#1 down 45 sprites to go

[wolfram-but-art]

will i ever finish this? probably not. but is he really fun to draw as a shimejiee sprite? fuck yes

[pbandjesse]

Today did not go as planned and honestly I feel really bad today. I am just absolutely exhausted and it's insane how I have not been able to get anything done at all today.

And I know it's because I worked until 1 am. But I thought I would sleep and be good but I just was not and it sucked.

I had a lot of fun last night. The wedding went great. The couple was super nice. I had a mango sorbet push pop and a piece of blueberry cake. It was a little hectic. I had to tell Jesse he was doing to much. That he's great at the job but he's making himself stress for no reason.

There was only one stress last night and it was when the women's room completely ran out of toilet paper and I couldn't find Jesse or the keys to change the rolls. That was embarrassing but we handled it after a bit of running around. Those stupid dispensers are the worst though and I hit my elbows every time I went to change one. Terrible design.

Clean up went fine. Jesse did his best to restrain himself and stay behind the desk and let me be in charge. And overall I did great except one of the doors I locked was unlocked again and I forgot to make sure catering brought all the trash cans back inside. So I would have to deal with that but it was all good.

We took some extra time to go over the lights and I remembered where almost all of them were. And he showed me how to lock the gates. And then we were off.

I was really happy to be home. My shoes were doing good until right at the end. I had tried to just sit for a bit during the last hour of the party and was just knitting but when I got up again I guess my feet had swollen and so I spent our last 45 minutes during lights out barefoot. I was just really excited to go home. I'm also going to start bringing slippers to change into like I do at camp.

I got home right at 1. And I was tired but I had some stuff I wanted to accomplish first. I held sweetp for a bit. I took a really excellent shower. And I tried on the new things I got myself yesterday. James briefly woke up and kissed my hand. And soon I was getting in bed and going to sleep.

Had to wake up 3 times to pee. And the last one when when the sun was fully up and making our room so bright. I would put a sleep mask on and go back to sleep.

I hate sleeping until 10. Always have. But James was there and tried to be encouraging. They said that we would need to replace Crabcake's light and heating element which both seemed to stop working. And that we had a full errands to run anyway. Cate and Ross would be coming by around 11 to drop off the bookcase they are getting rid of. So I had time to take a quick wake up shower and get dressed.

I actually wore eyeliner today and I did it slightly different then normal and felt really pretty. My hair always was looking pretty nice. I have razor cut some of the top layers before I went to bed last night and I guess I just needs the movement.

James made me an omelette and a hashbrown. And I ate it outside on the porch swing. I asked for a sprite but it ended up tasting repulsive to me. Very odd. But water was fine.

I wasn't feeling amazing. I put on my best face when Cate and Ross came through. I was happy to see them. And they were so kind to bring us their old book shelf. It will be great in the studio for all of our art books.

They didn't stay long. They had other people to drop things off too and meet with. So we said goodbye and I let myself go lay back down outside.

James said that when I was feeling up to it we could go run errands. We apparently had a miscommunication in this. I thought that they meant that they were ready and so when I was okay enough we would just go. So I gave myself a mental deadline of noon.

But when I was ready all of a sudden James wasn't. And they were all rushed and I was super confused. But I was like. Okay it's fine. I felt exhausted and not thrilled. But James was being really complimentary and telling me how pretty I was and how pretty our baby is going to be, make all the other babies jealous. I was trying to put a happy face on.

But then we get to the pet store and I find out James never checked the heating element and the bulb plugs to make sure they didn't just get turned off. And I wasn't happy that we were going to spend $80 on a maybe. And then James says it's because we rushed out of the house. And they forgot the stuff they needed to do the hardware store run. And I was just. Done. I was so close to tears in the turtle care aisle.

I told James I never even wanted to come out. I felt terrible. I was so tired and uncomfortable and I just wanted to go home. I just kept saying it and I felt like I was stuck in a loop. James said okay let take you home and apologized but we had a very silent drive home.

When we got back here I went and laid down and James collected what they needed. The turtle light and heating element were working fine. And they promised to send me a picture of the menu at Rita's to get me something still.

So they left. And I laid there. And I didnt sleep. I was so very tired but I did not sleep.

Around 2 James was home. They brought me a lemon flavor misto. I had never tried that before but it was nice. And I had that and a pretzel stick. And then I fell asleep. While James working on setting up our dryer (and then doing our first load of laundry in our house!!). And I slept.

I slept until almost 5. And I felt horrible. I feel slightly less horrible now but it was very bad. I was dizzy and nauseous and dehydrated. I felt like I had been running the way I was huffing and puffing. I was not having fun.

Drinking water helped. James made us spaghetti for dinner. We laid in bed together. I can't seem to find the right temperature but I tried to just be calm. I picked out outfits for the week. And we filled out my check in documents for my appointment on Thursday. But mostly we just rested.

Now I'm in the bathroom tub. Considering having a bowl of cereal. But mostly I just want to go to sleep. I'm not sure what tomorrow will hold. If I'm going to go to camp or not. If I still feel this bad in the morning I will probably stay home. And I am trying hard to not feel bad about that.

I hope you all have a good night. Sleep well and be safe. I love you dearly. Good night!

[allqrcoded]

Devlog 6: About the lingering dread over the horizon + game summary

Oh, no, no, no. I think we're about to go to the 2nd act of game devving... The scary part -- oh, yes, we're going to bug fix. Sooner than later, apparently.

But before that, happy holidays and a merry new year to all of you. As expected, I spent this time slaving away in the game dev mines and, of course, here's the story on how I did so/what I did. January's a busy month! Both IRL and in the coding sphere of things in this project.

(Also, a very late addition on the summary of Descent to Negative Zero is because I didn't add one):

Descent to Negative Zero follows our protagonists, Josh Lorenzo and Rex De Los Santos in a reunion/birthday road trip gone awry. After pulling up to a motel to close in for the night, instead of seeing their room, however, they both wake up locked in prison cells. As the two work their way out, they slowly uncover the underlying reason on why they're both there and maybe even personal secrets between them.

Maps, sprites & assets

As I'm writing this, we currently have around 45 parallax maps done in the game's folder! While overlays and all that fancy lighting stuff is pushed to the side, a majority of the maps needed in the main game itself are finished. A couple of extra Rexosh (AKA Rex/Josh) face/in-world sprites have also been taken care of, specifically for a section in the opening cutscene itself.

On that note, now that we're here, may I reveal to you an old (as in... Very old) screenshot I tested with when I was trying to figure out a face style for the portraits (painted vs pixeled). In the end, pixeled won.

Now that most of the game's maps have been taken care of, I've also made more maps that're specific to the end game itself.

I especially had fun making this map, even if it's simple (just a road with a bus stop and nature in the BG) because I loved the way it turned out. The sky is my favorite part of this thing.

I've also been bogging down on making individual assets on things such as lore letters scattered all over the game that'll lead to an ending. While I do know that I could've gone the easy way and made it so that the important things get conveyed through solely message windows and nothing more, I wanted to do something a bit more fun (even if it's to future me's detriment).

Albeit, that element is highly inspired by ZENO -- the whole main setting of this game is, really -- but I adored the tiny story telling techniques the custom assets gave me if I were to go that route instead. Yes, I know the text in the screenshot is inherently illegible, but you can't go wrong with a bit of extra censoring. Typesetting is a pain to do, especially on Aseprite, where I make the majority of the assets for this game on, but if I made that phone section in angel care possible, I know damn well I can do this, too. The visual puzzle hints are also on their way to completion.

1/27/24 update: most of the logs have been type-setted and done! It's only log 6 that still needs text, but I'm sure it won't be long until all of those assets are done.

End branches/puzzles galore

In the month of January, I have successfully coded in the 4 main end branches of the game! Woohoo! While the number "4" is questionable because I technically didn't code in the rest of the that end branch's dialogue + still have a bit of writing work to get done before I can be really satisfied with it, the main mechanics of how you get there is already in game. Writing down the dialogue doc before copy pasting the hell out of them into the game engine really helped me out in not getting lost in what I should do next. I also started to hunt down some ending music in freemusicarchive.com for the different credit rolls -- just to add a little more spice/impact once you reach the end.

Speaking of mechanics, the main semi-complicated/not-find-key-to-unlock-door puzzles have also been coded in! A specific wire puzzle did chop off a bit of my sanity last month, but, after a bit of tinkering and script hunting, I got it down. Turns out, it wasn't that complicated at all -- I just didn't know what the hell I was looking for, exactly. The core chase mechanic have also been added in the end game. While the chase itself still needs pizzazz like visual changes whenever you reach a certain point, chase music to set the mood and etc., I got that element done within this month.

What next?

In terms of what I'm doing right now, it's just directing the cutscenes, making custom assets for sprite interaction along with checking whether or not the variables line up with the events corresponding to them. Yep, it's bug fixing time. Right now, I'm trying to fix up a bit of code from the early game and took a break around the 2nd puzzle floor you encounter. It's, as usual, a bit tedious and frustrating at times because I kinda changed the way you solve puzzles by actually pulling up the inventory and using the item itself (sorry, future me), but either way, the good thing is that the core game -- up to the different endings are set in stone and just need detangling, polishing, and what have you.

Bug fixing Dt-Z compared to AC will certainly be a different experience because unlike AC, this game isn't a walking sim. However, if I went through the headache of bug fixing that game, then I'm sure that I'll do just fine with Dt-Z... Even if I hate doing it right now.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Mock 2 part 1

Before we start, what kind of plot does Mock 2 have (yes, this WAD has a plot)? Well… War is over; everyone happy; demons pop out; Doomguy does his job. Also it’s worth noticing that the plot in the textfile mention 52nd century, but I think it’s actually 22nd but the first two was turned upside down on purpose.

Oh well, let’s start checking these maps.

Part Jeden: Teh Greatest Doom

In Defence of Demonsex

There is a switch at the other side of a bridge. The bridge is broken, so you have to walk around.

Classic 3D bridges. What was once the staple of mappers creating gold before the source ports appeared, by the 2000s became a joke. Sometimes you could even fall through them. I can remember two maps from Hell Revealed II, where one had a broken bridge, and the other had a shitton of these; lazily made I might add.

Fully dark areas. This one doesn’t really need further introduction. It’s just for some reason the mappers decide that this is a great idea to add these. I am already reminded of the 007 WAD and the E4M6 ending and that’s just the first map we are in.

Corridor fighting. That doesn’t really need an introduction either. I just don’t like how it restrains me, especially when fighting hitscanners and tougher monsters.

Monsters in walls. Classic rookie mistake. Probably saw some of these in Holy Hell, but I might be wrong.

Somebody Set Up Us The Bomb

You fight a Cyberdemon (or Cyberemond as the map says), wait 2 minutes for a lift (although in my case it took only around 45 seconds), and kill barons blocking an exit.

Translucent enemies. I think I’ve seen next-to-no enemies like that, at least when it comes to custom Doom enemies. These guys were used a lot in Heretic; only magical attacks could hit them in that game.

Elevators with a long time to reach the bottom/top. Another thing that I think I encountered. But I don’t remember most of these being as over the top as the one on this map. The one on this map is at least fast, though.

Stacked power-ups. A staple of slaughter maps or just harder maps in general. It does get annoying that you might grab one too many by accident, though.

Fortress of Moooo!

You pass some cows in the starting area. You run through a wall of cows later on. You blow up a bunch of Keens. You press two switches in a room with a revenant, an arch-vile, and a lot of sprite decorations. After that you crush Romero’s head… or you just shoot him; it’s faster that way.

Commander Keen. You already know the Keen secret at the end of the original MAP32. This seems to be more like a reference to how ZDoom made Doom capable of using tag 666 with these guys on any map. It might also be a spit on that as well. I don’t know.

Sprite decorations. Yes, they add some charm to the map, but these things are also a cheese factory. It can block any monster projectile, and the demons are too stupid to realize that there is an obstacle in front of them. Hitscanner attacks aren’t blocked, though.

Waterworld or Something

You lower a platform, you jump across a gap, and you either kill Romero again or press a switch behind hoovies.

Honestly, aside from bugs involving looking at the void and pinkies/spectres at the bottom of a random chasm/hole (the latter happens a lot), I have nothing to add. It says what it says.

Temple of DOOM LOL

You go through five, identical areas, and the last one has an exit guarded by arch-vile and barons.

Particle effects. The mappers went wild with these from what I can remember. Almost all of the WADs requiring ZDoom used these. And as you can guess, it got annoying pretty fast. Honestly, I don’t mind them that much. I find the ambient sounds of ZDoom much more annoying.

Invisible platforms. With a little bit of trickery, it was possible to make these even in 1994 (Doomsday of UAC). Although, judging by the implementation of this gimmick in this WAD, I can assume it was another, overused gimmick in the past.

Barons surrounding arch-viles. If you want to add some devilish encounters, you can add an arch-vile behind some barons. See how the flame boy resurrect one of these meatballs and laugh your ass off at the reaction of people who played your map/WAD.

Speaking of Stupid

You are surrounded by 702 siege cows, and you have to run to the northwestern corner of the map to reach the exit.

I don’t really have nothing else to add aside from the fact, that many maps before and after this WAD were starting with you being surrounded by enemies. It gets especially bad if the enemies are hitscanners.

SoM Did it!

…

I mean… You see this shit, right? Good luck legitimately pressing 3-4 switches to unlock the exit.

The chessboard-moving floor. The gimmick that sucked back then, and it still sucks. What was just a funny area in one of the maps of the original episode 2, it has become an overused, and overblown shit. At least in Refinery, it wasn’t an entire room, and it was pretty small.

Right in the Crotch

Another straightforward map. Lower gravity, sea of lava, and almost a thousand of tomatoes standing between you and the exit column to press. Good luck jumping there without cheating.

Jumping on a damaging floor. Another way to cheese Doom. And not gonna lie, I sometimes use it. Rarely, but still.

Platforming. While this map doesn’t completely feel like doing that, this thing is kind of a bane for WADs, since you can’t control yourself after jumping.

That’s all for part 1. Stick around for part two in the following days.

[nightnightsleeptight]

This is interesting and I was mulling over this one for a while before I briefly mentioned it in an MDL post while updating my episode count!

I don’t think the name on the phone is a mistake, and here’s why! Deep breath!

<Start post!

