mtsilvermute

[mtsilvermute]

26, 30, and 34!

90 loaded questions | Accepting!

Red's Journal - 7/20/2022

I am online-shopping for therapists again. This is wishful thinking; manifestation, even, as the likelihood that I will find a therapist worth trusting is lower than that of Focus Blast connecting. I understand that my distrust of therapeutic connection is rooted in old data at this point, but it's easier to tend to a fresh wound than it is to remove a stain.

The dialectics are as follows: My mother and my younger self were both tired of hearing therapists beg me to speak, socialize, or surrender the habits and behaviors that my mother saw as essential to me. Her exhaustion grew with each visitation until she decided to call it quits. Then, back in 2021, I had my first therapist visit in thirteen years. I knew the moment that I walked in that I was doing something for which I wasn't ready, though the journal entry following our meeting places the blame unfairly on the therapist rather than myself, a stance which I now retract. But I stand by the fact that I don't feel valued by any professional that sees my characteristics as quirks to be overcome. That same therapist—who lasted one visit before I declined further meetings—couldn't help but ask why I haven't made more concerted efforts to change.

The truth is that I feel like I know myself a little too well to need a therapist at this point. My mother and my Pokémon provide enough support as they are. Even more importantly, I feel that my life is more comfortable the less that people try to decipher it: People are more likely to accept me at face value if all they know is my reputation. My mother would say I've accomplished so much because of who I am; the professionals would counter "in spite of"; and everyone else would say nothing at all, because they have no reason to interject. I like a lack of interjection, intervention—interaction, even. Though I still wonder at times if I'm doing things right. I just want the validation that I'm normal, that I can exist in this world without requisite reform. The sad truth is that only within the confines of my own fame do I really feel realized.

This is not to say that I truly care for pushback, however. I've had incidents in which my needs for accommodation or understanding have been rejected—whether incidentally or explicitly—and it hurts. It hurts to have your movement through the world be violently ruptured and demeaned. But beyond these incidental moments of ableist impact, I can't say I've ever been robbed of the experiences that matter. I simply need the world to support and understand me. If the world does and still says no to my desires, I have no choice but to listen. (This is me convincing myself to close the tab on the telecom-therapist list.)

Now that I'm reading these paragraphs back an hour later, I've come to the conclusion that there is more to life than either contemplating my faults or hearing that "the world isn't a silent film" (to paraphrase). And any incidental moments of insensitivity to my so-called quirks barely tip the brim-filled bucket I call my self-confidence. These are the kinds of things you supposedly learn in therapy, dressed up in takes about how you're holding yourself back by avoiding verbal communication. But perhaps I should abide by my own rules, and let the life I've led do the talking after all.

[mtsilvermute]

*: ･ﾟ✧   90 loaded questions / interview the muse.

found on this website, so credit goes to them.

What’s your favorite strategy for avoiding tough situations?

How often do you do things just for the attention?

Would you prefer to be manipulated or to be the manipulator?

What is something someone always tells you to do more of?

What is something someone always tells you to do less of?

Who do you look to blame when things go wrong?

What is the one thing people assume about you that you wish was true?

What is the one thing people assume about you that you wish wasn’t true?

When was the last time you lied to protect your image?

How often do you put on a happy face when you’re really not feeling it?

When do you think you began putting your guard up so much?

Who made you feel most anxious when you were a kid?

How do you speak about others when they’re not around?

What aspect of your life are you most delusional about?

How often do your admit you were wrong?

Which one of your biggest flaws do you like to rationalize the most?

Is it your fear of commitment or your fear of intimacy that makes you shut down more?

At what stage of a relationship are you most likely to withdraw emotionally?

What is the one compliment you always get that you’re too embarrassed to accept, so you deflect it?

What would someone say is your worst habit?

What is the one insecurity you are pretty sure has some basis in reality?

When was the last time you felt really insecure about the parts of yourself you pretend don’t exist?

What is the most interesting white lie you’ve told?

Do you ever feel like an imposter?

Do your friends know how competitive you are?

What’s the hardest thing about being rejected?

How do you deal when you know you’re being irrationally jealous?

How do you deal when you know someone’s not willing to give you what you want?

Are you ever afraid of people knowing who you really are?

If you went to a therapist today, what would they say is holding you back the most?

When was the last time you lowered your standards just to get someone else’s approval?

Is your need for revenge greater than your need for peace?

Have you stopped trying to control things yet?

Which parts of yourself do you still seek validation for?

How do you cope with being unfairly ignored?

Do you like punishing yourself for things that are out of your control?

What does someone say is your biggest problem when communicating?

Are you okay with not knowing what happens next?

Will you ever feel okay with being imperfect?

Does sabotaging yourself give you an odd sense of comfort?

How do you feel about being disliked by some people?

What’s the strangest thing you’ve done just to avoid failure?

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken just to prove yourself?

What’s the boldest thing you do every day, just to feel like you’re still in control?

What accusation would you defend yourself most fiercely against, even though you know it’s true?

What’s the most toxic thing about yourself you actually kind of secretly like?

How much do you enjoy being in control?

When do you give yourself permission to lose control?

What guilty pleasure are you currently justifying to yourself?

What is the most passive-aggressive way you’ve dealt with your rage?

What is the pettiest and most immature way you’ve avoided losing face?

What’s the worst habit you have that rewards you the most?

How do you get your needs met when you’re alone?

What is the most ridiculous thing you’ve done to please people?

What is the most ridiculous way you’ve rebelled?

What’s your favorite way to channel your aggression?

How do you cope with being betrayed?

Are you okay with disliking someone?

What is your favorite form of self-destruction?

What’s the one thing you struggle most to manifest in your life?

What’s the one thing that you manifest so easily, people are jealous of it?

What’s the most irrational reason you’ve ever had for disliking someone?

What is one fear that you’d be ashamed of your friends knowing about?

Which one of your deepest secrets do you think is the least common?

How do people normally find out you hate them?

What is your go-to strategy to deflect criticism, even constructive criticism?

What is one thing people always get wrong about you?

What emotion motivates you the most when you’re down?

What emotion makes you want to give up?

Are people shocked when you stand up for yourself?

How often do you say yes to the things you really want to say yes to?

How often do you say no to the things that make your skin crawl?

How far are you willing to go to maintain a relationship, even an unhealthy one?

What is the worst way someone’s ever abandoned you?

What is the worst way you’ve ever abandoned yourself?

How do you entertain yourself when you’re not around people?

Are you happier alone because you enjoy being alone or because you prefer it to being surrounded by horrible people?

What habit do you know you could quit but don’t want to?

What is your favorite strategy for avoiding difficult people?

What is your favorite strategy for avoiding conflict?

What is the weirdest thing that gets you angry?

