away, before peeking left and right.

Ezra has disappeared.

“Where are you,” it hisses with a chuckle as it lifts up rocks and debris, flinging them to the side and digging its claws into the earth, cackling with mirth, “Where are you, exorcist?? Come out, come out, wherever you are. I won't hurt you - much.”

A growl emits from behind and captures its attention; as it turns, it is swiftly knocked off its feet as a white and black blur slams into its body and sends it flying into a cluster of tombstones. Absol lands on her paws with a growl as Ezra appears from behind the fountain, unharmed.

“Good job, Absol,” he murmurs, his eyes narrowing at the entity that struggles to get up. “Percutiet.”

Sending a talisman at its direction, the little paper automatically attaches itself to the entity’s head and administers a painful shock. The entity roars with pain briefly before erupting into a fit of hoarse, mocking laughter.

“I know it’s you, Spiritomb,” Ezra says. "Use Slash.”

Absol’s attack connects with a loud thump and all goes still. Shortly, a harrowing shriek of pain shatters the silence. Ezra recalls the talisman; it disappears into thin air in little wisps and the man sprawled over the tombstones grunts and groans as he sits up, rubbing his injured chest in agony.

“Huh? What…? Where am I? What happened…? Um, what am I doing here…?” he mutters, disoriented.

...

#jeralee #fic #fanfic #reader #reader insert #leon x reader #thank you!#leon x you #leon #dande #pkmn #pokemon #pokemonsword #pokemonshield #pokemonswordandshield #pokemonshieldsword #pokemonshieldandsword #Comfort in Despair #archive of our own

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medea10 · 3 years

Text

Medea Plays Miitopia...AGAIN: Part II

Yep, the gameplay is much like I remember from four years ago.

After meeting the folks of Neksdor, I gotta deal with a rogue genie. Last time I had Ned Flanders. This time, I went with something more...super.

There’s something funny about Rachel Maddow getting mad at a Saiyan.

Next up, Dark Lard-ass Trump steals the faces of Neksdor.

Oak, no. Stop talking about Ruby’s kisser. I’m only gonna warn you once more.

Pfft. I do enjoy having Lucious and Cookie here.

Having Terrance Howard’s face on a cobra has never made more sense to me than at this very moment.

I’m surprised y’all were together for as long as you have been.

God, I miss this show.

Well, I saved Neksdor.

Dude, I’m going to make a Chris Hansen mii and have him sit you down so you two can “talk”.

I hate having to do this to you Oak, but you leave me no choice. Ruby is at least 15 or 16.

Vegeta would never say that.

Chris Sabat, the man who voices Vegeta would totally say those words.

Well, that’s all for Neksdor. Time to enjoy the peace in the land while it lasts.

Yeah, the bastard came in the middle of the night, stole my friends, and my powers (again).

I feel you little mii. Put on your cat-leotards and get on Bojack.

Just like last time, I added Grell as a flower, Revy as a Tank, and Sweet Polly Purebread as a princess.

Fairy village time.

I do have one complaint and that’s when it comes to fairy village, their original hairdos are shown. I guess the fairies have to wear the hats with no exceptions.

Which is a damn-shame because I worked hard on Piers’s hair.

I am quite pleased with how little Allister turned out though.

And yes, I had Harley, Tucker, and Cilan play the fairy sisters.

They’re the three most flamboyant characters in the whole Pokemon franchise and I see it fitting to have these three continue playing these roles. Because fuck normal gender roles!

And Harley can flaunt it!

Well...time to save more faces. Dark Lord Twittler stole the faces of all the fairies.

With this region, there should come with a few advisories.

Beware of spiders.

Don’t drink the water.

Seriously DO NOT drink the water! Are you a fucking dumbass for doing this twice? And finally...

There is no God if he allows something as a Twerkey to live and breathe.

So I saved the fairies...

And turning Drew into a butterfly with the same color as a Flygon is just perfect timing on my part.

The fairies do their special dance, peace is in the land once more.

Sighs...do I even need to do the “trap” joke anymore?

Okay, time to get the whole gang back together.

Because that glowing orange yam Dark Lord is putting your friends faces on different objects and such.

With the help of the Great Sage, I was able to get my whole crew back together.

This makes me happy having all of them together like this. Let’s keep it that way and have our faces remain on...our faces.

Fuck you Mango Mussolini!

Actually, there’s a greater being that’s eviler and darker than 45 jellyrolls over here. And this Weirdmaggedan entity here has taken over the Great Sage and is now our final boss.

But on a positive note, we saved Dominic the...

No, no, but Pearl-point for you if you got the reference.

Now, we can go to the Traveler’s Hub and help travelers like...

Oh, this is too funny. I love how so many things in my game make sense to me.

Aside from the travels...

Nezuko sells hot dogs.

Zoey actually praises a male.

Anderson Cooper takes blackmail photos and photo-fails.

He catches us at our worst times, but he does fine work.

I caught Marilyn Manson trying to strip.

I wonder if he was going to go through with it if he hadn’t seen me?

Oh that is too funny. Mostly because every time I’ve sent Homer to the ranch, something happens to the sheep.

Grell’s message in a bottle didn’t go as well as he thought.

I unleashed full Bojack (with all of my MP being used).

And I flex my muscles in the kitchen.

It’s been one hell of an adventure so far and I have lots more to do.

But for now, I’m just gonna stare at the stars with Tracey.

Pfft. Like I believe in such a thing.

Okay shooting star, let’s see if you can make any of these impossible dreams of mine come true.

I wish for...

My student debt to be canceled

Trump to be arrested

Those last two episodes of Empire to be filmed

Tracey Sketchit to have a cameo, no matter how small, I’ll take it.

See, these are literally the hardest wishes to fulfill. Good luck shooting star.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Praise the shooting star!

I can die happy!

Do with me as you wish, shooting star-sama!

#miitopia #tracey #homer simpson #ike broflovski #harley #cilan #dento-fruit #grell sutcliff #vegeta #piers #allister #lucious lyon #cookie lyon

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cynthiaandsamus · 4 years

Text

Game Blondes: Tekking101 One Piece Isekai Adventure!

“Hey I’m Blonde!”

“...I’m also Blonde.”

“AND WE’RE THE GAME BLONDES!!”

Game Blondes Logo by @game-overture

One Piece Isekai Setup created by Tekking101 and found here:

https://youtu.be/zHInvsopBtQ

“Wait this isn’t a video game.” Samus pouts.

“The show’s called “GAME Blondes” not Video Game Blondes, that means any game is fair… game!” Cynthia cackles. “And today we’re doing the One Piece Isekai Adventure Game created by Tekking101!”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“That’s fine!” The Champion nods. “We’re going to roll some dice to determine how and where we get sent into the One Piece world and what goal we have to achieve in order to come back to our own world. They’ve made some reference tables to show everything about our situation and we’re gonna make little stories based on them!”

“Okay, sounds simple enough.” Samus flicks one of the dice around. “So what’s first?”

“First the Isekai Fairy comes to take you away! As per the rules the Isekai Fairy is extremely attractive for some reason and is your ideal type of attractive person. For me they look like Dawn.”

“Okay that’s strange, I guess my fairy looks like Tifa.” Samus shrugged.

“Fair enough! Now the fairy lets you get hooked up with your starting gear!”

“You get to take what you’re wearing, plus two sets of clothing and one free set of winter clothing in case you end up somewhere cold, though they have to be extremely unfashionable.”

“That seems unnecessary but given I’m weak to the cold I’d better take it.”

“You get a backpack to carry this stuff in and also arrive in perfect health, get 1 million starting beli ($9,500) and one object of your choosing.” Cynthia read down the list. “So you gotta choose something to take with you, it’s one thing and most kinds of electronics and stuff won’t work. Though pets are allowed.”

“Guess I’ll take my arm cannon since I don’t think my whole suit would fly here, and the basic laser of the arm cannon works off my own energy instead of external missiles or power sources.”

“And I’m taking Garchomp, if pets count that must mean pokemon do too!”

“But if Garchomp is one object doesn’t that mean you can’t take its pokeball?”

“… fuck, so I gotta walk around the One Piece world with a giant sand shark following me everywhere… well they’ve seen worse so I guess it’s fine, it’ll work for the intimidation factor at least and keep people off my back.”

-Cynthia’s Inventoy-

1 Million Beli, Large Backpack, Champion Coat Outfit, Summer Blouse Outfit, Hideous Plaid Winter Clothes, Garchomp

-Samus’s Inventory-

1 Million Beli, Large Backpack, Zero Suit, Workout Clothes, Neon Pink Winter Clothes, Arm Cannon

“Okay so we’re ready to go, got our starting gear, we’ll get a bonus item once we arrive but first we have to decide where we arrive at.”

“Fuck, the One Piece world’s huge, how do we do that?” Samus blinked and tilted her head.

“More reference tables! We roll a die to determine the region we end up in and then another to determine the exact island, let’s check out those tables.”

Cynthia’s Result: 2

Samus’s Result: 6

“So I’m in the South Blue, the buttfuck nowhere of the One Piece world, and you’re in the New World, the hellish crime-littered frontier of the current storyline. We arrive at the same day the One Piece story starts so none of the events have happened yet but we do retain our knowledge of their events. Now to find the islands we’re going to!”

Cynthia’s Result: 5

“I’m in the Black Drum Kingdom, a snowy desolate area that Wapol will eventually come to rule after Luffy kicks him out of the Non-Black Drum Kingdom. For now I guess it’s up for sale though since he only becomes King of it by getting lots of money so I might have a shot at ruling it before he does.”

Samus’s Result: 11

“You land on Applenine Island, a land neighboring the country of Dressrosa ruled tyrannically by Donquixote Doflamingo. I don’t know much about it except the terrain and houses look like Apples but it’s probably a short hop over to Dressorosa if you feel like going over there and making some connections.”

“You said something about a bonus item once we arrived?”

“Yes! For this one we roll a D100 and get an extra potentially useful, potentially useless item to add to our inventory. Let’s see what we get!”

Cynthia’s Result: 38

“A fishing rod with line, tackle box and bait. Well I’m pretty good at fishing up Magikarp so that might come in handy, though I don’t know how good the fishing is on the Black Drum Kingdom, maybe ice-fishing or something…”

Samus’s Result: 42

“A bag with EXACTLY 37 green apples.”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE APPLES!?” Samus pounded her hand on the table. “I get warped to appleburg with a bag of fucking apples!! Is this rigged!?”

“It’s all random I swear, the apples of chance just seem to favor you.”

“Ugh, I don’t know how I’ll put that to use… what’s next?”

“Well before we get our objective and figure out or paths in this world, we have to look at… the risk table!”

“You don’t have to roll it if you don’t want but you have a 50/50 shot of getting a fair boost or a horrendous hindrance to your goal.”

“Ehh fine why not, there’s no apple-related choices so what’s the worst that could happen.”

Samus’s Result: 7

“A Yonkou wants you dead.”

“FUCK.”

Cynthia’s Result: 2

“And I get to bring a family member or friend! Considering most of my family are either young or elderly and I’ve already counted pokemon as pets for the sake of this game, I’ll bring a friend! You’re already having your own adventure so I guess I’ll pick Zebes, never know when a Tentacle Metroid might come in handy around here.”

“Which Yonkou wants me dead? Like if it’s Shanks I may be able to get away from that but if it’s Kaidou like Doflamingo works for him and he’s right fucking next door.”

“Let’s roll another dice to see! There’s no reference table for this one but considering it’s pre-timeskip we’ll go with 1 is Whitebeard, 2 is Kaido, 3 is Big Mom and 4 is Shanks.”

Samus’s Result: 4

“And it’s Shanks.”

“…okay, still not great but Shanks has a small crew and doesn’t seem to personally go out hunting a lot so I might be alright.” Samus breathed a small sigh of relief.

“And now last but not least the Objective Table! This will be your goal to achieve so you can get sent back to your own world and consider the challenge successful.”

Cynthia’s Result: 7

“I have to meet a Straw Hat, specifically meet a Straw Hat while they’re on the crew. That’s not going to be easy, I know where they’ll be but they never come to the South Blue so I’ll have to go out and find them/intercept them somewhere along their journey, meaning I’ll have to go out and find my way into the grand line, this might be tricky…”

Samus’s Result: 2

“I have to Walk on a Sky Island? I mean I guess there’s a lot harder goals out there but I don’t know where the nearest place to find one would be.”

“Okay, the stakes are set, let’s make our Isekai Stories!!”

Cynthia arrives in the South Blue in the Black Drum Kingdom, with a bit of money to her name, some clothes, a Garchomp and a tentacle blob. Needless to say the townspeople are all terrified of the woman that wears hideous plaid snowgear and controls strange creatures to do her bidding but with her trusty fishing rod and the hunting of her two partners she’s able to gather some supplies, some semi-frozen fish and a few other trinkets and uses some of her money (as well as some she earns by selling some of the fresh caught fish, doing tricks with Zebes and Garchomp as a street show and various odd jobs the team of three can do for the townspeople that aren’t scared stiff of her) to book passage on a sailing ship, the goal in her mind of meeting one of the straw hat crew.

By the time she makes it to the last island in the South before the Grand Line, working up the money and supplies as well as travel has taken her over a month and murmurs of Luffy’s first bounty arise. The exact timeline is sketchy but he seems to have already beaten Arlong and is heading for the Grand Line. Judging by the timeline and how difficult it seems to buy passage on a ship heading towards the Grand Line, she’s a little bit behind Luffy and will have to find a place to make up some time.

Luckily thanks to her One Piece knowledge she knows the Straw Hats do make a few detours coming into the Grand Line, and where they’ll be spending a lot of time: Alabasta. Using the remainder of her money and some intimidation thanks to her dragon friend, she is able to buy her way onto a ship running supplies into the desert country. They have an eternal pose pointing to Alabasta and as long as the trio catch lots of fish for the crew to eat, they’re welcome to stay on until they meet their destination.