When First texts Sprite, the Line profile photo of the person he texts has a jiujitsu uniform.

Uh oh - Sprite forgot to switch to the right account! Do you know what I’m strangely reminded of? When Daniel and Crystal from Lookism in their chaotic body swapping lives go to school in the wrong bodies! I digress, but I thought First would figure it out in the earlier episodes because of a few thoughtful moments he had after interacting with Sprite and the background music choices for said moments.

Next, there’s Sprite’s cryptic behaviour when he hugs him then lies down in his lap. Sprite’s hinting heavily that not everything is as it seems and First should be able to read into that! (I was gonna make a screenshot collage of this scene but I gave up on Canva - please do recommend me anything else to use in my inbox lol <3)

Then, we go to the shopping centre date (we all know that was a date, let’s be real!)

Sprite’s friend calls his name, and because Sprite is stupid enough to turn around and acknowledge him, First obviously questions this.

Sprite, acting in the LEAST bait way (sarcasm), denies, dashes and drags First away with him (ooh alliteration, I like that!)

My possible logical conclusions thus with all the evidence are these:

1. First is a dense idiot (doubtful from evidence)

2. First is too in love to doubt Sprite (possible but doubtful from evidence again)

3. First wants to pretend his instincts are wrong (possible)

4. First wants to let Sprite tell him truth (probable and I hope this is the case!)

First should be able to put two and two together with “Zee” and his suspicious behaviour after he first missed practice, insisted on moving back in with him, and trying to get close to him and the whole team. Sprite is such a goofball you’d have to wonder what happened to change the cold Zee to such a character… unless there was a twin swap! Hell, even if you go on JUST the events of episode 8 outlined above, you could guess that perhaps there's some dodgy business going on here!

I think that First knows. He’s either pretending not to know because he doesn’t want to believe it, or because he wants to give Sprite a chance to come clean. The latter seems more likely to me because of the way he asks Sprite where he is after seeing the handover with Salmon. He wants to be understanding and probably doesn't want to push Sprite so hard that the progress and trust they had gets lost.

End post>

Start my own notes!

Hello! Night here! :D What do you think of the tag open and close that I did with the <start post end post>? Should I close both tags and do a </> around the end post instead?

Apologies, but I really wanted to make this a longer post - I shouldn’t have left it so close to the next episode lol! I initially wrote this as a comment but it became too long. If only I was as invested in making gifs on a whim for other shows like I am with this one - I have a few screen recordings from Invisible (Japan, 2022) which I made months ago and I remember a scene from flipping Fahlanruk that I wanted to make a meme out of 👀😭

I really need to sleep - 00:45 here! Night night, sleep tight wonderful people and thank you so much if you read this <3

P.S. I WAS THINKING OF GUMPA FROM NOT ME BUT FORGOT TO MENTION IT!!! Surely he’d not teach someone who’s a volleyball expert all over unless HE KNOWS THEY’RE NOT A VOLLEYBALL EXPERT!!! (Edit at 00:47)

So.. First already knows that the man he's in love with is Sprite and not Zee, right?

I can't believe that in a show purposely based on SWITCHING TWINS they'd do such silly mistakes as to put the wrong twin name in the call graphic.

[armed-aphrodite]

Trick-shot Signs of the Cross

tired of going through the same boring old motions when doing the sign of the cross? try these exciting new variations just released by the Catholic Church! (none of these have ever gotten me kicked out of a mass but some have gotten me Priestly Side-eye)

Easy Mode

The Lightning (difficulty 1/10, cool factor 9/10): a great beginner sign of the cross, begin by touching your head as you say The Father, but The Son is on your left shoulder, instead of your stomach. Finish with the Holy Spirit on your right shoulder, then your stomach. A very easy variation that looks very cool, especially when you do it Really Fast

The Macarena (difficulty 3/10, cool factor 5/10): begin by bringing your right hand to your forehead, followed by your left, both together signifying The Father. Then bring your right hand down to your stomach, leaving your left touching your forehead. Only once your right hand is on your stomach, bring your left hand down to match for The Son. Keeping the same rhythm, bring your right hand up to your right shoulder, then your left hand to your left. Difficulty comes from keeping a beat while there is no music and timing the hand movements.

Unlocking the Tomb (difficulty 2/10, cool factor 6/10): Place your right hand to your forehead for The Father, and leave it there as you place your left hand to your stomach. For the Holy Spirit, rotate your hands in a circle to reach your shoulders, your right hand on your left shoulder and left and on your right shoulder. This should leave them crossed, as Jesus' arms would've been crossed over him as he laid buried. In uncrossing your arms, you affirm Jesus' rising from the tomb!

A Worthy Challenge

The Superman (difficulty 5/10, cool factor 11/10): My personal favorite. Requires a jacket or button down shirt/blouse. Begin by placing both hands at your forehead for The Father, hands arched inward. Bring them both together down for The Son. For the Holy Spriting, bring them together to the middle of your chest while going on your tiptoes and jutting out your chest. From their placement, drag apart the jacket/shirt as you bring your hands to your shoulders. Bonus cool and difficulty points for ripping apart a fully-buttoned shirt and wearing a Superman t-shirt. If anyone gets mad, remind them Superman is basically Jesus - a superhuman with Jewish origins that often get purposefully forgotten.

Disco Daddy (difficulty 4/10, cool factor 7/10): Do the sign of the cross as normal, but between each movement stick your hand out at a 45 degree angle, pointing out. You should poke out your alternate hip to your pointing arm. The difficulty here comes from sticking your arm out to its full extension while not garnering too much attention. Bonus points for sporting a little chest hair.

Nightmare Mode

Between the Legs (difficulty 9/10, cool factor 1/10): A common first thought, its difficulty is belied by its simplicity. Perform the sign of the cross as normal, but with your hand reaching around behind you and coming back between your legs. You Will have to bend over.

Roll for Persuasion (difficulty 11/10, cool factor 2/10): Ask the person seated next to you to perform the sign of the cross for you, on your own body (i.e. they touch your forehead, stomach, then each shoulder). However you convince them to do it is up to you.

The Yo-Yo (difficulty 10/10, cool factor 10/10): Perform the sign of the cross normally, but rather than use your hand, use a yo-yo. A word of advice, scout out a pew with plenty of space. I will admit to not having tried this one during a mass, but I'll be damned if it's not achievable. Considering the blasphemy I've been committing researching these, I'm probably damned anyway.

[stardestroyer81]

One of the things that I love the most about the Classic Mega Man series is its artstyle. It's very anime-esque with a slight twinge of toon, and there's a surprising amount of detail that goes into each art piece drawn by Mega Man illustrator Keiji Inafune (Such as how robot masters and characters like Mega Man and Roll have different pupil types and the infamous 'Capcom hand').

Naturally, ever since 2015, I've been trying my hand in seeing how accurately I can replicate the Mega Man artstyle, and considering I mentioned planning to make a full Famicom styled box art piece for Mega Man Ultimate, I decided it was about time to dive back in to researching Mega Man's artstyle to make said art piece as 1:1 to official artwork as I can!

And where better to start with the centerpiece, Mega Man himself? Back in December of 2020, I drew a Classic styled Mega Man in honor of his 33rd anniversary, and while it was decent enough in its own right given my skillset at the time, this time I wanted to go all out in drawing a full-body Mega Man while keeping a lot of Inafune's art choices in check...

... which resulted in the best Mega Man I've ever drawn!

Looking at a character like Mega Man, you'd think he wouldn't be too difficult to draw, and design wise, he's not. The simplicity of his armor and few colors actually make him— in theory— pretty easy to draw.

But when you're attempting to match the actiony grandeur that is the key artwork for more recent Mega Man games on top of keeping an eye on proportions, shading styles, and shaping everything just right... then it becomes a tad hard.

So, when I sat down to draw Mega Man, I made the decision to start with arguably the most important part... the head.

To me, if you're going after a stylistically accurate Mega Man, his head is detrimental in getting just right. This is easier said than done, because his helmet isn't just a circle; it's more ovular and widens toward the top, leaving the base of the helmet to be a bit slimmer.

Above, you can see two preliminary sketches I whipped up in preparation for the digital outline phase. While they look fairly similar, each one has a focus: the leftmost sketch was primarily focused on getting the head to look nice (Which took about forty-five minutes by itself!), as well as drawing a good buster.

The righthand sketch was more focused on Mega Man's pose, explaining the placeholder head and buster. I was originally going to jump right into taking the left sketch and digitalizing it, but when I felt like the hand and legs could be drawn better, I made an additional sketch to merge with the first.

Woah! Here's something new: just like how I've begun showing the spriting process for some of my sprite works, here's the process I went about when digitalizing my Mega Man sketch after I had finished reshaping everything in my drawing software: from outline to flat color to the end result!

Interestingly, when I first got done drawing Mega Man, I thought it looked great... but I wasn't a fan of how he looked proportionally, as I thought his arms and legs looked a little short. When I had been searching for reference images to base my sketches on, I noticed that Mega Man's legs especially are a bit lengthy, so I redrew 45% of my then-final result with these changes in mind, which resulted in the version shown in this post.

I'm really impressed with myself on how great I got this piece of Mega Man to look, since shading and posing aren't my forte— it feels nice to have one of the tougher aspects of MMU's eventual box art drawn, and I hope you've enjoyed both the art and reading the process behind it!

[jaybug-jabbers]

Pokemon Gold/Silver Beta Pokemon: The April 2020 Leak

Look, 2020 was a rough year. So maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised that the April 2020 Gold/Silver source code leak flew almost entirely under my radar. If you Google about it, you’re find it’s very rare for news outlets to cover it. This is probably because many folks are hesitant to cover leaks. Also, the US was warming up to a truly awful pandemic around that point, not to mention other civil unrest, so it’s no surprise some people were a tad distracted. 

But the fact is, another leak turned up in April of last year, following a recent trend of huge Nintendo leaks. And this one was a doozy. I’ve only truly realized its full extent in the past few days. As such, I’d like to do a post that covers some of the new information. In particular, I’m focusing on beta pokemon that were cut or heavily reworked.

Now, back in 2018, the Spaceworld ‘97 Pokemon Gold/Silver Demo was leaked online. I made a post about some of my favorites. So, from this leak, we already knew of a while slew of beta pokemon. However, as it turns out, there were still more new faces to find-- and a lot of them! I list 45 new beta pokemon here, in fact!

In the April 2020 leak, several sprite sets were found as internal files, each at different phases of game production. The sprite sets were dated May 6, 1998, June 13, 1999, June 21, 1999, and September 17, 1999. The August 17, 1999 Spaceworld ‘99 Demo build was also found, so we have information on that as well.

Essentially, if you want to see this information at The Cutting Room Floor, then head to this page for the sprites discovered as internal backups/sprite banks. Head to this page for the Spaceworld ‘99 demo information page. And, if you need a refresher for the older leak, you can go to this page for the Spaceworld ‘97 demo build.

For this post, we will focus on the May 6, ‘98 set of sprites, which contain the vast majority of new faces. So, without further ado, onward to the pokemon!

(#300) Kokopelli Pokemon/Celebi

(May 6, ‘98)       (Spaceworld ‘99 Demo)

This first pair of sprites looks very much like Kokopelli, a fertility deity of some Native American cultures. This deity can be seen in ancient Native American petroglyphs, as a humpbacked flute player with feathers on the head. Surprisingly, we find that Celebi in the Spaceworld ‘99 Demo seems to be an updated version of this design, making Celebi’s design origins much different than expected. However, its fertility diety inspiration is still somewhat apparant in the modern Celebi, as a creature that causes plant life to flourish.

(#301) Eel Pokemon

While the sprite files did not reveal a name or other data, this eel’s sprites were numbered right beside the Gurotesu (Grotess) and Ikari (Anchorage) sprites, suggesting it once was the start of their evolution chain. 

(#304) Fire Fox Pokemon

This little fellow is a fox that seems to have a fiery tail. It’s possible this fire fox was inspired by kitsune (just as Vulpix/Ninetails were) and that it was later redesigned as Fennekin. 

(#305 - 308) Snow Bunny Evolution Line

These four pokemon seem to belong to the same evolutionary line. The second one seems to based on the Yuki Usagi, a ‘Snow Bunny.’ In Japan, these cute little critters are made in the snow (using leaves for the ears). They also sometimes make these Yuki Usagi as little marshmallow or mochi treats. So this pokemon line could be inspired by either of these. Considering the leaves and the snow, I would guess these would have been Grass/Ice. 

(#309) Elephant Pokemon

You might wonder if this chonky boy-- looking tough with horns on his head and back-- was an early version of Donphan, but Donphan and Phanpy were present in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo. Indeed, this elephant and Phanpy/Donphan both exist in the same set of sprites from May ‘98, so it was simply a case of two types of elephants. This pokemon also calls to mind a glimpse of a cut beta pokemon we saw from Generation 1 (from ‘Satoshi Tajiri: The Man Who Made Pokémon’):

Same fierce eyes, at any rate! Alas, these both never saw the light of day. However, it’s possible this elephant was reworked into Piloswine, which is not in the May ‘98 collection but does appear in the June 13 ‘99 collection (although Swinub is absent). While Piloswine and Swinub are more akin to wild boars, there is also some relation to mammoths (an inspiration more heavily leaned on with Mammoswine in later games). Then again, there’s another pokemon you’ll see a little further down this list that might have inspired Piloswine instead.

(#311) Natu/Xatu Mid-Evolution

What is clearly a mid-evolution (its file number sits between the two). Has a peacock-like tail. Honestly, I think this works really good as a mid-evolution, and I don’t know why it was cut. I want to name it “Watu.”

(#313) Drunk Kiwi Pokemon

This one is just hilarious to look at. It appears to probably be a kiwi-bird? A very crazy-eyed, loopy one. I can see why this one was cut. The goofy, simple design kind of looks like a knockoff cartoon character for children. 

(#314) Scorpion Pokemon

A pretty badass-looking scorpion, although a rather basic design. I dig the funky head, though. It seems like it has a single, beady eye and is rather menacing. This pokemon may have been later reworked into Gligar, a pokemon that first appears after this sprite set, in the June 13 ‘99 group:

Admittedly this is rather different from the Gligar we know, but it is an early design.

Or, who knows-- maybe this little fellah was later reworked into Skorupi. (If so, it’s a shame, as I don’t dig the weird accordian-like design of its limbs and its evolution.)

