one direction history post: strange merch
hi everyone! i'm starting a small series of one direction history posts just to combine my interests in both history and the boys. these won't be super in depth, more so showing and telling. this first post is about some weird and strange merch choices one direction's marketing team has attempted to sell us throughout the years. i got these screenshots from the wayback machine looking at onedirectionstore.com, their official store. they are separated by era solely based on what was present on their shop at the time of each of the boys albums. these merch items are not a reflection of the albums themselves (which you'd think their merch team would try to appeal more to the aging fanbase as years went on), they all seem to me to be more geared toward how much they can attempt to get us buy. i now present to you the weirdest, most dated one direction merch i could find <3 enjoy
X Factor - Up All Night
what is this for, who is this for, why is this one of the first accessory items ever posted on the one direction store??? what was the initial demographic of the one direction fanbase?? idk when i was 10 i didn't need this, i would enjoy one now though
if you guys remember silly bandz, you are a veteran.. also give us toledoans credit where it's due because one of ours invented these bad boys
finally my iphone 4 will be decked out in the one direction collectors set
this was also the start of their personalized messages section of merch you could buy. surprise your loved one with heartfelt messages such as 'birthday girl' or 'merry christmas daughter'
Take Me Home
from here on out, this and two other photos are the only photos their team decided to make merch with. there is two other duvet sets that use those other photos, even in their later eras
sometimes i wake up in a cold sweat remembering these existed. if i can find my louis mask, i will wear it to fitfwt
if any of you have this keyring or the singing toothbrush, send me a clip of it singing please or if it is able to sing. i am so curious im on the edge of my seat
NAIL TEMPORARY TATTOOS
Midnight Memories
i literally do not know what this has to do with music, one direction, or anyone associated with one direction
i need to point out, these one direction watches came in literally every single color you could imagine. i do not know why they are merched inside of a can?? but they were the it-girl of their merch during this era
speaking of cans, WHAT IS THIS
would any of you fine people want to buy a 1d girls glitter strap shoe? it is merch like this that really reminds me one direction was moreso a brand than a band to their team
Four
kudos to their team for picking a more recent photo for the era, but also who would want this
do you guys remember the craze of this specific type of lamp
if the scooter isn't your speed, how about this one direction 16" cruiser bike make with old uan era font, color schemes, and photos?
Made In The AM
i am only putting this mitam find in here to point out something that i found crazy. this shirt was on the one direction merch website only one month after march 25th, you can see how quickly their merch team shelled out merch without zayn on it. i didn't include anymore, but even their on the road again tour merch on the website quickly had zayn erased
i hope you guys all enjoyed this weird trip down memory lane if you can call it that, and liked looking at some of the weird merch their team used to sell. this is only stuff that stood out to me, i'm sure there's a lot more somewhere so if you have any, send them to me or feel free to add onto this post. if you own any of these, ESPECIALLY THE BIKE, please add a pic of them to this post lol
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Middle Ground: Chapter 1
The Starting Line
2686 words
First Chapter (You're here!)
Next Chapter
“Hilda!”
The invention of the pokeball is credited as being in the Johto region, as recently as just over 200 years ago, though it was not imported to regions outside of that landmass (Johto, Hoenn, Kanto, Sinnoh), until some hundred years later. By this point…
“Hilda, come downstairs, your dad’s calling!”
…the usage of apricorns as a primary ingredient had already started to decline in favour of more synthetic materials. Especially as apricorns themselves began to diversify, making creation of traditional red coated pokeballs difficult, however…
“Hilda! Now!”
…There remains a select few, mostly residing in the Johto region, though a notable craftsman lives in Galar, too, who still create pokeballs using traditional methods. Though I am not able to share the method, as it is a traditional family technique, and I’m sure fellow poke-ball enthusiasts will understand why such a thing is precious to me, it does sadden me greatly to see the rapid decline in appreciation for traditionally crafted pokeballs. This does not mean to say that pokeballs made with synthetic materials by corporations such as Silph Co. are at all inferior; not at all, their functions are…
Her bedroom door bursting open, revealing her exasperated mother, was what finally convinced Hilda Mahelona to close her copy of The Heart of Hiwada- The Mystery of PokeBalls by Gantetsu Waguri and look up at her mother.
“Hilda. It’s your birthday. Are you really not going to come down? Your dad sent over some interesting looking parcels for you!” Hilda’s mom, Katherine, “Plus, your brother’s just shown up, and your friends are coming over soon.”
“Okay, okay… I will.” Hilda sighed, lamenting over having to stop mid-chapter, and finally clambering out from under her covers, “I’ll be down in a sec. Gonna get dressed, first.”