Making a straight shot from the South Blue up Reverse Mountain and to Alabasta takes a good while but Cynthia, Garchomp and Zebes arrive in the desert country where the two creatures feel right at home and Cynthia has just enough money left over from fishing that she can buy herself a desert dancer girl outfit and a horse to make it to Rainbase, the luxurious casino town where Warlord Sir Crocodile is stationed and where the Straw Hats will arrive eventually.

Cynthia stakes out the casino day and night, getting a small part time job as a waitress there to keep an eye on things until the Straw Hats inevitably arrive, assured that none of her prior actions have changed the One Piece timeline and altered the Straw Hat pirates’ path. Eventually she hears the uproar of Luffy making a scene, screaming that he will kick Crocodile’s ass. She heads over to the commotion to jump in, and just misses Luffy running past, though she collides with an equally scantily-clad dancer girl: Nami.

“Hey, I’m Cynthia.” She gives a sly wink as her face is buried in the desert-clad navigator’s chest.

And thus her mission is complete in more ways than one.

“So you buy your way into a slutty waitress job and dive into Nami’s cleavage to win?”

“I mean luckily we don’t have very combat-oriented goals here so it’s probably mostly buying our way from place to place.

“Well I guess I’ll have to see what I can come up with…”

Samus enters the New World on Applenine Island, carrying a back of apples and her arm cannon while wearing her zero suit. Far from able to just do things on her own or in a group like Cynthia, Samus has also somehow incurred the wrath of Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Yonkou that rules the New World. Acting quickly, Samus uses some of her starting money to book passage to Dressrosa, led by Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo. She allows herself to be captured by them while sneaking into the castle of the Young Lord Doflamingo, claiming that Shanks wants her dead and the best place to protect herself is under the wing of another Yonkou, Doflamingo’s Master: Kaido of the Hundred Beasts.

Intrigued by her strange weapon and the idea that the mild-mannered Shanks wants this random woman dead, Doflamingo keeps her around but fails to see why he should bring her to Kaido. Thinking of a scheme, Samus tells him a quick lie: the reason why Shanks wants her dead is because she knows the location of the Ancient Weapon Pluton, it’s location? A sky Island.

Little is known about the Sky Islands by the surface dwellers but Doflamingo is in the know enough to at least confirm their existence and the legitimacy of the usually mild-mannered Shanks wanting her head combined with a few other predications she makes about the rise of Straw Hat Luffy and certain other world events lay credence to her claims, Doflamingo starts to believe there may really be an Ancient Weapon hidden among the clouds where no one else can see.

Having already been in talks with Kaido thanks to the Smile Devil Fruit trade, Doflamingo sweetens the deal by offering Kaido the woman that knows more than she lets on, the enemy of Shanks and supposedly the keeper of an Ancient Weapon. More than happy with this and her seeming ability to predict the future as more months pass, Samus is taken to Onigashima on Wano to forcefully become a member of Kaido’s crew. He doesn’t seem ready to embark to the Sky Island just yet but he finds the insight and story she tells to be rather interesting, until one thing seals the deal: Shanks arrives at Onigashima’s gate to demand to kill Samus.

Fascinated by the fact that Shanks would show up in person and risk clashing with another Yonkou just to kill this woman, Kaido decides that her story must be true. Having already thrown himself off a Sky Island or two for kicks, Kaido decides to take her to the nearest one: the Balloon Terminal not far from Wano in the New World. The Beast Pirates decide not to fight Shanks right away, opting to make a break for it and destroy Shanks’s fleet with ease once they have Pluton as not to rack of casualties. Kaido personally leads Samus to the Balloon Terminal under the promise that she’ll be able to pinpoint Pluton’s location once she arrives In the sky.

Shanks gives chase, sinking may of Kaido’s ship in his oddly single-minded approach to killing Samus. Eventually he makes his way to Kaido’s flagship and a clash between the giant dragon god of Wano and the Red-Haired powerhouse begins. The sky splits above them and both incur injuries, Kaido taking heavy damage and eventually retreating, using his Dragon Devil Fruit to fly Samus high into the air, up to the clouds and screaming that he’ll come back down for Shanks once he has Pluton.

“Who said anything about Pluton?” Shanks asks, but too late to reach Kaido’s ears.

Kaido lands on the Sky Island of the Balloon Terminal and lets Samus off his back, transforming back into a human and demanding that the bounty hunter tell him where Pluton is NOW so he can go back and crush Shanks.

However as soon as her feet touch the cloud-like ground of the Sky Island Samus’s goal is complete and a wry smirk crosses her lips. “Goodbye, and by the way, I hate Dragons. Have an Apple” She says, tossing an apple to him as she disappears back to her own world, the great dragon emperor realizing all too late that he’s been duped and is at war with a fellow emperor, wounded and stuck on a floating cloud feeling much like the lost balloons stuck under it.

“Well that was fun, got to con a Yonkou and ride a giant dragon demon thing.” Samus smirked, fiddling with the dice. “That was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it’d be.”

“See? Told you it’d be fun! Well now that we’ve got everything sorted out and our One Piece Isekai Adventures are complete, guess we’ll see you…”

“Next time on Game Blondes!!!”

#Game Blondes #Tekking101 #One Piece #Isekai #Game #fanfiction #Game Grumps #Let's Play

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warlordess · 5 years

Text

An Alternate Journey (Pokeshipping; part three)

Authors - @warlordess and @miyatoriaka

Notes – Here be chapter two/part three of my joint project with Miya. I decided to post this one a bit early due to Valentine’s Day. It’s also Leaf’s introduction, which was a little harder for me to write because I don’t know much of anything about Leaf as a character. I mean, in the games, she’s the avatar of the player’s whim (should they choose a female character) and I’ve barely read the Adventures manga, nor have I seen Origins (and I have no clue if she’s even in it). So I threw a bit of info together from the game and gave her a bit of Gary’s mean streak from early canon… but also tried to write her as a bit more complicated than your average rival/bully, which eventually shows through between this chapter and the next.

Anyway, read on and please review/comment/reblog! Unless you’re one of those derpy anonymous trolls. If you’re one of those then you can go choke.

You can find the prologue here.

You can find chapter one here.

OoO

Title - “An Alternate Journey”

Summary - Eleven year old novice trainer Misty starts her Pokemon adventure, best friends Gary and Ash by her side. But will she withstand every test her travels throw at her and become the greatest master trainer of all time? Fic co-crafted with famous fan-artist, Miyatoriaka!

Ages - Misty and Leaf are eleven years old, Ash and Gary are thirteen, and the adults are adult-aged so who cares about ‘em? Lol.

Chapter Two - Rival

OoOoO

The cotton candy sunrise came and went while the three trainers snoozed, making up for their disrupted sleep from the night before. The sun had fully risen by the time they did wake, all of them eating a light breakfast of bread, jam, and fresh fruit before Misty released Gastly so he could direct them towards their next destination: Pewter City.

“Wow, we got here much quicker than I thought we would considering how many days we were stuck in Viridian Forest,” Gary noted, his hand saluted against his brow as he took in the sights. He hadn’t visited this staple city recently since his gym and familial locations were settled in the more southern areas of Kanto.

“It’s all thanks to Gastly!” Misty responded proudly, “Because of him, Eevee and I will face off against the gym leader here right after a quick trip to the PokeCenter!”

“Ah, well, maybe you should pace yourself,” Ash warned her cryptically.

“Wha’d’ya mean?”

“It’s just… You’ve been a trainer for all of - what? - two weeks, almost half the time of which was spent stuck in one place, and now you wanna march straight up to the nearest gym to demand a battle? Much better prepared trainers than you have set themselves up for major loss because of that kinda recklessness.”

“Okaaay… so do you two know anything about the gym? You both are part of the league yourselves, right? There must be something you can tell me.”

“Hm, well, like much of the architecture here alludes, the gym utilizes rock-type Pokemon. Unfortunately, there was an upset a few years ago so the trainer in charge has alternated a couple times. Even the representative at league events has varied. Because of that, I dunno what their skill level is or what specific Pokemon they’re likely to use. I can say,” Gary paused to release a huff as the group of three humans and one ground-traversing Pokemon carefully ambled over some particularly uneven terrain leading from the plateau that divided Viridian Forest and Pewter City, “that, due to this gym being the first stop for most new trainers, the league challenge presented is kept at a moderate level.”

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“Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expect a good fight though,” Ash began next, almost losing his footing and having to take a moment to regain his step. “The challenge level might be maintained for new trainers but there’s basically no Pokemon you can catch around here that has an advantage against rock-types. You either have to force the advantage yourself by picking a starter that can measure up or you have to get really lucky.”

“Well, let’s just get to the PokeCenter first,” Misty mumbled, her formerly impressive ego vastly reduced by the information that had been offered.

“Yeah, and maybe we’ll walk around town while you come up with a strategy. We’ll still need to stock up on potions and food and stuff. There might be some interesting sights to see too.”

The group finally made it into town, catching sight of the PokeCenter’s great red roof even from their distance and making a Beedrill line for it. Misty withdrew Gastly back to his Pokeball with a word of gratitude, picked Eevee up into her arms, and approached the front desk where a young woman with a pink uniform and even brighter pink hair was waiting with a cheery grin to greet them.

“Welcome to our PokeCenter, here to heal your Pokemon’s every woe! I’m Nurse Joy and I’ll be registering your Pokemon in our database so they can be admitted for healing or check-ups.”

“Hey, wait, didn’t we meet her in…?”

“Oh, yeah, you don’t know, Misty, but every Center is run by a relative of the samy family. The same holds true for the police force,” Ash informed her.

“Relatives…?” the redhead replied with a brow quirked in suspicion. “You sure they aren’t clones?”

She had said such a thing offhandedly, meaning it as a joke, but when she next returned her gaze to the aforementioned woman, that originally sweet smile was suddenly looking a little strained.

“My aunts, nieces, sisters, and cousins are all just as human as I am, just as we all share the same passion for caring about Pokemon.”

Next moment, any residual malice had vanished - though Misty retained her apologetic expression for a few seconds longer - and Nurse Joy held out a tray with six empty Pokeball slots on it.

“Please deposit your Pokemon for me here and my assistant Chansey will escort them to their room after admission. Will your friends be leaving theirs as well?”

“Yeah, might as well,” Gary relented, and he and Ash both began to remove the round miniature devices from their belts while Joy placed two more trays on the counter and scanned Misty’s with an electronic reader, then typed a few things into her computer.

Before she could follow suit with Ash and Gary’s Pokemon, Misty took the opportunity to place Eevee on the counter as well.

“Um, she’s one of mine too. Do I…? I’m hoping I won’t have to force her into her Pokeball. I didn’t before.”

“Oh, my, a trainer who travels with their Pokemon outside of a Pokeball? And this Eevee doesn’t seem to be an infant either. But it’s absolutely no problem! We have plenty of patients who are more like companions and visit just like this.”

Nurse Joy accepted the fox-like Pokemon into her arms, giving her a comforting pat along her back, then turned and placed her on a timely delivered stretcher that Chansey had rolled up. She finished scanning and entering Ash and Gary’s Pokemon IDs into the computer, added their trays to the stretcher as well, and Chansey rolled everyone to the back area of the Center.

Afterwards, the three trainers reserved a room and left to take in the sights around town, including the PokeMart and a couple of specialty stores. When they’d finished with lunch, they headed back to the PokeCenter to retrieve their Pokemon, Gary taking the opportunity to check their funds and make a budget for their supply costs.

“So TMs are…?” Misty was asking him in the meantime as the whole lot of them waited for Chansey to grab their Pokeballs.

“Well, they’re short for ‘technical machine’ but, as for what they do, they’re used to teach Pokemon moves they wouldn’t ordinarily learn through training and natural growth. There are some real powerful ones available.”

“Thanks,” Ash said in reference to the nearly always smiling Nurse Joy handing over their Pokemon. “Are we heading back out?” he asked this time to his friends.

“Ah, about that… I was wondering if it’s possible to go visit Pewter Gym?” Misty began, picking Eevee up into her arms with a kiss to her forehead before allowing the Pokemon to climb over her shoulder. “You know, like I used to do back in Cerulean City with you, Ash. I figure this is the only way I can prepare myself more for my own gym battle. Unless you wanna let me battle you. You never replied to me when I asked yesterday.”

“Well, it’s true that most gyms have open hours for spectators to come watch but we’ll have to go check and see what hours those are…” Gary replied to her, nudging Ash into prolonged silence before he could come up with a retort.

In fact, the raven-haired trainer was going to respond anyway to Misty’s commentary about him supposedly never answering to her challenge the night before but he was interrupted by yet another person as soon as they’d made it out the sliding double doors of the PokeCenter.

“Oho! My goodness, if it isn’t the late bloomer of Cerulean City!”

Misty’s expression immediately darkened as she stopped in her tracks, already apparently knowing who the voice belonged to without turning to see for herself.

“Oh, no.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” asked the girl with long brown hair, a black high collar sleeveless dress, and white trainer gloves, leaning in close and smirking, prodding Misty in the cheek.

Ash had to blink in wonder, curious as to how she’d moved in so quickly (and who she was for that matter).

“I said, hi, Leaf, how’ve you been since you left Pallet Town?” the redhead rephrased, stiff plastic smile on her face as she made a half-hearted attempt to swat the other girl’s hand away.

“Oh, well, thanks so much for asking! Everything’s been going so perfectly! I’ve gotten six badges, I’ve made so much money and fame that it’s almost unnecessary for me to even compete in the league and become the Pokemon Master! But of course I still will,” the snarky preteen added in afterthought, “And lastly, of course, is that I’ve caught the perfect little team of Pokemon! They’re all so cute!