(#315) Quail Pokemon

A pudgey little quail pokemon. Doesn’t seem related to the kiwi pokemon. It’s a very cute little thing, and has lots of potential to evolve into something interesting, but it seems they scrapped it pretty quickly.

(#316) Music Note Bird Pokemon

Although these sprites are numbered right after the quail, and they are both birds, the designs are very different, so they seem unrelated. It seems the beta pokemon were simply blessed with a lot of birds. This little bird is in the shape of a clef, giving this bird a musical theme. It seems very likely it was later reworked into Chatot, a bird with a music-note shaped head and metronome tail.

(#319) Boar Pokemon

A cute, grumpy little boar with antlers. Probably what eventually led to Piloswine found in the June 13 ‘99 group. A bit of a shame, in my mind, as I kind of prefer this design.

(#325) Spikey Dog Pokemon

The curious thing is that this dog looks very similar to “Pudi,” a pokemon we saw in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo, which was intended to be a pre-evolution of Growlithe. But Pudi is also in this same collection of sprites!

Perhaps they were toying with the idea of re-designing Pudi (and had already scrapped a bunch of baby pokemon) and just hadn’t bothered to remove the old Pudi yet. It’s hard to say. Ultimately, these both were scrapped, but at least we still have Subbull/Granbull.

(#331) Yūrei Ghost Pokemon

This little ghost has two things that are common in Japanese folklore: the hitaikakushi (the white cloth headband it wears) and the two little balls of fire called hitodama. It is unknown why this ghost pokemon was scrapped, but perhaps they thought the little fellow wouldn’t translate well overseas? 

(#344) Viking Ship Pokemon

Look at this beauty! A pokemon based off some sort of Viking ship. I absolutely adore this one. It’s creative and charming. I hope to see it in the future.

(#349) Wooly Dog Pokemon

This canine-like creature is fluffy as all out. Honestly I think it’s a tad odd, with how tangled and disheveled its fur looks. I can’t help but compare it to the early desings of the three Legendary Beasts, since they also are very canine-like:

These three designs are present in this same May 6, 98′ sprite collection as the representations of Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. Were they possibly playing with a different design idea for the Legendary Beasts? Perhaps Suicune. The Wooly Dog is just such an imposing sprite, that I can’t help but wonder. All pure speculation, of course. 

(#350) Rabbit Pokemon

This rabbit has a rather intense look about him, and it makes me curious what the ideas were behind it. TCRF suggests it’s a possible pikachu clone.

(#351) Snake Pokemon

This cute little worm or snake seems to be wearing a feather headdress, suggesting its design may also be Native American inspired, like the Natu line. On the other hand, this could be inspired by Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent deity in Aztec culture. I would have loved to see this little guy’s evolutions.

(#352) Scarecrow Bird

A bird with a hat that kind of looks like a scarecrow. Honestly, it’s a super-cute idea.

(#353) Gargoyle Pokemon

This crouching beastie sort of looks like a gargoyle with a long, sharp tail. I can’t quite tell if those bits on the side are little wings or just a part of its legs. It would be interesting to see this creature standing in a different position-- I feel like that would give us a better understanding of what it looks like. Interestingly, there are striking similarities with Aerodactyl:

I wonder why they are so similar?

(#354 - 356) Manbō Evolution Family

The first of these three fishies was someone we already met in the Spaceworld ‘97 demo-- it was named ‘Manbō 1.′ In the demo, it evolved into  Ikari (Anchorage) and then Gurotesu (Grotess). It seems it’s now been split off from those and given a new evolution family here. While I find that neat, and I quite like the expressions on these fish, they are admittedly a little bland. 

(#360) Flying Squirrel(?) Pokemon

TCRF guesses this is a flying squirrel, and it seems to be wearing a sheathed sword. Not sure about the headgear it’s sporting. Is that a ninja star? 

(#364) Early Cyndaquil

So, this May 6, ‘98 collection is really exciting. The original Gold/Silver fire starter line we saw in Spaceworld ‘97 (Honooguma’s line) is still present in this collection (as is the water-type ‘Cruz’ line and Chikorita’s line). So, what we have here seems to be an early Cyndaquil before they decided to turn it into a fire type and make it the fire starter! In fact, those spikes might even be icicles (like Alolan Sandslash), for all we know. If so, Cyndaquil’s typing pulled a 180.

(#377) Early Furret?

Possibly an early Furret. Looks pretty awkward, not gonna lie; I’m glad it was probably refined into modern Furret, with more body definition between the head and tail.

(#378) Stork Pokemon

It’s a stork, based on the myth of where babies come from. A cute idea, although its curly ‘hair’ looks a little funny to me. 

(#380) Squid Pokemon

A squid with drills for its mantle and arms. Since that’s kinda Beedrill’s thing, I’m glad they scrapped the idea. The backsprite lacks drills so it’s probably from a different design stage. 

(#382 - 383) Early Burmy/Pineco

Burmy/Wormadam/Mothim is based off the bagworm. Bagworms are grubs that use silk and lots of bits of leaves, bark and other objects to create a camouflaged cocoon. When they turn into adults, some species of female bagworms just look like their larval stage, while the males turn into winged moths. That is why Burmy/Wormadam/Mothim have their unique evolution situation. Clearly, these two beta pokemon are playing around with the bagworm idea. They probably went on to inspire both Pineco (another pokemon based on bagworms!) and the Burmy line in gen 4.

(#386) Koala Pokemon

It’s so cool to see they were thinking about a koala pokemon this early. We would not finally get one until gen 7′s Komala.

(#387) Tanuki Pokemon

A Tanuki that is carrying campfire kindling on his back, but the kindling has caught fire. Apparently based on the Kachi-Kachi Yama folktale, which is a surprisingly violent story, but I suppose folktales often are. Who knows why it was cut, but Sentret is the closest thing we have to a tanuki pokemon for now.

(#392) Megaphone(?) Bird Pokemon

Yet another bird pokemon! There sure were a lot of beta birds. This one appears to have a megaphone-shaped beak. Or, possibly, its head is shaped like a gas mask (the strange eyes seem  to support this idea). Honestly I really dig the look of this one.

(#397) Frog Pokemon

It’s tough to tell but it has a small horn on its head. It has a long tongue and is probably shouting “ribbithhhhhh!” It’s cute, but a little plain.

(#400) Tiny Hippo Pokemon

Look at this little weirdo. I think it’s a tiny hippo? With a mohawk and a big grin and wild eyes. It doesn’t really seem to have a head, its mouth/eyes/ears are just stuck directly to a body. Looks pretty awkward, probably needed some polish. No idea what they were going for with it, but it’s interesting.

(#401) Skeleton Pokemon

A very spooky, bipedal, living skeleton beast. It has a long snout and sharp teeth, almost like a crocodile or a dinosaur-like creature. Its head and shoulders have bony spikes and the front of its snout has markings that seem to be a nasal cavity. Very detailed. It also reminds me of Missingno, as some Missingno used the fossil skeletons as their front sprites. I would have loved to have this pokemon, and it’s a real shame they didn’t use it.

(#402) Rodent Pokemon

A mouse or bunny with gigantic, spotted ears and no arms. Those are some serious ears; it almost looks like it could fly with them. 

(#403) Fly Pokemon

A bug-type!! It has a huge, creepy face, curly antenna and wings strangely really close to its head. I love it?? But it’s a bug, so of course I do.

(#404) Plant Pokemon

The Snow Bunny was likely part grass-type, but other than that, this is our first grass beta! It has one eye, a spikey head, and almost foot-like roots. I love how grumpy it looks. There’s a possibility it was a pre-evolution for Sunflora, before they had created the idea of Sunkern (which is not present in this collection).

(#405) Ant Pokemon

Another bug!! This one looks a lot like a winged ant. (Those do exist-- usually a temporary thing for mating flights) It’s possibly related to the fly pokemon above, sporting very similar wings. However, it doesn’t really seem like an evolution.

(#406) Dinosaur Pokemon

A little dinosaur-like pokemon, looking up at you. It’s unclear if that’s a tough, bony skull, or if it’s maybe a hat. The clubbed tail makes me wonder if it’s related to #415 below, but it’s probably unlikely. However, it is pretty likely that this later became Cranidos.

(#407) Early Cherrim

This clearly was a design that was picked up later, in gen 4, to create Cherubi/Cherrim’s sunshine form. I am glad the design was improved, because the lips on this one scare me.

(#412) Early Dunsparce

Dunsparce looking quite different. No wings, no drill tail, with a much more typical snake-like face. 

(#415) Dinosaur Pokemon

It looks like an aquatic version of an Ankylosaurus or something similar. It’s possible it’s related to the Viking Ship pokemon (as a pre-evo), but there’s no way to know. I quite like it, though.

(#416) Flying Fish Pokemon

This magnificent beast, this miracle of creation, is surely my favorite beta pokemon of all time. Revel in its glory. You may not like it, but this is the ideal pokemon body. What a perfect way to round off our collection of betas.

[undersprite]

2021's Winner is...!

I would like to congratulate everyone who participated on this year's events! Admittedly, this year's contest yielded less entries, but on the other hand, the entries this year had a lot of effort put into them.

Even so, I recognize that there are things we need to improve on the team as hosts as far as the contest is concerned. That being said, we will now proceed to list off the winners!

1st. Lancer's Really Cool Birthday Party For My Dad That's In Jail (FT. My Best Friend) - By Ellis and TmntLeo

Writing Fidelity: 49/60 Art Fidelity: 60/60 Pacing/Lenght: 33/40 Creativity: 37/40

"LRCBPFMDTIJ (jesus that's a mouthful) is one of the best comics in the contest. Though it suffers from being a first part and the story being left incomplete, the content on display is meaty enough to make up for it. The writing is pretty sharp, and it is a visual treat. Easily the best, though, again, I have to take out points for being a part 1. " -Fms

"[...] They've managed to demonstrate the power of teamwork and dedication, both in the comic and in its development, and it's something that I think is fantastic." -Subna

"[...] I haven’t got much else to say. Just a really strong, solid entry." - CHAOS_FANTAZY

2nd. Afterwards - By Superkirbylover

Writing Fidelity: 41/60 Art Fidelity: 48/60 Pacing/Lenght: 31/40 Creativity: 32/40

"SKL’s Afterward was pretty good, if not a bit bogged down by the ending. The Alphys stinger at the end did leave a bitter taste in my mouth for the wrong reasons, I feel as though it could have been cut, and the comic would have been better off for it. I don’t particularly like how Alphys is so open about her feelings. That being said, the rest of the comic makes up for it. Visually it is pretty similar to UT, but the amount of animations, expressions, and original poses for the characters are charming and really gives it an edge. It is just a solid entry that manages to stand up on its own terms." - Fms

"Oof. That was heavy. It’s honestly a little difficult for me to fairly evaluate such an emotionally charged story, but, hey, “Story That Makes You Sad” made me sad, so mission accomplished, I guess! [...] Other than that, I have to say I’m very pleased with this, and even more pleased to know I inspired it." - CHAOS_FANTAZY

"[...] That said, the comic is presented very concise, and the spritework plus the animations seem great to me, especially the Frisk sprite being lifted by Toriel and how consistent it remains, [...] I thought it was great, no absolute complaint at this point." - Subna

3rd. Sans' Night - MultiSoulZero

Writing Fidelity: 45/60 Art Fidelity: 26/60 Pacing/Lenght: 35/40 Creativity: 30/40

"Sans’ Night was the most pleasant surprise from this contest. It’s a simple premise executed wonderfully, a stand up comedy act from the skeleton himself. The visuals have a lot of little blemishes (the text box borders changing constantly, for instance) that add up. The comic only takes place in one room, and there’s not a lot of movement involved in it. The visuals are sufficient to carry the writing, but they feel lackluster in comparison to other comics. The comic is also really simple and there’s not much of a plot. But it absolutely nails what it tries to do, and I believe it deserves credit for achieving it. The writing feels in character, and it’s pretty entertaining, and it’s entirely self contained. … Though, being honest, the fact that this is one of the best comics in the contest is slightly upsetting. Still, a good read." - Fms

"[...] It’s almost fiendishly brilliant to make a comic like this—doing the absolute bare minimum so there’s nothing to poke holes into. If it’s all a meta-joke about how that’s what Sans himself would do, then this comic is utter genius, but I really can’t go as far as to assume that. As is, I have to say that I hate that this is one of the stronger entrants in the contest." - CHAOS_FANTAZY

"……….Jesus christ. You actually did a 50+ panel comic of Sans doing a comedy show, wild. I admit that the first time I read it my impression was more negative than anything, probably because the screen does not show much more than Sans walking from one side to another, but after giving each comic a second reading, and talking to the rest of judges on each entry, it was there when I noticed that the strength of the comic was in your writing." - Subna

That being said, due to the amount of judges and opinions, we did not have the time to put a comprehensive document with all of the reviews in one place.

We will release it in due time, ideally before the day ends. But, for the time being, have this spreadsheet:

Thank you for participating! We hope we can grow to improve this contest next year.

[teawithotome]

R3! Ready! Reserve! Rescue! "Crikey! It's a Hybrid": Fun Times at Mankai Nature & Hybrid Reserve - Now with Cafe! Sexy Animal Farm AKA That One Hybrid AU That I Will Not Shut Up About

1: Mankai Nature Reserve || 2: Fleeting Youth (Hybrids Go Through Puberty Too)

summary:

Izumi Tachibana leaves home looking for a change and ends up with her hands full of... paws, hooves, claws, and talons! (insert various animal noises)

Mankai Nature Reserve used to be a home for many wild hybrids - beings that can shift between human and animal - but in recent years it's fallen into disrepair. Will Izumi be able to restore this rundown nature reserve into a blooming habitat once more, and help domesticate the wild hybrids she encounters along the way?

... Doubtful. But she loves a project!

notes: this has been a fic idea that's sat in my brain for -checks phone- OVER A YEAR?? jesus christ, anyway uhhh this is very loosely based on the A7! AU they did for april fools that one time (mostly the sprites), and I just couldn't get the thought of hybrid boys out of my head and the chaos that might ensue if Mankai Company was a nature reserve instead of a theater

everyone else (yes including minor characters and ensemble cast) will show up eventually

warnings for this chapter: swearing, nudity (but it's for comedy)

---

Izumi Tachibana prides herself on being difficult to scare. She's always been the dependable one among friends and family, and as such has developed a certain amount of unshakable composure in any given situation. Skydiving instructors and wedding coordinators have nothing on her ability to stay cool in a crisis. 

