#No!! There's nothing you could tell me about Pokémon that I don't already know!! You are a fool!! This is utter buffoonery!!!

[monkiesimp]

Anything hmm... how about this? Headcanons about Wukong and Macaque with a fem!S/O that got isekai'd from the Pokémon world! How would they react to a regular human mortal commanding powerful beasts who treats them like they were her family.

As for what Pokémon she has, I'll leave that up to you. Whatever sparks your imagination!

Bonus points if she acts like a mother-figure to MK while also making him picnic lunches for when he goes training.

Hope this will be fun for you to write! Thank you! 😊

Yup. This one's long so bear with me lol. I hope I did it right like you wanted

Wukong;

- Where. Were. You?

- All you remember was falling asleep with your Eevee next to you and then you're... Here?

- Luckily, your Eevee was still with you so you were not all that lonely.

- You wandered around this strange mountain, trying to figure out where you are and why your arms looked like a block and why THERE WERE NO WILD POKEMONS???

- And you ended up panicking when you realized you were trapped. How great.

- Luckily, you end up being found by Wukong who just happened to run into you

- He immediately got on defense mode because why would there be a stranger in his mountain unless they were looking for a fight?

- It did take a bit but he realized that you weren't a threat

- You explained your situation to him and the Monkey King listened closely, despite the far fetched story he seemed to believe your words.

- After the explanation he agreed to help you out and try to find your way back home

- He was honestly completely clueless as to what to do, so he just brought you somewhere else to chill and talk while you two think of a plan.

- When he first met you, he just wanted you off his mountain. But when talking with you and learning more about your world and you, he seemed to take a great appeal on you.

- Especially when you'd crack a joke, it made him laugh so hard

- You were also fascinated by how this world worked and that there are no Pokemons but instead demons.

- Talking with you never made Wukong this happy and it never made him laugh so hard, last time he laughed this good was when he was friends with Macaque and well... That was a long time ago.

- Before you knew it, it was already late and you two just wasted your time talking instead of figuring out a plan.

- Your Eevee was already asleep beside Wukong on his cloud and snuggled close to him, Wukong didn't seem to mind at all.

- Well, since you had nowhere to go now Wukong allowed you to stay at his place until you figured something out.

- Days and days passed, tho you enjoyed Wukong's company you eventually got bored sitting around and doing nothing, Wukong could tell by the way you seemed less and less cheerful each day

- You two still haven't figured out anything, because you didn't know how you got here in the first place. The best you could hope for was to go to sleep and wake up back in your realm.

- Wukong was a bit saddened that you were still worried about going home, he thought you liked it here and maybe would even consider staying with him ... But he should've guessed you probably have your own family and friends back home, you don't need him...

- To make it up to you, Wukong took you away to show you some places he knew of, he'd show you the Megapolis city too but you two never really went there because someone could recognize Wukong.

- Where you did stop though, was at a beautiful forest full of sunflowers.

- Seeing you so amazed by everything made Wukong happy, you looked so excited he couldn't help but be amused and tease you about it.

- Then, you don't know what happened, but as you two were talking you accidentally tripped and Wukong caught you

- Instead of letting you go and back away, he kept you in his arms

- The next thing you know, you two were reaching closer and closer to each other's face, looking at each other's eyes, then lips and eyes again...

- Just inches away from kissing, something made a crashing sound causing you two to get startled and snap out of the situation you were in

- You realized your Eevee was caught up in vines, and stuck, so you went to help him immediately, but also you were completely red by the whole situation.

- Wukong was red as well, he can't believe what he almost did. He just met you a few days ago, for god's sake!

- But his tail wagged happily when he looked back at that moment you two had just a second ago.

- Well, after that, as usual you hang out quite often.

- Wukong always cuddled you whenever he could, even if you met a few days ago he was quick to get affectionate with you and you didn't mind.

- But your Eevee was a bit jealous when Wukong wanted to cuddle with you instead of him.

- Your Eevee LOVED and adored Wukong, it's almost like Eevee loved him more than you 😭

- Then you met Mk.

- You two immediately bonded very well and Mk invited you to visit Megapolis with him so you don't get lost.

- Wukong allowed you to go but you could see he was a bit sad by it, so to make him feel better you kissed him on the cheek which did in fact, make him instantly happy, his tail wagging rapidly with a huge grin on his face.

- Going to the city with Mk was pretty nice, and you were very grateful for him for showing you around, you also met his friends! They're very nice and kind as well.

- Whenever Mk visited Flower Fruit Mountain, you'd always bake a peach cake or peach something (cause there were only peaches in this mountain) for both Wukong and Mk to feast on when they finished training.

- Wukong would eat way too much of those, he loved your cooking- especially if it included peaches in it

- When Wukong left you all alone on the Flower Fruit Mountain, he said he'd by away for a few days- and more importantly, away from Mk too, you weren't happy but respected his choice but didn't argue.

- After you found out about everything and where Wukong really was? Oh, boy, you were FURIOUS that he left Mk like that with such a stupid reason and you two had a serious talk.

- At least everything was alright after that.

- Then finally, after about two months figured out a way to go back to your home!

- Wukong was happy for you but he also felt deep loneliness and hurt in his heart, he didn't want you to leave.

- After thinking you left, he just went back to the Flower Fruit Mountain. The monkeys around noticed the sudden change in their King's mood and knew what happened.

- Wukong just sat on the tree in silence, he felt his heart empty as it usually was before he met you. He knew it would hurt yet he opened himself to you.

- After a few minutes, Wukong was surprised to hear you calling out his name and he immediately jumped down from the tree.

- "What happened? Did something go wrong?" Wukong was immediately confused and concerned as to why you were still here, Eevee was on your shoulder too.

- After you explained to him you wanted to stay with him, he was SO FREAKING HAPPY

- He hugged you so tightly and spun you around, which caused you to let out a laugh, you weren't expecting that

- And what you weren't expecting more was for Wukong to kiss you on your lips once he put you down on your feet, he still held you close to him.

- That night was beautiful and probably a moment that will forever stay in your memory and make you smile when you look back at it.

Macaque;

- Umbreon? I know, I'm very uncreative.

- When you found yourself in a different world, you immediately began to explore with your Umbreon close by you.

- You could only guess you somehow ended up in a different realm, but you weren't sure exactly how that happened.

- A lot of people around looked at you and your pokemon weirdly as you passed. You ignored their looks of course.

- Honestly you'd probably be wandering around for a few days until you met Macaque.

- It was by accident, you accidentally bumped into him once and when he saw you again a few days later, he did get a bit curious.

- Especially that weird looking creature with you, he could probably take it away from you and figure out how that thing works.

- So, first thing he did was meet you.

- You didn't trust him at first but after a few hours you explained that you weren't from this world.

- Macaque thought you were joking but when you explained everything to him he was a bit shocked and silent.

- He agreed to let you stay with him since he saw you had nowhere to go.

- Mostly he wasn't at the dojo, he'd be somewhere wandering around and hiding in the shadows.

- You didn't mind, you and Umbreon were still trying to figure out a plan of how to return home.

- When Macaque one night arrived injured, you were completely shocked and slightly concerned.

- Macaque thought you'd be sleeping right now so that's why he returned at night, but unfortunately he was wrong.

- He tried to tell he was okay and refused to let you bandage him up, but you weren't letting the topic go so he snapped at you.

- What he wasn't expecting was for you to snap back at him and pull him to the bathroom by his scarf.

- He couldn't do anything but let you bandage him up, he wasn't expecting for you to shout back at him and honestly he was a little impressed.

- But what he didn't understand more is why you were helping him with his injuries.

- When he asked you why, you replied "You let me stay here, and I want to return the favor. Even if it's something small like helping you with your injuries I'll do it. Plus, you shouldn't leave yourself to bleed like that, if you need me to help I will."

- And oh, god, the soft look you gave him caused him to have butterflies in his stomach and his mouth immediately closed before he could respond, his cheeks warm.

- That was the night he caught feelings for you, only he didn't realize it yet.

- Honestly, he was planning to bandage himself without you knowing or looking, but after that incident, every time he got in a fight and was injured he would let you bandage him.

- Of course, he knew how to treat his own wounds, that was just a excuse so he could be closer to you.

- And you definitely knew it but kept quiet about it.

- Macaque was originally going to steal your pet away from you but after spending some time with you and the way you'd do small gestures, whenever that be placing your hand on his shoulder he couldn't bring himself to do it.

- Your pet was weak anyway to be honest, and useless to him.

- So yes, he actually decided to help you and he'd stay with you up at night to figure out a plan with you.