“But silly me! You shouldn’t let me talk about myself all day! So what about you, Misty dear? Still a late bloomer as always, I see! It looks like you’ve barely started out! So… when did you finally leave home, hmm? And when were you planning on introducing me to your handsome companions?”

It had felt like every sharp word spilled from this girl’s lips in a single cunning breath. Her passive-aggressive jabs and flaunting self-promotion were enough to make Misty’s blood boil. But then again, Leaf had always had a way of crawling under her skin, ever since they were youngsters in school together.

“Uh, anyway, Ash and Gary, this is Leaf. She’s my…” What? The only term Misty could think of to describe her was ‘bane of my existence’ but the redhead couldn’t help thinking she needed to say something more subtle. “... I’ve known her most of my life. Leaf, this is Ash,” she paused to point him out, “and this is Gary. They’re traveling with me.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet! You have yourself a couple of babysit - I mean, training coaches!” The slip-up did not go unnoticed. “You’re just so lucky! Most of us have to accept the burden of traveling independently, taking full responsibility for our own goals and struggles, but having others take up your slack sometimes works too, I suppose. In fact, it even suits someone like you!

“Anyway, boys, the pleasure is all yours, I’m sure. I hope you both are taking good care of Cerulean City’s late bloomer.”

Misty couldn’t help the slight twitch of her tightly hunched shoulders every time she was called that. And her subdued fury only doubled when she saw Ash mouth the words over to himself as he and Leaf shook hands, clearly confused but knowing better than to ask at the moment.

Leaf shook hands with an oddly tongue-tied Gary too and then swung back towards her old friend with a sly grin, taking in the sight of Eevee for the first time and bending down to greet her.

“Why, hello there, cutie! I didn’t notice you before! I apologize for that! How could I miss such a sweet baby?” the brunette cooed genuinely with sparkling eyes, reaching out to stroke Eevee’s fluffy mane and seeming the slightest bit perturbed when the Pokemon didn’t respond to her earnest enthusiasm in kind. Rather, the normal-type Pokemon curled herself around her trainer’s ankles as if trying to disappear from view.

“So where did you catch her? Eevee are really rare in the wild, you know. You usually have to breed one. I should know; I’ve been looking for one for myself for months now.”

“Actually Eevee and I are partners because of Gary. He’s Professor Oak’s grandson. He was able to talk the professor into letting me breed an Eevee from an egg two of theirs managed to make. See, Eevee wasn’t caught. She’s my first Pokemon. That’s why I had to wait so much longer than everyone else to start my journey.”

Because she and I were especially meant to be together! So there! she couldn’t help but add internally at the ever-so-slightly faltering smile on the other girl’s face. It sure felt good to come out on top!

Indeed, her rival seemed quite put out by the reveal of such details but shook off her envy within seconds and reached her full height once more.

“Well, Misty dear, that just gave me a marvelous idea! Why don’t we have a battle now that you’re finally a Pokemon trainer too? Just a little one-on-one practice. I know how hard it can be for you when you’re just starting out! You could probably use the experience and money. How about we battle starter against starter? Since I’m sure you don’t have much of a team yet. And it seems like fate had us meet each other here today.”

“Actually, Misty has caught herself six Pokemon already!” Ash blurted out from the background, retreating and regrouping when his redheaded friend glared at him. “Though Eevee is definitely your strongest option at this point,” he clarified finally.

“You know what, Leaf?! You’re on! Let’s do this, right now!”

“Well, that’s great then, isn’t it? We even have an audience for our first ever official battle! Now, c’mon, there’s a practice field over there we can use…” And then, at the sight of Misty looking quite suddenly embarrassed, “... Or did you forget we’re standing right in front of the PokeCenter in the middle of a busy street?”

“I, uh, I - of course not! Let’s go, Eevee!” the redhead huffed aloud, turning up her nose and stomping in the direction of their aforementioned battleground, the rest of their group following after them.

“This is a one-on-one battle between Misty and Leaf, starter Pokemon only, no items allowed during the match. If these terms are agreeable to both trainers,” Gary paused here during his impromptu referee speech so that any complaints could be voiced if they existed before continuing, “then you may call out your Pokemon and begin!”

“I call Eevee!”

“Woo! Go, Misty!” Ash shouted from his place on the sidelines, pumping a fist into the air.

The redhead offered him a grateful smile for his camaraderie before turning a determined and scrutinizing gaze on her opponent, waiting to see what challenge she and Eevee would have to face.

Leaf had almost an entire year up on her experience-wise, and it wasn’t until this moment that the novice Pokemon trainer realized how remiss it was of her to not have paid attention to what Pokemon the other girl had chosen for the start of her own journey that fateful day all that time ago. And no matter which starter she’d picked, it had probably evolved by now, perhaps even more than once.

“Come on out, Squirtle!” the female trainer shouted, elegantly tossing a Pokeball forward, where it snapped open and unveiled an all-too-familiar beam of scarlet light which morphed into the outline of a small turtle-like Pokemon Misty had learned much about back when she wasn’t sure which Pokemon she should choose as her first.

Still, back to the present, she wasn’t quite sure if she was more relieved or disappointed by the sight of this particular opponent.

“I hope you don’t mind us making the first move while you’re busy thinking? Squirtle, tackle!”

The water-type Pokemon gave a firm nod before running bipedal in Eevee’s direction.

“Ah!” Misty gasped, collecting herself and responding by instinct, “Eevee, dodge it and use your sand attack!”

The fox-like Pokemon leapt out of the way and then u-turned as Squirtle careened past, digging his stubby feet into the ground to try and keep himself from going too far beyond his original goal. Unfortunately he wasn’t quick enough to avoid his adversary’s follow-up attack and was punished by an onslaught of dirt in his eyes, momentarily blinding him.

“Use your water gun to wash your eyes out!” Leaf commanded.

“I hope you don’t mind us continuing to battle while Squirtle is busy with that,” Misty commented smartly, barely able to conceal her condescending and prideful tone as she mimicked her rival’s statement from barely more than a minute ago.

Leaf’s facial features tightened into a restrained grimace, clearly catching on but choosing to refrain from commentary and instead redoubling her efforts in the rest of their battle.

“Eevee, tackle!”

“Counter with withdraw!”

Squirtle paused in the middle of washing out his eyes, curling all appendages within his shell just in time for Eevee to smash into him. The normal-type squealed in pain and recoiled but shook it off rather quickly otherwise.

“Try your tail whip and then use quick attack, Eevee!”

“Use rapid spin!”

The fox Pokemon wagged her tail in Squirtle’s direction just as he’d unfurled from his withdrawal but, while quick attack was an accelerated move, rapid spin was much faster. By the time Eevee had jumped from all fours to launch her weight at him, Squirtle was already curled up and swerving out of the way. But the relentless speed didn’t stop there as the water-type glided circles around his opponent before lunging at her, smacking her to the ground and flying a solid ten or so feet away before popping out of his shell again and landing gracefully on his hind legs.

“Ah! Eevee, you can get up, right? We can still…” No sooner had Misty spoken these words than her Pokemon stumbled to her paws, looking the worse for wear in every regard but not wanting to let her trainer down. “Yeah, we can still do this! We can still win if we just keep attacking! Use your bite!”

“Iron defense!”

Squirtle withdrew into his shell once more, with the added effect of it shimmering a glossy white, just in time for Eevee to clamp down with her fangs, which proved to be quite the mistake. She whimpered as she pulled back, mouth clearly sore after such a folly.

“Water pulse!”

“Dodge--”

But there was no time. A jet stream of high-powered water shot towards Eevee, making contact less than three seconds after the order was given. The already wounded Pokemon was thrust that much further towards the side of the field, hitting the ground hard and rolling limply a few times before coming to a stop, struggling to get back up even after such a beating.

But Leaf wasn’t finished quite yet, and she no longer seemed interested in playing her games either.

“Now finish it with your skull bash!”

“Wait, what?”

Misty’s head drew a blank at the confident utterance that was Leaf’s command. Skull bash was Squirtle’s signature move, one of the most powerful techniques he could learn. Compared to that, there was nothing in hers and Eevee’s arsenal that could compare. If this next attack made contact…

“Eevee, lower Squirtle’s strength with your growl! Or at least get out of there if you can!”

It was no use, everything was over so very soon. Squirtle had started dashing at her precious Pokemon but that trot had turned into a mad sprint, during which the water-type was moving so quickly that his feet, then his stubbly legs, and then his body as a whole were powerful white blurs of agility and power.

Eevee successfully growled but it seemed to have no effect on the incoming threat so she attempted to follow through with Misty’s secondary command... However there wasn’t enough time.

Squirtle’s hardened skull smashed into Eevee and sent the normal-type flying through the air before she hit the ground and wrenched round a few times in the dirt, coming to a stop in the left-hand corner of the field on her trainer’s side.

Speechless and distraught, the redhead couldn’t wait for Gary’s official call to the end of the battle and began cautiously stumbling towards her unconscious Pokemon, but her half-hearted gait gained traction with every step until she was full-on running, her breath stolen from her throat, eyes both somehow watering and burning dry at the same time, her skin cold and heart hammering with fear.

Pokemon fainted and lost battles every single day, she knew that, but… not her Pokemon. Not her Eevee. Never before this moment.

“Misty--,” Ash began, on his feet in an instant and ready to support her in her time of need but he was interrupted by the somewhat restrained sound of Gary’s voice.

“Eevee is unable to battle, which makes the winners of the match Squirtle and Leaf!”

“Great job, Squirtle, come here!” Leaf called out, her Pokemon responding obediently with enthusiasm and waddling towards her. She fondly patted him on the head, kneeling down and granting him a soft kiss on the cheek before calling him back to his Pokeball and regaining her full height once more.

“Do you see now, Misty dear? Pokemon come in all sizes, types, and strengths. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter that your Eevee was bred especially for you or that your friends gave up their time to help you on your journey. What matters to you most - or what should matter - is the bond you share with your Pokemon and the time you’ve put in together.

“Squirtle and I have been together for almost a full year. We’ve won six badges together, earned a living and survived and thrived together. We’ve built a team together too.

“Nothing can replace or replicate the bond I have with my Pokemon or the time we’ve spent working towards our goals. Even a novice like you who just started out will have to work at it if your dream is to truly become the greatest Pokemon Master ever.”

“Hey, Misty, you okay…?” Ash asked, kneeling down beside her as she sat in the grass, cradling her unconscious Pokemon in her arms. “You know, once we get Eevee back to the PokeCenter for awhile, she’ll be good as new in no time!”

Gary walked up to them both as Misty, still dispirited, managed a nod.

“But, then again, I’ll have already finished collecting badges and challenging the league long before you, which means that I’ll naturally become a Master class trainer first. And it seems pretty clear to me from the battle we just had that you’ll never be a match against me anyway, will you, Misty dear?” Leaf goaded more shallowly now, drawing a hand through her long brown hair and hmphing with a mild smirk adorning her face. “After all, once a late bloomer, always a late bloomer, am I ri--”

“--Hey!” Ash shouted, on his feet in an instant and staring her down from a considerable distance, quite fed up with her condescending attitude. “What makes you think you can talk to my friend like this?! Just ‘cause you’re a stronger trainer and just ‘cause--”

Gary laid a hand on his shoulder, averting his gaze slightly under Ash’s increased ire, though the raven-haired trainer was also effectively silenced by his friend’s maneuver.

“I don’t think that’s it.”

“Wha’d’ya mean?”

“I think… I’m just saying…” And Gary dropped his tone to such a lower murmur that Ash had to strain to hear what he was saying, meaning Misty probably couldn’t hear it at all (which was probably the point), “... that she needs to learn this lesson too.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t mean that she,” Ash paused long enough to jack his thumb in Leaf’s direction, “should be the one to teach it! But it’s fine! If she wants to talk about bonds made and time spent with Pokemon then I’ll gladly match her! After all, Bulbasaur and I have been together for years! And Weepinbell too! And--”

“--No, Ash!” a strained voice rang out from the ground, and the two young men faltered amid their discussion as Misty vigilantly rose to her feet, still holding Eevee just as closely and tenderly as ever. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me. I don’t… I don’t really get what you guys were saying but I just wanna say one thing! Eevee and I are a great team! Whatever we may be missing now we’re gonna find and master! Do you hear me, Leaf? The next time you and I battle, we’re gonna be the ones who best you!”

Leaf threw her hands up in a casual shrug, her lips curling upward so faintly that none of the others could even see it.

“Whatever you say… little miss late bloomer,” she replied aloofly, turning on her heel and marching proudly away. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a date with an ancient Pokemon exhibit.”

“What was her problem?” Ash begged aloud as soon as she was gone. “Misty, are you okay? You shouldn’t listen to Leaf just ‘cause she beat you in a battle, okay? You and Eevee are plenty close and plenty strong, right, Gary?”

There was an edgy pressure to his tone that not so subtly demanded Gary had better agree but the Viridian gym trainer was still staring after Leaf with awkwardly flushed cheeks and sharp eyes.

“Yeah… Ash is right, I guess…”

“You guess?!” the raven-haired trainer yelped, though his expression darkened as he looked his old friend over with pursed lips and furrowed brows, apparently catching on to something he’d missed earlier on. “Are you just saying that ‘cause you’re--”

“--I’m just saying that because, even though Leaf came on strong,” the burgundy-haired trainer countered, pointedly interrupting what he had a feeling was going to be a very embarrassing and very accurate accusation, “she made a good point… and a strong impression,” he added.

“C’mon, Ash, like I said before, Misty was going to have to face this moment sooner or later. You gotta remember that we’re here to help her when it’s needed and give her advice here and there but… there are just some things it can’t be our responsibility to teach her.

“I mean, isn’t that why you blew off her requests for a Pokemon battle? Because you were worried you’d accidentally end up playing the role Leaf did?”

“... You’re too smart for your own good, ya know that?” Ash begrudgingly admitted, blushing.

