#I can't believe this was three pages and I'm only halfway through the plot

[epicspheal]

Cactusverse Hoenn Timeline: Delta Emerald Part 1

Alright so it's time to talk about Hoenn in Cactusverse. I like to call Cactusverse Hoenn Delta Emerald because the main plot follows Emerald but Cactusverse is a mega-timeline AU so we're going to see Zinnia and her shenanigans.

So, the events of Hoenn take place a few months later than the Kanto events with Norman finally getting a job as the Petalburg City gym leader and moving his wife and young son Brendan to Hoenn. Brendan like many children is very interested in receiving his first Pokemon but he's not quite sure he wants to do the gyms just yet.

Honestly, Brendan is a little upset with his father at the moment because he's rarely around and so much of the past two years in Johto have been about Norman trying to pass a gym leader's test to the point that Brendan couldn't even get a starter Pokemon from Professor Elm (he really wanted a Cyndaquil).

After Brendan and his mom move into Littleroot town (with no help from Norman because he's too busy doing interviews) Brendan decides to explore his new home for a bit when he hears someone screaming on the route just above. He quickly runs out there to find one Professor Birch, covered in scratches being chased by a Zigzagoon. Professor Birch begs Brendan to help him out and Brendan quickly runs to the bag Birch dropped to fetch a Pokemon, Brendan immediately chooses Treecko and quickly defeats the Zigzagoon. He goes to check on Professor Birch who thanks him-

Only to be attacked by a girl his age! It's May Birch who was a little farther up the route doing fieldwork for her father and heard him cry out. She had mistakenly thought Brendan had stolen one of her father's Pokemon and proceeded to beat him up with it. May immediately challenges Brendan to a Pokemon battle where she rather soundly defeats Brendan with her Torchic before Birch could catch his bearings and clear up the misunderstanding. Once May hears the truth, she gets a bit embarrassed and backs down.

The next day Brendan ends up going to Birch's lab where Birch asks if Brendan wants to keep the Treecko which Brendan says he does. Birch mentions that May wanted to make up for what happened the day before and asked to meet Brendan on Route 103. With that, Brendan officially sets out on his journey. He ends up going to Route 103 where May apologizes for the misunderstanding and asks for a proper battle. This time Brendan comes out victorious. 

It's then that May proposes a challenge: see if they can complete the Hoenn gym challenge in 90 days (to mimic how Galar's gym challenge occurs over 90 days). Brendan accepts the challenge and the two go their separate ways. Brendan heads on to Petalburg while May finishes up some fieldwork for her father.

Brendan rushes to Petalburg and tries to challenge his father, who declines saying he's too inexperienced and needs at least four badges before challenging him. This hurts Brendan’s but he takes his father's suggestion to go to Rustboro and runs out before Norman can tell him that there's a young boy that he wanted Brendan to meet...

It just so happens that by the time the young boy, Wally, came by the gym to get his first Pokemon, May had just arrived at the gym also looking for a badge. Norman asks May to help Wally catch a Pokemon since he realized that May was Birch's daughter. Wally and May head out to catch Wally's Ralts and return to Petalburg. May then attempts to challenge Norman to a battle and is also declined due to her lack of experience.

While May was helping Wally, Brendan had made it to the Petalburg Woods. He ran into a Devon Corp scientist being harassed by a Team Aqua grunt. Brendan protects the Devon Corp scientist and is thanked profusely before exiting while being watched by a red-eyed Team Magma grunt who had been watching the confrontation while hidden from the trees.