“You got it, sweetie.” Smiled her mom, disappearing out of the room, and Hilda heard her descending the stairs soon after.
As much as she wanted to just pick her book back up, Hilda knew she’d just get completely absorbed in it again, and probably not realise how much time was passing until her mom came to get her again.
Most sixteen-year-olds would be bouncing off the walls on their birthday. And though her mom, dad, and brother always went all-out for birthdays, Hilda wasn’t especially interested in them what-so-ever. Too much hassle.
It was nice that Cheren and Bianca were coming round, though. Even if she’d have to endure their playful teasing about how she wasn’t a baby anymore. That was what happened when you were the youngest in the group, she supposed.
Still, she knew the pair of them were in cahoots with her parents for some kind of birthday surprise. She’d been suspicious of them for ages. But especially since Bianca had sent a message to their group message, and then promptly deleted it after panic-blocking Hilda’s number and a bunch of other silly things she rapidly had apologised for. It was cute. But more importantly: Hilda was on to them.
With her komala-themed pajamas swapped for a fashionable white turtleneck, black tailcoat, and stressed jeans covered in her doodles, she finished the look with all her favourite loom-bandz bracelets and headed downstairs, where the house phone was placed almost immediately in her hand, and her dad’s voice sounded through the receiver.
“Happy birthday, daughter of mine!” he exclaimed, and she could hear his comfey chittering away to emphasise the wishes, “How many pages did you read in the last hour?”
“Hm… about two hundred?” she hummed, balancing the phone between her head and shoulder, so she could use her free hands to grab and eat an orange for breakfast, “How’re you doing, dad?”
“Good. Not much progress on the wormhole biz, but no bother. Went out with my colleagues for dinner yesterday, to some cute diner on Melemele. It was great, you’d love it.”
“Promise to take me when I next come to see you?” she asked, throwing an orange seed at her brother, who was watching TV across the downstairs room, in the lounge area of the open space, “What kinda stuff did they have?”
“Lot of good old traditional Alolan recipes. The owner’s daughter works there, she’s working toward becoming a Trial Captain. She made this thing using those massive radishes that grow on Poni island… they were like those mochi you get in Kanto, or those fancy bodegas… Crazy that she made something like that from those spicy things!”
“Man, wow! They sound great.”
“They were! Speaking of great… Have you opened any of your presents?”
“No, not yet, I only just got downstairs.”
Her dad gave a hearty laugh, and he started pestering her to go open her presents, which she eventually did, promising to call him on the X-Transceiver in the evening, as she signed off the phone.
The very second the landline clicked back into place on the wall, her older brother- Hilbert- grabbed Hilda from behind and lifted her off the floor in a tight hug, though he had to put her down quickly; despite his three-year age advantage, they were about the same height.
“You’re catching up to me!” he exclaimed, teasing, “You’re how old, seven?”
“Try sixteen,” she retorted with a grin, shoving his shoulder and crouching down to pet one of his three deerling- the other two were happily snoozing by the TV in the living room, “Bet I’ll be taller than you, though!”
Hilbert scoffed, “As if!”
“Even if I don’t end up taller…” she scooped up his deerling and took off suddenly toward the living room, “Bet I can ruin you in Smash!”
“Slow down! You can’t even try beat me if I’m not there to fight.” Hilbert replied, purposefully walking as slowly as he could without losing his balance, as their mom rolled her eyes.
Hilda jeered her brother as he inched over, “That’d count as a forfeit in a pokemon battle, y’know.”
“Smash and battles are very different, dear sister.” Hilbert retorted smugly, as he threw himself down on the couch next to her, “Not that you’d know, not being a trainer.”
“Boo… Buzzkill.” She stuck her tongue out, purposefully giving him the wii remote with a faulty senser and an A button that only responded half the time, “I bet I’d beat you in a pokemon battle, too.”
“Go catch a pokemon and battle me, then.”
A few quick rounds of smash bros later (the siblings being at a perpetual tie), they ended up having to stop at the sound of the doorbell.
Hilda kept the good wiimote in her hand as she leapt over the back of the couch and hurried to the front door.
Her two best friends were waiting there, Cheren holding a rectangular package that he was clearly struggling with the weight of, despite how he tried to hide his plight, and Bianca carrying a cute glittery gift bag with the price sticker still attached.
Hilda all but dragged them inside as her friends tried to get out ‘happy birthday!’s, but were cut short by the hug she pulled them into.
She intentionally stood between Cheren and the dinner table so that he had to keep holding onto the heavy gift in his arms, talking to him as she watched him realise exactly what she was doing.
Every slight shift to the side he made, Hilda would mirror, and she felt a smug grin stretch across her face as Cheren’s grimace grew.