- But due to that, he wasn't sleeping and you noticed by the way he seemed more sluggish than usual when you weren't looking and by the dark circles under his eyes.

- You'd usher him to bed despite his protests, and watch over him until he fell asleep.

- When he fell asleep, you started to read a book with Umbreon on your lap who was also taking a nap, but then you heard a whine.

- You looked down, it wasn't Umbreon, he was snoring quietly.

- But when you looked at Macaque, you realized his body was tense and his eyebrows were furrowed as he grunted, you could tell he was having a nightmare.

- You put Umbreon away and let him sleep on the chair while you hesitantly walked over to Macaque, you didn't want to wake him up since he just fell asleep after 30 minutes or so.

- Instead, you placed your hand on top of his in hopes it would soothe him.

- What you weren't expecting was for Macaque to grab your wrist and pull you harshy towards him until you were laying on top of him while he was hugging you.

- You were completely stunned, but he seemed to finally have calmed down and had a much more relaxing look on his face so it was worth it.

- After a few unsuccessful attempts of trying to escape his grip, you gave up and eventually fell asleep too.

- Oh boy, when macaque woke up he was blushing like crazy when he saw that he was holding you in his arms

- After that none of you address what happened and pretend like you never cuddled in the first place.

- You two spend a lot of nights together, Macaque would be close by your side and rest his head on your shoulder while you two looked through books to find something useful.

- Simple acts like that would end up being much more as days come and go, he'd be very hesitant but he'd wrap his tail around you too, and you'd rest your head on top of his. He did fall asleep like that once.

- He was so desperately touch starved but also didn't want to make the first move to hug you so you'd do it for him.

- After about a few months, you end up finding a way home and Macaque is really happy for you! Or so you thought, he's a good actor and he only pretended to be happy for your sake.

- You couldn't help but feel sad though, right as you were about to leave you hesitated and realized you wanted to stay here.

- Umbreon agreed to be with you too, he was taking a liking in Macaque as well.

- When you arrived back at the dojo, you immediately hugged Macaque leaving him stunned.

- You explained the situation and that you wanted to stay with him.

- Macaque was happy by it, though a sly grin was on his face, he truly was happy on the inside.

- What you weren't expecting was for Macaque to kiss you.

- You kissed him back of course, but the kiss grew heated and the next thing you know your back is pressed against the wall with your hands and legs wrapped around him while you two make out.

- Needless to say, you had a pretty... Memorable night you'd never forget.

S o b

I don't think I'm doing this right, it's like I'm writing a scenario, not a headcanon 😭

It's 2.4k words long 💀

[rhytmrocket]

hey all! so that post about po ship names got more support than expected, and i see at least two people would like to know the names i've come up with. so, here are some of my better works!

note that i don't ship really any of these that much, mainly cuz the only ship ive definitively decided so far that yes this is my yaoi is kaijoe, and also because a portion of these are crack-ish ships that i haven't seen anyone ship like at all (although i haven't checked out po ao3 yet so some of these might actually exist and i just have a blind spot). so if that fact degrades the quality of the names for you, sorry i guess

bulldozer, for bull/sandman. coming from bull, and to "doze" is to fall asleep, and also bulldozer is a word. kinda surprised i haven't seen this ship around, to me it feels like at least someone would ship it.

chocolate milk, for bull/doc. chocolate for doc, and bulls are male cows and female cows produce milk. this is a ship i'm pretty sure exists, but i haven't seen a name for it yet, so maybe this is already an accepted ship name for it like with the glass cannon situation. who knows

bullrush, for bull/hondo. it's a pretty obvious name, but it sounds really good so it's staying here.

redbull, for sodabull. redbull is a carbonated energy drink, which is basically soda. also bull in the name. i know this is one of the bigger ships in the tumblr po fandom, and i cannot believe no one calls it this. i can't have been the first person to come up with this! but everyone calls the ship sodabull so i just gotta live with it but now i'm breaking my silence!! sodabull should be called redbull. i mean maybe not in tags cuz that could get it mixed up with the energy drink but like you know!

popstar, for soda/macho. pop from soda pop(inski), and star because macho is a hollywood star. i feel the exact way about this one as i do with redbull-- it's a good fucking name but i haven't seen any macho/soda shippers use it and it drives me nuts

russian roulette, for soda/aran. soda's russian, and aran has a theme of luck, thus roulette. i haven't seen this ship much recently but scrolling back a while on the soda tag shows that this ship has existed. and i have not seen it be called russian roulette. what is it with soda ships and not reaching their name potential?

piña colada, for hippo/soda. piña colada is an often-alcoholic drink (soda has references to alcohol, and also his name used to be vodka) with pineapple in it (hippo has a lot of connexions to pineapples). ok, this ship i have not seen anyone ship (yet). this name i really just randomly came up with, but i like it and i think it fits and sounds good

dragon dance, for dragon/heike. this is mainly a reference to the move from pokémon of the same name. i am just about certain this ship exists, but i just! haven't! seen it yet!

pizzapie, for pizza/clown. pizzas are sometimes referred to as pies, or pizza-pies, and clowns are known for throwing pastry pies as physical comedy. ok guys hear me out! uh! uh. ok i got nothing, this ship just entered my mind one night and hasn't left since, like a prophet recieving a vision from a god except the god is dionysus wasted off his ass.

spaghetti and meatballs, for pizza/ref mario. i have no explanation for this one. i am so sorry. idk why so many pizza pasta ships come into my mind, that fucker has 0 canon personality

pineapple-shaped disco ball, for disco/hippo. i think the name's pretty obvious. i uh once heard the word cluster "pineapple-shaped disco ball" and immediately thought "lmao that sounds like a ship name for disco kid and king hippo" and promptly put it on my note of ship name ideas. i really like it for them because it's verbose and clunky, it sounds like something their collective braincell and a half would come up with.

oh and! if a name i have here already exists, please do tell! especially if it's redbull or popstar, those two drive me mad. clown.

[melonthesprigatito]

Is anyone else still mad at the Pokémon Square townsfolk?

That whole "Pikachu is actually a human and the Ninetales legend says that when the human wakes up as a Pokémon, the world's balance will be upset and the apocalypse will happen. So we should """"get rid of""" Pikachu and the world will be saved, right?" thing.

Like, they take what Gengar, leader of Team Meanies, (and THE ACTUAL HUMAN TURNED POKÉMON FROM THE ACTUAL LEGEND) says at face value and immediately decide that murdering Pikachu is the only way to solve their problems.

They turn on the poor little Sugar the Pikachu and Sprinkles the Eevee who have been peacefully going about their lives doing their rescue work and have been nothing but friendly and conversing with everyone.

Rescue Team Sweetheart becomes public enemy number one and the townsfolk and every Rescue Team in existence chase two innocent Pokémon to the literal end of the continent, and Sugar and Sprinkles suffer from exhaustion, constant threat of attack, possible starvation, possible hypothermia, SPRINKLES DOES CATCH A COLD AT SOME POINT ("Eww, my nose is running!") for a period that is implied to last weeks or months. They also nearly get killed by TWO Legendary Birds!

AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON TEAM A.C.T. Alakazam, the Gold Rank explorer with the IQ of 5000 gives into peer pressure and decides to join the lynch mob. Alakazam who is already aware of the Ninetales legend. How come Mr Big Shot Smart Explorer didn't try to diffuse the situation and find another solution?

Everyone trusts Alakazam enough that him being an eyewitness to Ninetales confirming that Sugar ain't evil in her past life and telling everyone she has nothing to do with the disasters is enough to clear her name. He could have said "Hey, how about we DON'T kill the supposed human who's causing the disasters? She has no motive, she lost her memories, we have no guarantee she's even the same human from the Ninetales legend that's causing the natural disasters, we should look into this and come up with a better solution."

But NOOOOO, Alakazam's all like "We came to a consensus, we must get rid of you." Charizard taunts Sprinkles before their battle on Mt Freeze like "I don't know how to show mercy" and all three of them would have killed Sugar and Sprinkles if Ninetales intervene.

Gengar receives no punishment for starting an international manhunt. All the townsfolk except for Caterpie, Metapod, Diglett, Jumpluff, Pelipper and Kangaskhan basically say "Sorry for suspecting you, I was 100% sure you were guilty, I had no faith in you at all."

Fucking Shiftry over there is like "I joined the chase with a heavy heart but only stopped going after them once they ran into Doomed Desolation Mt Blaze (actual way Mt Blaze is described in game) because I'm a Grass Type and fire doesn't agree with me." BITCH, I RISKED MY LIFE TO SAVE YOU FROM ZAPDOS. Why would you go along with the "Let's Kill Sugar" plan???