Brendan rushes to Rustboro. Still feeling a bit bitter about his father declining his challenge, Brendan decides to not let it get to him too much. He decides to slow down a bit and brush up on his basics at the school in Rustboro. This allows for time for May to catch up to Brendan in Rustboro. They both soon challenge Roxanne and earn their first badges. After claiming the badge they witness a Team Aqua grunt running out of Devon Corp with the poor scientist begging the two children to help. Along the way the children run into Mr. Briney who says his dear Peeko has been kidnapped as well. The kids end up following the grunts into Rusturf Tunnel and defeating the grunts, getting the parts and Peeko back. Mr. Briney and the scientist are very thankful for May and Brendan saving the day with the scientist asking the two children to come meet Mr. Stone himself. Mr. Briney tells the two that any time they need to travel between Petalburg, Dewford and Slateport he’s willing to take them. The two kids meet the CEO of Devon Corp who asks them for yet another favor, to send a letter to his son, Steven. May decides to take the letter as Brendan is in a bit of a rush to get the next gym badge. May and Brendan set sail on Mr. Briney’s ship to Dewford town where May goes off to Granite Cave to find Steven while Brendan sets off to challenge Brawly. Brendan defeats Brawly in short order and then asks Mr. Briney to take him to Slateport. Before Brendan can even make it out of Slateport he is scouted by Lisia to participate in one of Hoenn’s contests. At first Brendan protests but he ends up competing and winning his first contest ribbon. During the competition Brendan finds that he not only has a knack for contests but that he enjoyed it a lot. A lot more than his past two matches with Roxanne and Brawly… Back in Granite Cave, May runs into a bit of a trouble due to it being too dark to see. She realizes she’ll need the HM Flash to navigate so she doubles back out of the cave to challenge Brawly and she wins her second badge. Now that she has the second badge and the ability to use Flash, it’s a lot easier for her to navigate Granite Cave and she eventually ends up finding Steven Stone who is looking at a massive mural in the cave. She introduces herself as the daughter of Professor Birch and hands Steven Stone the letter.  After delivering the letter, May decides to catch up to Brendan by heading to Slateport. However, before she can catch up to him…she really wanted to go check out the Slateport museum. But when she gets there she realizes the museum had been overrun by Team Aqua members. Determined to just enjoy the museum May decides to rush in to get rid of Team Aqua. She eventually runs into Archie (his ORAS version) and he calls for a retreat while warning May to not interfere further as he may not be so lenient afterwards. May gets a chance to enjoy the museum before heading up to Mauville City.

As she heads for Mauville City she runs into Brendan who seems to be in contemplation. The two children battle with May coming out victorious. Brendan reveals that he had participated in the Slateport Contest and how much he enjoyed it. So much so that’s he’s wondering if he should quit the 90-day challenge and focus on contests instead. May suggest he try some more contests in Verdanturf and Fallarbor Town and that they can adjust the rules so that its whoever gets 5 contest ribbons or 8 gym badges fist wins. May also admits to having similar feelings. In that she’s been really enjoying battling at gyms to the point she really hasn’t been keeping up with doing fieldwork for her dad. Brendan and May head out to Mauville City where they run into Wally!

Brendan and Wally finally get to meet as May introduces them to each other. However things become a bit tense as Wally’s uncle seems to be a bit reluctant to give the okay for Wally to go on a journey due to his asthma. In a bid to prove himself Wally challenges both May and Brendan to a battle…and loses spectacularly. However his determination gets through to his uncle and he relents on bit on being so overprotective.

May decides to go ahead and challenge Wattson for the badge while Brendan decides to follow Wally to Verdanturf to challenge the next contest, getting a chance to bond with him. Both Brendan and May are successful in getting their next ribbon and badge respectively. May heads onto Lavaridge town to face Flannery and gets dragged hard in that battle, earning her first defeat against a gym leader. Meanwhile after a second successful contest, Brendan is sure that he wants to be a coordinator…now all he has to do is tell his dad…

Which is easier said than done from Brendan’s point of view. It’s not that Norman has anything against Contests (that Brendan knows of) but with Norman never being around and only seeming interested in battling, Brendan is concerned that this will further strain their bond. But that’s something he’ll have to worry about later. For now it’s onto Fallarbor town where Brendan loses his first contest

Brendan and May meet up again in Meteor Falls where they tag team against Team Magma who had stolen the meteorite from Professor Cozmo. However Team Magma escapes with the meteorite. This failure to stop Team Magma, coupled by personal defeats has both Brendan and May feeling a little defeated. Both kids resolve to train harder and they retry the Fallarbor Town Contest and Lavaridge Gym respectively. This time they both come out victorious.

While all this is happening Wally has decided to officially start his gym challenge. He decides to head to Littleroot Town to see if perhaps he could get a Pokedex from Professor Birch as well. When he arrives he mentions May and Brendan and comments on how strong both of them are, to Professor Birch’s delight. Professor Birch decides to not only give Wally a Pokedex, but the final starter…a little Mudkip. Feeling even more confident than ever Wally sets his sights on Rustboro’s gym to catch up Brendan and May

All the while, May and Brendan are circling back to Petalburg and Littleroot to tell their fathers about their change in paths. Despite not having 4 badges like Norman asked, Brendan is still determined to battle his father to prove he’s a capable trainer even while being more into contests. May is a little nervous to tell her dad she has only barely filled out her Pokedex but she’s been blazing through the gyms.