But when a naked stranger flings himself against the windshield of her jeep, for a brief moment, she’s humbled. Reminded of her own mortality and shortcomings as a person.

She wonders, as she tries to remember how to breathe, and the naked man makes an obnoxious gesture, if she's made a mistake in straying so far from home, in thinking she could do this by herself.

She and Iku, her chinchilla hybrid, had only been driving for a couple of hours when he began tugging at her sleeve.

“No bathroom breaks, bud. I told you to go before we left,” she reminds him with the sort of kind reprimand that he’s grown fond of over time.

Iku shakes his head. “No, it’s not that. I just wanna know where we’re going! Are we there yet?”

Izumi’s hands tighten around the wheel slightly.

“I know you said it’s a surprise, but can I at least have a hint?” He wiggles in his seat excitedly, ears and tail twitching. “Are we going to a park? Or a hybrid cafe? Will I get to make friends?”

She chews her lip. There are a lot more hybrids in the city.

“You’ll make a ton of new friends, kiddo.” She assures him with a quick smile. “There’ll be so many hybrids there, you won’t know what to do with yourself.”

Iku’s eyes light up, and she has to look away, turning her attention back to the road. It’s getting dark out, and it started raining a while ago. Although it’s nothing Izumi’s jeep can’t handle, it does feel fitting for her mood. She can’t bring herself to think about the next step, what they’ll do and where they’ll go when they get to the city. But she can’t turn back now.

As though in echo of her thoughts, lightning flashes on the horizon, and a clap of thunder follows after only a second or two. She can feel Iku tense up beside her. He’s always been afraid of thunderstorms.

“Are we there yet, Izu?”

She knows this time he isn’t asking out of impatience.

According to the map on her phone, propped up on the socket holder in the vent, they’re still at least a 45 minute drive from the city, and that’s if she pushes the speed limit. The rain is coming down harder with each moment, turning from a shower to a downpour in a matter of minutes. Her windshield wipers are making a valiant but useless effort. She can’t see a damn thing.

Frustration fills her as she pulls over to the side of the road, the trees overhead providing some cover from the onslaught. She’d checked the weather before leaving, specifically waiting for a day when no rain was predicted.

“Izu?” Iku’s voice is timid, his fuzzy ears pressed flat against his head.

“Give me a second, okay, bud?” Izumi yanks her phone out of its stand and zooms in on the digital map onscreen, looking for someplace, any place nearby that they could take cover until the storm passes.

“Are we gonna keep driving? Do we have to stay out here?” He fidgets with his hands, bushy tail wrapping around his waist in the self-soothing position he usually assumes during storms.

“Just a minute, okay?” She replies, though she knows it doesn’t come out sounding as comforting as she would have liked. Just her luck that they're in the middle of nowhere when something like this happens.

Wait, further up the side road… it looks like there’s something. Mankai Nature Reserve.

Why does that sound so familiar?

“Izu?” Iku’s tiny voice pierces her thoughts again as another flash of lightning fills the sky, and he cowers behind his fluffy tail with a whimper when the thunder follows. “S-sorry… I’m okay. I’ve grown out of it.”

Her heart melts. All thoughts of annoyance disappear as she reassesses her priorities. Iku may be growing fast, but he’s still a kid. Even though Iku is essentially a 15 year old boy while in hybrid form, in chinchilla form he’s still only three years old. He still needs to be held, played with, and given lots of attention from his owner. Izumi sometimes forgets how little he is.

She unbuckles her seatbelt and gestures for him to come over onto her lap. He shifts seamlessly into his full chinchilla form, hopping over and burrowing against her chest, tiny noises of distress emanating from his smaller self.

“It’s okay, I know…” Izumi holds and shushes him soothingly, unzipping her jacket to let him nestle inside. Once he’s settled, she zips it back up partially to keep him secure. “You stay in there, okay? I’ll get us someplace dry.”

Iku nods his little head, still shaking a bit.

Inhaling through her nose and exhaling through her mouth, she buckles up and puts the car in reverse, navigating to the side road indicated on the map, which quickly turns from concrete into gravel.

A small detour. This is fine. Soon they’ll be back on track.

She can barely see from the darkness of the cloud cover, but she can still make out the lush forest surrounding them on all sides. There’s less rain with the additional trees, but still enough to have her wipers working overtime.

She slowly makes her way up the gravel pathway. This reserve is a pretty long way from the main road. But if they have a dry place for her and Iku to wait out the storm, that’ll be good enough.

By now, Iku has calmed down a bit and pokes his head out from her jacket, whiskers twitching while he watches the rain splash against the windshield.

In an instant, something emerges from the underbrush on the left and slams into the hood of the car. The vehicle jostles from the impact, just as a bolt of lightning showcases the figure now pressed up against the windshield.

The very naked male figure.

Izumi lets out a shriek. She isn't proud of it, but she does. While her lungs stop working and her heart tries to beat its way out of her chest, she wonders for a very brief moment if this is where she’ll die. A heart attack in her jeep on a rainy night far away from home, with a naked man as her last view of this mortal plane. Not exactly a heroic death.

Iku, on the other hand, gets over the startle surprisingly quickly. He leaps from Izumi’s jacket back onto the passenger seat, shifting back into hybrid form, his eyes wide with curiosity. He leans forward and taps on the glass, raising his voice to be heard over the rain. "Hi! What's your name?"

The man, or no, the hybrid (Izumi now notices the pinkish feathers jutting out from his elbows, neck, and unfortunately, scrotum) seems only a little dazed from his crash, and merely cackles in reply.

A shout from the shrubbery to the left seems to get the hybrid's attention, and he springs off the hood, darting away to the right, through the underbrush. "TRY TO CATCH ME, BITCH!" In his wake, he leaves a slightly greasy and unfortunate outline on the windshield. The rain does little to wash it away.

"Izu, there are hybrids here!” Iku starts tugging at her sleeve again, his fuzzy ears twitching in delight, all previous fears forgotten in light of this new development. “Can I go make some friends? Please?"

"Iku, that is not-"

Izumi cuts herself off with another undignified yelp as a little red something crashes onto the hood as well, scampering to right itself on the slippery surface.

A squirrel. He chitters and turns to face them through the windshield, fur sopping wet, then stands up on his hind legs and bows his head. Is he… apologizing? Another hybrid, then. His beady eyes are shiny with emotion as he raises his head up to look at Izumi, wringing his paws together remorsefully.

He returns to all fours and is about to take off in pursuit of the feathery flasher, but he spies Iku and seems to hesitate a moment. He waves a paw at him shyly. Iku's eyes light up as he waves back. Then the squirrel darts off through the underbrush.

Izumi can sense the question on Iku's lips before he can ask it. "No, Iku."

"Izu, please! I wanna go play tag, too!" His shiny eyes and adorable pout will get him nowhere this time.

"No! Are you crazy? It’s thundering outside, you’re not supposed to get wet, and those hybrids are definitely not domesticated," she says, still catching her breath from the double heart attacks.

Iku slumps in his seat, looking utterly defeated.

Her resolve weakens. "Listen." She ruffles his hair, turquoise locks silky beneath her fingers. "I know you’re looking forward to meeting other hybrids. But we'll find a… safer way to get you some friends, okay?" She lets out a sigh, muttering under her breath while she takes another quick glance out the windows. "Hopefully without encountering any more lunatics."

"But that squirrel guy seemed nice! Why can't I make friends with him?" Iku asks, his eyes carrying a sliver of hope that Izumi hates to dash.

But this isn't about the greasy outline of male anatomy streaking her windshield, or even her personal pride. It's about Iku's safety. It’s about finding shelter, a warm, safe place to wait out this storm.

Clearly, this reserve does not fit the bill.

"KAMEKICHI!" Another man emerges from the left, this one with a scraggly mop of hair, his patchy beard and dirty rain poncho only enhance the haggard expression on his face. He wields a large butterfly net in his hands. "GET BACK HERE!"

He stops mid-stride when he catches sight of their vehicle, like a deer in headlights. The net clatters to the ground. His face lights up with the most desperate grin Izumi's ever seen.

"Welcome!" He cries with near hysteria and takes a step forward, as another bolt of lightning illuminates him eerily from behind. "You're… you're here for the hybrid cafe event, right? The grand reopening?"

Izumi purses her lips.

She puts the car in reverse.

"No, please, WAIT!"

"There’s a hybrid cafe?!"

She tries to remain calm and ignore both the strange man and Iku's overlapping shouts as she slowly backs up. No sudden movements, keep eye contact. At least, that’s what her mom had always said to do when dealing with dangerous creatures. But the guy runs forward and flings himself at the hood of her jeep anyway, his glasses askew. "PLEASE DON'T LEAVE!!"

The impact has her heart hammering and she tries very hard not to shriek again. Stay calm, Izumi. Just focus on the road, don't run over any animals or pedestrians.

"Wait! Don't go yet!” The man clings to her windshield wipers, even as they swat him in the face. “You haven't even- ow! S-seen our wonderful hybrids up for adoption, all very well trained, and-"

"Oh, you mean like the one that flashed me and left a dick print on my jeep?!" She retorts hotly, adrenaline pumping through her at this point, and removing a few of her usual filters.

"Well… we have a beautiful garden! And fancy finger sandwiches!"

All she needs to do is focus on getting her and Iku-

Iku.

Her heart stops. She feels around, but the seat beside her is empty, neither boy nor chinchilla anywhere to be found. Where-?

She catches sight of the open passenger window and slams on the brakes, unfortunately displaying a squished version of the man’s face on her windshield as he’s pressed against it from the impact. Great. That’s another smudgy mark to clean off later.

Izumi switches gears before the man can protest, and floors it, tires spitting gravel and the scraggly stranger’s screams filling the air as she speeds along the path, keeping her eyes peeled for little gray puffballs.

Chinchillas are known for their incredibly soft and thick fur. But because it’s so dense, it can be dangerous if they get wet. If they’re not dried out properly, the fur can clump together, and in some cases even mold, causing further health problems. That’s why they take dust baths instead of water ones. If Iku stays out in this rain for too long…

Okay, calm down. Think. If he wanted to make friends, and didn’t want to give Izumi any gray hairs of her own, he would’ve hurried down the path towards the reserve, where presumably this cafe and more hybrids would be. At least, that’s what she’s hoping. If he’s somewhere in this vast tangle of trees and shrubbery… Well, let’s just say Izumi isn’t above shoving fancy finger sandwiches in the orifices of scruffy men if it means making sure Iku is safe and sound.

The path soon opens up onto a clearing, a large log cabin in the center, with a small dirt area for parking off to the side. Izumi pulls up into the designated space, albeit a bit sloppily. Not her best parking job, but the mud and her rising panic are reason enough not to attempt anything more respectable.

She kills the engine and hops out of the car, slamming the door shut and wielding her carabiner full of various keys as a makeshift weapon.

The rumpled man looks even more pathetic as he slides slowly off the hood of her car into a mud puddle, whimpering all the while. But Izumi can’t find it in herself to feel sorry for him. She hoists the guy up by the back of his collar, displaying impressive strength for her size.

The man sputters in protest and defense, clearly about to wet himself further. But before she can utter a single demand or question, she hears a rustling behind her.

She turns around to see a large, imposing shadow of a man emerge from the forest. In one gloved hand, he holds a small cage that rattles as squawking and various expletives ring out from within. His other arm is cradling a small bundle of something. A squirrel perches on his shoulder, holding an umbrella aloft above them all and fidgeting nervously.

“Izu?” The man utters in a deep bass, looking directly at her.

Izumi stares at him, at a loss for words.

He lowers his cradled arm slightly, and she sees a gray lump shivering within.

“Iku!” She drops the scruffy man, who groans as he falls into the mud once again, but she barely even notices. The bigger man lets her take Iku’s lumpy little form, and she nearly weeps as she carefully places him back inside of her jacket. Though it won’t do him much good if she stays out in this rain.

“He should dry off.” The man says, as though reading her thoughts. She nods.

He inclines his head towards the cabin in a clear invitation, then begins walking there himself, paying absolutely no mind to the raging bird in the cage beside him, nor the whimpering man in the mud.

Izumi doesn’t waste a moment in following him.