“Guys…” Misty’s voice rang out from behind them, and both boys jumped nearly a foot in the air, having basically forgotten during their heated discussion that she was present to hear their every word. “Guys, it’s okay. And thank you. I… don’t really know what happened or like how it happened but I’ll get stronger from this and we’ll win the next battle against Leaf, just like I told her.”

Perhaps Ash was imagining it but he couldn’t help thinking that the expression on the redhead’s face was more affectionate than it should have been as she stared wistfully in the direction Leaf had vanished in, considering what had transpired between them during their match. Huh. Maybe there was more to the girls’ relationship than he could comprehend at present.

“Anyway, can we get Eevee back to the PokeCenter now?”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Gary responded with a rare warm grin, perhaps feeling that one of his sarcastic or blunt quips would be better saved for another time.

A couple of hours later, after Eevee had received both a good nap and some decent first aid from the talented and dedicated Nurse Joy and her assistant Chansey, the group of three trainers left to pay a visit to the Pewter City Gym and see about its open hours, which they’d unfortunately missed for the day, so they went out to grab dinner instead.

Misty, who’d been sitting on the question since that afternoon, finally got around to asking Ash and Gary about the odd event that Leaf had mentioned in passing earlier.

“Ancient Pokemon exhibit, hmm…?” Ash replied first, staring into the distance as if deep in thought for a few seconds before deadpanning, “I’ve got no clue. Oh well!”

“I think she was talking about Pewter’s Museum of Science and Natural History. They have a department dedicated to the excavation and research of ancient Pokemon species. Rumor is they’ve even been involved in potential resurrection or cloning with the use of DNA,” Gary rattled off informatively.

“Wow… I don’t really understand it but that sounds pretty amazing! Can we go check it out?”

Misty smiled down at her perfectly healed Eevee, suppressing the guilt that bubbled up in the back of her mind at the sight of the Pokemon. It still stung some to think back to their battle earlier with Leaf, still bothered the redhead some to remember the harsh lesson she’d learned. The first thing she’d done for her Pokemon after Eevee had woken up was apologize profusely for letting her down, but of course Eevee had just licked her hand and nudged affectionately against her fact, not quite understanding but wanting to make her trainer feel better.

Misty and friends made their way up the few blocks to one of the bus stops on Main Street, which would take them the rest of the way northeast where the museum was apparently located.

After the ten minute commute, their group found themselves standing in front of a massive four story complex, facing a magnificent courtyard and stately architecture built out of the same slate gray stone that seemed to be the main source material used in most of Pewter City’s historical builds.

“C’mon guys!” Misty called out, perfectly carefree if the way she was skipping excitedly towards the main entrance was any indication.

Just as she’d opened one of the double doors, she and the others heard a distraught and irate shout from inside the building.

“Wait! Thief! Stop them please!”

A tall figure in black sprinted through the door Misty was holding, so strong and reckless that they inadvertently collided into her and caused her to tumble to the ground.

“Hey, what’s the…” she began angrily in response to this transgression but faltered at the sinister expression and demeanor of the man before her as he glared icily before remembering he needed to be on his way.

As soon as he was gone, many things happened in succession. Ash was checking to make sure she was okay while Gary was staring suspiciously after the man in black, followed immediately by the front door bursting open again and a whole slew of people appearing all at once, including a few in blue security uniforms, a fair number of curious bystanders, and two people sporting white lab coats.

“Oh - oh no, are you alright, honey?” the first one, female with a rather meek and neurotic personality, simpered, giving Misty a once over, bouncing on the balls of her feet and pacing to and fro in clear distress. “Oh no, oh my, but there’s no time, we have to hurry! Oh, I can’t believe this happened! How could it - how will we ever find--”

“--Penelope, calm down please,” her coworker attempted to cajole her authoritatively, having just apparently finished a phone call because he was placing his cell in his pocket. “I just contacted the police and Sergeant Jenny will be here soon. There’s nothing else we can do for now without potentially risking our safety. You three,” he motioned towards the group of trainers, “I’m sorry to approach you like this but we’re in the middle of an emergency situation. We’ve just had a very valuable fossil stolen from one of our exhibits by someone wearing a black jumpsuit. Did you happen to notice anything we might be able to report to the police when they arrive?”

“No, how could we when--?”

But Ash was cut off before he could say anymore.

“The guy looked middle-aged, had black hair but there were gray streaks on the sides, gray eyes. He looked at least six feet tall. He exited through the gate and took a left. It seemed like he was trying to u-turn around the museum campus and escape into the northern woods,” Gary recited and, after catching sight of Misty and Ash’s bemused expressions, he added, “I was watching him go just in case it might help.”

“Thanks, son, that was very smart of you. You three!” And the male scientist turned to face the security officers. “Go around back, fan out with your Pokemon and chase the thief down. Don’t do anything to risk damage to that fossil. If you can safely stall until Sergeant Jenny and her officers show up then do so, otherwise send someone back here so they can lead the police in the right direction when they arrive.”

The trio of security personnel nodded in affirmation of this instruction and ran off instantly afterwards. Misty finally got back to her feet and watched them go, feeling mysteriously equal parts excited and frustrated over how she’d let the criminal get away. Still, to think someone had been able to steal an artifact from a well-guarded museum in (mostly) broad daylight…

The thought had barely even crossed her mind when a more familiar figure, smaller in stature with long brown hair and wearing a black turtle-collared skater dress, dashed by them all in a blur of tricolor, out the gate and circling the campus in an instant, following the security guards.

“Wait, was that…?” Ash started tapering off towards the end of his perturbed comment.

“I think… it was…” Gary replied, his tone somewhat more admirable. “Wait, Misty!”

For the redheaded novice trainer had already taken off as fast as her legs would allow, Eevee ever loyal at her side. The two boys had no choice but to pursue their reckless friend, ignoring the shouts from the administrative scientist and his more panicked assistant.

“Grr… those kids better not cause any damage to this operation!”

“I just pray everyone will be alright. With Team Rocket behind this, we can’t… always be sure, can we…?” Penelope responded cryptically in a somber tone, immediately sobering her superior up, his expression softening into shame and concern.

“Yes, you’re quite right.”

OoOoO

Notes - And thus ends this chapter with a somewhat unintended cliffhanger. Miya wasn’t able to guess what went down in the next chapter so I wonder if anyone else will be able to? Lol. It’s not that special to be honest. Also coming in the next chapter is Misty’s first gym battle! And, oh… is Ash jealous…?

Next chapter will be posted around the end of March.

Likes, comments, reviews, whatever is available from the reader’s end is really invaluable to a writer’s interest in continuation!

#pokeshipping #fan fiction #an alternate journey #chapter two #role reversal au #miyatoriaka #fanfic #multichaptered #happy valentine's day!

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satoshi-mochida · 6 years

Link

The Pokemon Company announced Pokémon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokémon Let’s Go, Eevee for Switch during the Pokemon 2018 Video Game Press Conference. Both titles are full-fledged RPGs and will launch worldwide on November 16.

Here is an overview of the games, via The Pokemon Company:

About

Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! are the newest titles in the Pokemon series coming this fall to Nintendo Switch. Inspired by Pokemon Yellow, which was originally released on Nintendo’s Game Boy in 1999, these two titles are designed for players taking their first steps into the Pokemon video game world. Featuring an innovative connection to the popular Pokemon GO mobile game, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! promise plenty of enjoyment for both newcomers to the franchise and experienced players.

Key Features

Pikachu and Eevee — Explore the iconic Kanto region like never before. You can embark on your adventure together with Pikachu as your partner in Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! or choose Eevee as your partner when you play Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee!

Play in a whole new way — Experience intuitive controls by using your Joy-Con to throw Poké Balls at wild Pokemon you encounter. Need some help? Your friend can grab a second Joy-Con to join in on the fun and even boost the chances of catching Pokemon for the first-ever collaborative gameplay in a Pokemon RPG.

Play even when on the GO — Connect your game for Nintendo Switch with the mobile game sensation Pokemon GO. Players can capture a Pokemon originally discovered in the Kanto region in Pokemon GO and transfer it into their Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! or Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! adventure.

Have a ball — Take your Pokemon journey to a whole new level with the Poké Ball Plus. More than just a controller, the Poké Ball Plus features motion controls, lights up with a variety of colors, vibrates, and plays sounds. When catching a Pokemon in the game, you will be able to feel it moving within the Poké Ball Plus. The Poké Ball Plus also works as a Pokemon GO Plus for those playing Pokemon GO. Using the Poké Ball Plus, you can bring one of your Pokemon from Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! or Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! with you as you explore the real world, even when you’re not playing the game. Additionally, you can receive a variety of rewards once Pokemon are returned to the Nintendo Switch games. (Read more about the Poke Ball Plus at its official website.)

Here are some additional details from the Q&A session with The Pokemon Company and Game Freak following the official announcement:

If Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! are based on Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition, will they have only the original 151 Pokemon? For example, will it not include more than the three original evolutions of Eevee?

Junichi Masuda (Game Freak director): In general, it’s the original 151, but as we just showed with Alolan Exeggutor, some of the Alolan variants will also appear.

With Pokemon appearing on the field and the catching gameplay being more similar to Pokemon GO, does that mean there are not any wild Pokemon battles?

Masuda: With these games, we’re really focused on clicking the Joy-Con to throw the Poke Balls to catch Pokemon. We decided to get rid of the wild Pokemon battles to catch them, but we still have Trainer battles with a variety of difficulty where you use your Pokemon in battle.

When you were choosing the Pokemon for the two titles, why did you choose Eevee as the other Pokemon along with Pikachu?

Masuda: One of the reasons for that is that in Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition, you start with Pikachu, and your rival begins with Eevee. So there’s that element. But really, over the years, I’ve been overwhelmed by the passion that fans have had for the character, including tons of fan art. I’ve always really loved the cuteness of Eevee.

And one thing that I didn’t know until recently is that fans have unofficially dedicated November 21 as Eevee’s special day. There’s a way to pronounce that date in Japanese that sounds like “Eevee.” It just seems like over the years, fans’ reaction and passion for Eevee really made me think that it was a popular enough Pokemon to serve as a counterpart to Pikachu.

How does the connection between Pokemon GO and the two Switch games work?

Shigeru Ohmori (Game Freak director): The games use Bluetooth LE to connect directly to each other.

At the end of the video introducing Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee!, there was some text that says you’ll meet a special Pokemon, and I’m just wondering if that means something different than the Alolan Exeggutor you just talked about?

Tsunekazu Ishihara (The Pokemon Company president): You were really paying attention to the details! I can say that the video is referring to an all-new Pokemon that will be appearing in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee!

Will you be able to trade and battle with other players in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! via local wireless connection?

Masuda: These games will definitely have the wireless trading and battle features that have existed in Pokemon games up to now. You will, of course, need two Nintendo Switch consoles to do that kind of gameplay.

Now that these games are on Nintendo Switch, it’s possible for multiple accounts to use the same device. Can multiple people play the same game? Or will it be similar to the handheld games where you can have only one player per game?

Ohmori: You can have multiple accounts on the Nintendo Switch, so each account can have its own save file. For example, if you have siblings they can play on their own accounts.

Nintendo has recently announced that the company will begin its online gaming service this September. Will Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! use this service?

Ishihara: We don’t have any plans to use this online service right now.

With the 2019 game that you also mentioned, will these be an upgraded version of Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee!—similar to Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon—or something different?

Ishihara: They’ll actually be different games as all-new Pokemon series entries, kind of like how Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, and then Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, were new games within the main series.

Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! are coming to Nintendo Switch, as opposed to dedicated handheld game systems [that typically host Pokemon RPGs]. Nintendo Switch is seen more as a home console; what drove you toward the decision to develop on this new system?

Ishihara: At Pokemon, we really view Nintendo Switch as more of a combination of a handheld and home console system. It has the features of both, and we hope to take what was good with the handheld system and expand on it. That’s why we’re excited to bring the games to Nintendo Switch.

You just mentioned the games coming out in 2019, and obviously we’re very excited. Is there anything else you can tell us about these new games?

Ishihara: I can’t really say much more than what we’ve already talked about today. But what I can say is that Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! focus on the home console gameplay experience, but the games next year will focus more on handheld features and gameplay experience.

Obviously, we’ve seen there are many ways to enjoy Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! if you’re a Pokemon GO player. Are there incentives for Pokemon GO players who don’t have a Nintendo Switch to go out and pick one up to play these games?

Masuda: I think one of things that will be a lot of fun is for kids who might not be able to play Pokemon GO on their own. Maybe they don’t have their own smartphone—they can play with their parents or older sibling, but they’re not able to play on their own. So perhaps players who are playing Pokemon GO can catch Pokemon and send them over to Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! The kids can then raise those Pokemon on their own and get a variety of Pokemon that way.

I can also say that we have some ideas that will benefit Pokemon GO players who are interested in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! and vice versa. So if you’re playing both, there will be good things that happen in both games.

In Pokemon Quest, will you be able to share game data between the Nintendo Switch version and the smartphone version?

Ishihara: There’s no shared data between the two versions. They’re entirely separate titles so there’s no sharing between the two.

Will Pokemon Quest require an active Internet connection to play at all times?

Ishihara: An Internet connection is not required to play either version of the game.

This kind of follows on the earlier question about how Nintendo Switch overlaps between a handheld and home console device. What is it that you found appealing about developing for the platform? And will the games going out in 2019 take advantage of the functionality available on Nintendo Switch?

Ishihara: It’s kind of an open secret from talks with games media, and I have to apologize to Nintendo, but at the time I was definitely skeptical about whether Nintendo Switch would be successful. But really thanks to amazing games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of Wild that drove hardware sales, I really felt Nintendo Switch was a good platform.

But of course, since Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! are coming out this year, that means we’ve been working on them for a little while now. So we definitely had this feeling that we would be able to help drive this platform and increase its sales. So there’s that aspect that made us work harder to succeed.