What is the weirdest thing that makes you sad?

How often do you take responsibility for other people’s crappy behavior?

When are you most likely to shut people out?

Which insecurity would shock people if they knew about it?

What do you find yourself justifying to people, even when no justification is needed?

When was the last time you tried to please someone who made you angry?

What do people often tell you need to focus more on?

What do people often tell you need to focus less on?

What is the one thing that could make you happy, but you refuse to do it because you’re afraid of what others would think?

[mtsilvermute]

//what is something someone always tells you to do more of?

90 loaded questions | Accepting!

Red's Journal - 4/25/2022

Today I asked my mother "am I normal?" and she shook her head and laughed. She said something along the lines of "no, you're not, and that makes me the luckiest mom in the world," give or take a sentence. My question prompted a larger discussion about my residual guilt regarding anything and everything, and she concluded that it doesn't really matter what I could be, so long as I never change who I am. I'm grateful for her perspective: I simply hope I can believe it soon enough.

I'm dwelling on this point because of the amplification of recent pressure to "do more" with my status as Champion. Since partnering with the League a lifetime ago, I've been allowed to live, train, and appear as I please rather than be expected to match the professional obligations of my peers. But now discussions of my online persona (or lack thereof) have trickled down to me—despite the fact that I am so opposed to the thought of being branded that the conversation itself makes me sick. Even if a question about sponsorship ends with the League saying "no, we will not force Red out of his comfort zone to increase your profits"—which they would, if they had any sense at all—I would rather not contemplate some corporate executive asking the question in the first place. But here we are, in an age of online immediacy, and everyone wonders when I'm going to make a profile on whatever streaming platform is hottest at the moment. I grow weary just thinking about it.

The most frustrating part of this discourse is that a part of me enjoys the fantasy of being consumed as such. My life is interesting enough for me to wish to chronicle it in journal form; what would be wrong with sharing it with a larger public? Indeed, the ins and outs of my daily routine are exciting to me as well, and I can accept—and empathize with—the notion that others would wish to learn more about me by exposing it. As I think through these thoughts, I feel more inclined to entertain them—but only in manners all my own. I would crumble beneath the expectations of sponsorships, paid appearances, or the other odd partnerships that Gym Leaders and their ilk create.

Airing these thoughts has unfortunately backfired, as I am now more deeply contemplating the prospects of being my own person in public rather than laying the thought to rest. All I can do is center myself within my mother's words: It doesn't really matter what I could be, so long as I never change who I am. So I shall not sacrifice my uniqueness on the altar of appearance nor approachability, nor shall I stay silent the next time someone urges me to change. Proverbially speaking, of course—and speaking only proverbially.

[mtsilvermute]

#18 & #22!

Various topics meme

18. fanon interpretations

I personally think everyone should read Black Skin, White Masks! Wait, wrong Fanon...

In all honestly, I don't pay the tiniest bit of attention to how a "fandom" characterizes just about anything. Even more deeply, and controversially (though I'll get to that in a second lol!), I don't see fandom—which I'm defining here as "a collective of people who like a media property and spend a lot of time constructing their identities based on that enjoyment"—as particularly generative. This take might seem at odds with my enjoyment of roleplay, but to me, the beauty of roleplaying is that we're able to recapture the poignancy of our home media without the trappings of "canon" at all.

This blog, as just one example, is a way for me to interrogate the limits of the Pokémon world, and to redraw those lines from my perspective. Some sample guiding questions for my blog include:

What does Pokémon mastery actually look like? How would someone like Red continuously prove that mastery in logistic and cultural senses?

Does Red have a "job" as a Pokémon master? Relatedly, what does "having a job" look like in a world in which people seem to live the lives they actually want to live?

And, perhaps most importantly, how differently must the Pokémon world operate from our world for a nonverbal autistic boy to attain as much cultural capital as a freaking president?

These kinds of questions are mine to ask and mine to answer. The fun of roleplaying, of course, is that I can create a world based on my answers to these questions, then share them with others through this blog—and by sharing them with others, I can incorporate their visions of what Pokémon means to them into my world-building. The individuality of each perspective is what makes it so unique, and I want to execute my visions—and see other people's—without care for fandom filters.

The less-theoretical tl;dr is that I couldn't care less for how a "fandom" discursively constructs a character because that's not where the fun of roleplay lies for me. There is something to be gained by learning about those characterizations, but they don't at all impact my movement through the roleplay world. :)

22. Your current RPC

I'm assuuuuming? that this question would address the Pokémon roleplay space here on Tumblr, as I'm not really a part of any other "RPCs" aside from fringe interpersonal outlets (I've still got some buddies holding down the fort on Facebook, bless their hearts).

In any case, it's definitely come with a learning curve, LOL, primarily because a lot of its primary forms of interaction (i.e. dash commentary) don't come naturally to me. I love doing the journals because it satisfies the need for both "sharing relevant characterization stuff" and also "writing as the character," the latter of which I think is the best part about roleplaying. (To clarify, it doesn't have to be "first-person" roleplay, but being able to embody an actual headspace during posting is freaking awesome.) Meanwhile, a lot of people post a lot about their characters around these parts. This style is great, because I get to learn about how those writers see the world (see my answer to #18!). It's also completely foreign to me, as psychic proximity (in the writing sense, not a metaphysical sense, LOL) is really helpful for me when writing.

Because of these contrasts, I'm often nervous that my approach to this blog is too foreign/out-of-line with Tumblr's expectations of roleplay to be as evocative as I want it to be. But the people/writers here are really, really cool, and I adore seeing the depth of care that each player provides their blogs. You all have an unparalleled attention to detail, and it's that level of love that has convinced me that this is the place to be.

[mtsilvermute]

send a number for me to talk about one of the following topics!

it can be a praise, a complaint, a good memory… anything that comes to mind!

long threads

drabbles

roleplaying with yourself

multiple people threads

promos

dash commentary

excessive ooc

DNIs in rules

reblog karma

personal blogs

anons

magic anons

promos

graphics

icons

animated icons

dash games

fanon interpretations

shipping

smut

violent threads

your current RPC

another RPC you’re part of

another RPC you’re no longer part of

your first RPC

your character

another active muse

an old muse

your first muse

blocking

your choice!

[mtsilvermute]

*: ･ﾟ✧   90 loaded questions / interview the muse.

found on this website, so credit goes to them.

What’s your favorite strategy for avoiding tough situations?

How often do you do things just for the attention?

Would you prefer to be manipulated or to be the manipulator?

What is something someone always tells you to do more of?

What is something someone always tells you to do less of?

Who do you look to blame when things go wrong?

What is the one thing people assume about you that you wish was true?

What is the one thing people assume about you that you wish wasn’t true?