The townsfolk go back to acting like everything is normal and the rest of the rescue teams gather in the Square when Team A.C.T goes missing and I'm supposed to be courteous to the people who subjected me and Sprinkles to months of horrors based on the words of one individual who's famously untrustworthy.

I know it's a video game, but holy shit. If I were actually Sugar, I would never trust any of these people again. I would have left Alakazam's ass to melt in the Magma Cavern.

Behold the Beast of The Apocalypse and her sympathisers

[lumenflowered]

[A video file is attached. In it, Maria can be seen seated at an outdoor patio table opposite... a Dratini? Probably? The being's vaguely Dratini-shaped, anyway, from what a viewer can see through the glitchiness. Though the color's all wrong—it's a reddish-purple, which is odd even for a potentially shiny Pokémon.

"I am quite aware that this is not what you wished to speak of," Maria says, hands cupped around what appears to be a coffee cup, "but will Dee be... alright? Without you close by?"

The Dratini-adjacent being ducks her head in what certainly appears to be a nod. There's a mug of coffee in front of her, too, though it looks untouched and also has truly ungodly amounts of cream and sugar added to it.

"S'nice you cared enough to ask. As long as we're in, like, the same town? It's fine, that's close enough," Mallory says, if it can count as saying anything when there is no mouth moving. "More than that gets iffy, but she's more powerful than she thinks, in a worst-case scenario she'd be able to keep herself going for at least a couple hours, I do not want to test that!"

"Rather understandably." Maria looks a little paler as she raises her own coffee to sip at delicately. "What, then, did you wish to discuss?"

"Well, for starters..."

The not-Dratini's eyes narrow. The air seems to shimmer a little, then the video glitches for several seconds to the point of not being able to make out anything. Once it returns to normalcy, there is a young woman with short dark hair and vividly purple eyes sitting opposite Maria, who is staring a little at whatever she just saw happen.

"You forgot what I looked like. Probably a consequence of my ascension, if I had to guess, but there's few enough people who remember that already. You don't get to be one of them."

"Fair enough, I suppose." Maria sounds a little bemused. She gently sets the mug down on the table. "I do remember you now, though I believe your eyes were different then. It is... rather difficult not to remember the person who killed you."

"Yeah," Mallory agrees. "It is, isn't it?"

"Most of the details of that place... blurred together, I'm afraid. I don't remember—"

"I'm not telling you how many times you killed me."

"Ah," Maria says.

"I will tell you it was a lot." Mallory slurps at her coffee. The fact that it's steaming doesn't seem to bother her. "And that I was touch-starved enough that I didn't even realize you were tearing my heart out until there was nothing left I could do about it."

Maria winces. "I genuinely do not know what one could, or should, say to that."

Mallory, or her illusion—is that an illusion?—shrugs. "I wouldn't turn down an apology, if you feel like it, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for one. You were trying to make up for what you'd done in the fishing hamlet."

"I... yes." Her shoulders slump a little.

"Genuine question. Did it work?"

"No." Maria sighs. "No, it rather did not. It may have actually been worse than everything that I tried prior to... ending up in the Nightmare, but having a purpose of some kind did keep me relatively sane in that place—"

"I can count the number of people capable of talking to me in the Hunter's Nightmare on one hand," Mallory says. "Well, when I've got hands, anyway. Don't always anymore. But by Nightmare standards, you were incredibly sane."

"...Thank you?"

"Eh, don't mention it." Mallory waves one of said dubiously-there hands dismissively. "So what did end up working?"

"You say this as if something did entirely work. As if I will ever be able to truly escape from the past." Maria sighs. "I suppose what worked, then, is that I accepted that it happened, and... began trying to move on? The past cannot be changed, but..."

"But?"

"But it is also in the past." Something resolute passes over Maria's expression. "I can do better in the present day. In the future."

"Damn, your mental health really is way better! And by that I mean that you actually have some, what the hell."

"I am thoroughly uncertain as to how one should take that."

"It's a compliment. Probably." Mallory clears her throat. "And it makes me think that my hunch was right. That it is time for this."

She reaches to her side—into thin air, really—yet her hand disappears as if passing behind or into something. The air shimmers.

"Time for..."

Maria's words die in her throat as Mallory withdraws her hand. It's holding a sheathed weapon, one that appears to be an intricately-crafted twinblade.

To those familiar with the weapon, it is immediately recognizable as Maria's own Rakuyo.

The video ends there.]

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Well about the perception of Volo vs Kamado thing, and why more people don’t hate Volo, I have my own reflections (pretty privilege is absolutely a factor tho let’s be real 😂)

Everyone growing up has at least one story of an adult being super unfair to you, even though you were doing everything right. Their own biases and experiences could be understood later once you were older and calmer reflecting back on the incident, like a teacher who snapped at you maybe had a super long day of wrangling hundreds of children. But we never forget how it feels in that moment to have those who should be guiding us be unfair and seemingly unreasonable. So naturally that’s gonna hurt when you get kamado being paranoid.

Volo on the other hand is just absolutely delightful I’m sorry maybe if Kamado put on a silly outfit and hair for his boss battle instead of plate mail he’d have more art. Like you said Volos betrayal is one and done really, he acts like a theater kid and then dips. You have to keep seeing kamado being in charge in the game after his blunders for a while which can rub people the wrong way. (Also this is maybe just me but I never trusted Volo just like I never trusted Cynthia as a kid, and finding out he was evil was a great moment of vindication I CANT be the only one who experienced this)

TLDR we see unfairness way more than we see someone betray us while making their hair like a god horse

well, you heard them, kamado. time to go get the jester outfit. cmon chop chop it's to redeem your image

yeah, the point abt getting burned by adults in authority is also very fair. most of us were not scarred for life by theater kid antics lol. the other thing abt it is that often those same adults never really face any consequences. you were always just expected to move on, suck it up etc. cause that's life as a kid right. sometimes ppl will use their power over you just to flex their limited authority, or to vent whatever's going on in their home life, and this doesn't really stop when you grow up it's just that when you're a kid basically every adult has that authority position. so it's just expected that there's nothing you can do. i mean unless you decide to be the karmic force of justice in your own life by being the most stubborn bitch of a child to walk the earth. not that i would know anything about that cough

uh anyway. the thing is the thing btwn you and kamado isn't about about child vs adult. you're more or less considered an adult yourself by jubilife, albeit a rather young and more importantly low ranking one. like we've said (a million times already lol) kamado's not doing it just to grasp at a sense of control, he's reacting to what he perceives as a very real threat to his village (and also because the writers clocked him in the face with the idiot ball for plot advancement reasons lbr).

and the thing is kamado DOES, kind of, face consequences and own up to his mistakes by the end of the game. also after the red sky event he's like, REALLY nice to you lol. not just briefly either! imo you can tell that he sincerely respects you and regrets his actions in the red sky. go look at his late game quotes-

"Perhaps you are a divine being yourself, sent to bring us gifts from above... "I know I've no right to say this... But we are truly fortunate to have been able to count you among the Survey Corps' ranks. If you had not joined us, we would have fallen on Mount Coronet. We would have lost our home. We would have lost our future." "I'm grateful to you for showing me what a heartening presence Pokémon can be. We must spar again sometime!" "<player>, forgive me for taking so much of your time [telling you about the Galaxy name.] Please accept this as a sort of apology."

like he's trying to make up for the way they were treated earlier and give them the proper treatment they're owed for all their help.

idk i don't have a good way to conclude this i guess. i just think he's a cool character

[hyenasheep]

Brainstorming random general Junkrat headcanons that i consider as an official canon at this point

I wrote this at 4 am cough

- mother issues, and not in the kinky way but like really bad espresso depresso mother issues. He's like a newborn duck who thinks that anything that comes near to him is his mother (also based of his voice lines i think he was an only child and probably lived only with his mom)

- he doesn't care about what he's wearing, dress, pants, skirts, like he's able to walk around in anything that isn't tight or scratchy

- he sees Roadhog as his father figure/older brother and they just kinda adopted each other without the paperwork (ALSO pls don't take this like I'm trying to shittalk on ppl who ship them, this is just my personal view on their relationship so pls don't yell at me or I'm gonna cry ;-;)

- you can't tell me that my boy doesn't have adhd and ptsd, like C'mon

- he's on aro/ace spectrum, he spend his entire life in wasteland so he's rather looking for family and friends than partner, at least not just a quick flirting etc.