[qiankunfics]

JohnKun Masterlist - Part 1

AO3

1. rearranged by renjaune - 

Summary: johnny has to share a room with his long-time crush thanks to haechan Rating: Explicit  Status: One-shot

2.  Wow, Bulge by lunalius J

Summary: Johnny's always dreamed of getting a soulmate tattoo and meeting his other half. The hand the Fates end up dealing him is not so dreamy. Rating: Teen  Status: One-shot

3. The Blue Antonov by tentography 

Summary: Kun runs a small bookstore and Johnny, a famous actor, stumbles into his life. Yes, this is absolutely a Notting Hill AU. Rating: Teen Status: On-going 

4. don't take my breath away too soon by sofarsoperfect 

Summary:  Like if he falls asleep he really has to start saying goodbye to the NCT 2020 era and he’s not sure he’s ready to do that yet. Rating: Teen Status: One-shot

5. put me right in my place by sofarsoperfect

Summary: “I am,” he replies. His voice is soft and velvety, warm and syrupy. Johnny leans down to nudge their noses together, Kun smiling softly as he does so. Rating: Explicit  Status: One-shot Trigger: Kinks

6. An Open Wound by lunalius 

Summary: Kun's life is thrown off balance when he stumbles upon a dying Youngho. Rating: Mature Status: One-shot Trigger: Blood & Injury

7. You're an Idiot (but you're My Idiot) by samuraiseonghwa

Summary: Sometimes disasters make the best dates. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

8. from one shadow to another by rowenabane

Summary: Kun has the audacity to smile. “Oh, Johnny,” he says. “You really are a man after my own heart.” Rating: Mature Status: One-Shot Trigger: Blood & Injury 

9. Indebted by lunalius

Summary: Johnny has three credit cards, of which one is frozen into an ice block for his own good.  Rating: Teen  Status: One-Shot  Trigger: Possible irresponsible spending 

10. you warmly melted me by blazingsirius

Summary: For a while, Qian Kun’s life is a bumbling mess between juggling his Master’s study, working as a budding producer, and being a single father. Johnny Suh came somewhere in between and suddenly everything felt okay. Rating: General  Status: One-Shot 

11. Here Comes The Prince, The Royal Frogness by blazingsirius

Summary: Prince Johnny was forced to attend a ball his parents held to find him a partner, but he found a way to escape the ball, which ended with a wrongful meeting with a magical being that put him in a curse. Somehow, a (literally) poor guy, Kun, got dragged into the mess. And oh, they’re both frogs now.  Rating: General Status: One-shot

12. Addictive Frequency by Sakunade

Summary: Johnny misses Kun, misses spending time together and having the younger in his bed. Kun is beautiful, perfect, and has the most delicious ass Johnny's ever seen. Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot

13. brightest light by tentography

Summary: Their summer had only just begun when Kun asks him to stay beneath the neon lights of the 7-eleven, bathing them in an electric mix of fluorescent white and bright orange-green-red. Rating: Teen Status: On-going 

14. johrny (horny 4 johnny) by borntovixx 

Summary: Johnny lifts weights without wearing a shirt and Kun can't stop staring at his muscles flexing – is it advisable to ask your crush if you could to lick his abs pretty please? It definitely isn't, but Kun's brain short-circuits and gives in to the cacoethes. Rating: Teen  Status: One-Shot

15. cream stuffed buns by farthendur

Summary: straight frat bros johnjae discover they feel real weird around neighborhood baker and DILF kun. Rating: Explicit  Status: On-going

16. in all glory by farthendur

Summary: Captain Qian Kun and First Officer Johnny Suh spend an intimate and spicy night in their quarters. What could possibly ruin it? Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot

17. We Got Married International - Johnny and Kun by jhengchie

Summary:  We got married International edition with Johnny as the member of the popular KPOP idol group Limitless and Kun is the beloved Chinese soloist Rating: General  Status: One-Shot

18. dubrovnik by lowkeyamen

Summary: Johnny takes off to Croatia, and meets someone from his past he didn't even recognise. Rating: Explicit  Status: Completed  *trans!Kun

19. this will be by sofarsoperfect

Summary: “When we do trade them back,” Johnny says and the inevitably of it makes Kun’s stomach twist in knots, “we really have to find something better.” (Parent Trap AU)  Rating: Teen  Status: One-Shot

20. The Moonlight after Midnight by writesinfontuwu

Summary: They shared a memorable night in Osaka two years ago. Now they are reunited for NCT2020, Johnny feels his heart thumping in his chest again. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

21. Up or Down by lamarina

Summary: Caught between a cute TA and a foreign language credit, what's a guy to do? Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

22. Is this a scoop? - in the eyes of Mark Lee by cherrycitrus_blossom

Summary:  Who is that customer and what relationship does he have with Johnny to make his eyes light up in delight when he walks through the door? Rating: General Status: One-Shot

23. I Love You Still by nu-exo (Nekohime)

Summary: JohnKun Agent AU  Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot

24. turn the lights on by jeanheir

Summary: Kun’s soft snores fill the room, the other man sleeping peacefully without a care in the world. It’s almost cruel, how unbothered he seems. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

25. Bad Kind of Player by Sakunade

Summary: The plan was supposed to be easy - count cards, win money, and be done with it. Except Kun chose the wrong casino, one under the control of Seo Youngho, known as Johnny, the rising head of the Gyeonghui jo-pok.  Rating: Explicit  Status: Completed Trigger: Kinks

26. red, gold (burning) by tentography

Summary: Kun Qian and the Audacity Of This Bitch (HP AU!)  Rating: Teen Status: Completed 

27. In-Sync Heartbeats by mezzaluna_ch

Summary: This is the piece he plays every time he wants to escape reality in haste. This is the piece he plays every time he thinks of Johnny. Now, Johnny is the one playing it. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

28. I Owe You by seungwanxndxnly

Summary:  Only Johnny's big crush on Kun can hold him back. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

29. superluminal by wentz

Summary: A man who can only be the captain of the smuggling vessel stands at the top of the ship's ramp, cutting a roguish picture as he leans with one arm against one of the hydraulic pillars. He looks supremely dashing. Kun dislikes him on sight. Rating: Mature Status: One-Shot

30. Shoot For the Moon by lunalius

Summary: Kun wants to go to space. He's got a plan to get there, and he's following it to a tee.  Rating: Explicit  Status: Completed

31. he was a superhero, he was a seamstress, can i make it any more obvious by fvckradio

Summary: Superhero Kun with Seamstress Johnny  Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot Trigger: Mentions of blood and injury 

32. just a touch of your love by seonho

Summary: Kun is rather mild in his kinks — not entirely vanilla, but then again, certainly nothing as scandalous as having his blood sucked out of him. (Vampire) Johnny Suh, however, poses a very tempting threat to those convictions. Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot Trigger: Blood 

33. So I Can Fix Your Hand, I'll Be Your Handyman by IsabelArmuelles

Summary:  Johnny dislikes his landlady but is very much crushing on her step-son, the handyman.  Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

34. connect the dots, baby! by rowenabane

Summary: Johnny suspects Kun of being a serial killer.  Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

35. Countercurrent Exchange by indiecheetah

Summary:  Johnny wasn’t exactly a believer. He never thought monsters or cryptids were real, always finding those stories amusing at best. But even all of his years of knowledge of marine life could not explain this creature. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

36. Inevitably Loving You by occultclysms

Summary: Prince Kun and Celebrity Johnny fake date.  Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

 37. i'm stepping on the cracks (i feel fine) by sofarsoperfect

Summary: Sprite Kun and Human Johnny - Kun seeks refuge with Johnny ;)  Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

38. Domestic Bliss by cobalamincosel

Summary: Johnny and Kun work through a divorce.  Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

39. you say my name like i have never heard before by sofarsoperfect

Summary: Mafia Johnny with Kun  Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot Trigger: Mafia-related triggers and homophobia 

40. love me harder by sofarsoperfect

Summary: kun is fine, he's not even that resentful of his past or of johnny and he's doing really well and it's fine. except that one thing leads to another and it's totally, absolutely not fine at all. Rating: Explicit Status: Completed 

41. Emotional Distancing by lunalius

Summary: A global pandemic puts a dent in Kun's Green Card plans, but not in the way he expected. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

42. Domino by cobalamincosel

Summary: Kun and Johnny get back together after a break up.  Rating: Mature Status: One-Shot

43. and the next, and the next by jenhyung

Summary: Childhood friends Kun and Johnny meet again.  Rating: General Status: Completed 

44. would you mind by jokheiz

Summary: Single dad Kun crushing on his co-worker Johnny.  Rating: General Status: One-Shot

45. Charmed by lunalius

Summary: So no, he wasn’t blind. He was well aware that Johnny Suh had a crush on him. (HP AU) Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

46. you got what i want, boy (and i want it) by sofarsoperfect

Summary: JohnKun PWP  Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot 

47. Flower Boy by bananaboatt

Summary: Kun wants a really cute flower crown for his coronation, Johnny is a real big sucker for his boyfriend. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

48. head first by jenhyung

Summary: Youngho crushes hard. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

49. In the Middle of the Night by kittensuh

Summary: Kun knows him, reads him like he’s an open book conveniently placed on Professor Qian’s podium for him to consume in all of his glory. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

50. Altered States by unnameable

Summary: When Johnny’s sexual dry spell has lasted for longer than he can recall, Ten suggests Kun, a erotic hypnotist, instead of helping him get laid. Johnny forgets about the ridiculous suggestion until he meets Kun at one of Ten’s parties a few months later. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 34 S4: The Boys (and Mai) are Back in Town

OK, back to the writing table! It’s been a while! So I made the mistake of like...scrolling down on the playlist when I realized...

This duel is like 6 episodes long (7 even? It’s a lot) and like...yo I have no idea if we’ll finish this season in 2020! Damn you 2020. Damn you.

But wtv, what I like about this side project of mine is that I don’t have to rush things, and I can really spend the time with each episode and just...enjoy the moment. So often I watch a whole series in like half a week and then it’s like...I don’t get to enjoy it. This series I’ve enjoyed for years now. That’s kinda neat. So...we’re gonna be slow...but lets just enjoy this weird ass anime moment together. 2020 deadlines are all fake anyway. I’m not even sure if 2020 was a real thing that happened or like...an alternate universe opening a door and letting through just so many terrible ghosts. We might never know.

Last we left off, everyone has decided to hallucinate Dartz’ terrible backstory.

Unfortunately we have NO darts in the past. Was really hoping to see at least one darts reference in this entire season, just one darts board on his wall. But alas, we will not have a Season Zero death darts match with Dartz. (Man I need to get back to Season Zero. And FMA. And a lot of things)

I feel like if I watched the original version there would have been some things different. First off...what ocean? Second off...well, we’ll get to that. There’s some things I think were changed for English TV.

Including censoring the nude people like it’s James Cameron’s Avatar.

Fun fact did you know that James Cameron’s Avatar was supposed to be ass naked and that they were supposed to have like 8 cat nipples? Yeah.

Man, that movie was a mistake. I’m so glad we all decided to collectively forget James Cameron’s Avatar.

(read more under the cut)

The actual locations of anything in Atlantis does not match up with it when it’s zoomed out. We have giant cities, we have sprawling wheat fields, and we have...THIS situation. This active volcano next to...pine trees?

I feel like they wanted it to feel vaguely Pompeii, since I know people like to put Atlantis in the Mediterranean. Maybe? Maybe that’s what they were going for here?

One of my top ten favorite Yugioh plot twists ever was finding out this episode that this snake who has no limbs somehow created these...rocks...that all of our main characters have been wearing and obsessing over this entire time.

And so this is my theory, this is the thesis of my Yugioh college paper. These rocks are turds. There’s no way these rocks aren’t turds. There’s no way this snake didn’t poop out a bunch of glowy magic stones and then stuff them into a volcano.

THE ROCKS WERE TURDS THE WHOLE TIME.

God bless, Yugioh.

Seto spends this entire episode groveling that he isn’t playing cards that will absolutely kill him. Like Mokuba, Seto isn’t happy until he’s cheating death.

(I really wish we got more super past future tech. I love that type of concept art. Instead, we just got a lot of flying boats--the same boat that I think the team flew on in S1 when they went to Seto’s video game universe.

So those boats are 10,000 years old? They existed in the 10,000 year old Pangea, huh?

Neat.)

Anyway, lets take a gander at Princess Zelda circa Ocarina of Time.

SUPER princess Zelda, and I know it’s not 1:1 but damn it feels so much like a late 90′s Princess Zelda outfit to me. Check out that PURPLE. That low poly circlet. The random ass sword. The thick ass belt. 

Also check out this super dead family.

Yo so this is a 00′s thing, a period of time where we liked to tell stories like LOST, with just a bunch of random ass plot twists in flashbacks instead of just...telling a story from start to finish. And can be a great and fun way to do it--but at the sacrifice of actually making me care about these characters while they were still alive.

Like I would have maybe cared about Chris and Ironheart dying if I had known that Dartz was killing his whole family? With...lightning strikes? But alas, these dumbasses decided NOT to tell us they were royal. It’s so strange both from a logical perspective and a storytelling perspective.

Man...missed opportunity, IMO, but I can see why they did it. The wanted the ‘Gotcha!’ I feel ambivalent about it, honestly.

And who am I kidding, people are still doing unpredictable plot twists this. It’s a way to tell a story. Is it the most impactful way? No. It’s...it’s a gotcha!

It’s at this point in the story that things start ramping up, but it’s not clear if it takes place over years or just a couple hours. People just start going a little cray and turning into Monsters.

Straight up, though--did they turn into monsters that already existed and are modern Duel Monster cards, or are the monsters from modern Duel Monsters cards actually descendants of Atlantis who were once human?

They don’t say, actually. Maybe...maybe every card was a human once. That would be a freakin weird Yugioh twist if Kuriboh was like a 45 year old dude.

PS Dartz was married...soak that in.

ROMANCE ON YUGIOH ALERT.

Love it every time. She was there for like...half a second, and Dartz was like throwing so much shade about how “only the people with evil in their hearts were turned” and it’s like...

...dude that’s your wife? OK then. I can see you guys got along real well.

Anyway, so long to the ship of IonaxDartz, you were here for even less than the amount of time that Seto dated Blue Eyes White Dragon in a hallucination, which kind of sets a new record for us.

This might be the shortest-lived ship in all of Yugioh and they have a 12 year old daughter and what I assume was a 12 year marriage for that entire time.

that is if they...HAD the concept of marriage 10,000 years ago on Atlantis Pangea island. Maybe?

I mean they might have not had the concept of dating and marriage yet because he gets over this like immediately. The show will never hover back to that time Dartz watched his own wife turn into a creature. We have no idea if he was like “OK honey lets uh...let just get you a haircut and maybe no one will notice?” We have no idea how long he was desperately trying to remain married to the beast that was no longer human and was also trying to eat everyone else in his court. We just don’t know.

Dartz just had a lot of other things to think about. He’s been King for like...a year...he’s only 21...he’s just doing a bad job at everything.

(Biden opens Pres Trumps bedroom in the White House come January and it’s juts full of glowing green evil golf balls) (OK that was my last 2020 joke I swear to you) 

Anyway, Dad is here, but it’s a little too late to really do anything with the situation. Everyone is worshiping little snake turds. What can you really do about that?

One eye golden, the other eye, the color of a glistening Leviathan turd.

After the rest of the surviving royal family was chased out of the castle, Dartz decides to just wave his hands around a lot.

I’m not entirely sure what Kings do...never really had one...but I think they’re supposed to do more than wave their hands at a crowd like the Pope. Like...everyone’s dead right? Like everyone?

Who’s he talking to?

Meanwhile, Chris and Ironheart decide to revive some monster tablets to get some real actual duel monsters to do their bidding.

So apparently some monsters are in the tablets, and other’s have just always been here...and...

They didn’t know violence but they did have the cards?

There’s a lot of vague stuff they didn’t feel like ever writing, because it would have probably been boring to write about. I guess we’ll just let our imagination fill in the rest and ignore all the inconsistencies. It’s a kid’s anime. well........kind of a kid’s anime. A lot of people have died this episode and I don’t even know how to add it to the death count.

How many people live in Atlantis? I dunno.