When was the last time you lied to protect your image?

How often do you put on a happy face when you’re really not feeling it?

When do you think you began putting your guard up so much?

Who made you feel most anxious when you were a kid?

How do you speak about others when they’re not around?

What aspect of your life are you most delusional about?

How often do your admit you were wrong?

Which one of your biggest flaws do you like to rationalize the most?

Is it your fear of commitment or your fear of intimacy that makes you shut down more?

At what stage of a relationship are you most likely to withdraw emotionally?

What is the one compliment you always get that you’re too embarrassed to accept, so you deflect it?

What would someone say is your worst habit?

What is the one insecurity you are pretty sure has some basis in reality?

When was the last time you felt really insecure about the parts of yourself you pretend don’t exist?

What is the most interesting white lie you’ve told?

Do you ever feel like an imposter?

Do your friends know how competitive you are?

What’s the hardest thing about being rejected?

How do you deal when you know you’re being irrationally jealous?

How do you deal when you know someone’s not willing to give you what you want?

Are you ever afraid of people knowing who you really are?

If you went to a therapist today, what would they say is holding you back the most?

When was the last time you lowered your standards just to get someone else’s approval?

Is your need for revenge greater than your need for peace?

Have you stopped trying to control things yet?

Which parts of yourself do you still seek validation for?

How do you cope with being unfairly ignored?

Do you like punishing yourself for things that are out of your control?

What does someone say is your biggest problem when communicating?

Are you okay with not knowing what happens next?

Will you ever feel okay with being imperfect?

Does sabotaging yourself give you an odd sense of comfort?

How do you feel about being disliked by some people?

What’s the strangest thing you’ve done just to avoid failure?

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken just to prove yourself?

What’s the boldest thing you do every day, just to feel like you’re still in control?

What accusation would you defend yourself most fiercely against, even though you know it’s true?

What’s the most toxic thing about yourself you actually kind of secretly like?

How much do you enjoy being in control?

When do you give yourself permission to lose control?

What guilty pleasure are you currently justifying to yourself?

What is the most passive-aggressive way you’ve dealt with your rage?

What is the pettiest and most immature way you’ve avoided losing face?

What’s the worst habit you have that rewards you the most?

How do you get your needs met when you’re alone?

What is the most ridiculous thing you’ve done to please people?

What is the most ridiculous way you’ve rebelled?

What’s your favorite way to channel your aggression?

How do you cope with being betrayed?

Are you okay with disliking someone?

What is your favorite form of self-destruction?

What’s the one thing you struggle most to manifest in your life?

What’s the one thing that you manifest so easily, people are jealous of it?

What’s the most irrational reason you’ve ever had for disliking someone?

What is one fear that you’d be ashamed of your friends knowing about?

Which one of your deepest secrets do you think is the least common?

How do people normally find out you hate them?

What is your go-to strategy to deflect criticism, even constructive criticism?

What is one thing people always get wrong about you?

What emotion motivates you the most when you’re down?

What emotion makes you want to give up?

Are people shocked when you stand up for yourself?

How often do you say yes to the things you really want to say yes to?

How often do you say no to the things that make your skin crawl?

How far are you willing to go to maintain a relationship, even an unhealthy one?

What is the worst way someone’s ever abandoned you?

What is the worst way you’ve ever abandoned yourself?

How do you entertain yourself when you’re not around people?

Are you happier alone because you enjoy being alone or because you prefer it to being surrounded by horrible people?

What habit do you know you could quit but don’t want to?

What is your favorite strategy for avoiding difficult people?

What is your favorite strategy for avoiding conflict?

What is the weirdest thing that gets you angry?

What is the weirdest thing that makes you sad?

How often do you take responsibility for other people’s crappy behavior?

When are you most likely to shut people out?

Which insecurity would shock people if they knew about it?

What do you find yourself justifying to people, even when no justification is needed?

When was the last time you tried to please someone who made you angry?

What do people often tell you need to focus more on?

What do people often tell you need to focus less on?

What is the one thing that could make you happy, but you refuse to do it because you’re afraid of what others would think?

[mtsilvermute]

Is currently considering how fun it might be to be a guest author in a Pokémon battling publication...

[mtsilvermute]

On Kanto's Finest: An Introduction to Red's Roster

This post attempts to document the demeanors, behaviors, and personality traits of Red's roster, and how Red trains each Pokémon respectively. I'll be using sprites from Black and White to illustrate this post, as the updated designs and their animations match how I perceive each Pokémon in question. This was a lot of fun to write and I thank you for reading in advance!

1. Blastoise

Hot-headed and huffy, Blastoise is the most temperamental of Red's companions—though he balances his moods with a masculine coolness that makes him more of a bouncer than a diva. Blastoise can be gruff and aggressive, and his tendency to think—and act—independently can make training him a hassle. Yet few Pokémon can get down to business like Blastoise can: His heightened emotions intensify his battle presence, the shellfish (and perhaps a bit selfish) Pokémon putting his all into every move.

Blastoise's free-thinking nature and rigorous fighting style are at odds with full trainer control. In a perfect world, Blastoise would wish to battle without any Trainer direction at all, trusting his own instincts over the so-called "strategization" of his master. Battling with Blastoise is thus an exercise in thinking with Blastoise rather than for Blastoise—and doing so requires intense cognitive presence and interspecies empathy. As such, Red and Blastoise typically train with the intention of decreasing Blastoise's reaction times to Red's hand-signed commands. This training technique allows Blastoise to rapidly respond to Red's instructions without disrupting Blastoise's own internal timeline, while tightening their two-way understanding of the moments in which either of them should act of their own accord. Their training sessions hence feature a combination of movement drills and field simulations in which they practice offering control to each other to further cement their mutual trust.

Current moveset:

Dark Pulse Shell Smash Ice Beam Surf

2. Charizard

Charizard is the token worrier of the roster, an anxious wreck who is more likely to fear leaving the oven on than he is to burn down the house himself. In turn, Charizard has unwittingly adopted a parental role within the party, guarding both Red and his fellow Poké-companions with an overbearing paternalism.

Yet you don't live as a fire-breathing beast for so long without recognizing your own majesty. On-stage, beneath the spotlights, Charizard transforms, shedding his angst and anxiousness to become the epitome of draconic beauty. Charizard lives for the roar of the crowd—and only to hear it would he ever raise his voice.

Charizard is fairly easy to train. The difficulty of training Charizard is not, in fact, in his overwhelming bouts of anxiety, but rather the opposite: All inhibitions melt upon him using Flamethrower for the first time, reigniting Charizard's desire to perform and play. Much of Red's time training Charizard is spent facilitating circumstances that tap into, and harness, Charizard's primal side, such as flying to the summit of Mt. Silver or allowing Charizard to roar limitlessly for minutes on end. Training Charizard is thus synonymous with bonding, as Charizard's battle-readiness is more predicated on his environment than his willingness to execute skills (of which he is more than capable).