[w0nderland]

hiii!! i keep meaning to send you an ask then get interrupted halfway through typing it ^'^

how have you been?? i saw that you went to one of taylor's shows: how was it?? did you have a special outfit/makeup for the occasion? what were the surprise songs? pls tell me everything!!

also i have no idea if you listen to hozier but he's put out a new EP and it's!!! so good!!! (i literally cried listening to 'through me (the flood)')

last time you told me about having to make big decisions for what to do after graduation, i hope it hasn't been too stressful & that you've had help and support from your loved ones❤ i'm sending tons of relaxing vibes and hugs your way and i hope that your dreams come true <3

i'm sorry that i don't have precise advice for u, i chose very long studies so i have several years before i have to worry about this ^'^ i'd advise you to consider every option, and above all never let anyone (including yourself) tell you that you can't do something; it's better to send an application or a resume & have a negative answer than to stick to the 'safe' choice and always wonder what would have happened, you know?

also, i love jane austen too!! i haven't yet read northanger abbey though! i loved emma & i re-read pride and prejudice at least once a year (usually in november, no idea why ^^)

as for book recs, i'm currently reading "l'amica geniale" by elena ferrante; it's soo good i love it! all the characters are fascinating and very complex & it's such a page-turner, i literally can't put it down (i went back to reading while climbing up and down the stairs, anything to read a few more lines xD!)

another book i picked up at my local library was 'east of eden' by steinbeck. i'd never read anything by him so i didn't know what to expect, but i loved it!! it focuses on the life of two families in California & i love that the plot is really character-driven, every character is so interesting ... i kept thinking about that book for weeks after having finished it! so yeah pls read it so i can gush about it with someone xD!

i've also started reading war and peace on a whim, and i feel like a lot of people are intimidated by the size (i believe there are other a thousand pages? my edition published it in two parts for it to fit lol) but i found it very readable! it's like, 90% of dialogue and it's soo well-written!! and i was so engrossed in all the family drama xD it was like reading a jane austen book, only with a lot more characters

anyway i hope i haven't bored you with this looong ask! i'm sending tons of warm hugs your way❤❤❤

hi sky!! omg there is a lot going on at the moment. first of all taylor's show was AMAZING it's the first time i've seen her perform so I was very emotional the whole time :,) the surprise songs were cowboy like me and white horse, both songs I love so much!! although I'd be excited to hear any surprise songs.

Also yes I've been listening to the Hozier EP!! Is he releasing an album? I really love the three songs especially all things end.

Thank you for the good vibes, I'm starting to get excited about post-graduation plans :) hoping all goes well and this is really the best decision for me. thank you for the advice, it's so true that if I didn't at least try working toward my goals I'd regret it. so I will try!

Thanks for the book recs! I haven't read east of eden but I have read another steinbeck book (of mice and men). I'm reading the will to change by bell hooks but I definitely want to read another fiction book after I finish this, so maybe I'll pick up war and peace! I feel a little intimidated by super long books but I bet the library here has a few copies...

I love all of your asks and I love reading about everything you're up to!! I hope you've been enjoying your studies and basking in the beginning of spring. sending good vibes your way always <3

[imagine-that-haikyuu]

i feel like this is cheating but i can't help it, would it be possible to request (short, because i'm not an asshole) character analyses from you in the future? if not no worries, i'm just such a sucker for meta and i really like your style haha. i'll try to be specific so you'll have an easier time writing it. i mean it's basically headcanons without the head so it's just... canon. yeah that was not the smartest sentence i've ever written and i'm not proud of it sorry

i know i said that i’d do tsukki for this meta, but i started rambling about keishin in chapter 255 in a post for the other blog and halfway through writing it, i thought it would just best for this. also because you asked for something short and the tsukki meta will be long. since we haven’t seen as much development from everyone’s favorite coach as we have from tsukki, it seemed like a good opportunity to highlight some subtle hints that furudate-sensei’s been giving us that something is in the works

and also for me to ramble about my husband

so that being said, there are spoilers past season 3 of the anime since this is about the latest chapter, 255

if you like what i do and want to show your support, consider supporting me on ko-fi!

- admin rachel lauren

Never underestimate my ability to hyperfocus on Keishin in every chapter, but chapter 255 has me beginning to think we’re going to get some development from him in some capacity, and perhaps regarding his relationship with his grandpa.

I’ll never stop talking about how Furudate-sensei is a very smart in crafting their stories and bringing what may seem like minor details or throwaway lines to attention again many chapters later, so I think it might be fair to assume that some parts of 255 are hinting at something important to come for Keishin. Even if this ends up being nothing more than speculation on my part, it’s still something that might be interesting to think about for the rest of the Nationals arc.