- but I can also see him that something like a personal space doesn't exist for him (he's extremely hungry for any physical touch like someone hug him already holy hell) i feel like he doesn't really understand social interactions (kinnie moment) . Idk how to describe it but like imagine he would randomly walk to you and gave you flowers or smth, just trying to be friendly not realizing smn could interpret it differently

- but also he has no idea what flirting is, like u could hit on him for months and he would be for the entire time like :) 🧍‍♀️"love ya too mate" while patting your head

- he actually can draw pretty well, like the concepts he drew for his bombs etc? He has such a clean lineart holy shit

- hardcore/trash punk and kpop/classic 2000s pop, nothing else.

- literally the biggest fan boy (a little meow meow u can say), Lucio? listens to his music non-stop, Hammond? has his stuffed animals and signed peg leg, Junker Queen? gosh, if he doesn't have at least one lunch box with her, I'm throwing hands than

- the pokémon sodas edition, he would love them, cherishem them, worship them, like if he loves pachimari u can't tell me he wouldn't love strawberry yagult pink soda with Mew on the can

- he's losing his hearing so he uses hearing aids (that he made himself ofc), also him and roadhog know sign language and using it pretty oftenly, during missions, when Junkrat's having a panic attack etc.

- so like ppl say he's egoistic but i think there's a huge difference between his ego and Junker Queens ego, she's very confident and sure about her role/look/skill etc. While Junkrat is more self-ironic and tries to hide that he is actually pretty insecure about pretty much everything

- can speak fluently many languages which always throws everyone off , like he just randomly starts speaking Chinese fluently in a middle of meeting or something, and everyone arevlooking at him like 🧍‍♀️

- shitty phantom pains, he may know how to build his prosthetics from a literal garbage but has no idea when it comes to take care of himself so he just curles up into a ball and sobbs

- he and Roadhog give each other manicures at least once a month, that's the only thing he can actually take care of

- unhealthy addiction to coffee and sweets (someone should take away the coffee machine he has in the workshop) (his teeth are rotten at this point)

- his sleep is more broken than the queuing system (haha funny), usually sleeping like 3 hours per day, that's why the coffee addiction

- if u would show him any kind of love he would start stuttering while trying to come up with smth funny, blushing, sweating and sit on the ground and think about life for the next 30 mins cuz of how much he's not used to being praised

- also my man is a huge emotional wreck, he's getting new emotion every 5 seconds

- honestly i can't decide if the only thing he ever read was a recipe on frozen dumplings or if he's the biggest nerd u can imagine who's walking around with Franz Kafka or Sigmund Freud while sipping his boba tea

- he's missing an eye - I read the theory that he doesn't have an eye and that his fake eye is actually the real treasure with a code or smth, and omg, im obsessed, yes, my boy is like a cool mad max pirate, absolutely canon, at least it would connect him to some actual lore in the story, he's just wobbling around for last 6 years just give him something already;-;

- he likes comics, i just think he likes to inconspicuously steal a new issue of Batman whenever they're pulling a heist

- you know those French toasts that are basically just normal bread soaked in condensed milk? that's his ass

[boygiwrites]

Harley D. Dixon 21

An amazing edit inspired by this story! (Cred to Cora_Line99) Harley D. Dixon's Pinterest Board! Harley D. Dixon's Playlist!

📖Chapter List.

Author's Note.

Another quick under 3,000 word update for you guys :) Enjoy!

When it's quiet, Carl and I go visit Sophia's grave together.

Under the low-hanging oak tree is a whole long line of graves, many more than the last time I stood here, all marked with their own wonky, homemade cross. Rings, necklaces, hand-written notes and little trinkets hang from each one, swaying gently in the afternoon breeze. I wonder which belongs to the one I killed the other night, which mound of dirt and death I'm responsible for. I wonder if they know I'm sorry.

I don't have to wonder which is Sophia's. I know already. It's the one with the Cherokee roses laying on it.

I step forward and carefully place Matilda against the white petals, making sure her yarn-hair is neat and her dress is as it should be, while Carl lays the Pokémon folder down next to it. When I promised Carol I'd return the doll to her someday, I never imagined it would be like this.

As we step back, I grab Carl's hand and tell the small grave, "Wherever you are, I hope you get to play again."

Thoughts and prayers, I think they say. I don't think they ever done any good to nobody. If God was listening to silly things like thoughts and prayers, this tree would be someplace we could play together, and not the graveyard it's turned into. Those roses would've worked. But it's like Shane said. Sophia was weak. Just 'cause it don't sound nice, don't mean it ain't true. She was weak, and she paid the price for it. I wish I could do more than just stand here and miss her, but maybe I can also learn from what she couldn't, be stronger, live what she didn't get to.

I ain't never seen much purpose in death, but maybe that's it. Maybe like scars, all they do is make us stronger.

"We'll miss you, Sophia." Carl utters, squeezing my fingers. "I'm sorry we couldn't find you."

When he starts sniffling, I feel even emptier than I already do. I should cry with him, but I can't. I don't know why. I've always been a bit of a crier. It was one of the things Merle hated most about me. If you're gonna be angry, be angry, but don't start cryin' too while yer at it. He used to need to shout at me and shake me by the shoulders to get me to dry up, but now I've dried up all on my own.

"She'd dead, Carl." I mumble, turning away. "Ain't no tears ever saved nobody."

When we make it back up to the gate where Dad's waiting for us, he doesn't mention my scowl. He kisses my hair and leads us up the path. When we get there, Carl drags me to the spot behind his family's tent, 'cause apparently he wants to show me something.

"You gotta promise not to tell." He warns as he pulls a gun from underneath a rock. "I stole it this morning from Dad."

My eyes go wide. I was not expecting a gun. Carl's more the type of person to steal a cookie before dessert, not guns.

I quickly duck down, glancing around to make sure none of the adults saw. "What the Hell, Carl?"

"You remember Shane was gonna take us for shooting lessons, right? Well, that's not happening anymore. We gotta do it ourselves."

"Are you serious? Your parents are gonna kill ya if they find out, you moron."

"Duh. That's why I'm not gonna tell 'em."

"Adults like to know where kids are." I scold him harshly. "You wanna end up like Sophia?"

"No," He says firmly. "I wanna end up like you. You know all about surviving. You know plants, and birds, and animals. I know nothing."

He's right, I suppose. He doesn't really know anything. He didn't grow up around hunters, didn't live by the woods, didn't get compasses and boots and BB guns for his birthdays. I bet he's never even killed before, neither. Not even a rat in the rafters. Just like Sophia, he knows nothing.

I would like to teach Carl what I know, but I've never done somethin' like this. Unsure, I grumble, "I don't like gettin' in trouble."

"It's fine. We'll be quick." He assures me. "And if we get caught, I'll just say the whole thing was my idea."

I pin him with a look. "It was your idea."

"Exactly. Besides, you got lost in the woods for two whole days and you were fine. I'll be in good hands. So you coming, or what?"

I sigh. "You're gonna go no matter what I say, ain't ya?"

"Mm-hmm."

I roll my eyes. Finally, someone as stubborn as I am. That settles it, then.

"Fine." I say. "I'll come."

He pumps his fist excitedly. "Yes!"

"But lemme grab somethin' first before we leave."

He tucks the gun into his pants line and follows after me as I make my way to mine and Dad's camp. When I stop in front of the motorcycle parked in the shade, he asks what I'm doing, but I wordlessly flip the saddlebag open and pull out a shiny, mean-lookin' Bowie knife.

He blanches at the sight of it as I strap the sheath to my belt loop. "That's the biggest knife I've ever seen."

"Used to be my Uncle Merle's." I say absentmindedly, before nodding him toward the treeline. "Let's go."

"For the record," Carl hums as we walk along the marshy creek, "I think the missing ear makes you look super badass."

I give him a light shove, making him stumble and giggle. "Keep talkin', and you'll be missin' yours in a minute."

"What? You don't think you look badass?"

"Not really."

"Well, I say you do. And I'm always right."

"No, you ain't. Hey, look. Mushrooms."

We skip across a toppled log laying in the water and leap onto the other side, approaching a cluster of brown mushrooms sprouting from the base of a fat tree. Morels, made obvious by their wrinkly, honey-comb caps. I pull him down with me and start plucking some.

"These are Morels." I explain, handing him a stubby, dark-colored stalk. "Here. You can eat 'em."

He takes it from me like it's a bomb. "Are you sure? How can you tell?"

I snap another off. "'Cause they're ugly and they smell like bread."

He grins in amazement as I pop it in my mouth without hesitation. Encouraged to do the same, he takes a little nibble of his.

I watch his eyes go wide. As expected, he seems to like it. "Tastes like nuts."

"The darker the cap, the more flavor ya get. Not that you'd be worryin' too much about that when you're dyin' in the woods, I guess."

"Still a cool fact, though." He takes my hand and stands up. "Let's go find some more stuff."