Current moveset:

Flamethrower Air Slash Roost Fly

3. Espeon

Espeon is, for all intents and purposes, a cat. Red's Espeon, however, has an uncharacteristically calm personality that averts the perils of typical housecat behavior. Espeon is the roster member least likely to act up—and, indeed, the least likely to act at all. Rarely does Espeon so much as meow. This low-maintenance placidity makes Espeon the most therapeutic presence in Red's roster, providing an air of stability and comfort to Red both on and off the field.

Espeon's unbothered disposition and psychic bonding make training him almost unnecessary. The burden of "training" Espeon falls most often on Red himself: He trains Espeon so infrequently that he is prone to forgetting his most recently standardized hand-signs or even Espeon's moveset proper. Fifteen-minute weekly training sessions, however, are typically enough to compensate for Red's memory. In lieu of actual fieldwork, Espeon and Red deepen their psychic bond by spending as much time together as possible—an extremely easy task given Espeon's permanent presence on Red's couch. In sum, Espeon's defensive moveset and domesticated demeanor require little upkeep, and Espeon's all-but-formalized classification as an emotional support Pokémon makes incidentally battling with him a breeze.

Current moveset:

Heal Bell Wish Psychic Signal Beam

4. Pikachu

This legendary Pikachu has the temperament of a teenager and emotional intelligence of the same. His unparalleled strength, in spite of his diminutive body and stunted evolution, is the product of hyperactivity and affect unbound. It was this combination of energy and behavioral simplicity that drew Red to Pikachu in the first place: As an autistic ten-year-old unable to express the bottomless depths of his emotions in a healthy (nor verbal) manner, Red found an immediate externalization of his inner self in Pikachu's sparking personality. Pikachu's easily intelligible attitudes and quickness to express himself nurtured Red's own behavioral self-understanding—and fourteen years later, their loving relationship has become about as fabled as their conjoined competitive prowess.

At risk of invoking conjecture, however, it is important to note that training Pikachu is only "easy" for Red to the degree that Red and Pikachu were so clearly made to complement each other. In the hands of any other trainer, training Pikachu would be a nightmare. Pikachu's tendency to wear his temperaments on his sleeve makes practicing difficult, often requiring coaxing should Pikachu not be "in the mood." On the other hand, Pikachu's susceptibility to bursts of energy requires Red to rapidly adapt to his needs: Pikachu frequently runs around till he tires himself out, and is prone to demanding playful attention at inopportune times to Red's internal chagrin. Yet Pikachu's inability to sit still engenders the most fulfilling training sessions of all of Red's Pokémon: Red and Pikachu frequently create elaborate attack sequences involving agility-based moves like Fake Out, Extreme Speed, Volt Tackle, and Volt Switch, practicing command chains for hours on end. Their instinctive compatibility when the two of them are "in the zone" fosters immediate learning for them both, and battle scholars informally rumor that Pikachu has demonstrated over a hundred unique moveset combos throughout Red's career.

Sentimentally, Pikachu resembles less closely a moody-yet-dignified Pokémon like Blastoise and more so a puppy, yet Pikachu's juvenile disposition is balanced by his intimate attention to Red's own needs in turn. Unlike a puppy, Pikachu is exceptionally self-aware, and Pikachu would never purposefully hurt, stress, nor push around Red in any manner that would cause genuine exhaustion. In fact, those close to Red would swear that Pikachu is just as trustworthy and responsible as his red-cloaked counterpart, and it is not uncommon for Red's loved ones to call upon Pikachu for assistance and support of their own.

Current moveset:

Fake Out Extreme Speed Volt Tackle Volt Switch

5. Snorlax

Snorlax has little reason to care for anything but sleeping and snacking. But Snorlax cares for Red—with a strength that radiates throughout every use of Return. By all accounts, Snorlax is well-kept: Red feeds him a special ultra-high-calorie fodder that meets his daily nutritional needs, all while supplying a special corner of the living room in which Snorlax may sleep unperturbed. Yet even more importantly, Red never fails to address Snorlax while awake: Even a simple brush, hug, or pet during Snorlax's few minutes of daily lucidity is enough to make Snorlax's mood soar. These ostensibly simple ministrations make a world of difference to the ostensibly solitary sleeping Pokémon, whose previous designations as a nuisance in the wild may have rubbed off on his allegedly thick skin.

Red does not, nor does he need to, train Snorlax. Snorlax's moveset is wickedly simple and has stayed consistent for over a decade. Red relies on highly visible hand gestures and sound cues—such as clapping—to signal which moves Snorlax should use during battle, and switching these cues happens rarely and without much fuss. In truth, Snorlax may love Red more than most Pokémon could ever learn to love their trainers, and Red spends an equal amount of time and energy ensuring that Snorlax will never feel anything less.

Current moveset:

Return Curse Crunch Earthquake

6. Venusaur

Anthropomorphically speaking, Venusaur is the epitome of a Pokémon that wishes not to be spoken to until he's had his morning sun. Unlike his tortoise-backed brother, however, Venusaur does not often display outward aggression nor grumpiness, instead sharing with Espeon a distinctly unbothered demeanor. Venusaur wishes for little but his basic needs to be met, and would be content with year-round summer and the occasional battle to blow off steam. Mt. Silver complicates these calculations, of course, but Red's efforts to maintain a healthy environment for Venusaur are both successful and worthy of Venusaur's commendation. As such, while some moments of nigh-autistic meltdowning are common for Venusaur in the early winter months, Venusaur rarely makes life hard for Red and repays his trainer with outward displays of gratitude.

Venusaur's need for consistent training arises from both their climate and Venusaur's restricted mobility indoors. Venusaur is entirely deferential to Red's commands and needs little practice to internalize Red's proposed battle strategies. However, Venusaur is prone to lethargy atop Mt. Silver and requires physical therapy to remain in fighting shape. Red often flies to southern parts of the mountain, where the air is warmer and the ground less icy, to allow Venusaur to connect with the grass beneath his feet. Venusaur will then practice maneuvering his vines, often joining Red's hands in veritable games of patty-cake. Venusaur's other preferred forms of stimulation include heavily stomping the ground, going for walks or jogs, or simply sunbathing for a short time. So long as Venusaur receives some form of weekly physiological enrichment, Venusaur remains content in Red's resort home, in which he enjoys a sunlamp and well-heated rooms.