We also saw this as an opportunity to make a Pokemon RPG for everyone, and provide another Pokemon game for those who started with Pokemon GO looking for somewhere to continue their adventure. We looked at this as a really interesting challenge to put Pokemon on a home console and see what we could do with the experience.

Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! represent our take on what the home console experience will be. I think you’ll see with games coming out in 2019, we’ve seen how people use Nintendo Switch as a handheld device and we want to see what our take on the Pokemon handheld experience on Nintendo Switch will be.

Does that mean that you’ve been developing these games since before Nintendo Switch launched in March 2017?

Ishihara: Yes, of course. Game development does take quite while!

We saw that the Poke Ball Plus lights up and makes sounds. What are your future plans for this device? Do you have plans to use it in other ways?

Masuda: The Poke Ball Plus development really started after the Pokemon GO Plus came out. We started thinking about what the best Pokemon accessory would look like and feel like. We began talking with Nintendo’s hardware team, and they came up with the idea of creating the ultimate Poke Ball for players to have, and then we started talking about what that actually means. Of course, in the ultimate Poke Ball you would have to have Pokemon that go inside it. That’s kind of how we got started.

Being the ultimate device for Pokemon games, I do think we’ve shown some of the versatility of it in that you can use it with both Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee! as a controller, and also as a Pokemon GO Plus with Pokemon GO.

And, of course, we’ve mentioned that you can put a Pokemon from your game into the Poke Ball Plus and walk around with it. There are some cool things that will happen, but I can’t say more about them today.

And here are even more details from a second Q&A session with Game Freak director Junichi Masuda:

These special partner Pokemon will not be able to be evolved, but wild Eevee and Pikachu are available, which can be evolved. If you don’t like your partner Pokemon, you can always send it to the box. (via)

You will not be able to evolve your special partner Pokemon, but you can catch a wild Eevee or Pikachu, which can be evolved. You can also send your partner Pokemon to the box. (via)

The Pokemon box works differently in these games. You will carry the “box” with you, allowing you to swap out your party on the go. (via)

Players will be able to choose a secondary Pokemon to follow along behind them as they explore, you can even ride on the backs of some of the larger Pokemon. “At one point we had people ride on the backs of of smaller Pokemon, and we felt sorry for them,” Masuda said. (via)

HMs will not return. (via)

Z-Moves and Mega Evolutions are currently unconfirmed. (via)

“Yes of course we have trading in the game,” Masuda said. It’s one of the reasons we always have two versions.” Version-exclusive Pokemon exist in each game. Batting and trading are available both online and locally, but online ranked battles will not be available. As for the Switch Online service launching in September, Masuda said they “don’t have any plans to utilize the online service right now.” (via)

It is unconfirmed whether players will be able to customize their trainers. (via)

You will earn EXP from catching Pokemon and trainer battles. (via)

They have yet to lock down how EXP from capturing Pokemon and trainer battles will be distributed (evenly, per Pokemon etc.). (via)

The controls for catching Pokemon in handheld mode will have you moving the console around and pressing a button to throw. There are no touch screen controls, and using the gyro functionality is required. (via)

The map of Kanto will be very similar to the original landmass, but there will be graphical differences. You will not go to Johto. (via)

Although there are some Alolan forms of Pokemon in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee, there are otherwise no connections between it and Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon. (via)

Candy from Pokemon GO will not not have any effect in Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee. Masuda was not able to say whether you will be able to transfer Pokemon from the Switch games and turn them into candy. (via)

Event Pokemon from Pokemon GO cannot be transferred to Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu and Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee. (via)

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official website here. Visit the Nintendo.com game pages here: Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu / Pokemon Let’s Go, Eevee.

youtube

#Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu #Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee #Pokemon: Let's Go #Pokemon #Nintendo Switch #Gematsu #Don't read the site's comment section

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fyrapartnersearch · 5 years

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[insert catchy title here]

hey, i'm tea (like the beverage). i'm in my early 20’s, and i live in midwestern USA so my timezone is central. i roleplay exclusively through email. i’ve tried other mediums and they just don’t stick for me. there will be an ooc thread for plotting/planning/talking and an rp thread for the actual roleplay. my ads never fully format properly after i submit them so i’m sorry if some stuff bleeds together or if there are huge blocks of text.

for the rp itself, well. i’m looking for a small array of things, so i figured i’d make an ad as a catch-all instead of doing something like one ad per request. i will only do oc/oc romance, and i only do m// and/or f//.

i’m currently looking to roleplay ocs in the following universes: fallout, percy jackson, harvest moon, and atla/lok. and for a purely original setting, apocalypse/post-apocalypse (zombies are good in my book! i like ‘em with a creative twist, though) or horror romcoms.

style; ☆third person. ☆past tense. ☆novel or multi-paragraph; i can snap out four paragraphs or 20, usually novel but like i can work w/ anything. ☆good handle on grammar, maybe some spelling errors if i’m responding from my phone. i’m very relaxed with typing OOC as u can tell but i go all out with actual writing, don’t worry.

characters; ☆varied in personality and backstory, i usually make new ones for rps but sometimes a character sticks with me. ☆i can handle various roles at once; side characters or recurring roles aside from mains are welcome. ☆doubling or tripling is alright. ☆i don’t use FC’s and prefer written descriptions, but i’m a hoe for pinterest and moodboards and use that for character references. i’m super into aesthetics. ☆i get attached to our characters so i’m into talking about them and making content. expect me making pinboards or drawing things or sending u vines/songs and being like “this is them.”

smut; ☆required. i don’t fade to black. ☆switch characters by default. i will die if you come to me with the intention of only playing bottom characters. ☆no incest, pedo, bestiality, toilet stuff, noncon, mpreg. please don’t contact me if u support any of that stuff in any way. i’ve had people contact me who have links online and i’ve found out they’ve written incest or pedo fanfics, so like… in general, stay away plz.

i prefer my partners to be 18+ minimum, 20+ is best case scenario. none of the characters will be underage and would be in their twenties or older.

AND NOW… ONTO THE UNIVERSE RELEVANCE… i’d looove to play any of these, but asterisks are for particular cravings.

FALLOUT; i’ve only played F3 and a little bit of F4 i know i’m a newbie. 😞 everyone tells me to play NV and i will! i’m working on it. i have no plot in mind other than it could be fun to make our own setting/area of the US they haven’t explored in canon, like mountains or something. but otherwise staying in canon areas is good! ☆ghoul/non-radiated person ☆fresh-outta-the-vault/wasteland veteran ☆sole-survivor/oc ☆lone wanderer/oc ☆regular oc/oc!

PERCY JACKSON;*** i never read heroes of olympus or any other riordan book beside the original PJO books. BUT i love the original series so that will be my focus. for the plot, i don’t have anything, but i’ve seen a couple ads floating around with some interesting plot bunnies? so anything is good! there is one proposal i’ve seen around that i think would be really fun, which is ocs in pjo in another time period. what can i say, the combination demigod/mythology + aesthetics from the 18th or 19th century just gets to me, i’m rlly into it atm! dashing adventures on cobblestone streets and deadly weapons hidden in skirts and tucked into the lining of carriages. PLUS U CANNOT DENY HOW PERIOD PINING KILLS U… brushing pinkies… longing gazes… i’m so down. but any time period to be honest, from ancient greece BCE to modern day. i’ve got a couple plot ideas + character ideas i’d like to try out so i’m ready when u are. some pairings ideas: ☆big three demigod/extremely minor demigod kid ☆demigod/satyr or spirit ☆demigod/someone who can see through the mist ☆demigods with a parental rivalry ☆BEST FRIENDS bro CHB is like. peak best friends to lovers scenario

STORY OF SEASONS/HARVEST MOON; alright, this one is pretty different. this would be very video game-like: heart events, character gift preferences, festival events, the whole nine yards. i have a couple of ideas for a town setting, but mostly i’d like to make one with my partner:

☆fantasy-based, like rune factory. along with humans, there could be dwarves, elves, mermaids/mermen, selkies, magic-users… maybe a shape-shifting dragon ☆supernatural-based, maybe a halloweentown vibe? or something more sinister. along with humans, there could be vampires, werewolves, demons, witches, ghosts, et cetera. ☆pokemon-based. instead of regular farm animals, they’re pokemon! miltank, combee, mareep, sudowoodo, et cetera. this could be suuuuper cute and fun. ☆LOZ-based, in hyrule. there could be hylians, rito, zora, et cetera.

A:TLA/LOK;** i’d prefer something set either before a:tla or after lok with our own avatar and group. could be fun and interesting to explore and make our own story. i have an idea for an avatar just because i’ve been thinking of avatar in general but i really don’t have a preference for the role so lmk if you’d rather play it. i also have a few little plot ideas, depending on what the timeline we shoot for is. ☆avatar/bender helping them master an element ☆avatar/non-bender ☆airbender/firebender ☆any/any!

APOCALYPSE/POST-APOCALYPSE;*** what can i say? every once in a while, i get bitten by the apocalypse bug. i’m used to doing post-apocalypse, where people are living on in the world after it’s ravaged, with it being the only world they’ve ever known. which is fun! but i’m also down for a current apocalypse, where people live their daily lives and are forced to adjust to the world following a catastrophic event. i’ll be honest, i prefer this genre with some sort of monster. usually zombie and I KNOW they’re overrated and everywhere ok but it’s a classic. i’m into zombies mostly in the vein of tlou or have a more creative twist but i’m cool with any. and that said, doesn’t have to be zombies! i’d love to do an apocalyptic rp with a different monster, from the supernatural to the paranormal to the extraterrestrial. a character being immune to whatever’s going down would be fun too.

HORROR/SUPERNATURAL ROMCOM; i prefer horror-comedy like the addams family with quirky horror stuff, so i’m not looking too much for anything genuinely frightening (but that could be super fun too! lmk how u feel). accidentally summoning a demon, someone accidentally selling their soul, vampires who have only been vampires for like a year, horribly unlucky witches, people investigating mysterious supernatural happenings in their town, roadtrips to hell, stuff like that. any and everything is good, my options are beyond open. also in general i prefer human/non-human pairings, so anything along those lines in a setting like this will work. werewolves, demons, vampires, witches, send them all my way.

email; ☆[email protected]

#oc rp #multiple paragraph #long term #email #smut rp #submission

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smilingperformer · 6 years

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SM082 - Thoughts, shorter ver!

Because it’s way too hot to write full-on thoughts but I really want to talk about two events of the episode specifically: Amamaiko’s journey to Amajo and our beloved Rocket Gang! Let’s get started with newest episode:

Won’t You Give Us a Dance Dance Evolution?

When we first saw previews, the episode seemed to not really focus on one character, but throughout the episode, it was clear Mao and Amamaiko were the focus of the day. The theme being PokeDance, the episode consisted of fun scenes with different kinds of PokeDances (and with Satoshi not understanding the concept of Dance... hey, he never did, even if he tried doing it in XY, it makes sense he did what he did!), one being Alola Hula, which is pretty much Pokemon version of Hula Hula Dance! The Old Lady from the Market is finally named as Moani, as Mao and Amamaiko are apparently regular customers at her stop.

But the two sure get inspired by the dance, as they are now practising it for the little Competition at Pokemon School! Even Mao’s Papa lets her off from work early to practice for the dance. Alola Hula seems so fitting for Amamaiko. Shame they can’t showcase their dance in the end, thou Amamaiko being so tranced with the dance sure helped them out of Rocket Gang’s latest scheme! Speaking of Rocket Gang!

They heard Mao and Moani talking about the PokeDance competition while selling Malasada Donuts, and thus started planning on kidnapping all of the Pokemon at Pokemon School. All because Musashi wanted Back Dancers for her show, Kojiro and Nyarth agreeing! First time they do a scheme on School land. I sure hope Kukui does some preparations to improve security. But their scheme, ah!

Their scenes were so lovely to watch, it’s also fitting for Musashi to be so entranced with dancing, considering her career as Performer Musavie! She danced a lot during her Kalos journey!

I want to quickly mentioned how I loved Suiren’s PokeDance performance, and I think she’d do great in Contests/Showcases! Maybe a lil foreshadowing. Or maybe I’m overreading. Tehee.

Back to Rocket Gang thou! Ohmygod I never thought I’d be so happy to see their old days of crossdressing return! I now realise I truly missed it!

Kojiro looks absolutely stunning and Musashi looks absolutely amazing in her suit! I keep thinking about Smooth Criminal when seeing her in that outfit and just... ah. Nyarth’s outfit is a reference to some japanese puppet play of sorts, apparently. Saw it linked on twitter.

Their scheme was kind of a typical one, but considering Satoshi hadn’t been trapped liked that since well, long time ago (I think XY had similar ‘Pokemon here and Trainers there’ scheme but I don’t remember clearly), I don’t blame him for not remembering about such occurance. Amamaiko being in a Alola Hula trance of kind thou, she didn’t listen to their instructions and is actually free! So she’s their only hope! Sort of similar to SM018 where Amamaiko evolved from Amakaji! This time Amamaiko is a threat to the plan thou, when last time they didn’t think Amakaji could do anything, until it evolved and double slapped the hell out of them lol.

Some may find it lazy, but it’s sort of a nice touch to make Amamaiko’s evolution episodes have similarities with each other, with added scenarios like Amamaiko’s actually being capable of doing something. Althou, it seems like they prepared for a flaw in their flawless plan (8D), and welp.

Amamaiko gets trapped in Basketball net. Which by the way... was very poorly animated? It literarily had three frames when coming down from ceiling like they usually do. Wonder if this episode’s animation production somehow had trouble? Because some scenes were gourgeus, but this bothered the hell out of me.

But y’know, Rocket Gang obviously thinks Amamaiko’s no longer a threat with her slapper hair trapped. But her legs are still free. :)))) Nyarth, you done goofed. Even more when he tells them exactly how to break the cages. I think he’s been too used to saying his thoughts out loud lol.