Right after using Karasuno’s signature weapon against them, Inarizaki rubs salt into the wound by reading Kageyama and successfully blocking Hinata. Like the great coach that he's proving himself time and time again to be, Keishin of course is going to try and ensure that this doesn’t get to them and lead to mistakes later on.

Something any good coach would say to his team, right? Though, in retrospect, I’m not entirely sure this was directed just at Hinata and Kageyama, but also to himself. Shimada and Takinoue’s comments from the next page are what tipped this off as a possibility for me:

This chapter contained very little comedy (as expected given what’s happening in the match at this time), but this would have been the time for sensei to demonstrate exactly what Takinoue is saying here. We already got something similar from Daichi after Oikawa’s first serve in the second official match against Seijou.Given that it’s been a very long time since that chapter was published, it would have been fine to pull that gag again without risking it feeling cheap or stale. The fact that sensei didn’t go down that route is an interesting choice, and even more so that they felt the need to have Shimada and Takinoue note this for the reader. If it wasn’t going to be important at some point, it would have never been mentioned. I say this with confidence because it happens again and again with other characters in this series. Furudate-sensei has an incredible knack for setting up important plot points by making them seemingly minor details far before they’re even needed. (Whether or not they include these things knowing they’re going to utilize it later or including it and realizing later that it can be incorporated into the story is beside the point. It doesn’t matter when those things come to a writer so much as if the writer can and does find/create an appropriate time to remind the readers of it).

Regardless, I’d say this highlights very well how much Keishin has grown as coach just in the three months since the Miyagi prefecture finals, let alone from when he first started prior to the Nekoma practice match. He was very much a rookie coach in the beginning; he’d show his frustration and helplessness through a bit of a temper whenever the boys were backed into a corner and he couldn’t immediately think of a solution.

Now, we’re getting some wonderful examples of how differently he’s handling his position as a coach. He’s spending more of his free time researching and strategizing not only to minimize the anxiety from not knowing exactly what a powerful opponent is capable of, but also to minimize the anxiety from not knowing how to combat them. Chapter 253 gave us this gem:

And in earlier chapters right before Nationals, (I don’t remember which chapters exactly and I don’t think screenshots are entirely necessary for them anyway) there are very sweet moments where he instills confidence in Kinoshita regarding his serves and Kageyama’s abilities as a setter among other things. More recently, Asahi’s flashback in 254 really drives this point home.

But I digress. Back to the “calm on the outside” panels from 255. Unlike before, we see Keishin not lose his cool outwardly. It’s safe to say that he’s learned that a team’s morale can hinder on how their coach is feeling. While he may have been outwardly worried in the past during time-outs, one of the boys was there to assure everyone that things were going to be okay. But he can’t rely on that happening every time. While the boys are fantastic at motivating themselves and their teammates, they’re still high school students: they’re going to look to adults they trust for guidance in times of doubt. Keishin becoming a more mature coach is absolutely necessary for Karasuno to hold it together on the national stage. 

I’d argue that a good part of this, too, comes from the fact that Ikkei is in the hospital again at this point in the manga. Given that he seems relatively close to his grandpa--however odd it may be to have your relationship with your grandfather be a rivalry--this is probably weighing on Keishin enough to affect his disposition in the middle of a match. Chapter 247 has a very ominous moment which makes me believe that Ikkei is a huge component in Keishin trying to dry behind his ears a little while at Nationals.

We know he’s talking about Karasuno here, but having that blank, black panel show up right after he learns from a relative informing that Ikkei’s condition is not getting better is incredibly unsettling. His grandfather as his motivation before was markedly immature, with Ikkei constantly taking jabs at his grandson and Keishin reacting to them mostly out of mild contempt and because of his competitive spirit. Now, it’s’ easy to see that this shift in tone also shifts the nature of Ikkei as his motivation. It’s less of a matter of wanting to beat his grandpa and more so wanting to continue the legacy his grandfather left before his retirement, that his grandfather can look at Karasuno and know that they’re in capable hands, and that he is a coach worthy of leading a team at the national level. And god forbid the man dies--because sports manga aren’t immune to character deaths (Area no Kishi, anyone?)--Keishin would certainly want his grandfather to pass being proud of him and of Karasuno.

Keishin can only be a proxy for sensei to explain strategy to the readers for so long. I think Shimada and Takinoue are better suited for that because they’re spectators as much as the readers are. While a flashback to the Neighborhood Association trio’s time in high school would be ill-timed at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a different type of development for Keishin in the coming months. I’d be more surprised if we didn’t, considering what I mentioned earlier about sensei’s storytelling style. If it doesn’t happen now, it’ll happen eventually. And if not I’m flying to Japan and personally giving sensei an earful after I thank them first.