Current moveset:

Sleep Powder Leech Seed Sludge Bomb Giga Drain

[mtsilvermute]

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

Red's Journal - 2/23/2022

Supply run Wednesday. Bitter cold and a bad mood makes for a horrendous combo. I don't believe that any of us have been enjoying our lives lately (sans Snorlax): Venusaur can barely last a moment in the current weather, Pikachu sleeps his days away, and Charizard's restlessness has reached a fever pitch. Cabin fever, you could call it, but our "cabin" is a quarantine from the illness of idleness, so I can't say I understand our current collective torpor.

I'm reflecting on the public today—or rather my aversion to it—and where the origination of that aversion lies. In three weeks I will be at a conference, battling before a crowd of inestimable size due to streaming technology, and I will likely attend some form of closing dinner with fellow honored guests. I will then sit at the table with Blue by my side and count the number of times my face betrays me. With respect to myself, I would rather be sincere in my somatic responses than mask them each moment of every day, but my inability to censor that which I feel when I feel it can be a hassle at times. I would argue that such a weakness fosters my fears of the public eye: A blase expression here, a pained smile there, and suddenly there's a camera consecrating the moment forever. My saving grace is how slow I can be to process the sensations that abound in this body, which I would argue is the sole reason why I'm still widely interpreted as an emotionless mute: I understand that I sit silent and stoic in all too many contexts. By contrast, I've become accustomed to offense from Blue, which quickens the contortions of my face and constriction of my breath whenever he opens his mouth...

I experienced a similar situation at the Pokémon Center today. Charizard, Pikachu and I visited the Center to pick up an order of groceries, only to discover a trainee behind the counter. I assume that he wasn't alerted of the purpose for my presence, as he was more than a little flustered—and confused—by my arrival. To be clear, he wasn't disrespectful, nor did he make me feel unwelcome: It was simply a change of pace from the routine machinations of the agents who have become accustomed to my visits (and their reasons: it took more than a few minutes to locate my items). Pikachu smartly charmed the man into comfort and we exchanged a smile by the end of all things, but it took all of my strength to not erupt into either laughter or frustrated tears of my own. On one hand, I recognize that masking one's emotions is a normal human experience, neurotypical or no. On the other hand, most "normal" humans do not have a culturally imposed reputation to uphold that is at odds with the depths of their feelings. Yet the inversion of this dichotomy (if there can be one) is rather reassuring: I can at least take comfort in the fact that any feelings that I do express are genuine, if only because their suppression is a fool's errand.

Speaking of errands, I am glad to know that mine are done for the rest of the week. I think I'll spend my evening recovering from them. Good night, journal—and good night, mountain. I pray that you warm up soon.

[mtsilvermute]

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS

What’s the lie your character says most often?

How loosely or strictly do they use the word ‘friend’?

How often do they show their genuine emotions to others versus just the audience knowing?

What’s a hobby they used to have that they miss?

Can they cry on command? If so, what do they think about to make it happen?

What’s their favorite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?

What would you (mun) yell in the middle of a crowd to find them? What would their best friend and/or romantic partner yell?

How loose is their use of the phrase ‘I love you’?

Do they give tough love or gentle love most often? Which do they prefer to receive?

What fact do they excitedly tell everyone about at every opportunity?

If someone was impersonating them, what would friends / family ask or do to tell the difference?

What’s something that makes them laugh every single time? Be specific!

When do they fake a smile? How often?

How do they put out a candle?

What’s the most obvious difference between their behavior at home, at work, at school, with friends, and when they’re alone?

What kinds of people do they have arguments with in their head?

What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

Who do they love truly, 100% unconditionally (if anyone)?

What would they do if stuck in a room with the person they’ve been avoiding?

Who do they like as a person but hate their work? Vice versa, whose work do they like but don’t like the person?

What common etiquette do they disagree with? Do they still follow it?

What simple activity that most people do / can do scares your character?

What do they feel guilty for that the other person(s) doesn’t / don’t even remember?

Did they take a cookie from the cookie jar? What kind of cookie was it?

What subject / topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the direct plot?

How would they respond to being fired by a good boss?

What’s the worst gift they ever received? How did they respond?

What do they tell people they want? What do they actually want?

How do they respond when someone doesn’t believe them?

When they make a mistake and feel bad, does the guilt differ when it’s personal versus when it’s professional?

When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?

If they committed one petty crime / misdemeanor, what would it be? Why?

How do they greet someone they dislike / hate?

How do they greet someone they like / love?

What is the smallest, morally questionable choice they’ve made?

Who do they keep in their life for professional gain? Is it for malicious intent?

What’s a secret they haven’t told serious romantic partners and don’t plan to tell?

What hobby are they good at in private, but bad at in front of others? Why?

Would they rather be invited to an event to feel included or be excluded from an event if they were not genuinely wanted there?

How do they respond to a loose handshake? What goes through their head?

What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone / somewhere else?

If invited to a TED Talk, what topic would they present on? What would the title of their presentation be?

What do they commonly misinterpret because of their own upbringing / environment / biases? How do they respond when realizing the misunderstanding?

What language would be easiest for them to learn? Why?

What’s something unimportant / frivolous that they hate passionately?

Are they a listener or a talker? If they’re a listener, what makes them talk? If they’re a talker, what makes them listen?

Who have they forgotten about that remembers them very well?

Who would they say ‘yes’ to if invited to do something they abhorred / strongly didn’t want to do?

Would they eat something they find gross to be polite?

What belief / moral / personality trait do they stand by that you (mun) personally don’t agree with?

What’s a phrase they say a lot?

Do they act on their immediate emotions, or do they wait for the facts before acting?

Who would / do they believe without question?

What’s their instinct in a fight / flight / freeze / fawn situation?

What’s something they’re expected to enjoy based on their hobbies / profession that they actually dislike / hate?

If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? Does this answer change depending on the type of fear?

What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often?

How many hobbies have they attempted to have over their lifetime? Is there a common theme?

[mtsilvermute]

Send a Pokemon and my muse will write a dex entry for it.

[mtsilvermute]

On Kanto's Finest: An Introduction to Red's Roster

This post attempts to document the demeanors, behaviors, and personality traits of Red's roster, and how Red trains each Pokémon respectively. I'll be using sprites from Black and White to illustrate this post, as the updated designs and their animations match how I perceive each Pokémon in question. This was a lot of fun to write and I thank you for reading in advance!

1. Blastoise

Hot-headed and huffy, Blastoise is the most temperamental of Red's companions—though he balances his moods with a masculine coolness that makes him more of a bouncer than a diva. Blastoise can be gruff and aggressive, and his tendency to think—and act—independently can make training him a hassle. Yet few Pokémon can get down to business like Blastoise can: His heightened emotions intensify his battle presence, the shellfish (and perhaps a bit selfish) Pokémon putting his all into every move.