Mao and Lilie take action right away, Nyarth trying to fix his mess-up by catching Amamaiko before reaching the top of the cage. Considering Amamaiko cannot use any of her moves atm (her moves involve hands and her hair pretty much!), Lilie helping her out by causing Nyarth slip with Shiron’s Powder Snow was good thinking.

But oh boy, the scene we’ve been waiting for! Since Amamaiko only has her legs free, she’s using them to break the cage! And each time she’s kicking, she’s actually learning Stomp, confirmed by Kukui! You guys know what that means!

HERE WE GO!!!!

OH!

MY!

GOSH!

This whole sequence! ;____;

I told you guys Amajo is happening the moment we had the title Dance Dance Evolution! This was the very first evolution episode I watched without being spoiled, only having speculated of her happening, being super anxious, and then crying out of happiness when it happened ;v; And this is most definitely my favourite evolution sequence in Pokeani up to date! Why? Because it actually shows what’s being changed when evolving, and in what way. It’s not just blue aura changing form. This is something that is extreme norm for Digimon and love it a lot there, and I think I like this evolution scene even more! Sure, quite Magical Girl inspired, but I don’t mind one bit!

I do hate how my mind keeps thinking Waifumon because of watching Vinesauce Vinny’s Pokemon Moon playthrough. God damn it.

Anyway, I love Amajo’s design, and her voice changed exactly how I pictured it to be! And I freaking love how Nyarth is self-aware of the fact that once again, Mao’s partner evolved under their watch, and is gonna screw them up! And oh boy. Amajo’s legs are strong!

Also freaking love how Kojiro says that Amamaiko evolved into a Queen Pokemon! That is beautiful! Oh! I just realised Amajo means Queen of Fruit! Niiiice that explains the Berry Tiara!

Let’s try to end this post thou: Amajo Trop Kicks Nyarth into the other Basketball net in the room, and breaks the cages, letting everyone free! While it looks like there’s gonna be a Alola Squad VS Rocket Gang battle, Kiteruguma comes and grabs the naughty kids back home :)))

Episode finishes with an upgraded MokuShot combo ending up being Amajo’s PokeDance performance, and considering how strong her legs are now, it’s a nice showcase of how much more powerful MokuShot is now as well! Just look what it did to Satoshi:

Cracks on the floor..... someone needs to renovate the place. That was one powerful MokuShot.

End of the episode! Erm. Amajo caused me to talk for a bit long apparently. I just really started adoring Amajo when I finally evolved my Amamaiko in Ultra Moon. She’s so badass!

The episode as a whole was a bit on the weaker side. While I truly enjoyed it, animation was lacking in some places compared to the quality we’ve had throughout the series. I can’t help but be bothered by it. I can definitely see the people who watch Pokemon for battles not enjoying this episode but eh. I’m not one of those. I watch for characters, and their interactions. And this episode did that to me!

But it was nice for Mao to debut the full Amakaji evolution line, and I’m extremely happy for her! Next step for her journey would be either getting Z-ring, or something happening with the Aina Cafeteria that could be devastating, or a step-back. I’m not sure. Catching another Pokemon is a possibility as well, thou I wouldn’t bet on it, considering the big cast of characters!

The episode as a whole kinda seems like it could work as a basis for future Contest/Showcase debut in Sun & Moon series. This is definitely me being wishful, but considering how they introduced Gyms, it’d be approriate for Kukui to arrange an introduction to Contests at least!

When it comes to next one to evolve.... Ashimari? Mokuroh? Those are my two guesses!

Pokeproblem post-segment shows Amajo looking sad with her apron being too small now, to which Mao respondes by promising to fix it to fit her again. It’s a nice nice scene <3

Next week, Sauboh is back, and accidentally minimizes Satoshi, Lilie and Mamane, who end up going on an adventure outside the School Yard with giant-sized Pokemon around them! And apparently Sauboh trying to capture them in a clear pokeball as well!

Also with a return of Ganbalilie hairstyle, with Lilie’s usual outfit! That is wonderful combo! Also...

I can imagine this Persian being the same one from Nyabby’s episode, SM007! I could be wrong, but it would be a nice callback!

SM083 - Satoshi Minimizes

Looking so forward to this episode! Cya all next week!

#aleira watches sumo #pokemon #pokeani #pokemon sumo #ub arc #long post #'it's too hot to write #proceeds to write lots anyway #i'm hopeless #i loved this episode even with the flaws i wrote about ok?

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crobatics · 6 years

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It’s good to see you again, anon!! There’s a lot of content, so I put it under a read more. And for this post I’ll be referring to Prof. Oak’s grandson as....*spins wheel* Green!

★ - Sad Headcanon

The hardest thing Green has to struggle with is being second best. It really hurt when he became champion only for Red to come in and rip it away from him five minutes later. They’ve talked about it, it’s been years, he’s over it, but sometimes when people reach out to Red for interviews, or when invitations come in the mail to far-off tournaments, Green gets a certain way.

And the minute he catches himself feeling jealous or upset he tears himself down. That’s his boyfriend, the boy he loves more than anything else in the world, and here he is stuck with petty feelings from years and years ago. Red does his absolute best to include him in everything: inviting him to Alola, to the PokeWorld Tournament, all over the world to compete with him.

There are some times where this fires Green up to work hard to finally take his boyfriend (and his rival) down. There are others where it makes him feel guilty and helpless in the face of feelings he can’t afford to ignore anymore.

✿ - Sex Headcanon

They have it!

■ - Bedroom/House/Living Quarters Headcanon Leaf’s bedroom is an absolute mess. She loves to collect things. She’s not a hoarder, she just has a lot of junk that makes her feel sentimental. A Pokedoll from Celadon. A floppy disk from Silph (they don’t use those anymore in the Pokemon world either).

Green is the one who is always coming in and cleaning up after her, even before they lived together. He makes a habit of bringing a trash bag when he visits her to help her get rid of things she doesn’t need. Well, that’s half the reason. He also just loves to annoy her.

Red never got used to sleeping in a bed, or being in a house, again. When the three of them moved in together, Leaf would often wake up late at night to find Red absent from their giant king-sized bed. She’d get up and wander through the house until she found him reclining in the lawn chair out back, under the stars. ♡ - Romantic Headcanon Green’s love languages are words and deeds. He’s the most vocal of the group about how he feels about his boyfriend and his girlfriend, especially after he’s been drinking. But if Leaf forgets to fold her laundry, or if Red doesn’t have time at night to make lunch before going to bed, they’ll often wake up to those tasks being done for them.

Leaf’s love languages are buying gifts and, to a lesser degree, deeds. She won’t do your laundry, but if one of the boys ever needed anything from far away she’d set out that day to go grab it. Also, she just loves giving gifts.

Red’s love languages are spending time and PDA. He’s the king of the quiet, peaceful moment, holding his girlfriend in a strong embrace, stroking his boyfriend’s hair while he reads the Kanto Journal in bed at night. It’s enough for Red to just be around the people he loves, and if he gets to touch them it’s even better.

♥ - Family Headcanon

Prof. Oak absolutely adores Red and Leaf. He started treating them like family long before they all started dating, but even then he knew it was only a matter of time.

Daisy loves to reminisce about when the three of them were little. Because she is Green’s older sister, most of these stories involve embarrassing the young Oak.

☯ - Likes/Dislikes Headcanon

Green likes to read; the other two don’t.

Red likes to go hiking; the other two could live without it.

Leaf likes fine dining and cocktails; the other two would rather stay at home.

Red and Green like to have friendly matches out back; Leaf doesn’t like how much they argue about it after the fact.

Green and Leaf like to go on adventures to catch Pokemon; Red doesn’t like the idea of keeping too many Pokemon in boxes.

Leaf and Red like bringing their Pokemon to public events, kinda like those therapy dogs who read to children in libraries in our world. Green doesn’t like how nervous he gets when kids are around his Pokemon.

♒

Green is the best cook of the three, hands down. What he knows he learned from Daisy. Red has a really good grasp on cooking over an open fire, but his food never tastes good. Leaf is a domestic mess.

#historyshipping #kanto trio #thank you anon!!#ask #anonymous

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kourabiedes · 6 years

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I've been thinking of typing this for a while.

My name is Leigh. I'm 28, almost 29. My eyes are gray, my hair is brown, and I'm overweight. I think of myself as genderfluid, and my preferred pronouns are basically any of them, but physically I am female. I'm in a committed relationship with a wonderful woman. I live way out in the boonies near the Canadian border in a tiny US state that values its individuality, for better or worse. I lived for nearly 20 years in the state of Oklahoma.

I'm on temporary disability. I have debilitating generalized anxiety, which splinters into a variety of related disorders. PTSD related to a tornado in 2011 that but for an accident of scheduling might have injured or killed us; avoidant personality disorder, probably stemming from parental shit; any number of little things we've never bothered to diagnose. I have depression, no surprise. It's possible I'm manic-depressive.

To complicate the issue I also have physical problems that also played into my disability application. Somewhere along the way I developed terrible abdominal pain that was misdiagnosed for years. Endometriosis, IBS, ovarian cysts, it was all applied. And all turned out to be true to an extent, but the main event was only seen when a doctor finally took me seriously enough to attempt removing an ovary. I had a case of adenomyosis that necessitated a hysterectomy. However, the ovary that should have been removed was not, and I suffered years of complications from the ovary landing in the wrong place post-surgery. I no longer have either one, but at least one of the surgeries left me with nerve damage that continues to hurt. The pain tends to worsen with stress or changes in the weather and makes walking an adventure. Topping it all off is a bad foot resulting from a late-diagnosed hip dysplasia. I walk now with a cane if I have to go very far, though I can get around without it for brief periods. I have developed an auditory processing disorder that makes it hard to make out voices and work out the meaning of the sounds that make up speech. Very disorienting sometimes.

That's all part of my life. But it's not everything.

I like gaming, especially games where you raise critters and explore beautiful environments. Pokemon and Elder Scrolls get me through bad days. In fact, I paused mid-typing this to catch a shiny Meowth that jumped out at me. Fistpump. My favorite game though by far is Okami, for sheer beauty and tight gameplay. Also fond of Child of Light for similar reasons. Kingdom Hearts, Spyro, and Sonic round out my small game collection.

I was raised by a veterinary tech who became a veterinarian herself, and I am very familiar with animals. I love cats. I have three, including a massive fluffy therapy cat, and live with a fourth who belongs to our roommate. I spend hours playing with them and looking after them. They give me purpose.

I used to enjoy drawing. It became part of my avoidant disorder when it became a source of massive stress. I'm relearning to love it now.

One thing I do love is to write and build stories, but I'm painfully shy about sharing them. I like to create crossovers and meld worlds together and sometimes just throw together some bubblegum affectionate one-shots because that's what I like to see. I'm trying to learn how to share them.

Concurrently I love reading. I have a strange collection of fantasies, histories, and what I affectionately refer to as my "tornado books" which are exactly what they sound like. I had to sell most of my books in the bad days, but we're regrowing the collection slowly.

I'm developing a fondness I hadn't expected for crafts, like sewing or doll-painting. Working with my hands, you know.

And though my blood family is distant and in many cases toxic, I have a family in the friends around me. It's hard for me to trust people, but I know deep down that I can them.

There are things that make pain worth enduring. Some of them may be small, and appear insignificant, but those little things are what really pull you out of the pain cave, little by little. It's taken me a long time to learn that.

#text #personal #tldr leigh is too tough to quit

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nuzblog · 6 years

Text

November 21st, 2017

This is the second of two new entries, which were at one point slated to be one entry. I’m glad they weren’t, since both of them got long as hell. I blame the fact that I’m also chipping my way through a 7 hour video essay on Pokemon for my long windedness. If you don’t remember the one where I caught a Drowzee, I recommend scrolling down. Now’s also a good time to remind you that it’s possible to read the entire thing chronologically, by clicking... well, any word in this sentence, how about. Also the Pokedex in the sidebar.

Now seems as good a time as any to mention what I forgot to in my admitted rush to finish the prior entry - while grinding up Baku, I was also hanging out with friends, and finally actually did the damn thing: Moschops was traded for a Kakuna, and then traded back, evolving it to its final form. This is the second time in my lifetime of playing Pokemon that I've actually used the evolved form of a trade evolution, and the first is my Alolan Golem in Sun which I am still not actually finished with yet, largely due to this playthrough superceding it as a priority in my mind, and also because, maybe it's just me but that game's pacing really falls off by the time you're on Poni Island. Not that it was really well paced to begin with, but-- oh, bugger, I'll save this all for when I nuzlocke that game. Uh. If I get there. Maybe I'll be so put off by how much I hate 2nd Gen that I'll simply not get to 3rd. (That's probably not true, I love 3rd Gen so much, I'll slog through garbage to get to it.)

Anyway yeah, I have rad friends and I love them very much and so I have a Machamp now. Weird! I've used Machoke before, but never actually Machamp.

Blaine's gym is the next one, and I actualy have notes on it beyond "the gym trainers were easy." As the series progresses, gyms will become more elaborate - here, they're just. Walk in a straight line, walk in a straight line and then turn left, rifle through some garbage, cut some trees, follow an "invisible" path, just choose a teleport tile and pray, and the two I'm about to knock out back to back.