Bianca was drinking a glass of apple juice that Hilda’s mom had poured her, as she watched.
After a solid three minutes of inching side-to-side, Cheren made a sudden step left, which Hilda copied, but then he threw himself rightward and slammed the thing down on the dinner table.
“Augh, damn it!” Hilda exclaimed, “Fine. You win this time, Ohashi.”
“Pulling out the surnames?” Cheren responded, feigning shock, “And here I thought you were the type to lose with grace.”
“As if!” Hilda exclaimed, grabbing him around the middle and attempting to hoist him off the ground as he yelled out in surprise. She only succeeded by an inch or so. “Take that, fiend! I’ll never yield!”
She did have to put him down quickly though, not being especially physically strong either.
“Are you two done?” Hilbert appeared from the living room, covertly swiping the wii remote that Hilda had put down on the table before lifting Cheren into the air and replacing it with the faulty one, “I believe Hilly has some presents to open.”
Hilda felt heat rise into her face. That was another reason she didn’t find birthdays especially exciting. She liked getting stuff- who didn’t?- but opening presents around other people felt weird. She didn’t like the spotlight at the best of times- literally; one time she and her friends had decided to sign up for the school musical and Hilda was so terrified of the spotlight she made herself sick enough that she didn’t attend a single rehearsal. She didn’t even have a named role. Just a member of the chorus.
But that nervousness- unusual for her- was always there during times like this.
It didn’t help that she always felt inexplicably guilty for getting things. Even though it was her birthday, and people typically get given gifts on their birthday. And Hilda always got her friends and family the best presents she could for their birthdays. It still felt weird.
She wondered if they all felt like that too, and if they were just better at hiding it than she felt she was.
Still, she’d be lying if she said she completely, totally hated it.
Getting things was always nice.
Especially when those things included a giant set of loom bandz (curtesy of Bianca), a huge, heavy book on Unovan Myths and Legends- a recent edition, and signed by the author (the thing Cheren had been struggling to carry), a shirt that read NAME’s LUCKY FISHING SHIRT, with a lineart print of a basculin, and a beautiful aquamarine crystal (from her dad, so the crystal was surely more than just something pretty), a baseball cap that read NO. 1 DAD (an excellent choice from Hilbert, and she put it on immediately), a set of bright (really bright) pink shoelaces, more loom bandz, three mystery packs of sillybandz, and oddly enough, a camping set and a private link to the Cyberspace Bag System, from her mom, though she knew her dad would have pitched in especially for the latter two.
When Hilda glanced over at Cheren and Bianca, who seemed equally bewildered by the camping stuff; Hilda wasn’t opposed to going outdoors or getting muddy or anything like that, but she was definitely more of a bookworm, and if given free choice of any activity, probably wouldn’t choose to camp of all things…
Unless…
Her mom and brother shared a knowing glance, before leaving the living room to the three bewildered sixteen-year-olds.
They heard the front door open and close, as Hilda’s family left to go somewhere, and all sat in silence for a moment.
“What’s going on?” Hilda demanded, “Do you two know anything?”
“Nope. My parents were acting weird when I set out, though…” Cheren mused, “You have any ideas, Bianca?”
“None…” she sighed, leaning back, “Come to think of it, my mom was also acting kinda suspicious. I wonder if they’ve all planned something together.”
Hilda shrugged, and tossed each of her friends a pack of sillybandz to open while they waited, and they compared each of the bands they got once they had.
Even then, Hilda’s mom hadn’t returned, so Hilda dug out a third, even worse wiimote from the cupboard, and scrambled all three of them on the coffee table before handing them out to her friends so they could play Smash, since it was still on the pause screen she and Hilbert had left it on.
Two rounds later (both won by Bianca, an absolute monster at Smash Bros, even with the most broken of the wiimotes), and Hilda’s mom and brother finally returned.
Her mom was carrying a delicate looking blue box, and her brother had a smaller, but evidently just as precious package in his hands.
The packages were brought through to the living room, and placed on the coffee table in front of the trio of friends.
“So. Hilda. Cheren. Bianca.” Hilda’s mom said, sitting down on the armchair below the windowsill, and Hilbert perched on the armrest of the larger sofa, “Your parents and Keoni and I… we all decided that now that you’re all sixteen, and that you’ve all expressed interest… it would be nice for you to all become Pokemon Trainers at the same time.”
Hilda, on the left of the sofa, felt Bianca- in the middle- stiffen, and she felt her own heart thudding in her throat.
“So, we all spoke with Professor Juniper… and, well…” she lifted the lid off the blue box, “She has agreed to give you all a starting pokemon and a PokeDex. I also believe she has an important task she wants to entrust to you all, if you’ll accept it.”