Blastoise's free-thinking nature and rigorous fighting style are at odds with full trainer control. In a perfect world, Blastoise would wish to battle without any Trainer direction at all, trusting his own instincts over the so-called "strategization" of his master. Battling with Blastoise is thus an exercise in thinking with Blastoise rather than for Blastoise—and doing so requires intense cognitive presence and interspecies empathy. As such, Red and Blastoise typically train with the intention of decreasing Blastoise's reaction times to Red's hand-signed commands. This training technique allows Blastoise to rapidly respond to Red's instructions without disrupting Blastoise's own internal timeline, while tightening their two-way understanding of the moments in which either of them should act of their own accord. Their training sessions hence feature a combination of movement drills and field simulations in which they practice offering control to each other to further cement their mutual trust.

Current moveset:

Dark Pulse Shell Smash Ice Beam Surf

2. Charizard

Charizard is the token worrier of the roster, an anxious wreck who is more likely to fear leaving the oven on than he is to burn down the house himself. In turn, Charizard has unwittingly adopted a parental role within the party, guarding both Red and his fellow Poké-companions with an overbearing paternalism.

Yet you don't live as a fire-breathing beast for so long without recognizing your own majesty. On-stage, beneath the spotlights, Charizard transforms, shedding his angst and anxiousness to become the epitome of draconic beauty. Charizard lives for the roar of the crowd—and only to hear it would he ever raise his voice.

Charizard is fairly easy to train. The difficulty of training Charizard is not, in fact, in his overwhelming bouts of anxiety, but rather the opposite: All inhibitions melt upon him using Flamethrower for the first time, reigniting Charizard's desire to perform and play. Much of Red's time training Charizard is spent facilitating circumstances that tap into, and harness, Charizard's primal side, such as flying to the summit of Mt. Silver or allowing Charizard to roar limitlessly for minutes on end. Training Charizard is thus synonymous with bonding, as Charizard's battle-readiness is more predicated on his environment than his willingness to execute skills (of which he is more than capable).

Current moveset:

Flamethrower Air Slash Roost Fly

3. Espeon

Espeon is, for all intents and purposes, a cat. Red's Espeon, however, has an uncharacteristically calm personality that averts the perils of typical housecat behavior. Espeon is the roster member least likely to act up—and, indeed, the least likely to act at all. Rarely does Espeon so much as meow. This low-maintenance placidity makes Espeon the most therapeutic presence in Red's roster, providing an air of stability and comfort to Red both on and off the field.

Espeon's unbothered disposition and psychic bonding make training him almost unnecessary. The burden of "training" Espeon falls most often on Red himself: He trains Espeon so infrequently that he is prone to forgetting his most recently standardized hand-signs or even Espeon's moveset proper. Fifteen-minute weekly training sessions, however, are typically enough to compensate for Red's memory. In lieu of actual fieldwork, Espeon and Red deepen their psychic bond by spending as much time together as possible—an extremely easy task given Espeon's permanent presence on Red's couch. In sum, Espeon's defensive moveset and domesticated demeanor require little upkeep, and Espeon's all-but-formalized classification as an emotional support Pokémon makes incidentally battling with him a breeze.

Current moveset:

Heal Bell Wish Psychic Signal Beam

4. Pikachu

This legendary Pikachu has the temperament of a teenager and emotional intelligence of the same. His unparalleled strength, in spite of his diminutive body and stunted evolution, is the product of hyperactivity and affect unbound. It was this combination of energy and behavioral simplicity that drew Red to Pikachu in the first place: As an autistic ten-year-old unable to express the bottomless depths of his emotions in a healthy (nor verbal) manner, Red found an immediate externalization of his inner self in Pikachu's sparking personality. Pikachu's easily intelligible attitudes and quickness to express himself nurtured Red's own behavioral self-understanding—and fourteen years later, their loving relationship has become about as fabled as their conjoined competitive prowess.

At risk of invoking conjecture, however, it is important to note that training Pikachu is only "easy" for Red to the degree that Red and Pikachu were so clearly made to complement each other. In the hands of any other trainer, training Pikachu would be a nightmare. Pikachu's tendency to wear his temperaments on his sleeve makes practicing difficult, often requiring coaxing should Pikachu not be "in the mood." On the other hand, Pikachu's susceptibility to bursts of energy requires Red to rapidly adapt to his needs: Pikachu frequently runs around till he tires himself out, and is prone to demanding playful attention at inopportune times to Red's internal chagrin. Yet Pikachu's inability to sit still engenders the most fulfilling training sessions of all of Red's Pokémon: Red and Pikachu frequently create elaborate attack sequences involving agility-based moves like Fake Out, Extreme Speed, Volt Tackle, and Volt Switch, practicing command chains for hours on end. Their instinctive compatibility when the two of them are "in the zone" fosters immediate learning for them both, and battle scholars informally rumor that Pikachu has demonstrated over a hundred unique moveset combos throughout Red's career.

Sentimentally, Pikachu resembles less closely a moody-yet-dignified Pokémon like Blastoise and more so a puppy, yet Pikachu's juvenile disposition is balanced by his intimate attention to Red's own needs in turn. Unlike a puppy, Pikachu is exceptionally self-aware, and Pikachu would never purposefully hurt, stress, nor push around Red in any manner that would cause genuine exhaustion. In fact, those close to Red would swear that Pikachu is just as trustworthy and responsible as his red-cloaked counterpart, and it is not uncommon for Red's loved ones to call upon Pikachu for assistance and support of their own.

Current moveset:

Fake Out Extreme Speed Volt Tackle Volt Switch

5. Snorlax

Snorlax has little reason to care for anything but sleeping and snacking. But Snorlax cares for Red—with a strength that radiates throughout every use of Return. By all accounts, Snorlax is well-kept: Red feeds him a special ultra-high-calorie fodder that meets his daily nutritional needs, all while supplying a special corner of the living room in which Snorlax may sleep unperturbed. Yet even more importantly, Red never fails to address Snorlax while awake: Even a simple brush, hug, or pet during Snorlax's few minutes of daily lucidity is enough to make Snorlax's mood soar. These ostensibly simple ministrations make a world of difference to the ostensibly solitary sleeping Pokémon, whose previous designations as a nuisance in the wild may have rubbed off on his allegedly thick skin.

Red does not, nor does he need to, train Snorlax. Snorlax's moveset is wickedly simple and has stayed consistent for over a decade. Red relies on highly visible hand gestures and sound cues—such as clapping—to signal which moves Snorlax should use during battle, and switching these cues happens rarely and without much fuss. In truth, Snorlax may love Red more than most Pokémon could ever learn to love their trainers, and Red spends an equal amount of time and energy ensuring that Snorlax will never feel anything less.