Blaine's gym is really weird. I definitely understand what they were going for, but it turned out super strange. So Blaine is like, this researcher professor guy, like not quite Pokemon Professor but he knows his shit and wears a lab coat sometimes and the works. So his gym is a quiz. There's these quiz machines that ask you a question that varies from bafflingly simple, such as "does Caterpie evolve into Butterfree", to just plain baffling, either due to strange wording or ambiguous wording. Like... on the one hand they are clearly meant to test your knowledge that you've gained as you adventured, since you're essentially at endgame territory here. But Blaine isn't the kind of professor that seems to legitimately want to test your knowledge, oh no, his questions seem purposely worded to confuse. For example, the first one, "Caterpie evolves into Butterfree?" On the one hand, yes, one of Caterpie's evolutions is Butterfree... but at the same time, Caterpie DOESN'T evolve into Butterfree. Caterpie evolves into Metapod, and Metapod evolves into Butterfree. The correct answer is yes, but it's not technically accurate. Another question asks if Poliwag evolves thrice, which is false, it evolves twice, but it's easy to count each form - Poliwag, Poliwhirl and Poliwrath - and assume that that matches up with the "3" in the question. Also, in what I can only assume to be translation error, one question manages to not only refer to the Electric type as "Thunder", but also refers to types as "element-types". Super weird.

Anyway, I did all the trivia and also fought all the trainers. Used to Firered, I find the lack of unique overworld sprites for the gym leaders interesting. I didn't even realize it was Blaine I was next to until I saw that there was no quiz machine behind him. Of course, with my Nessie and Cingu, the gym is no issue at all. I brink Moschops in too for his rock move, and Wakinyan just in case things got hairy, which they did not - I beat him handily.

Speaking of being beaten handily, the final gym has this mystery behind it, but I appreciate that before you are face to face with his widow's peaked mug, you have every opportunity to guess that the final gym leader is Giovanni of Team Rocket. The "Champ in the making!" dude tells you he uses ground types - and Giovanni, excepting his Kangaskhan, uses Nidoqueens and Rhyhorns and such consistently. That, and the puzzle here is the same pushing tiles that were used in the Rocket Hideout - I guess he likes those things? I know we encounter them in the hideout before the gym, but I like to think that it's the other way around. We don't get as much backstory on Giovanni as I'd like, but I like to imagine that he was a perfectly legitimate gym leader before starting Team Rocket, and he used the puzzle tiles the Pokemon League provided for him in his top secret casino hideout just cause they were the same kind of puzzle he liked enough to put in his gym.

As for fighting him... it's a joke. I was a little nervous going in about his powerful last 'mon and its Fissure, but... it's got 30% accuracy and I outspeed it anyway. Giovanni is defeated, this time for the last time. In this game - and this was removed in the remakes since it is counter to his characterization in his later appearances - if you speak to him after beating him, he says he is giving up on crime for good in order to research Pokemon. I think that's compelling and, again, hints at something a little more earnest in his past and in his motivations. Allow me to extrapolate for a moment here: Team Rocket's goals, in the anime and in the games, are consistent: find and capture rare Pokemon by any means necessary. In this game, they are first found in Mt. Moon, where rare Pokemon fossils can be found that can be resurrected at Cinnabar Island; then, the Silph Scope is recovered from them in Celadon, which is used primarily to be able to observe Ghost Pokemon in the Pokemon Tower, where they can also be found holding one of the region's well known Pokemon caretakers hostage. After that, they are in Silph Co., a powerful organization that has manufactured the Master Ball, which can be used to catch any Pokemon with perfect success. While the grunts may be using common Pokemon like Zubat and Rattata, the big boss has typically got Rhyhorn, Kangaskhan, and Nidoqueen, all Pokemon that are either only or most commonly accessible by way of the Safari Zone, where rarer Pokemon are sequestered for preservation.

What if Giovanni's real purpose is to study these rare Pokemon? Not money, nor pride, but simply the pursuit of knowledge? Taken to extremes, sure, but perhaps from his perspective, the real crime is holding these creatures away from researchers (which, as seen in Silph Co., Team Rocket also employs) that can learn more about them. Bam. There's my wild theory of the week.

Anyway yeah I went in without Wakinyan and just wrecked up his face. Hard not to, with Lapras and Penthes and Moschops and Baku. Cingu didn't do much, nor did he need to.

Speaking of Cingu, I then taught him Fissure. Now, normally, I would pretty much ignore OHKO moves. I mean, it'd be fun to give it to Moschops, but since all transferred Pokemon have their hidden abilities, it still would not be a Fissure/No Guard Machamp, so there's no point to that - instead, I gave it to the faster Cingu, after a bit of research. You see, I did not realize until around 24 hours prior to the time of this writing when I has beaten Giovanni's gym that the X Accuracy was changed in Gen 3. In Gen 3 onwards, which are the only generations I've played extensively, the X Accuracy is a very situationally useful item in a set of items that are essentially like Hardens, Howls, and Focus Energys that you can pay for. Those same moves aren't really that useful either, since far better moves like Swords Dance and Agility are just plain better versions of them. X Accuracy is probably the best of the set since it actually increases your own accuracy by a stage, allowing the effects of moves like the obnoxious Sand Attack or Minimize to be negated or at least mitigated... but since the overwhelming majority of attacks hit 100% of the time, and if you've been sand attacked then using the X Accuracy only gives them another chance to fling sand in your face, the usefulness is not exactly on the level of say, Potions and Pokeballs.

Except, things are a little different in Gen 1. You see, when an X Accuracy is used on a Pokemon in battle in Gen 1, it makes all of its moves hit perfectly every time until it is switched out or fainted. All of them, bypassing accuracy checks a la Swift, which I believe means it isn't even able to fall prey to the dreaded 1/256 glitch, which makes 100% accuracy moves miss one out of every 256 times. Including one hit KO moves like Fissure. (As a side note, this may also be handy with Thunder, which has only 70% accuracy - if it becomes a perfect hit then I'm far more confident of Wakinyan's ability to sweep Lorelei, at the least.)

Which, obviously, is ridiculous. Of course, Fissure only has 5 PP... but I've also not used a single one of the limited Ethers, Elixirs, etc. that the game provides. And with the exception of Dingus, every member of the Elite 4 has 5 Pokemon. (Of course, almost all of them also have a Flying type, and I'm sure SOME of them will outspeed Cingu, which should make Fissure fail regardless.) So like... basically, it's completely busted but fuck me if I'm not gonna take advantage of it. I'm already taking advantage of how busted Slash is. Honestly I'm gonna be sad to push Cingu through the Bank, since it's gonna go from utterly disgustingly broken to like... a normal Pokemon, basically.

Anyway then I slept, woke up, and played more Pokemon.

Now, at this point, I could go to Victory Road. But. Some unfinished business first! The Seafoam Islands are a fairly simple dungeon, with a Strength boulder dropping puzzle that's fairly memorable. Also there's a bird at the end. I murdered this bird, since I couldn't catch it. It actually brought Moschops to fairly low health. Serves me right for trying to use my 4x effective move that just happens to be on my "weak to flying" Pokemon.

NOW I'm ready for Victory Road, except for the fact that I absolutely forgot that there was a rival fight on Route 22 as you're headed for the Pokemon League. I was all healed up anyway, and I don't need to box anyone since he's got 6 Pokemon by now (but apparently no Fire Stones, lol - really, still Growlithe?), but I was still caught off guard, which I'm sure is the point.

Moschops handles Pidgeot and Rhyhorn, which hurts bad enough to switch him for Wakinyan, who, not gonna lie, is basically literally only here to OHKO this Gyarados. Nessie beats Growlithe but Alakazam puts it to 40 health, the lowest any of my Pokemon has been in a long while. Baku has the psychic resistance, so he finishes off Alakazam and then hits Venusaur for super effective damage, but I switch back to Wakinyan to finish him off.

I heal at home and NOW I'm actually going towards Victory Road.

First though, I run around in the grass on Route 23 for a wee bit before realizing that the only Pokemon I can find there are Sandslash/shrew, Sp/Fearow, or Ditto, all of which I still have living. I then think to fish, but I don't have my rod with me. Ah well, can't be arsed.

Victory Road! It's a road made of victory!! Let's see what EXCITING NEW POKEMON await us in this, our final dungeon of the-- oh. Zubat. It's a Zubat. I just caught another Zubat. ts name is Desmod, but it might as well be... Box 1. Cause that's where it'll be living. (Actually Box 2 though, I think.)

The dungeon here isn't actually that tough. The encounter rate is high enough that I got annoyed and put up some repels, but all that'll do is make grinding go a bit faster because you KNOW I'm not gonna fight the Elite 4 until everyone's AT LEAST Level 50. The trainers in here, to their credit, are reasonably tough. One Tamer in particular hurt me pretty bad with his sequence of Psychic types. I tried not to leave too often, since, at the very least, doing so would reset puzzle progress and drain max repels, but I did after this dude. Dig still takes me near Rock Tunnel. I literally haven't healed anywhere other than home since Rock Tunnel, lol. That'll change soon, I bet.

While here, I battled Moltres, the last of three legendary birds. As promised, I'll now discuss my thoughts on legendaries, because I quite frankly think that they're ruddy genius... in this game, and less so increasingly as the series progresses.

In this game, there are 4 legendary Pokemon - the three legendary birds and Mewtwo. Mew is a mythical and I'll talk about those another time, but legendaries are a distinct thing. In this game, despite all being birds except for the edgy one for whatever dumb reason, they are absolutely fantastically executed. Pokemon is a game that revels in boss fights - most routes have the strongest trainer strategically positioned last in a route, sometimes actively obstructing progress. Your rival shows up to fight you a total of eight times counting his final fight, which comes as a surprise at the end of the long foreshadowed gauntlet of four big bosses fought one after another with no Pokemon Centers inbetween, Team Rocket's leader fights you twice before being the last of eight town-based bosses themed around the elements, and that's not even counting optional bosses like the Karate King. However, all of these fights have something in common - they're all trainer fights.

While the distinction between trainer battles and wild Pokemon battles is not one that DRASTICALLY effects gameplay, it is one that exists. While the core principles are the same, two integral things about wild battles that are core to how they are approached are simply not options in trainer battles: running, and throwing Poke Balls. You can't steal people's Pokemon, but you can catch wild ones, and on occasion that capture is harder than most battles.

As such, legendary Pokemon are essentially the "wild Pokemon" answer to gym leaders. While gym leaders are a tough fight against a smart(ish) trainer with strong Pokemon, a legendary Pokemon is strong and, more importantly, very very hard to capture. I want to be clear, defeating these legendaries is not the hard part. I didn't actually do these bosses as they are intended to be fought, since I killed Moltres and Articuno and I used my Master Ball on Zapdos. But, had I gone the traditional route, I could have been spending 30+ Ultra Balls on EACH of them, and having to be so careful not to kill it or let it kill itself, or to let it kill any of my Pokemon. And this is a serious challenge! And THIS is what legendary Pokemon are for. They are out of the way, optional, very challenging, but rewarding intrinsically, because if you DO do the hard thing and catch them, then you have a powerful Pokemon you can use now. This is in opposition to the extrinsic reward of defeating a gym leader for a badge that allows you to train traded Pokemon to a higher level, to use HMs out of battle, to slightly increase stat growth, or whatever else. Getting handed something for winning a fight is great and makes sense... but with the legendaries, the fight is getting the damn things to stay in a ball, and the reward is the same as the reward for throwing a Poke Ball at a Rattata on Route 1: now you HAVE IT.

Of course... nothing stays good forever. In Gen 2, they introduce roaming legendaries. This is a different type of boss fight that takes place over the course of several fights, and is generally agreed to be way more of an obnoxious pain in the ass without actually being that innovative or fun. Instead of doing a cool dungeon that's hidden away and then fighting through your increasing worry to press onwards rather than resetting... an event flag happens in the story, and then you get to run aroung and do chip damage to a big cat or dog or something.

In Gen 3, for the first time, legendary Pokemon, rather than being hidden and out of the way, are thrust firmly in your face. This is the beginning of a change but, at least it's still a big lump of pain to actually capture Kyogre, Groudon or Rayquaza. While this gen also starts the trend of having more legendaries than it knows what to do with, it also makes up for it by having the most esoteric, "Mew is under the truck" type garbage puzzles in the whole series to get the golem-based Regis.

After this, things go bad quick. Starting in Gen 5 and continuing onwards, even being awkwardly shoehorned into the remakes of Gen 3, legendaries go from something you can seek out if you fancy a challenge or are a collector or want the power that comes with them... to being something that's literally handed to you on a silver platter, and that the game will not progress unless you acquire. This is bad and sucks. We'll get to it later.

Speaking of getting to things later. Next time, I guess... will be the Elite Four. After that, assuming I succeed, I'm gonna do some wrap up stuff. I do want to make some posts on here that aren't simply entries, talking about my overall opinion of Gen 1, my experience with nuzlocking it, and also discussing my opinions on some of the Pokemon found therein, which I will generally try to keep positive, since every Pokemon is someone's favorite and it's better to praise something that someone else might not have thought twice about than it is to criticize something that someone else might love. I may give a passing mention to which Pokemon appeal to me the least, but I would say that there are no Pokemon that I think are completely awful or unworthy of Being A Pokemon. (Also that gap will give me the time to finish Sun and buy an Ultra game which, given that MOST people I know who bought Moon were boring and then also bought Ultra Moon rather than buying Ultra Sun which I would think to make sense, will probably be Ultra Sun cause like, then I can trade my Blacephalon for their Stakataka or whatevs.) And then after that... Gen 2.

So, yeah. This has been an experiment so far and I'm really happy with how it has turned out. I look forward, not just to playing but also to writing each installment, and ideally, you look forward to reading them, even if they are uploaded at really weird times.

I'm gonna update the sidebar when I wake up in the... afternoon. Working overnights weirds time.

#entries #pokemon #pokemon blue #nuzlocke

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nessadoodlin · 7 years

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The Space Between Us

Fandom: PokeSpe/Pokemon Adventures

Pairing: RubyxSapphire (aka franticshipping/RuSa)

Word Count: 2809

Summary: What would have happened if Rayquaza hadn’t brought Ruby and Sapphire back home to Earth at the end of ORAS? (UA, Sapphire’s POV)

Notes: Hello everyone! So I hadn’t written a fic in years, and I just got this idea randomly one night, so I thought, “hey, why not try and write it out and see what happens?” Yeah, I’m not sorry for the angst again.