Happy to keep exploring, we wonder from tree to tree, bush to bush, rock to rock. I teach him which berries will make you froth at the mouth and die and which ones will taste like sour candies, how to tell poison oak from regular leaves, which mark on the ground means what.

I even teach him to make a whistle from a mottled wax-leaf, which he seems to find very fun.

He blows through it for a hundredth time, making the ringing in my ears turn piercingly loud.

"Quit that noise, dumbass." I complain, reaching to snatch it from him.

He comes to a sudden halt, leaf falling from his lips.

"What is it?" Frowning, I turn to what he's looking at.

There's a walker stood on the bank opposite us, its foot caught under the thick, gummy mud. It keeps trying to break free, but it's skinny as a twig and useless as a newborn deer, so it ain't gettin' outta there any time soon, which is good for us but bad for him, I guess.

Watching it flail around, Carl wonders, "Should we shoot it?"

It'd make an easy target, but I got no interest in killin' that thing. Might be the one that bit Sophia. It deserves to suffer.

"Nah." I sourly disagree, turning away. "Let's just leave it there. We can go shoot somethin' else."

He gives it one last glance before falling into step with me. "Okay. Like what?"

"Somethin' that's useful. Rabbit, maybe."

"Ooh, you can teach me to skin it. You ever done that before?"

Have I ever killed and skinned a rabbit?

Pssh. "That's funny, Carl."

He giggles at that.

We return to the farm about an hour later with a dead hare. I offered to carry it, but Carl says he likes having it slung over his shoulder 'cause it makes him feel like a strong caveman, whatever that means. I tracked it and taught him to shoot the thing, but I guess it was him that shot it dead so technically, it's his kill. His first ever kill. He didn't get squeamish or nothin', not even when I flayed its skin off with the knife.

"That was awesome," He exclaims, not caring that there's blood all over his shirt. "Where'd you even learn to shoot?"

Tall grass and laughter come to mind, but as we approach the gate, I settle on shrugging, "Doesn't matter."

"Well, I can't believe an eight-year-old got to learn to shoot before I did."

I unlatch it and open it for him, joking, "Maybe it's 'cause I'm better behaved."

"You know what," He lilts as he steps past, "You're probably right."

I lock it closed and follow him along the path back to camp, feeling more and more grateful that I'm behind him and can hide a little when I realize we weren't as sneaky as we thought we were, as Rick, Lori, Dad, and Dale jump out their seats at the sight of us approaching.

My stomach does a weird little flip at the angry look on Dad's face. I have to remind myself things are different now.

"Where were you?" Lori screeches, running to crouch in front of us. "You silly boy, where were you?"

"We just went out for a bit, Mom. We're fine." He seems to think showing her the hare won't make things ten times worse. "Look!"

Before she can lose her mind again, Dad snatches it off him. "What the Hell were y'all thinkin'?"

"I'm sorry, Dad." I tell him. "I just—"

"You disobeyed me, is what you did." He scolds. "'Stay where I can see ya.' Ain't that what I always say?"

"It's what we say, too." Rick frowns. "You know it's dangerous out there. There's a reason we have rules."

"And there's a reason we keep the gun bag away from children." Dale raises a brow. "We know there's a pistol missing, son."

Lori holds out her hand. He makes a big deal out of pulling the gun out and handing it over. 

"You too, Harley. Where'd you get that knife?"

"It's Merle's." Dad gruffly answers for me. He doesn't take it, but I can tell he's disappointed. Feels so wrong not gettin' belted for this.

"Guys, she didn't even wanna come at first." Carl says. "It was my idea. I asked her to. I thought it would be safer with the both of us."

"So, what you're saying is you not only stole from us and snuck out without permission," Chides Rick, "But you put Harley in danger, too."

"I— I didn't think I was."

"As the older child, you should've known better. You need to look out for her, Carl. This isn't a joke."

Dad scoffs, "Nah, she's more'un capable of followin' orders on her own. She knows not to sneak out."

"Tell you what, we can go shootin' sometime soon if that's somethin' you feel you wanna do, but you cannot do this again."

Lori adds, "Ever."

"Is that clear?"

I nod straight away, but Carl takes a little longer before he gives in. "Do we at least get to eat the rabbit?"

"If you promise you won't try gettin' another one for tomorrow's dinner."

He sighs moodily. "Fine. Okay."

"Glad we're finally on the same page."

As Lori leads Carl away to get him changed into a shirt that's not so blood-soaked, he throws me an apologetic look over his shoulder. He didn't mean for us to get in trouble. Rick leaves to replace the gun, Dale resumes watch duty, and Dad drags me back to our camp without another word. I don't bother saying sorry again. I know he don't appreciate being told the same thing twice, so I keep my mouth shut.

I half expect him to lay me over his knee the second we make it back, but all he does is sit me down on the stump.

"You sit here for however long I feel's right, and you think about how you done wrong."

As he walks off to start preparing the rabbit, I take great effort in keeping my jaw from dropping.

Time-out. I ain't ever been in time-out before. Usually, I just get whipped and that's it, but things really are different now.

I accept my punishment without complaint, watching him gut the hare and slice it into small strips, laying them out on the rocks around the crackling fire. I wonder if he's letting me keep the knife because I did a good job skinning. I hope so. He taught me how, after all.

Once the meat's cooked, which takes about ten short minutes, he beckons me off the stump with a nod of his head.

"Come get some food, chicken."

I hop off and approach him unconfidently, taking the mug of browned meat that he offers me.

"Carl was smart takin' you with him." He says. "Would'a fucked that poor animal up, otherwise."

I find myself trying not to smile. I think I like time-out.

"Are you still angry with me?"

"I don't like what you did, Harley. You went and did somethin' behind my back." I understand that. It wasn't right. "But you wanna start doin' some things on yer own, I'm more'un happy to let you, baby, you know that. Simple things, like havin' yer own knife. I'll allow that."

I perk up a little. "I can keep Merle's knife?"

"Yeah. A gun, though, we'll have to work up to. You got plenty people around here ready to protect you with guns, already. But it's important to know how to shoot one, anyway, so when Rick takes Carl, he can take you, too. Certified instructor, and all that."

That's more than fair. "Alright. Thank you, Dad."

"I'll show you how to use that thing properly later, but for now," He hands me another hot mug, "Go shut Carl up with some'a this."

I carry both mugs back to main camp and find Rick and Carl sitting together at the picnic table, having what looks like the serious conversation me and Dad just got done having. When they notice me, Rick finishes off what he was saying and scoots over so I can sit next to him.

"Dad cooked the hare." I tell him, passing it across the table. He takes it with an owlish look. "Might still be hot."

"I don't think you've ever eaten hare before, have you, buddy?"

"No. Had skunk, though." He pops a piece in his mouth. "Mm. That's pretty good."

"Now you got a taste of what you wanted, I expect you to reel it in a bit. Protection's important, but not if it ends up killing you."

"Rick, My Dad said I can come shooting with you and Carl, if that's okay."

"'Course, honey. I think I'm gonna ask some of the others if they wanna come, too. Start today, if you want."

Me and Carl share an excited glance. "Yes, please."

"Alright, then. Finish up that food and we'll see about leavin' soon."

Author's Note.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, everyone 💙

Some more intense things coming up in the next one.

[the-dragon-master-lover]

MY FRIEND CALLED ME CRAZY, I KNEW PART OF MY THEORY WAS GOING TO COME TRUE

I'll tell you, you'll say what theory I'm talking about, well I noticed a pattern in the last three chapters of the mysterious stones chapter

Seeing that the last two released chapters were centered on Cynthia and Steven, I thought the other chapter must be about Lance and assuming that the last chapter was the climax of the chapter, Lance would have a higher chance of 'connecting' more with Arceus.

Although part of my original theory went down the drain, I firmly believe that Lance deserves a sygna suit with Arceus and I will give you my reasons why it should be so:

Number one, because there is a pattern in the trio of Champions of Lance, Steven and Cynthia, I tell you

I noticed that Cynthia's and Steven's Sygna Suits have something in common with their respective Pokemon.

They had previously related to their Pokémon in other media, so to speak.

Cynthia related to Giratina in the anime and the spin-off Pokemon Generations

Steven with deoxys (or also with his sygna suit with Rayquaza) related to his pokemon in the video games

So, it would be missing a coach who has been related in the manga with his pokemon, that's where Lance comes in

We already know that Lance in the manga tried to confront Arceus and almost left us in this world, again

ignore the poor quality of the images, YOU KNOW HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO FIND THE IMAGES 😿

So Lance should have a sygna suit with Arceus, making a trio where each visual medium of pokemon is represented with Cynthia and Steven, so to speak

Number two, BECAUSE HE DESERVES IT 😾

Imagine making your debut in Pokemon Masters alongside Cynthia in 2020 and in all these 4 years, Cynthia has had THREE SYGNA SUITS AND YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN EVEN ONE 😿

And to top it off, a certain character who hasn't even been around for a year (I think) in the pokemon masters is already going to have a sygna suit.