Current moveset:

Return Curse Crunch Earthquake

6. Venusaur

Anthropomorphically speaking, Venusaur is the epitome of a Pokémon that wishes not to be spoken to until he's had his morning sun. Unlike his tortoise-backed brother, however, Venusaur does not often display outward aggression nor grumpiness, instead sharing with Espeon a distinctly unbothered demeanor. Venusaur wishes for little but his basic needs to be met, and would be content with year-round summer and the occasional battle to blow off steam. Mt. Silver complicates these calculations, of course, but Red's efforts to maintain a healthy environment for Venusaur are both successful and worthy of Venusaur's commendation. As such, while some moments of nigh-autistic meltdowning are common for Venusaur in the early winter months, Venusaur rarely makes life hard for Red and repays his trainer with outward displays of gratitude.

Venusaur's need for consistent training arises from both their climate and Venusaur's restricted mobility indoors. Venusaur is entirely deferential to Red's commands and needs little practice to internalize Red's proposed battle strategies. However, Venusaur is prone to lethargy atop Mt. Silver and requires physical therapy to remain in fighting shape. Red often flies to southern parts of the mountain, where the air is warmer and the ground less icy, to allow Venusaur to connect with the grass beneath his feet. Venusaur will then practice maneuvering his vines, often joining Red's hands in veritable games of patty-cake. Venusaur's other preferred forms of stimulation include heavily stomping the ground, going for walks or jogs, or simply sunbathing for a short time. So long as Venusaur receives some form of weekly physiological enrichment, Venusaur remains content in Red's resort home, in which he enjoys a sunlamp and well-heated rooms.

Current moveset:

Sleep Powder Leech Seed Sludge Bomb Giga Drain

[mtsilvermute]

On Kanto's Finest: An Introduction to Red's Roster

This post attempts to document the demeanors, behaviors, and personality traits of Red's roster, and how Red trains each Pokémon respectively. I'll be using sprites from Black and White to illustrate this post, as the updated designs and their animations match how I perceive each Pokémon in question. This was a lot of fun to write and I thank you for reading in advance!

1. Blastoise

Hot-headed and huffy, Blastoise is the most temperamental of Red's companions—though he balances his moods with a masculine coolness that makes him more of a bouncer than a diva. Blastoise can be gruff and aggressive, and his tendency to think—and act—independently can make training him a hassle. Yet few Pokémon can get down to business like Blastoise can: His heightened emotions intensify his battle presence, the shellfish (and perhaps a bit selfish) Pokémon putting his all into every move.

Blastoise's free-thinking nature and rigorous fighting style are at odds with full trainer control. In a perfect world, Blastoise would wish to battle without any Trainer direction at all, trusting his own instincts over the so-called "strategization" of his master. Battling with Blastoise is thus an exercise in thinking with Blastoise rather than for Blastoise—and doing so requires intense cognitive presence and interspecies empathy. As such, Red and Blastoise typically train with the intention of decreasing Blastoise's reaction times to Red's hand-signed commands. This training technique allows Blastoise to rapidly respond to Red's instructions without disrupting Blastoise's own internal timeline, while tightening their two-way understanding of the moments in which either of them should act of their own accord. Their training sessions hence feature a combination of movement drills and field simulations in which they practice offering control to each other to further cement their mutual trust.

Current moveset:

Dark Pulse Shell Smash Ice Beam Surf

2. Charizard

Charizard is the token worrier of the roster, an anxious wreck who is more likely to fear leaving the oven on than he is to burn down the house himself. In turn, Charizard has unwittingly adopted a parental role within the party, guarding both Red and his fellow Poké-companions with an overbearing paternalism.

Yet you don't live as a fire-breathing beast for so long without recognizing your own majesty. On-stage, beneath the spotlights, Charizard transforms, shedding his angst and anxiousness to become the epitome of draconic beauty. Charizard lives for the roar of the crowd—and only to hear it would he ever raise his voice.

Charizard is fairly easy to train. The difficulty of training Charizard is not, in fact, in his overwhelming bouts of anxiety, but rather the opposite: All inhibitions melt upon him using Flamethrower for the first time, reigniting Charizard's desire to perform and play. Much of Red's time training Charizard is spent facilitating circumstances that tap into, and harness, Charizard's primal side, such as flying to the summit of Mt. Silver or allowing Charizard to roar limitlessly for minutes on end. Training Charizard is thus synonymous with bonding, as Charizard's battle-readiness is more predicated on his environment than his willingness to execute skills (of which he is more than capable).

Current moveset:

Flamethrower Air Slash Roost Fly

3. Espeon

Espeon is, for all intents and purposes, a cat. Red's Espeon, however, has an uncharacteristically calm personality that averts the perils of typical housecat behavior. Espeon is the roster member least likely to act up—and, indeed, the least likely to act at all. Rarely does Espeon so much as meow. This low-maintenance placidity makes Espeon the most therapeutic presence in Red's roster, providing an air of stability and comfort to Red both on and off the field.

Espeon's unbothered disposition and psychic bonding make training him almost unnecessary. The burden of "training" Espeon falls most often on Red himself: He trains Espeon so infrequently that he is prone to forgetting his most recently standardized hand-signs or even Espeon's moveset proper. Fifteen-minute weekly training sessions, however, are typically enough to compensate for Red's memory. In lieu of actual fieldwork, Espeon and Red deepen their psychic bond by spending as much time together as possible—an extremely easy task given Espeon's permanent presence on Red's couch. In sum, Espeon's defensive moveset and domesticated demeanor require little upkeep, and Espeon's all-but-formalized classification as an emotional support Pokémon makes incidentally battling with him a breeze.

Current moveset:

Heal Bell Wish Psychic Signal Beam

4. Pikachu

This legendary Pikachu has the temperament of a teenager and emotional intelligence of the same. His unparalleled strength, in spite of his diminutive body and stunted evolution, is the product of hyperactivity and affect unbound. It was this combination of energy and behavioral simplicity that drew Red to Pikachu in the first place: As an autistic ten-year-old unable to express the bottomless depths of his emotions in a healthy (nor verbal) manner, Red found an immediate externalization of his inner self in Pikachu's sparking personality. Pikachu's easily intelligible attitudes and quickness to express himself nurtured Red's own behavioral self-understanding—and fourteen years later, their loving relationship has become about as fabled as their conjoined competitive prowess.