Inside the box, resting on a soft cushion, were three PokeBalls.
Hilda glanced over at her friends- Bianca had the biggest smile on her face, practically vibrating with happiness, and Cheren’s hands were pressed over his mouth- and he honestly looked like he might simultaneously start screaming with joy and crying at the same time.
“Of course,” Hilbert piped up, “You all should meet your new partners before picking one, yes?”
Then he grinned.
“Unless… you don’t want them?”
Hilda leapt out of her seat and yelled at him, “Don’t even say that, oh my GOD!” she let out a breathy laugh, “Mom, are you serious?!”
“Of course, I am, sweetheart. You’re so fascinated by pokemon, you always have been. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to go out and learn first-hand, alongside your books?”
Hilda sank back into her seat. Yes, yes it absolutely would. But what would she even do on a journey? Challenge Gyms? Try out the musical in Nimbasa? Totally geek out when she got to Nacrene city and never ever leave that library?
Probably all of those and more, come to think of it.
“Mrs Mahelona…” Bianca squeaked out, “I… Are you sure?”
“Of course, dear. Your mom was one of the first of us all to suggest it, actually.”
Bianca’s eyes widened, and she looked shyly over the pokeballs.
“Can… we meet the pokemon?” Cheren asked, very obviously trying to hide his excitement.
Hilbert was the one to grab the three pokeballs. He threw them one by one, introducing each pokemon as he did. Tepig. Snivy. And Oshawott.
And, oh, how adorable they were.
An energetic tepig that could barely sit still. The snivy that kept using vine whip to hoist itself out of the way of the tepig as it ran back and forth. And the oshawott that immediately curled up on the floor for a nap, using the shell that usually rested on its belly as a pillow.
Hilda and her friends were instantly enamoured with all three of them. And she could see them both having difficulty; who would they pick? How could they pick? They all seemed so charming.
She knew exactly which one she wanted, though.
And since both her friends encouraged her to go first- it was her birthday, after all- she had no issue in gently scooping up the snoozing oshawott and dubbing him with a name. Otto.
After some discussion and thinking, Bianca took the energetic little tepig- who she called Blaise- and Cheren took the snivy- who he called Lucian.
And with the pokedexes that Hilbert handed out- which was what had been in the second package… everything was…
Though they were still sat on the comfortable sofa in Hilda’s living room. Though none of them had their shoes on. Though none of them were really dressed for the great outdoors. Though none of them had expected this- even though they had all wished and wished and wished for it.
Everything was different now.
Their journey had already begun.
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Can I request some Kamaboko Squad Kimetsu Gakuen Headcanons?
'to all the grades i've loved before' / Kamaboko Squad Headcanons
Tanjiro
carries a large stash of pencils/pens to hand out to others
goddamn star student and you know it
literally all the teachers' favorite
he!!! tutors!!! students!!!
as great of a student as he is, he has gotten in trouble a few times for getting into fights (mostly by standing up to a bully or something)
other students definitely try to get him to give them free bread in exchange for them doing his homework
Zenitsu
screams when the lights randomly go out
if he doesn't have snacks in his backpack you will not hear the end of it
spends his time reading manga and comics rather than doing his homework
the track team really wants him to join but he'd rather sit in the bleachers and watch the cheerleaders
know about Roy Mustang and the miniskirts? yeah
he's not allowed to use the school's computers for obvious reasons
Inosuke
has tipped his chair back and fell onto the floor many a time, but that won't stop him from doing it again
find x = *him circling the letter x*
chews on his pencils like a heathen
teachers constantly yell at him to use his "inside voice"
sleeping early? doesn't know her
you know this hoe is busting out a Nintendo DS in the middle of class yet somehow doesn't caught
Nezuko
one of those students who always has her makeup done but she looks!!!! so cute!!!!
definitely a kpop stan but not overbearing about it
carries really cute notebooks, pencils, etc.
enjoys literature class
sneaks selfies with friends all the time
also the student who has phone charms and kawaii phonecases
Genya
people pick on him for the fact that his older brother is a teacher
has to sit in the back of class because he's too damn tall and nobody can see over his back/shoulders
the student people try to pick first when it comes to team sports in gym
he makes lunch for himself and Sanemi
really likes fruit gummies!!!!!!
100% has a broken phone screen
Kanao
whenever she speaks up in class it genuinely takes others by surprise
very good at math(s)
another one to tutor students, and she is fantastic at it
carries little butterfly candies in her backpack 🥺
CIRCLE LENSE GLASSES I REST MY CASE
still has a collection of Silly Bandz
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