Are the inhabitants of Atlantis even dead, or are they just turned into Monster cards? I dunno. Clearly the Great Leviathan wasn’t awoken this first battle so...did all those souls get returned? I dunno.

Either way I’m not gonna bother the death count about it because I just do not know if they died, and since it was neither an implied death or an on screen death...I dunno.

Just feels like a bit of a translation snafu--where maybe they couldn’t kill that many people on English TV, so they were like “AND IT’S A DRAW!” but also...it could be canon to both versions. The leviathan didn’t work the first time, maybe no one died? I dunno.

In this shot, PS, Raphael just gently backs up out of this flying plane, and it looked really funny to me. I probs won’t cap it because it’s split between two other cuts, but just...they just kind of moved that sprite to the right really slowly, no animation, it was great.

Dartz decides to end the backstory hallucination, and we get introduced to a new twist--a better twist than that last one, that’s right, all our boys are cards!

Including this asshole!

Been a while since our boys have been cards! Man, I miss Bakura!

Yes, I looked back to earlier episodes this season to see what was going on with Pegasus’ new look. I think what happened is that it’s always been this shade of gray purple--but when you put purple next to it’s opposing color (which is yellow colors) it looks even MORE purple. It’s just how color works. Love color theory. mm. Good stuff. Good purple hair.

I can’t wait until Yami kills Yugi for the 3rd time in one season.

Anyway, that’s all for now, and like always, here’s a link to read these in chrono order.

[quinintheclouds]

Thoughts on Putting Others First: SvS Redux as they come to me

AN HOUR LONG?!?!?! Y E S THANK YOU

I am LOVING this opening art style. The way it shows all the things Thomas could say and shuts them each down, the silliness tying in perfectly to the video game setting, the way we could SO STRONGLY empathize with Thomas despite him not saying anything. Well done!

“Eff friends, Patton!” Patton and I made the exact same gasp and noise at the same time in reaction to that dsjfhljdhg

Lookit Thomas’ lil vest awww <3

ROMAN WITH THE PUNS I LOVE IT APPRECIATE HIM

rhymes

rhymes

they’re rhyming is this gonna be

A SONG!!!

(Logan off somewhere watching all of this: “You guys are doing a RAP? Without ME? .....Unacceptable”)

Seriously poor Logan being left out BOTH TIMES despite clearly having excellent points on the matter

But I’m loving this Patton/Roman dynamic being explored in this way. They have a lotta similarities but the differences are really standing OUT so far and I like it! Also it looks like Roman isn’t gonna just shut up and do whatever Patton says out of fear that he’s a bad person/bad for Thomas this time. I’m glad they’re both getting a chance to talk cause they aren’t exactly taken seriously a lot of the time.

RETURN OF THE BLINDFOLD METAPHOR followed by Roman saying “in Patton’s defense...” so they like, KNOW what Deceit meant about the blindfold? Were they playing dumb? Or do they just suddenly get it now that it’s coming from Thomas?

Ok this Feral Cat Story of Roman’s is too specific for me to dismiss and now I’m convinced either Remus brought a shitton of cats home one day and they just flooded their house/rooms, or Patton brought home a bunch of cats out of love and didn’t realize he couldn’t take care of em...either way that’s an adorable anecdote

The car jump line that Patton took literally is just making me miss Logan even more :(

I’m glad they’re giving context to the relationship between Thomas and Mary Lee & Lee! A lot of fander questions and opinions circled back to “well it depends how close they were” so it was smart of them to fill us in.

“those baby-makin’ catholics”

6:45 Patton has clearly thought through a lot of possible outcomes to talking to Lee and Mary Lee before going to the wedding... he never brought them up, even when Roman did and then Deceit did. But he’s bringing up points no one had addressed, and I think that’s a great way to put more intensity to Patton’s apology to Thomas for lying back in SvS pt 1. He hid a lot more than he let on. Man, how much guilt is this poor man feeling right now? :(

“Talking about it could have been harmful” I’m very intrigued by the parallels between Patton wanting to keep things from Thomas’ friends to protect their feelings in this episode and SvS, and Deceit disguised as Patton in CLBG trying to get Thomas to... keep things from his friend to protect their feelings...

WOAH “But was it worth it? I don’t--” “No.” Thomas cutting Roman off with that much certainty DAMN Thomas REGRETS going to the wedding HARD and also is agreeing with Roman finally??

Patton: “sometimes you can make all the good choices, and still not get the good ending.” Thomas: “I’m not even sure there was a good ending to get.” Roman: “Mmmm, I’m pretty sure there was.” There is so much to unpack here oh my gosh.

WOAH WOAH WOAH WHAT??? DAMN THOMAS CAME FOR PATTON WHAT ON EARTH??? Patton: “I think we can all agree that you are a good fellow.” Thomas: Can we? ALL? Agree on that?” Patton: *sputtering noises*

Poor Patton... I mean they’re right but gosh I feel for him. He wants so badly for Thomas to be a good person and he realizes now how strict and unyielding he’s been, and wants to not do that but doesn’t know how to be more lenient without sacrificing integrity cause that’s his JOB and he doesn’t know how to do it better aaaa this is such a mood

MUSIC IS THERE ANOTHER SONG COMING?

Return of the bagel. Except this time it’s Roman guessing/wanting the bagel and Patton being like “what? no?”

ok not a song but video game style is back!!

“ugh you’re such a dad” I love it

Patton just made more puns and Roman omg “Like, you’re SUCH a dad that like it’s too much to handle sometimes”

I am loving this whole scene jdfhjadshg Patton ily and I relate

Thomas and Roman teaching Patton how to come up with imaginary scenarios skjfklsjdfh

Sondheim wrecking Leslie Odom Jr is such a hilarious visual

Ok all three of them are peak dumbass and I’m so here for it (like they’re smart and all but they’re peak dumbass)

Daaaamn Patton is letting out so much this episode. Like he’s been holding back but wowie. R: “Just like how you didn’t HAVE to give him a hotdog” P: *sucks air through his teeth* “I feel like you kinda do though?” YES PLEASE let’s discuss the concept of obligation in morality again!!! Where’s Logan when you need him? Or Deceit even? (I feel like D’s gonna show up later but I wanna hear Logan’s thoughts this time too)

Patton: You can disagree! But... it’d kinda be wrong?

LOGAN POPUP! Ok fine if he isn’t in the ep at least he pops up in a lil dialogue box on screen. Also he popped up to support Patton... neat!

“It’s just me, Logan. I’ve taken this form because I didn’t want to be too...invasive.” POOR LOGAN NO YOU’RE NOT INVADING ANYTHING YOU HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE HERE! Also Roman getting scared by the popup while Patton just waves happily like he always does upon seeing Logan aww

Okay I am getting serious DOPAMINE from Logan talking. Like, he’s spittin’ FACTS. Something about the way he talks is so interesting and soothing and makes me so excited to LEARN. Roman mockingly mouthing ‘behoove’ had me snort though XD

LOGAN AND I WERE IN UNISON HELL YEAH! Patton was all like ooh you’re sharing your lil factoids! And Logan and I at the same time corrected, “Facts,” and proceeded to state the definition of factoids (we worded it differently but yeah as usual Logan is on my wavelength)

Logan’s sprite getting so disappointed at Thomas’ interruption joke jgdkjghks he looks so DONE

OML I LOVE LOGAN’S DIALOGUE BOX TALKING TOO FAST FOR THEM TO READ THIS IS SO ACCURATE

Oof Thomas finally feeling like he GETS it and Patton being like yeah but not if you’re doing it bc you want to feel  good tho... (also that’s the same argument Deceit made in SvS pt1??? I’m confused by Patton/Deceit’s functions lately and I’m very invested)

Oh ok Thomas just brought up that very point haha

“we all agreed the right thing to do was go to the wedding” um are u sure about that

“I was wrong” PATTON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT?? I know Logan has the reputation of not being able to admit when he’s wrong (which isn’t true -- he doesn’t like to but he has done so countless times...well not literally countless but you understand my meaning), but Patton rarely is in a situation where he has to, so this is jarring in a hopefully good way. Istg if this is Deceit disguised as Patton again I’ll be so disappointed... I feel like the writers wouldn’t do that though

Patton: says smth deceit said. Roman: and you...agree? Patton: Definitely! I mean uh maybe? (WHAT IS HAPPENING INSIDE PATTON’S HEAD RN SO MUCH TURMOIL)

Roman: “I’m not an expert in the... moral medium” Thomas:  “Go ahead Roman, we wanna hear what you have to say.”  Patton: *halfhearted gestures and noises for roman to go ahead* jashfjdh he’s trying so hard

AWWWW they’re validating Roman so much I love it

“whomstsoever” ok I take it back roman’s not valid

I adore Logan’s popup fun facts, and him giving definitions for Roman’s vocabulary reminds me how much the two of them love writing and poetry and language aaaa

Patton trying not to be harsh is somehow 10x harsher than he normally is

oh wow that got real.

I know I’ve said this but I love logan’s insertions... but I do wish he got to say them out loud like earlier :/ Pausing to read them is less fun than hearing him talk.

oh wow that got real part 2

I want. So badly. To jump into this video and debate Patton on the nature of morality and what “the right thing is.” Roman you’re not being dumb, you’re bringing up excellent points and you’re valid again.

Oh no Patton... empathy is not morality... please please address that there are people who can’t experience empathy and choose to be moral and good

THE  TROLLEY PROBLEM HERE! WE! GO!

Logan’s popups bc he doesn’t want to “be too invasive” and making them optional to read hurts my heart :( He knows Patton, Roman, and Thomas aren’t reading any of it but he doesn’t want to be too much so he stays silent. Why?? Logan it’s okay! Why is this a thing now but not in the last 2 episodes? What happened to Logan :(

OOOOOOH Patton didn’t flip the switch :o Interesting! Daaaamn he’s arguing to let 5 people die rather than flip the switch so only one dies

LOGAN’S TEXTBOX WAS SO BIG AND FAST IT KNOCKED PATTON OVER I CANNOT BREATHE hang on I gotta read it

HE’S TALKING ABOUT DEONTOLOGY YES LOGAN THANK YOU FOR TELLING PATTON WHAT I PHYSICALLY CANNOT please tell me you’ll talk about utilitarianism and moral particularism next

Okay he used consequentialism but it’s close enough to utilitarianism that the outcome is the same. (Do you get it? Do you like my joke about how the outcome is most important? When we’re talking about-- oh you got it already? Good, moving on.)

DID ROMAN JUST FJCKING KILL LOGAN

“I’m okay, figment of your imagination, so.” Okay so CAN the Sides get hurt or can’t they?? Cause Patton clearly got bonked, roman got hit in the eye with paper and said ow, but logan got hit in the head with a throwing star and had his teeth ripped out and he was totally fine?

 Thomas is being so HONEST with himself so early in the episode, wow this is refreshing and I’m hype

AW YAY Patton called textbox Logan in to help with philosophy yay :’)

Logan: “Pity seems to be at the center of your idea of ‘putting good into the world’” first, Logan doing a voice impression of Nietzsche is GOLD, and second.... I wish they’d let him finish cause I was waiting for a “but” cause Logan siding with Nietzsche on this one feels... wrong? Like I could see Dee bringing it up or Logan using it in an argument only to continue with a contradicting philosophy but Logan equating empathy to pity... idk I thought he’d grown more than to think that :/ Actually I don’t think he ever saw it that way. It feels out of character but I’m guessing he had more to say to debunk that.

HOLY SHIT PATTON SKIPPED ALL THE REST OF LOGAN’S DIALOGUE AND YEETED HIM OFF THE SCREEN bruh he may have been right and he should’ve gotten to say it >:(

ROMAN ISTG DO NOT TRY AND MAKE THIS YOUR FAULT

I SAID DON’T

GODDAMMIT

sjfkdjgjsh okay aww Thomas good job, Patton too. Thank god they’re being nice to him

Patton is having a breakdown holy heckity about time

damn Patton is freaking HARSH

“I have a difference in opinion on this one, Patton” Thomas: *relieved sigh whisper* “ohhh thank you, Logan” YES APPRECIATE THE BOY YES YES I LOVE HIM why are they looking around like he isn’t making sense?

LOGAN YES! CALL HIM OUT! LET THOMAS VALUE HIMSELF AND PUT HIMSELF FIRST SOMETIMES! “Every point you’ve made in today’s discussion has contradicted that sentiment.” I love you but also you sound a lil like deceit... very lawyer-y and feels calculated like he’s been keeping notes for this purpose... I want deceit and logan to debate already damn it. Maybe it’s just that Logan’s inflections feel reminiscent of Deceit to show...something?

Ok can I just say that Logan gets so much rep for his strictness or high standards but he’s been SO GOOD about that lately and him teaching about the importance of leisure and self-care and freedom in your life and self-esteem and valuing yourself like you do with others... not even just this  video -- he’s been like this in the last few as well and these recent episodes remind me of early Logan (esp My Negative Emotions)  and that makes my heart so so happy.

Continuation of the above, compare this to how Logan acted in Why Bed? with regards to Roman. Roman advocated for leisure time and following dreams, while Logan had a schedule that optimized productivity and health. Now he’s taking a similar stance to Roman and asserting the importance of these things... WHY is so much of Logan’s character development OFFSCREEN?? I wanna know what made him switch on this! Maybe just cause he’s listening to roman from why bed?

Why is Logan being so abrasive? He sounds like his intent is more to disprove Patton rather than state what he actually thinks... not a fan of that but he’s not wrong

WOAH WOAH TOTAL PATTON BREAKDOWN WHAT HAPPENED WHAT THE FCK HE’S A LITERAL MONSTER IN THIS VIDEO GAME?

OH, MY GOD. If Logan didn’t step in and save them here this would have been catastrophic. I can feel my relief. I mean, he screamed, but it was a relief. WAIT IT WAS DECEIT THE WHOLE TIME??? Daaaamn good job on this one Deceit and I definitely like him more now but also WHERE IS LOGAN. Was it the whole time? That makes sense in hindsight and makes me feel better about some things he’s brought up but I feel like it really was Logan at the start, it wasn’t until he started calling out patton that his voice and inflection and stuff changed

Patton trying to attack Deceit   and hitting Thomas instead was  an EXCELLENT way to  showcase the effect SvS 1 and 2 are having

Deceit’s lil “A DUH DUH DUH DOY” looked and sounded just like Logan’s lmao don’t tell me it’s another switcheroo (I doubt it greatly lol)

REAL LOGAN REAL LOGAN REAL LOGAN

So wait what was the point that Deceit switched with Logan? Cause Logan’s saying “one more fact” so he was himself earlier right?