I'm talking about you, Nemona 😾 ( Nothing against Nemona, she's one of my favorite characters but it makes me angry 😾)

And can someone come and tell me, “But Lance can't have a singular pokemon that is not from his region“ Of course he can, don't forget about the existence of Korrina's Sygna Suit.

And number three, do you remember the promise between Cynthia and Lance to have a battle in the future?

Can you imagine how amazing it would be a battle between Lance and Cynthia but Cynthia using Giratina and Lance using Arceus? It would be like creation and destruction fighting against each other

After reading my 'theory' you will surely think that I consume hallucinogenic substances.

I don't do it, it's the school affecting my brain, besides I needed an excuse to save gems in pokemon masters

Well, it could be that I am a little crazy, but the best people are

In conclusion, Lance deserves a sygna suit

[insecateur]

okay now that it's no longer french friday i can say this,

i'm genuinely really happy people like the comic— it's doing numbers i didn't expect on twitter (nothing huge but i'm used to my more silly drawings doing this well haha) and i've had a few people tell me it resonated with them personally which is what makes me glad most of all

i don't remember whether i talked about this on tumblr or not tho i do know i mentioned it on twitter at least once, but back when the game came out, i was recovering from a very fraught situation which i won't get into details about. it had been a couple years already and i had not made as much progress as i thought i had at the time, to be honest. it seems silly when you consider that i'm talking about a pokémon game of all things, but when sycamore called me after beating team flare and we met up so he could apologize for his role in everything that had happened, it struck a chord in me in a way that i definitely wasn't ready for (especially in this context)

it's funny bc i do very much ship them and i do think it's easy to read them as having been in a more intimate relationship, but at the time, there was something really powerful to me about seeing this kind of... complicated, messy relationship that had been soiled by one of the involved party misleading the other (however much you believe sycamore was misled) that was not presented outwardly as romantic. betrayal is a subject that, in fiction, especially between adults i feel, usually involves a "closer" relationship than friendship. it's usually lovers, or family, or the kind of bond that blurs the line between family and friendship. but here, at that time when i needed this, professor augustine sycamore told me, "he was my friend and so this is my fault as well" and i was like, NO IT ISN'T!

and so... i don't think pokémon xy healed me from whatever wound i carried from all of that. but being able to see that, and think to myself, no this wasn't his fault, but i understand why he'd think this way, and i understand how that feels, i think did somehow help me toward at least beginning to make peace with it. and i think it was why i was so mad for a long time at the people who were treating it like a joke, and the people who were blaming him, too.

i don't regret how i acted during my own situation as much as i did back then, and i'm glad i gave up on trying to fix it. yet there's definitely something my brain craves when i'm thinking about augustine sycamore never giving up on trying to fix it, finally facing everything head on, for ever staying true to himself as he persists in his quest to make things better... to be kinder both to himself past and present and to others...

i'm glad i'm alive right now and that i managed to keep believing in others (i'm not very good at believing in myself yet but it's getting there) reconciling with being known and knowing other people... i think it'll always be worth it in the end... that's what i'd like to communicate when i write about them working together to become better people and make the world better as well...

uhhhhhh. and also i'm gay i guess 🧍‍♂️

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Can I be honest?

I really do not care about Missing Link.

I'll admit that the most recent trailer probably made me more interested in it than I ever have been before, but even then I'm just kind of like... ehh.

And this is for a few reasons, I think.

A large one being that it's a mobile game. And I shouldn't have to explain why that's a huge reason as to why that's helping to kill my interest in this game, even though it looks like this game should be a lot better than KHUX and Dark Road, thankfully (but I'm also somewhat reserving judgement on all of that until we get it).

The fact that it's a game like Pokémon Go was also sort of ruining things for me, since I really can't walk well anymore. But according to the trailer and Nomura, it seems like that you don't really have to travel in order to do things in the game. So we'll see how that pans out.

But I guess I'm just getting to the place where some casuals were before, were--in some ways--if it's not about our main cast, I almost feel like I can't be bothered (and I do feel bad about that, in some ways).

I'm somewhat tired, I suppose, of having to play a million different games, in order to understand the next mainline installment. And I know this is just one between III and IV (if you don't count the Re:Mind DLC and Melody of Memory), but it does sort of feel a bit like "same old, same old" to me.

I also just... I don't know. Really feel like we didn't need this part of the timeline filled in? And I would almost prefer if that wasn't happening, so it could be a mystery and we could imagine it for ourselves? I feel like the only reason it's being filled out now is because of the Scala ad Caelum stuff in KHIII. And probably because this next saga is partly going to be saving the people from the KHX saga. But if we didn't get Missing Link, that plot point could have been delivered in another game.

Now we're just going to get more characters introduced, and clutter up the roster even more, and gah!

I know this game is surely to partly tide us over until KHIV, which is definitely nice. But IDK. I, personally, would have rather had one of the plot lines they teased at the end of Re:Mind as a game (Kairi's training with Aqua, Mickey in Scala, the Wayfinder trio in the Realm of Darkness, or Naminé looking for clues about Sora's whereabouts in Roxas and Xion's memories). Or waited a bit more and just gotten KHIV and then the Verum Rex game (both as console games, of course), because you know they have to be making both of these games right now.

I really don't mean to complain. Because I know a lot of time and work has surely gone into this. And it's something. And I'd rather take something over nothing (for the most part. Don't start giving me KH NFTs, Square). But unless something changes, there's nothing about Missing Link so far that's really grabbed me, personally.

And maybe it will. I'm sure it will, eventually. It won't take much to do it. But the fact it's a mobile game will always hurt it. It's weird to say, but I kind of miss the days of the handheld KH games. At least they were better quality. Oy.

Edit: And back to my one point, I feel Missing Link is going to add even more to the KHIV stuff now, when there's already so much it needs to conquer that I have no idea how it's going to do it all. Like, I was thinking that maybe some of the point of Missing Link was to flesh out this new saga... but there's already so much going on here.

Edit 2: However, Missing Link, and all the stuff with the story of Scala ad Caelum, seems to be a story Nomura-san wants to tell. And that is most definitely his right.

[ralts-lovin]

Heyo!

Since you've asked me about my Gardevoir and Gallade, I decided to ask you about your Pokemon! Specifically the ones of the Ralts line.

So tell me more about them! Any of them! Also I am very curious, how did Widow end up like that? Is she a mutant? A crossbreed? (is that the right word?) Aside from that- I'd love to hear about your Polemon!

(-@psychosis-solosis)

Hi there! Yes, of course I'd like to talk about my little guys! I love them all so much, I could talk about them for hours!

Widow is my most recent Pokémon from the Ralts line, and I... don't actually know what caused her to be like this? Muk and Gardevoir are in the same egg group, so I'm goin' to assume she's a crossbreed, like Scarlet.

And speakin' of Scarlet! She recently told me her parents were a Gardevoir and an Armarouge, which explains her Psychic/Fire typing! Scarlet is really cool, and she can sometimes be a little hot-headed (hehe) but she cares a lot for me and my other Pokémon! Especially Chili and Widow. :)

Chili is, as you probably guessed, Scarlet's daughter! She's tryin' her best to learn new moves, and she's almost perfected Ember! I'm so proud of her... :') Oh, fun fact! Scarlet already had Chili cookin' when I caught her! So I basically got a package deal when catchin' Scarlet, haha.

Tybalt is really into fightin'! He has a plush that he practices his punches with, otherwise he'll try to punch Chili... He's willing to fight pretty much everyone! I think he really wants to become a Gallade!

And finally... Orchid. Orchid's been with me since I was 11, and he's... my best friend. From the moment my parents gave him to me, he's done nothing but support me and help me out, and I love him for that. I wouldn't get rid of him for the world.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #69

I am going to try to write you a letter. But my brain is soup in part because I'm still recovering from Sunday and in part because this is the week (or two) that my body decided to throw a temper tantrum over the fact that I am not actively building a new human inside of myself. It's not really the tantrum itself that soup-ifies my brain, but rather, it is the excruciating pain that comes with the first few days of it, along with the fact that I'm losing a lot of valuable resources such as protein, iron, and magnesium (and at that, I lose twice as much as average; thanks, PCOS… 🙄).