(special thanks to these dorks for being my reviewers!! @disnerdpoketrainer @trimystic @blackspies12 @chocochan015 @brindillebon and there might have been a few more if I forgot you let me know I’m sorry but it’s late and I’m tired so I’m just gonna post this now hhhhhhhhh)

A brilliant show of falling meteorites flooded my vision as they descended towards Earth. The sight was so surreal, like a dream that I did not want to wake up from. The feeling was exhilarating, yet terrifying as the shards of space rock hurtled around us. Holding on tightly to Ruby’s hand, I softly gasped as I beheld the magnificent view before me. He was right, despite the danger this was definitely better than the meteor shower show we would have seen at Mossdeep.

After a few minutes, the remainder of the meteorites finally dove towards the Earth’s surface.The horizon cleared, and all that was left in sight was Ruby and myself. I turned towards him when I heard him mutter a soft “Wow” from the radio in my suit’s helmet.

“That was amazin’,” I mused back, unable to think of anything else to describe the spectacle.

Looking back at me, he remarked, “‘Amazing’ is an understatement. That was stunning.”

“‘Amazing’, ‘stunning’, same thing,” I retorted playfully. Ruby chuckled at that, and I followed with a small giggle of my own.

The moments after were silent, except for the sounds of our breathing, so I took that time to really take in our surroundings. Looking out, I can see the Earth, and the Moon if I turn my head a bit, but other than that, nothing. Absolutely nothing, save for the distant stars that speckled the dark blanket of the universe. In that moment, I had realized after all of the strife, battles, heartbreak and anxiety that had led up to this moment, after all of the fast paced action and decisions, it was all over and was now so... eerily quiet. The empty expanse of space suddenly consumed my being, and the frightful feeling of suddenly being entirely alone started to creep up my spine.

Impulsively, I gripped Ruby’s hand tighter. Noticing this, he turned towards me.

“Sapphire?” He tentatively began, “what’s wrong?”

I took a quick glance at him to meet his eyes, then turned back to the great expanse before answering, “Oh, nothing. It’s just… being out here like this, it kinda makes ya feel small, y’know? And there’s literally nothing out here except us... It’s a little scary if you think about it.”

Ruby then firmly gripped my hand and said, “Yeah, I guess with us being the only two people up here like this, it is really unnerving.” A few more seconds of silence passed before he stated. “Well, Sapphire, in that case, are you ready to go home?”

Taking one last glimpse at the Earth, I reply, “Yup, I’m ready to go home, Ruby.”

In unison, we both placed our opposing hands on the Link Cables attached to our suits, and waited to be teleported back to Earth.

…

However, after a few minutes, nothing happened. Alarmed, we both looked at each other in panic as we tried to put our hands over our Link Cables again. After a few more failed attempts, fear started to roll into my core and I began to tremble. I could feel Ruby shaking through his fingers in our joined hands, possibly feeling the same amount of terror that I must be feeling.

A few seconds later, Ruby called out into the radio, “Shoe Maker? Mr. Devon? Can anybody hear me?!”

We listened carefully for any sort of reply, but our cries for help were not heeded. My eyes darted around, searching for an answer as to why our calls were not being answered. I looked at Ruby’s suit, then back at mine, and realization struck me.

“R-Ruby…”

“What is it, Sapphire?’ he frantically replied.

“Our suits…” I muttered, gesturing to his chest.

Ruby looked down, and gasped in shock as he realized what I was referring to. The control panel on his chest, including the Link Cable, was smashed in. I looked down to my own panel, and I saw the destroyed Link Cable sitting there uselessly.

“They must have gotten damaged when that Pokemon from the meteor attacked us,” I mused, not being able to tear my eyes away from the carnage of my panel. My mind spun, trying to think of something, anything, that might be able to get us home. After thinking for a bit, I blurted out, “Wait, where’s Rayquaza?”

We both turned around, searching for the green serpentine-like Pokemon. As time passed, Ruby and I realized it seemed to have vanished, for it was nowhere to be found.

Ruby turned to me and stated, “Maybe since it figured it had finished its role in destroying the meteor and defeating that space Pokemon, it decided to go back…”

In disbelief, I exclaimed, “But didn’t we form a bond with it? What’s that all about then?!”

Ruby looked away from me as he said, “Maybe it was just up until it destroyed the meteor? I don’t know, Sapphire…”

Another pregnant silence fell between us. The pit of my stomach sank as I mumbled, “We’re alone out here then, with no way to get home…”

“There’s got to be something that we can do, there’s got to be a way!” Ruby cried, desperation laced in his voice. “Something…”

I try to think of something, but nothing comes to mind. I am cut out of my thoughts when I hear a sniffle from the radio, so I look over to Ruby. His bangs covered his eyes, and his fingers clutched onto mine.

“Father is going to really be mad at me for making Mom sad, isn't he?” He let out a small, sad chuckle, but immediately after he clenched his teeth. I could tell he trying to be strong.

Feeling my own tears welling up, I look down as I choke out, “It’ll be hard for my dad to live on his own… he's never had to before….”

“And Emerald and everybody else….” Ruby added mournfully.

It became too much to bear that the both of us turned into sobbing messes. I pulled him towards me, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed, bringing us so close that our helmets bumped together. Ruby reciprocated with a tight grip around my suit around my waist. We just held each other desperately, clinging onto the other person with everything that we had. In this lonely, empty cosmos, we were all that we had left.

Even though our entire worlds were crashing, tumbling down into oblivion right before our eyes, in Ruby’s embrace I felt… safer. I felt as if our little bubble of space could freeze time, and we can stay like this, holding each other forever. Everything stood still for a moment, and an inkling of a thought of us being okay floated in the back of my mind. I found myself believing that as long as we stayed here together, something would present itself and everything would be fixed. I desperately hoped a solution would show itself.

Tightening his hold on me, Ruby sobbed, “I’m so sorry Sapphire, I promised that we would go back to Earth alive, yet…”

“No, don’t apologize Ruby, this isn’t yer fault… I followed ya here myself,” I murmured.

A few more sniffles between us passed before Ruby continued, “Heh, guess this really did turn out to be a self-sacrificing story, huh? Even though I said I would never give up my life for this…”

“Well, if it weren’t for us, everyone would’ve died, Ruby. And if we were gonna die anyways, might as well just be us, not the entire world.”

He hummed in response. Then, a tiny red light started to flash on one of the lights on our arms. A robotic voice cut in, repeating, “Oxygen levels low, oxygen levels low, oxygen levels low…”

Upon hearing that, time stopped. My heart plummeted as I looked into Ruby’s fear-filled eyes. In that moment, we both knew that our fates had been sealed in the message of the lights. Soon the warnings faded away, and we were suddenly thrown back again into harsh reality.

“Looks like we don’t have that much time left…”

Hearing that confirmation from him caused my voice to catch in my throat. I didn’t want to believe it. All that we’ve been through, all of our adventures, all of the time we shared was suddenly going to come to an end. I didn’t want to let all of that go. I wanted to go back home with Ruby, to Emerald, my dad, everyone. I didn’t want to die out here without seeing all of them again!

“Well, since it seems like we’re running out of time…” he started, “I should probably tell you this before it’s too late, Sapphire.”

His gaze pierced straight through me, looking sincerely yet desperately. His breath hitched, as if trying to find the right words to say. Then, after pausing, he says, “Before we… go, I want to tell you that I…,” he took a deep breath in, preparing himself for what he was about to say, “I like you, Sapphire.”

Before I had a chance to react, he shook his head, “W-wait, no. I love you, actually. I really, really do.”

Initially taken aback, my jaw drops. My face goes unbelievably red, but I shake it off. My intuition already kind of saw this coming a while ago. I look back into his eyes and reply, “I know, Ruby”.

Now his face takes on a red hue, and his eyes widen in shock. “You knew?! What do you mean? I’ve never said it to you before.”

The corner of my mouth raises a bit into a smile. “C’mon, the whole ‘I don’t wanna be separated you, so become Lore Keeper with me!’ speech you gave earlier? I kinda figured it out then, ya dork”.

Ruby averts his eyes away from me, clearly embarrassed. I let out a small chuckle, then I add, “But thank you for saying those words Ruby.” My face goes red again, as I consider my words, “A-and, I’ll confess to you again. I love you too, truly. If I were to die with someone, I’m glad I’m with you, until the very end.”

I bury my head into his chest, my cheeks against the rim of my helmet. He places his gloved hand on the top of my helmet, hugging me closer. “I’m glad I got to be with you too, Sapphire.”

Suddenly, another automated voice interrupted us. “Warning: five minutes worth of oxygen remaining.”

The world, or, the universe, is cruel I discovered. I had waited so long to be held by Ruby like this, to finally tell him my true feelings (again) and to live happily ever after. Sure, it’s finally happened, but… I won’t even be able to feel his touch anymore. I won’t be able to intertwine his hands in my own, to run my fingers through his hair, nor would he be able to run his through mine. I won’t be able to caress his cheeks, or lean my head on his chest to hear his heartbeat. Why did we have to confess right here and now, when I won’t even be able to reach him anymore? Why are we finally together now, when we won’t even have that much time left together anyways?

“I-it really stinks…”

“What, Sapphire?”

“I-I mean,” I stuttered, “we won’t be able to feel each other while in these suits…” I gulped, “No matter how much I may want to, we won’t even be able to...”

“To what?”

I splurted, not being able to get the words out right out of sheer embarrassment, “Y-y-you know…”

“Well, what?” Ruby prodded.

“Urghh.. D-don’t make me say it!” I cry out, burying myself into his chest more.

“How do you expect me to know what you're saying if you don't say it? Just say it, Sapphire.”

“To kiss, ya idiot! For goodness sake!”

Heat rushes into my cheeks, and I look down away from his gaze.

“Oh…”

“This is why the universe is so cruel. I really want to kiss you, but I can't… And, we’ll never be able to.” I sniffle, and a tear begin to fall. I make no move to try and hide it, as I know I can't even touch my own face to wipe it away.

Looking down to me, Ruby softly mumbles, “I’d love to kiss you too, Sapphire. Especially to make those tears of yours go away.”

We held each other again, internally lamenting what we couldn't reach. We were so close, yet far from reach. A few minutes later, the dreaded voice returned. “2 minutes of oxygen remaining…”

“You know, Sapphire, we still can. That is, if you want to.” Ruby stated in a low voice.

I released myself from his chest and looked at him in confusion. What did he mean? There was no way we could, since we had helmets in the way. What could he be thinking that could get around that obstacle?

“Whaddya mean? There’s no way we could with our helmets.” I looked into his eyes, searching for an answer to his claim. “The only way we could is if we…” Staring longer into his eyes, I realized what he had meant.

Oh.

I see now.

The idea kinda scared me, I’m not going to lie. I was contemplating it, however. But, was Ruby absolutely certain about that?

“Ruby… are you sure?” I questioned.

“We’re gonna die anyways, so I thought I might as well spend my last moments with you. So yes, I’m sure about it if you are.” Ruby said softly.

He did have a point. We had a little less than 2 minutes of oxygen, and our situation is looking hopeless at this point. Plus, I would probably find myself regretting spending the next few minutes not doing it, which would then turn to never. So I contemplated it for a few seconds, and came to a decision.

“We’re going to need two hands for that,” I stated.

“Oh, just wrap one of your legs around mine. Then when we’re done we can change back to using our hands.” he answered.

Following his suggestion, I intertwined my legs with his, establishing a firm hold on each other so we don’t float away. Giving his eyes a quick glance, we released our hands for the first time since we’ve been thrown out into space. Letting go of his hand made me realize that we were really about to do this, and I became a little scared. However, knowing that I’ll at least get to feel Ruby one more time before departing put my anxious heart a little at ease. I raised both of my hands to my helmet, grasping the base of it.

“Hey Ruby?”

“Hmm?”

“... Just in case you won’t be able to hear me after this, I just want to say that I love you.”

“I love you too, Sapphire, now and always.”

With that, I breathe in one more time, then exhale. I then released my helmet, and the last thing I hear is the pressurized hiss of the remainder of my oxygen dissipate.

Immediately, everything started to hurt. My eyes and mouth felt as if they were boiling, to a point where it was excruciating. My vision began to blur, but I reached my hands for Ruby, and as soon as I felt him I swiftly pulled him towards me. I crashed my lips onto his, trying to cherish every precious second. I felt him placing a hand behind my neck, so I in return cup both of his cheeks with my hands. I bring his face closer to mine, deepening our lip lock. Despite not being able to breathe, fading out of consciousness, and my heartbeat slowing, I didn’t want this moment to end. I wanted to be able to be able to kiss Ruby again after this, I wanted to be able to tell him that I love him again, to maybe go on a date, have a future together. But this kiss is the closest thing I would ever get to any of that.

Feeling weaker by the second, we slowly pull away from each other. I start to get blotchy vision, barely being able to see Ruby’s swollen face. I see him starting to lose consciousness too, trying desperately to hang on just a few seconds more. The pain has become numbing at this point, and I know that our time has almost come. Weakly lowering my swollen, numb hands to his neck, I try and hang onto this feeling for as long as I can.

However, I feel my mind slip back to unconsciousness.

“I’m happy… that we could be together ‘til the last moment…”

I feebly say against his neck, although I’m not sure if he, let alone anyone, could hear me. Then, I fade completely into the darkness.

#pokemon #pokespe #pokemon special #franticshipping #trainer ruby #trainer sapphire #nessies fics #nfa;ljef;jr;ojalf yeah i know a lot of it is cheesy but i actually kinda like it #for now #im gonna hate this in a month watch #but yeah i hope some of you might like this reeeeeeeee

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