“Not that any of you care, but  I am unharmed.” Nooooo they care </3 “I will do you all a favor and spare you my company” okay OUCH

EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM YES aw he’s talking about him and patton working together yes thank you

Damn, Deceit is LOVING everything Logan says haha same

Logan and Deceit teaming up to teach Patton that it’s okay to care about yourself

DECEIT WHAT he’s being so supportive of Roman holy heck this is so genuine OH Roman’s arguing with it  this is a lot of stuff I didn’t expect roman to say out loud wow

THOMAS JUST SAID DECEIT THE CHARACTER ISN’T INHERENTLY UNETHICAL WOW this episode really said let’s make Deceit--

WAIT WOAH SORRY HIS NAME REVEAL!!! He’s Janice?? Is that true?

WAIT WOAH PART 2 BUT DECEIT JUST SAID IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE MUSTACHE HE WOULDN’T KNOW WHO THE EVIL TWIN IS BETWEEN ROMAN AND REMUS HOLY SHIT HE ACTUALLY LOOKED VULNERABLE AND THEN HURT AND THEN RIGHT BACK TO SNAKE

ROMAN’S GONE

fuck.... patton...roman....deceit....thomas....logan....I’m gonna go cry about all of them now

LESLIE ODOM JR IS HERE??????? oh there he goes

patton oh my god I love you  this ANGST are you trying to kill me?

Patton telling thomas he’s worthy of love I actually teared up

dfjdakjhfa deceit don’t push it

Wowie that was an EPISODE

[thebladeblaster]

Digimon Tamer ZERO (ver.2) Chapter 1 The Digimon Phenomenon (part 3)

Misaki lowered her book for a second as she heard their conversation.

“Considering its attitude The Blaster probably spoiled it. Wait...Knight...Blaster...affection...”, Izaki suddenly gasped as he realized something.

Miwa nodded and then put his pointer finger over his mouth.

“What’s with you two?”, Morikawa questioned obliviously.

“It’s nothing.”, Miwa replied with a coy smile.

At Aichi’s house...

Aichi had just put on his white jacket from before and prepared to leave.

“Hopefully, I can find something this time...”, Aichi thought.

His V pet suddenly beeped as a strange circular symbol appeared on his V pet screen.

“The digital world needs your help please answer our call!”, A feminine voice came from the V pet.

“What’s this some sort of event?”, Aichi questioned.

“After the defeat of Lucemon many years ago the other demon lords returned and took over the digital world. There is not many tamers strong enough to face them. So, we urgently ask for you to receive our call.”, the voice continued as yes and no options showed up on his V pet.

“I have time. Okay, I’ll see what this is about real quick.”, Aichi said before clicking yes.

“Take the 5:45 Shibuya bound train from Jiyuugaoka Station.”, was displayed on his v-pet in text.

“Jiyuugaoka Station? Why does it want me to go there?”, Aichi questioned.

Aichi looked briefly at the block. He had about 20 minutes to get there. He looked down at the v-pet still confused. He could just ignore it but...he didn’t know what but had this strange feeling...like he really should go. Aichi sighed not knowing exactly why he headed there despite having much more pressing matters like a planet destroying alien demon thing within him.

“Bye Mom.”, Aichi waved goodbye to his mother before he left through the front door.

“Don’t stay out too long, sweetie.”, his mom replied waving goodbye.

Aichi continued to the destination first walking. He didn’t understand why but he felt his heart beating against his chest increasingly rapidly as he started walking faster. Aichi sweated nervously as he continued to speed up.

“What’s with this feeling?! It’s just like the feeling I had not long before everything with Link Joker started.”, Aichi thought, hardly noticing he was now sprinting.

Aichi noticed this sweat dropping as he passed a car in speed. Aichi promptly slowed down hoping no one noticed that.

“Wow, that was really bad man. If your trying to hide what’s wrong with you you’re failing miserably.”, Imaginary Plane Dragon said in a mocking tone.

“Darn it! Darn it! Darn it! I keep forgetting about Link Joker’s extends beyond cardfights!”, Aichi thought, panicking and mentally hitting himself.

He did not know the extent to this thing’s power. He mentally sighed having a brief flashback. He was in the Cardfight club room with Misaki, Naoki, and Shingo. A cardfight had briefly finished and he had a panicked expression. The others looked at him in confusion. He shook his head waving away the memory.

He came to a stop as he heard...a explosion?! Aichi was beyond confused looking over to the station. He gawked as from out the smoke emerged a large blue t-rex-like dinosaur. It had some sort of organic armor over its head with horns. It had black stripes along its body and yellow eyes. Countless people ran for their lives fleeing from the debris.

Aichi rubbed his making sure this was not some sort of illusion.

“Holy crap!!! There’s a real life kaiju attacking Japan!!!”, Aichi thought.

“What the heck!!! How did these guys show up on Earth so easily?!?! We needed a real convoluted plan pull that off! And this stupid dumb dino did it easily!! Mind asking him his secret?”, Imaginary Plane Dragon said as Aichi sweat dropped shaking his head no.

“Now that I think about it that dinosaur looks like Greymon but blue. But Digimon can’t be real right?”, Aichi thought.

“You thought the same thing about Cray too.”, Imaginary Plane Dragon replied sarcastically.

“Well...I...”, Aichi trailed off knowing he had a point.

Aichi flinched as the BlackGreymon turned to him.

“Nova Blast!”, BlackGreymon called out as it shot a large blue flame ball from its mouth in his direction.

“Run stupid! We can’t destroy the universe if you die!”, Imaginary Plane Dragon said.

“I’m not doing that!!!”, Aichi thought as he ran from the fiery blast.

He suddenly heard BlackGreymon let out a pained cry before he turned around. He gasped in shock seeing the fiery blast had been cut in two and BlackGreymon had crashed against the station as if it was hit by something. It grunted as it started to get up looking for whatever struck it. That’s when Aichi looked down to see another Digimon which was much smaller than BlackGreymon. It was light purple reptilian Digimon wearing kendo gear and holding a wooden sword. The gear covered most of its body besides it’s legs. You couldn’t even see it’s face, only glowing gold orbs which were likely it’s eyes.

“It’s a Kotemon. Just like...there’s no way.”, Aichi thought.

“Rahhh! How did a weak little Digimon like you knock me down?”, BlackGreymon questioned getting back up on its feet.

“Heh, your not strong. All you have is unnecessary size that slows you down. It’s no wonder when your species becomes mega if drops most of its size.”, the Kotemon replied snarkily.

Aichi tilted his head seeming to recognize Kotemon’s noticeable attitude. BlackGreymon growled at Kotemon in fury.

“We’ll see about that before I turn you into a greasy smear!!!”, BlackGreymon growled as it charged at Kotemon.

Aichi gasped as BlackGreymon approached and Kotemon entered a kendo stance. Aichi from behind Kotemon noticed near BlackGreymon’s stomach it had been damaged by the rubble.

“To bring it down Kotemon needs to strike there.”, Aichi thought, not noticing his v-pet glowing.

Kotemon focused on that spot and started running towards BlackGreymon. It raised its wooden sword and struck BlackGreymon in the weak point Aichi saw. Aichi gasped in surprise wondering if Kotemon saw that weak spot too. BlackGreymon gasped clutching its stomach growling. It opened its mouth and prepared another blast.

“Kotemon move!”, Aichi shouted out.

“He’s about to shoot another Nova Blast!”, Aichi thought worriedly as v-pet glowed again.

Kotemon just barely dodged the Mega Flame which burned off some of Kotemon’s kendo gear. Kotemon had jumped back over closer to where he was. The top parts of its kendo gear had been destroyed revealing half of its face, the top of its arm, and its upper right body. He saw it was indeed reptilian like he expected. It had two horns on it’s head and golden eyes. It’s underbelly and the its jaw was black. It seemed to have some strange golden markings on its face, arm, and torso.

“Your not getting any closer BlackGreymon.”, Kotemon said.

“I won’t let some rookie stop me from fulfilling my mission!”, BlackGreymon roared.

“Mission?”, Aichi questioned.

“You won’t live long enough to find out human!”, BlackGreymon said as it fired out another fiery blast.

Kotemon swiped the blast in half when it approached him.

“Grr! Why are you even protecting this little human?!”, BlackGreymon questioned.

Aichi looked at Kotemon curiously who faced BlackGreymon.

“He’s my tamer obviously.”, Kotemon replied.

“Tamer? Me? Wait that means...”, Aichi trailed off looking at his v-pet seeing a sprite of Kotemon fighting BlackGreymon.

Aichi gasped in surprise seeing the fight before him was playing out on his v-pet.

“Then did you really hear what I was thinking?”, Aichi questioned.

“Right. I heard your commands loud and clear through the v-pet.”, Kotemon replied as Aichi sweat dropped.

“He didn’t hear Link Joker did he? I hope not.”, Aichi thought nervously.

“I don’t know what your planning, but I won’t let you go around terrorizing my world!”, Aichi said facing BlackGreymon.

Aichi looked at his v-pet noticing the strange symbol had reappeared. Aichi’s eyes briefly glowed with a rainbow spiral and a light blue aura appeared around him. They all looked surprised as Aichi’s v-pet let out a bright light. The light enveloped Kotemon.

“Kotemon digivolve to DrakeGladimon!!!”

Out from the light appeared a slightly taller figure clad in knight armor. Unlike normal Gladimon it’s body shape was more similar to Knightmon but not as tall. It had a brown vest with brown straps. It’s legs were dragon-like and clad in armor like the rest of its body. It’s boots and gauntlets had claws. It’s helmet was stylized like a wyvern with horns and it’s eyes were red. It’s helmet had the orange fur at the end like normal Gladimon. It now had two real metal broadswords with a golden handle. A light purple tail stuck out from its armor having bits of armor on it as well.

Aichi’s v-pet had changed as well now being a small light blue device with blue buttons and a grey antenna. It had strange markings on it.

“What?! How did he suddenly digivolve like that? Digivolution should take years?!”, BlackGreymon questioned.

“Let’s go! DrakeGladimon!”, Aichi said and DrakeGladimon nodded.

“Yes master! Whirlwind Wheel Rush!”, DrakeGladimon replied.

DrakeGladimon spun itself like a tornado striking BlackGreymon. BlackGreymon gasped in pain as in was struck by DrakeGladimon’s dual blades. Aichi v-pet had a voice come from it again.

“You must now purify it.”, the voice ordered.

“How do I do that?”, Aichi asked.

“Aim your former v-pet towards the fallen Digimon.”, she ordered.

Aichi did just that and a light shot out of the once v-pet enveloping BlackGreymon. When it cleared some dark energy came out of it which disappeared. It then instantly began to shrink into a much smaller orange dinosaur and green eyes. It had became Agumon.

“Woah, what happened? What’s this place?”, Agumon questioned, looking around confused.

“Uhh...this is Earth.”, Aichi said as he approached Agumon before DrakeGladimon quickly grabbed Aichi out of the way of a massive figure which suddenly appeared behind Agumon.

“Agumon!”, Aichi called out, paling as a massive foot squashed the rookie Digimon.

Agumon dispersed into pixels which was absorbed by the massive figure. The figure was very buff and green. It had skull-like armor and a massive bone sword. It had red markings and white hair.

“Stupid weakling. He couldn’t even do his job right. You’ve been relieved from your position in the Ebony Squadron, BlackGreymon.” , the big Digimon said.

The massive Digimon held a grey train with yellow horns. It had a single green eyes and was very roughed up. That train wasn’t just a train it was a Trailmon! It threw the injured Trailmon directly at them. It laughed after the Trailmon impacted causing dust to fly everywhere and the ground to tremble.

It stopped laughing as it flinched. It felt a extremely dark malevolent presence. It looked around for where the presence was coming from.

“Is one of the demon lords here!?!?”, the skull armored Digimon questioned.

“You!”, the skull armored Digimon looked over to the source of the voice.

As the smoke cleared the skull armored Digimon could see glowing red eyes. It gawked as it saw that the Trailmon never hit the ground. It was being held by a Digimon. The Digimon was knight clad in dragon-like armor which resembled Knightmon. It’s helmet had horns and it had red eyes. It had a visible tail with pieces of armor and metal spikes down it. It had purple wings and legs like DrakeGladimon. It had spikes on its shoulder armor and bits of gold on its armor. It had a massive shield and great sword strapped to its back.

“WyvernKnightmon, it’s a extremely rare species of Knightmon. This should be fun.”, the skull Digimon said.

Next to WyvernKnightmon was Aichi a faint red and black aura appeared around him briefly.

“I can’t believe you killed your own comrade!”, Aichi said as he glared at the skull armored Digimon.

“Comrade or not that is the law of monsters. The weak must die.”, the skull armored Digimon said.

Aichi clutched his chest trying to contain Link Joker within him.

“I have to calm down this anger isn’t like me but...”, Aichi thought, remembering Agumon being squashed.

It didn’t even know what it was doing it must have been controlled by something. The idea of a innocent little creature being controlled like that and killed. It was beyond horrible. It was the kind of thing that definitely sadden him, but he didn’t get angry often at all. However, he could feel Link Joker’s presence getting more powerful twisting the sadness he felt into rage.

“Take him down, WyvernKnightmon. Aim for unarmored his chest.”, Aichi thought pointing the former v-pet to WyvernKnightmon.

“Berserk Tempest Sword!”, WyvernKnightmon called out as it flew at the skull armored Digimon.

It raised its own massive blade to block WyvernKnightmon much to its shock its own blade shattered upon impact with WyvernKnightmon’s.

“That’s impossible!!!”, the skull armored Digimon said as it was sent flying back into the abandoned station.

Aichi got onto WyvernKnightmon’s back and flew into the abandoned station. In the station more Digimon were inside most of them were champion and ultimate. They blasted WyvernKnightmon with there attacks but WyvernKnightmon created a barrier of wind blowing their attacks back. He charged at the skull armored Digimon and delivered another fierce slash with its sword at it chest.

“Damn. It’s just a ultimate Digimon. How is it this strong?”, the skull armored Digimon questioned.