At risk of invoking conjecture, however, it is important to note that training Pikachu is only "easy" for Red to the degree that Red and Pikachu were so clearly made to complement each other. In the hands of any other trainer, training Pikachu would be a nightmare. Pikachu's tendency to wear his temperaments on his sleeve makes practicing difficult, often requiring coaxing should Pikachu not be "in the mood." On the other hand, Pikachu's susceptibility to bursts of energy requires Red to rapidly adapt to his needs: Pikachu frequently runs around till he tires himself out, and is prone to demanding playful attention at inopportune times to Red's internal chagrin. Yet Pikachu's inability to sit still engenders the most fulfilling training sessions of all of Red's Pokémon: Red and Pikachu frequently create elaborate attack sequences involving agility-based moves like Fake Out, Extreme Speed, Volt Tackle, and Volt Switch, practicing command chains for hours on end. Their instinctive compatibility when the two of them are "in the zone" fosters immediate learning for them both, and battle scholars informally rumor that Pikachu has demonstrated over a hundred unique moveset combos throughout Red's career.

Sentimentally, Pikachu resembles less closely a moody-yet-dignified Pokémon like Blastoise and more so a puppy, yet Pikachu's juvenile disposition is balanced by his intimate attention to Red's own needs in turn. Unlike a puppy, Pikachu is exceptionally self-aware, and Pikachu would never purposefully hurt, stress, nor push around Red in any manner that would cause genuine exhaustion. In fact, those close to Red would swear that Pikachu is just as trustworthy and responsible as his red-cloaked counterpart, and it is not uncommon for Red's loved ones to call upon Pikachu for assistance and support of their own.

Current moveset:

Fake Out Extreme Speed Volt Tackle Volt Switch

5. Snorlax

Snorlax has little reason to care for anything but sleeping and snacking. But Snorlax cares for Red—with a strength that radiates throughout every use of Return. By all accounts, Snorlax is well-kept: Red feeds him a special ultra-high-calorie fodder that meets his daily nutritional needs, all while supplying a special corner of the living room in which Snorlax may sleep unperturbed. Yet even more importantly, Red never fails to address Snorlax while awake: Even a simple brush, hug, or pet during Snorlax's few minutes of daily lucidity is enough to make Snorlax's mood soar. These ostensibly simple ministrations make a world of difference to the ostensibly solitary sleeping Pokémon, whose previous designations as a nuisance in the wild may have rubbed off on his allegedly thick skin.

Red does not, nor does he need to, train Snorlax. Snorlax's moveset is wickedly simple and has stayed consistent for over a decade. Red relies on highly visible hand gestures and sound cues—such as clapping—to signal which moves Snorlax should use during battle, and switching these cues happens rarely and without much fuss. In truth, Snorlax may love Red more than most Pokémon could ever learn to love their trainers, and Red spends an equal amount of time and energy ensuring that Snorlax will never feel anything less.

Current moveset:

Return Curse Crunch Earthquake

6. Venusaur

Anthropomorphically speaking, Venusaur is the epitome of a Pokémon that wishes not to be spoken to until he's had his morning sun. Unlike his tortoise-backed brother, however, Venusaur does not often display outward aggression nor grumpiness, instead sharing with Espeon a distinctly unbothered demeanor. Venusaur wishes for little but his basic needs to be met, and would be content with year-round summer and the occasional battle to blow off steam. Mt. Silver complicates these calculations, of course, but Red's efforts to maintain a healthy environment for Venusaur are both successful and worthy of Venusaur's commendation. As such, while some moments of nigh-autistic meltdowning are common for Venusaur in the early winter months, Venusaur rarely makes life hard for Red and repays his trainer with outward displays of gratitude.

Venusaur's need for consistent training arises from both their climate and Venusaur's restricted mobility indoors. Venusaur is entirely deferential to Red's commands and needs little practice to internalize Red's proposed battle strategies. However, Venusaur is prone to lethargy atop Mt. Silver and requires physical therapy to remain in fighting shape. Red often flies to southern parts of the mountain, where the air is warmer and the ground less icy, to allow Venusaur to connect with the grass beneath his feet. Venusaur will then practice maneuvering his vines, often joining Red's hands in veritable games of patty-cake. Venusaur's other preferred forms of stimulation include heavily stomping the ground, going for walks or jogs, or simply sunbathing for a short time. So long as Venusaur receives some form of weekly physiological enrichment, Venusaur remains content in Red's resort home, in which he enjoys a sunlamp and well-heated rooms.

Current moveset:

Sleep Powder Leech Seed Sludge Bomb Giga Drain

[mtsilvermute]

💘

Misc. Ask Meme

💘 - What do they find attractive about their partner(s)?

Red does not have a relationship history to speak of, and that trajectory is unlikely to change (see his journal entry on a similar topic here). There is little physiologically that catches his eye, nor does he fantasize about bodily intimacy. However, if pressed, Red would likely cite emotional intelligence, worldly understanding, and maybe a hyperfixation or two as attractive features—and perhaps an outgoing personality to balance out his pensive quietude as well.

[mtsilvermute]

41 and 46!

WEIRDLY SPECIFIC BUT HELPFUL CHARACTER BUILDING QUESTIONS.

41. What phrases, pronunciations, or mannerisms did they pick up from someone / somewhere else?

Have you ever seen a Snorlax smile? That fat round face and cat-like grin could melt an Articuno. Red has been blessed by that smile so many times that he's adopted its winning character—namely the habit of closing his eyes to demonstrate his affection for his beholder. It's an unconscious action that others would more immediately recognize as a feline inflection... but Red picked it up from a bigger beast than they.

Indeed, Red is a mimic by nature, and he finds his Pokémon's affectations comforting enough to incorporate them into his own responses. A quick nostril flare might resemble his Charizard in times of trouble; Red's clenched jaw parallels his Blastoise's signature expression when bad moods arise. And should you strain your ears real hard while a certain rodent friend rides his shoulders, you might hear a whispered "pi" roll off his tongue in response to one of Pikachu's signature coos.

46. Are they a listener or a talker? If they’re a listener, what makes them talk? If they’re a talker, what makes them listen?

Red's textual verbosity is an open secret. No one is safe from his quintuple-texts. Yet he is far more prone to lurking, listening, and internalizing the world around him than he is to believe his comments are truly necessary. Journaling and, at times, discussion help him sort through his perspectives on things; however, anyone familiar with his wallflower presence in weekly Indigo League meetings is accustomed to his lack of commentary.

In line with most on the spectrum, what will get him truly "talking" is the mention of a hyperfixation, namely Pokémon battling. That being said, Red has found that any of his statements hold increased weight because of his Champion status, and he is far, far slower to air them to a stranger or in public lest he create discourse in their wake.

[mtsilvermute]

Mewtwo! (Dex-entry) c:

Send a Pokemon and my muse will write a dex entry for it.

Kanto #150 - Mewtwo

A savage beast of a Pokémon. Its intellect and brutality is the consequence of human gene-splicing experimentation. Its unbound capacity for compassion, however, is all its own.

[mtsilvermute]

Send a Pokemon and my muse will write a dex entry for it.