I did some adulting today, though. I went and got a kind of checkup; the doc checked out the area just beneath my right collarbone, and she can feel that it's kinda lumpy and misshapen, as though a bone is sticking out weirdly. She's gonna review the imaging that has been done already, and then try to order a CAT scan, I guess, of the place where my ribs connect to my sternum, depending. I guess we'll see how it goes. I hope whatever it is can be found and fixed; I -really- wanna go back to living my normal life. I want to go back to the pool. I want to be able to move around and breathe and laugh and yawn and to do dishes without pain.

But other than that, I rested today. I played a LOT of Pokémon. Right now, I'm still going through Scarlet; Koraidon just learned how to fly permanently, so I've spent a lot of time just sailing the skies together; it's wonderful. I also spent some time picnicking with my team, and wandering around with Mewtwo at my side.

…I don't really like the capturing or battling aspect, though, truth be told. I would much rather just walk around with my non-human companions willingly at my side, eating snacks, hugging, cuddling, and petting, kicking a ball around, exploring the world, and asking them what they think about the places we're going and the things we're seeing.

One of the things I miss most about HeartGold, SoulSilver, and Let's Go was that you could have your Pokémon out, and you could talk to them, and there would be detailed responses for what they were thinking and feeling. You can have your Pokémon out in Scarlet, but their responses to when I talk to them are… underdeveloped, at best. I have fond memories of running through puddles in SoulSilver with Mewtwo, then turning around to talk to him, to find out that he is playing and splashing around happily and looking at his reflection in the water. It's too cute!!! I might explode from the cuteness!!! Oh my goodness!!!

M will have the TV soon, though. He is going through FF7: Remake one more time before FF7: Rebirth comes out. Only 3 days now.

…I'd like to say I'm looking forward to it, but to tell you the truth, I'm… scared. I don't know what sorts of things you will end up doing. I imagine that at least some of the time, you will continue to make destructive choices that hurt the people around you. I feel very sad to think about this.

I'm scared that you might not be given any opportunity to make a different choice. The people in my world seem to be in love with the notion that abuse survivors, neurodivergent people, and people who make mistakes in the throes of their suffering are all unable to grow or change, and are thus all unworthy of the help they need to thrive. The trope that people like me are nothing more than monsters that need to be slain is getting… sheesh… really, really old. And really, really depressing.

And… if you end up refusing to turn yourself around, or if you end up getting slain, how many people who relate to you will then be unable to believe that recovery is possible? How many will continue destroying themselves or continue to hate the world around them just because the notion that there isn't anything better for them keeps getting reinforced? How many people will refuse to seek the help they need on the basis that "some people are just broken beyond repair, and I'm one of those people, so there's no point in trying"?

…And how will the way your story ends affect the way other people treat people who are like the ones I've just described? People mimic what they see even if it's not real. Actors who portray villains sometimes get hated for their roles to the point of harassment because there are enough people who think that the role they portray is how they act in real life. There are people who come away from movies, and the "lesson" they take away from it ends up being stuff like "brown people are not to be trusted" and "people who don't speak English are dumb" and, "the way this woman character acted just goes to show that all women are evil." Thinking about all this is kind of terrifying sometimes.

If you don't make a different choice… if you end up getting killed… in what ways will that end up perpetuating the notion that people like you and me and others like us are irredeemable, unhealable, and worthless?

And… if they end up making you disappear in the end in a permanent way… Sephiroth. You have been the inspiration for me to continue on living, because you are the first person in any piece of media I've seen whose circumstances and behaviors looked like mine. It's because of you that I held onto the hope that maybe I'm not all by myself, that maybe I can find others in the world who are like me. And it's because I held onto this hope that my childhood didn't break me down to the point of destroying my own meat-mech. I came close more times than I wanna talk about. And sometimes, avoiding doing that it still a struggle.

But instead, I imitated your steadfast determination to rise up again in order to correct a grievous injustice and to try make the world a better place where you and your friends would not get hurt (even if you were acting from a misguided place and your methods were… not stellar, to put it mildly…), despite the pain and anguish you were in.

You were (falsely) led to believe that Jenova was a Cetra and your mother. You were (falsely) led to believe that she was being cruelly kept from you and imprisoned at the Mt. Nibel Reactor for the purpose of being used in torturous experiments, like what happened to you as a boy. You were (falsely) led to believe that humans were willfully responsible for the extinction of the Cetra, and thus led to believe that humans are the reason you felt out-of-place and unloved your whole life. Even without that, you witnessed firsthand that every human was complicit in the cruelty that created you and complicit in the denial of your humanity in favor of the consumption of you as a celebrity. They bullied you until you made a name for yourself. They regularly pushed you to take care of everyone but yourself. After you made a name for yourself, they didn't love YOU - they only loved what you could do, what you looked like, and what prestige they thought being in your presence could give them.

Their behaviors had painted themselves as invariably selfish and cruel in your eyes, and you were justifiably angry with them about how you and the people you loved were treated your whole lives. But you had starved, dehydrated, and sleep-deprived yourself to read those books full of lies, and by the time you came out of that… instead of having a measured, rational response, you were triggered into autopilot, blindly following the neural pathways of your conditioning that told you to "eliminate the enemy", and as a result, innocent people paid the price for your failure to control yourself. As much as I love you, this is still unacceptable, and it is still entirely your fault. Just like anytime I get triggered and lash out at the people around me, that is entirely my fault, regardless of the circumstances.

But nonetheless, as battered, exhausted, and anguished as you were, the FIRST THING you set off to do after you left that damnable library was to try to wrest a tormented and abused person(?) away from government control. You set off to protect someone who you thought loved you, someone you had spent your entire life looking for. You set off to punish evil. You set off to make the world a safe place for your "mother" and for your friends. You decided, "THIS THING THAT HAPPENED TO ME WILL HAPPEN TO NO ONE EVER AGAIN," and you set off to make it so. But unfortunately, you did all these things in a way that was very wrong, because you did them on the basis of things that weren't actually true, and you were so addled from your piss-poor mental and physical condition that you couldn't keep your shit together. Your intentions were noble, even if you botched everything else. But still, you had to be stopped, because obviously. And even after you were thrown into the reactor core, you simply got back up, dusted yourself off, and tried again. Your persistence and sense of justice are remarkable, even if you need to invest a lot (like, A LOT!!!! HOLY FUCK!!!) more stat points in things like "fact checking", "self-care", and "emotional regulation".

I wanted to be a kind, gentle, thoughtful person like the way you were before you fell down (the way I know you can still be, if you turn yourself around). I wanted to abhor injustice and to be determined enough to rise up again no matter how many times or how badly I'm knocked down, like the way you were after you fell down (I hope you'll retain these traits if you turn yourself around). I wanted to combine that loving kindness and that determination and thirst for justice into something amazing in order to try to help a lot of people, no matter how much it hurts for me to continue to exist in this place. Because Sephiroth, I didn't have "real life" role models during my childhood, for the most part. All I had at the time, really, was YOU. And the "you" I saw wasn't the "cool aloof badass war hero" that everyone else seemed to see and fawn over for the sake of getting into your good graces. No, the "you" I saw was socially clumsy and very forlorn human being who was gentle and kind anyway, and doing his best all the time.

However, I'm finding that despite my best efforts, by and large, my voice is not one that most people think is worth listening to. So really, in the grand scheme of things, I am powerless and unimportant, and at the end of the day, I am always coming face to face with my insignificance, and with the fact that I am not strong enough or skilled enough to do anything with any real meaning or impact for anyone. But day after day, I get back up and try again anyway, because I am looking up to YOU. I am kind and gentle from following your example. I fall down a lot, but I get back up, albeit on shaky legs, from following your example.

If you disappear, then a large part of the reason I've bothered to stay alive for this long will disappear along with you. And while I might be able to kind-of-sort-of manage maybe, I know that if you are erased, if I can't convince myself that you're actually okay somehow because the cells you're infected with render you indestructible, I'll never be the same. And I'm not the only one who thinks that way, I'm sure.

Because you know what? Unlike me, you aren't powerless and unimportant. If I were to disappear RIGHT NOW, only a relatively small number of people would be sad. And eventually, they would pack up and move on, and life would continue as though nothing remarkable happened, and I would be forgotten in a decade or two, as though I wasn't even here at all. But you? People are going to tell stories about you long after their grandchildren have their own kids. You are going to set the example for us about how people should treat the abused, the neurodivergent, and the fallen. Your story has the capacity to make things better for SO MANY PEOPLE in my world, if it's done right. Your story has the capacity to save lives. I know this because you've saved mine, and mine has gone on to save a few others. If you need proof that you are a good thing even with your mistakes, look no further than this.