A green goblin Digimon ran over to it. It had white hair and blue eyes. It held a club and wore black loincloth.

“Commander Titamon!”, the club wielding Digimon called out.

Titamon struggled up looking over to the approaching Digimon. As soon as it came near it grabbed its head and crushed it. It dispersed into particles that were absorbed by Titamon. Titamon now seemed to be a bit healed from fighting WyvernKnightmon. The other Digimon flinched as Titamon looked over to them.

“Give me your commander your power you pathetic weaklings! Soul Core Attack!”, Titamon commanded slashing its own troops with its blade and absorbing their data.

“Stop it! Now!”, Aichi said as he rode towards Titamon on WyvernKnightmon.

WyvernKnightmon slashed at Titamon who blocked with its newly restored blade. It was pushed back into the railway tunnel. However this time it’s blade wasn’t broken. Aichi looked rather confused as they went down the railway tunnel and the area around them completely changed. He could see a unfamiliar forest nearby a station with a strange track. White almost ghost shaped Digimon flew by. As they passed through WyvernKnightmon glowed again changing its appearance once again.

“WyvernKnightmon digivolve to Dynasmon!”

It’s blade disappeared and Titamon laughed cockily as it slashed at Dynasmon. Dynasmon threw a punch that completely shattered it’s sword and as it hit its face completely shattered its skull helmet. Titamon crashed into the forest below and the flying Digimon dispersed to avoid getting hit.

Aichi blinked completely stunned after regaining control.

“Oh crap, where am I?”, Aichi questioned.

“You are in the digital world, my lord the Blaster.”, Dynasmon replied and Aichi let out a sheepish chuckle.

“My real name is Sendou Aichi and you don’t have to call me lord. You can just call me Aichi.”, Aichi replied.

“Great, because you cried over a baby dinosaur we have been isekaied.”, Imaginary Plane Dragon said.

Aichi pinched himself to make sure this hadn’t all been some sort of bizarre dream.

Chapter 1 end

[baijingting]

I was tagged by @cuddlybitch​; tysm hannah ❤︎ 

1. What is the color of your hairbrush? wait but I have three...one is a dark wood, the other is silver and the last is blue and white

2. Name a food you never eat. I hate eggs. In all shapes and forms (unless it’s literally baked into something which at that point it’s not an egg)

3. Are you typically too warm or too cold? Too cold. 

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? Watching Live On.

5. What’s your favorite candy bar? Heath bars! I love toffee. 

6. Have you ever been to a professional sports game? No...unless you count this really minor league (honestly it’s probably not even considered a league) baseball game. I think they were the Rockcats? lmaooo I honestly don’t even know how I ended up there.

7. What is the last thing you said out loud? I was helping my brother set up his bluetooth speaker, I think I asked him if it was charged.

8. What is your favourite ice cream? Ohh this is a tough one. It really depends on my mood. For basic flavors...strawberry and vanilla. I also like green tea and mint. 

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Green tea with lemon and honey.

10. Do you like your wallet? I mean it’s fine? It’s useable. Could be cuter lol.

11. What is the last thing you ate? A brownie-peanut butter cookie bar. 

12. Did you buy any new clothes last weekend? Nah. I wish I had money to buy new clothes. But also I have no where to go in them...

13. What’s the last sporting event you watched? I don’t really watch sports. But recently I went down the youtube rabbit hole of dog sporting events. I watched many agility competitions....and then we transitioned to dog dock diving. Don’t ask.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? Kettle corn!

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? My friend Jillian.

16. Ever been camping? Yep! Tent and all. It was on like an official camping ground tho so there were bathroom facilities and such. It wasn’t actually just in the woods in the middle of nowhere. 

17. Do you take vitamins? My doctor said I should take vitamin D (not because I was deficient but just because that’s something people should do)...I did not listen.

18. Do you regularly attend a place of worship? No.

19. Do you have a tan? Whatever limited summer tan I got has mostly faded. But let’s be real it only became a tan after I first burned. I’m pretty pale, probably because I rarely see the light of day oops.

20. Do you prefer chinese or pizza? This is so? Why isn’t it like Italian vs. chinese? I’m gonna go chinese because there’s so much more to choose from to suit my specific mood.

21. Do you drink your soda through a straw? No. I mean if I'm in a restaurant and they give me a glass I'll drink from a straw. But if it’s a can or bottle or I'm just pouring it into my own cup then no. Although we have a collection of metal straws at my house and I use those occasionally when I’m drinking something that I had to mix. 

22. What color socks do you usually wear? Generally white. 

23. Do you ever drive above the speed limit? LOL. I’d like to meet someone who never does. But I'm not a speed demon. I simply follow the flow of traffic. And that usually means 10-15mph over the speed limit on the high way. On inner roads its more 5-10mph over.

24. What terrifies you? All bugs need to stay a great distance away from me. I will shriek like a banshee and jump 10 feet in the air if they startle me. I kid you not. 

25. Look to your left, what do you see? My desk. And it’s messy array of papers, notebooks and folders strewn across it. I really should organize it...

26. What chore do you hate most? Cleaning the bathroom YES. But that’s not really a daily thing. If we’re talking daily I hate doing the dishes.

27. What do you think of when you hear an Australian accent? I’m sorry but it’s just this beach blonde surfer dude. Or kangaroos. There’s no in between.

28. What’s your favorite soda? I like Sprite and Root Beer. 

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? Drive thrus stress me. I feel too pressured. I’d rather go in. Also I’m the type to examine the menu carefully before ordering anything. And the drive thru menus are never comprehensive, or they’re shown at the very last minute. 

30. What’s your favorite number? 7

31. Who’s the last person you talked to? My brother

32. Favorite meat? Beef.

33. Last song you listened to?  “Trying My Best” — Anson Seabra according to spotify

34. Last book you read? I was trying to read Kingdom of Sea and Stone but I got so bored I stopped. 

35. Favorite day of the week? Friday or Saturday.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? I mean...I'm sure I could if I really think about it. Definitely won’t sound fluent. 

37. How do you like your coffee? Definitely not black. I’m more of a latte, cappuccino type of coffee drinker. Or iced coffee with condensed milk. 

38. Favorite pair of shoes? I’m not really super attached to any one pair. I’ve mostly been wearing my grey keds as of late. But I will start transitioning to ankle boots soon for the fall season.

39. Time you normally get up? If I have no classes or other engagements, 10:30-11am. What can I say? I’m a night owl. 

40. What do you prefer, sunrise or sunsets? Sunsets! There’s no way I’m waking up at the crack of dawn to watch a sunrise. Honestly it’s more likely that I’ve stayed up so late that I see the sunrise and then go to bed. 

41. How many blankets on your bed? Two. A fluffy blanket and a comforter. 

42. Describe your kitchen plates They’re your basic white corelle plates with this green and red floral pattern or a grey-blue floral pattern around the edge. 

43. Describe your kitchen at the moment Uhh It’s clean? The dishes are all in the dishwasher (to dry), the pots are all put away in the cabinets. It’s also 1am right now though, so everything has been put away for the night already.

44. Do you have a favorite alcoholic drink? No, I definitely haven’t tried enough to know. I want to try flavored soju and mixed drinks with it. I’ve had this sweet sake once and that was good. It didn’t even really taste like alcohol. 

45. Do you play cards? I like learning new card games, even if I don’t play often. But this also means I forget the rules because I don’t play regularly. I used to remember actual poker rules but when I play with my fam it’s an abridged version. 

46. What color is your car? White.

47. Can you change a tire? LMAO that would be a call to my dad or triple A stat

48. Your favorite state or province? I like the northeastern states. Maybe I'm biased since I live there. 

49. Favorite job you’ve had? I had a job as barista and that was fun. Plus I always got to have fun with my crew mates. 

tagging @hwanginyeop, @thingskateknows, @kdramaxoxo, @junghaesin, @moonlightsdream, @liveasbutterflies, @jingyans, @therukurals (only if you want to!)

[seaofthesoul]

I was tagged by @strawberrylight to answer a few questions that dig a little deeper, thank you ily dshfgs 😚💕🌻

1. Do you prefer writing with a black pen or a blue pen?

Mmm don’t have a particular preference for either

2. Would you prefer to live in the country or in the city?

An in-between? Big cities overwhelm me and the country bores me - for me the perfect balance would be a quiet location close to nature, either in or on the outskirts of a small-ish city ✨

3. If you could learn a new skill, what would it be?

It’s impossible to only pick one! Most of all I’d like to know even more languages and writing systems (including all the ones coined by Tolkien), become an expert at shooting the bow, get back to doing fencing, and learn to play the drums and the cello/double bass 😍🙏

4. do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar?

I only drink tea, and nope, never!

5. What was your favourite book as a child?

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which I read eight or nine times as a child sdgfs ⚡️

6. Do you prefer baths or showers?

I rarely ever take baths but find them more relaxing and satisfying than showers

7. If you could be a mythical creature, which one would you be?

How do you expect me to choose when I obv wanna be all of them??? 😩😭 In terms of what fits me best, maybe a wood fae/fairy/sprite - and if specific fantasy worlds are allowed, a hobbit in Middle-earth and a sea witch in the Continent 🍃

8. Paper or electronic books?

Paper books for sure!

9. What is your favourite item of clothing?

My black TPWK hoodie 🖤

10. Do you like your name? Would you like to change it?

I like it and defo wouldn’t change it 😊 It comes from Robin Hood and exists in some variation in many different languages, which I find brilliant :’)

11. Who is a mentor to you?

Mmmm probably my closest friends bc I look up to them and value their judgement so much 💞

12. Would you like to be famous? If so, what for?

Nope hahaha, too much stress and pressure 🙈

13. Are you a restless sleeper?

Unfortunately yes rip

14. Do you consider yourself to be a romantic person?

Omg I’m probably the most romantic, cheesy and extra person you’ll find out there shfgsd 😂

15. Which element best represents you?

Water 🌊

16. Who do you want to be closer to?

Physically - my friends who live abroad 😭 Metaphorically - it’s homophobic that I’m not besties with ot5 and Henry Cavill 💔

17. Do you miss someone at the moment?

My friends from Norway in particular, and yesterday night I dreamt about my German host mum so I’m missing her a lot today :(

18. Tell us about an early childhood memory.

I remember playing lava and recording radio shows/podcasts on cassettes with one of my sisters 🌸

19. What is the strangest thing you have eaten?

No idea haha

20. What are you most thankful for?

The love in my life, and the fact that I’ve been able to live my dream of travelling for the past ten years or so 💖💖

21. Do you like spicy food?

My nose starts running and I lowkey die when it’s very spicy sdhfs (typical weak white person behaviour lmao), but I do like when it’s just a little spicy 🙈

22. Have you ever met someone famous?

Quite a few, yes! Was VIP at a Tokio Hotel show, got autographs from Simple Plan and All-American Rejects, etc. Not sure it counts as ‘meeting,’ but I also passed some of the guys from Avenged Sevenfold on the street in Montréal once 😌

23. Do you keep a diary or journal?

I’ve tried many times but always end up giving up after a while bc it’s too time-consuming and I can’t be bothered rip

24. Do you prefer to use pen or pencil?

Mmm maybe pen?

25. What is your star sign?

Cancer ♋️

26. Do you like your cereal crunchy or soggy?

CRUNCHY OMG, pls take soggy cereal away from me 😳

27. What would you want your legacy to be?

Warmth, love and kindness 🌻

28. Do you like reading? What was the last book you read?

I studied literature for five years - does that answer the first question? haha 😅 Last book I read was Andrzej Sapkowski’s Sword of Destiny sdhfgs and it broke me so bad I haven’t been able to read anything else since sdgfs bye 

29. How do you show someone you love them?

I check up on them, send them stuff that reminds me of them, make time for them, share the stuff I’m interested in with them and create a good environment for them to do the same, etc. 💕

30. Do you like ice in your drinks?

Yes

31. What are you afraid of?

Pain and loneliness 

32. What is your favourite scent?

My cat’s smell 😭💗

33. Do you address older people by their name or surname?

Surname, unless we’re family / well acquainted (but I’m gonna have to change that habit when I live in Norway since practically everyone is on a first name basis there haha)

34. If money was not a factor, how would you live your life?

This is tricky bc I can’t imagine what it’d be like living life without having to think about money at all 🤔 But I think I’d travel a lot? Ideally I’d love to be working in something Tolkien-related (but not full-time sfgsdd), and I’d probs spend my free time with friends, out in nature and maybe doing some volunteering :)

35. Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean?

The ocean for sure! Or a lake ☀️

36. What would you do if you found $50 on the ground?

I’d keep it, except if I knew who it belongs to and how I can give the money back to them

37. Have you ever seen a shooting star? Did you make a wish?

Yes and yes, though I can’t remember what my wish was 💫

38. What is one thing you would want to teach your children?

That it’s okay to be whoever they are, and that they should accept others for who they are too and show tolerance and openness as much as they can 🌷

39. If you had to have a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it?

I’ve been considering so many tattoo ideas but always end up changing my mind after a while... Would really like something Harry or 1D-related and also some more Tolkien tattoos - it’s just super hard to decide on what exactly 😭

40. What can you hear right now?

My step-dad’s coffee machine working + workers doing renovations outside

41. Where do you feel the safest?

Mmm that’s a hard one, maybe when I’m with people I trust? 

42. What is one thing you want to overcome/conquer?

It’s difficult to pick only one bc I’ve got quite a few issues I need to improve on (anxiety, bad self-esteem and insecurity to name only a few) 🙈

43. If you could travel back to any era, what would it be?

The Viking era hands down! ⚔️

44. What is your most used emoji?

All the pink hearts 💗💓💝💞💖💕

45. Describe yourself using one word.

Passionate

46. What do you regret the most?

I’m always most mortified to think back on instances where I accidentally hurt/upset someone in any way 💔

47. Last movie you saw?

Mudbound, which was very heavy but excellent!

48. Last tv show you watched?

Dear White People 🌈

49. Invent a word and its meaning

I feel like my cat Mia’s name sould become a verb that can be conjugated 💁

Tagging @amantisegreti @technicallysideacc @micshiefmanaged @gcralts @goldenfive @going-there-and-back-again @peachtimelord @feanarofinwion @daggryet @zenmalik - no pressure of course! 🌸💛