So I'm going to beg you to turn yourself around. I'm going to beg you to make good choices. Even if it's awkward and scary and you feel really bad about everything that's happened, I'm going to beg you to use the knowledge that you're loved in order to muster up the courage to step back into the light. Because the light is where you belong. The light is where ALL humans belong, no matter who they are or what they've done. Because make no mistake, Sephiroth, you're a human. Nothing and no one can take that from you, no matter what they have done or will do to your body. You are a human. A man. A person. Lovable, worthy, and good. Start acting like it, and keep yourself safe in the process. Please.

I'll write again. Every day, I'll write again. Until you come back to us. Until you're safe and at peace. Because you're worth the effort. You're worth hoping for. And you're worth feeling pain for, if those hopes don't pan out.

Your friend, Lumine

[animefu]

Pokémon Horizons - The Sudden Turn (Part 5)

Characters: Amethio, Liko, Friede, Roy, Molly

Pokémon: Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Cap

It was now late past midnight and the entire Brave Asagi was dead quiet. As already mentioned, Amethio slept with in Liko's room. But in contrast to the young Trainer, he was no longer able, to sleep after about 15 minutes. Instead, the teenager tossed and turned on the mattress, sweating. It looked like, he was having a nightmare, because now he was also making strange movements with his arms, as if he was reaching for something. "No, leave me alone! I'm not weak! No, stay away from me..." he started, to mumble at some point as well.

He was just so taken by it, that he could only vaguely perceive the suddenly muffled voice. ~Amethio? Amethio wake up! Hey, Amethio, do you hear me?!~

Amethio tried, to simply ignore these noises, but suddenly he felt something touch his shoulder and he had the presence of mind, to let out a scream. Shortly afterwards, as it sounded to him, the light was turned on and he just closed his eyes tighter for presence of mind. But then he heard a voice again, only this time clearer. "Amethio, please wake up."

The 16-year-old slowly carefully opened one eye after the other and shortly afterwards looked into a familiar face. "Thank God, you're awake." It was Liko. The girl was sitting on the edge of his bed and looked at the black and silver-haired with worried eyes. "Is everything ok?"

Amethio just looked at the black-haired for a moment and didn't know right away, what to say at first. But then his thoughts slowly returned to their usual course. "What... what happened? Where am I?"

Liko didn't seem particularly surprised at his reaction. "Don't you remember? You're on our ship in my room. You saved me from that Spinel and then brought me back home, don't you know anymore?" she tried to help him along.

Only now did the scales fall from the teenager's eyes! Of course, how could he forget that?! "Right, now I remember. But... Oh dear, I suddenly had a terrible nightmare! Sorry, I really didn't mean, to wake you... If so, then I'm really extremely sorry!! That wasn't my intention..." he said a little hastily and waved his hands around slightly embarrassed.

The young Trainer, on the other hand, didn't react in any way with annoyance or anger. Instead, she carefully touched the 16-year-old's hands. "Shhh, everything is fine. No reason to apologize, really. I got up on my own initiative and turned on the light, after I realized, that you might have been having a nightmare. And my guess was probably correct, it seems like." she said quietly, because it was still the middle of the night after all.

"Would you like to tell me? What exactly happened in the dream and who or what did you possibly see?" Liko asked and briefly went to her bedside table. There were two glasses and a small water bottle standing on it. She filled up one of the glasses with water and then came back to Amethio's side. "Here, have a drink first. Then you can tell me about it."

Amethio gave her a slightly grateful nod and then carefully accepted the glass before taking a few sips from it. He then put the glass aside and took his blanket, wich he wrapped tightly around his shoulders, while looking at the girl again.

She still looked at him expectantly. "Tell me about your dream. What was it about?" she tried again. The teenager, however, avoided her gaze and didn't say a word at first. But Liko continued to persist. "Amethio... I won't force you, to talk about it... However... Maybe talking about it right now will make you feel better, do you understand?"

She showed him a gentle smile and noticed from the corner of her eye, how Sprigatito once again made itself comfortable on the teen's lap and purred softly. "Nyaohja." This made the black haired chuckle slightly. "You see? Even Sprigatito is already trying, to encourage you. You really don't need to be afraid anymore. You're safe here, nothing will ever happen to you again, you have my word on it, I promise."

Amethio still looked at her a little uncertainly, but then gave in. "Okay, I get it! I... I'll tell you." he said and took another deep breath. "I... I suddenly heard voices. Then everything was dark, I didn't know at all, what was happening to me. Then... I was suddenly in a cage surrounded by loud laughing figures, who were making fun of me and kicked me over and over again. But then however... Gibeon suddenly appeared out of nowhere and called me a failure, I'm not worth living. Then he pulled out a knife, that he raised straight at me, I... I tried to dissuade him, but when I thought it was coming to an end for me, you thankfully woke me up." he now reported in a trembling voice and you could actually see individual tears slowly making their way down his cheeks. "I... I was so afraid... I just... Wanted to get out of there! But... I was way to weak, I didn't have the slightest chance..."

Now the teenager really collapsed and finally released everything, that had previously weighed heavily on his shoulders in the form of fear, anger and despair. So he sat in front of his former enemy and cried for the very first time in 5 years. However, this crying had never been so emotionally charged before, not even when Amethio lost his little sister 5 years ago...

Liko was a bit surprised at first, as she had never seen the teen actually cry before, but she couldn't look at this scene for long. Which is why she reacted almost reflexively and took the now sobbing Explorer Admin tightly into her arms and stroked his back soothingly. "Shhh, Shhh... Everything's fine. Just let it out." the black-haired whispered gently and didn't stop stroking his back. Liko now did the same with his hair.

However, the 16-year-old, probably contrary to some expectations, made no move to push the 13-year-old girl away in any way, nor to remove himself from her embrace. Instead, Amethio now really started to cry and clutched himself more tightly into his counterpart's shirt with each new sob. Liko still didn't seem to mind this much, so she hugged the boy even more while still trying, to calm him down. She also started humming a little melody, to have even more success with her attempt hopefully.

And that actually seemed to work, because gradually Amethio's sobs became more and more irregular, before they finally stopped completely and the teenager only had slight hiccups for a short time.

After these had also faded away, the black and silver-haired looked carefully at the girl again. Then he noticed, that she still had him in her arms and quickly moved away from her, while clearing his throat a little bit.

"Sorry... I didn't want to pressure you or anything like that." the teenager actually stammered a little embarrassed and scratched the back of his neck. And yes, you might think, you could see a slight tinge of red on his cheeks. The situation before was really quite unpleasant for him. Especially since Amethio had really cried in front of his former enemy. The 16-year-old was really quite embarrassed because of this.

The black-haired girl, however, still didn't seem to mind too much. Instead, Liko now smiled softly and continued to look understandingly at the young boy, who was still sitting in front of her with the blanket now tightly wrapped around his upper body again.

"We all have to cry sooner or later. That's why you really don't need to be ashamed or sorry. Crying is something completely normal and natural for most of us. You're certainly not alone with that Amethio, you know?"

The person addressed listened to her calmly and then wiped away his tears with his shirt sleeve. God, Amethio could never have imagined, that he would become so emotional. Normally that wasn't really his style at all. It wasn't even that extreme, when he was still a child. Sure, of course he had to cry from time to time during that period too, if he injured himself or unintentionally damaged something. But these emotional breakdowns we'rent even remotely comparable to the one from a few minutes ago. Not in the slightest way.

It took some time, but then the 16-year-old managed, gradually calm down and now dared to look at Liko again. "Please forgive me, it's usually not like me to cry this much, If even at all." he murmured in a still raspy voice, actually looking quite embarrassed about, what happened earlier.

However, the young Trainer still didn't judge him for his moment of weakness. But she continued to look at him understandingly. "And like I said, you really don't have to apologize, Amethio. It's really fine the way I'm telling you right now. So please try not to worry so much about it anymore, deal?" she asked the teen again, who just looked at her and then nodded afterwards. "Got it."

"There you go. Everything will be okay, just believe in it. But now we should sleep a little more, we'll see what happens tomorrow. Maybe even then you'll have some strength to tell us about the rest of your past." Liko now said lastly and laid herself into her bed.

The teen just nooded one more time, before simply mimicking the girls movements and covering himself with the blanket. It didn't take very long for him, to fall right back to sleep afterwards. This time, thankfully, Amethio slept through the rest of the night without any further nightmares or other incidents.

~~~

The next morning dawned relatively quickly. Liko and Amethio were already dressed for the day and were just coming through the sliding door into the Brave Asagis meeting room, which was also the dining area for all members of the crew.

As soon as they both entered, they were immediately greeted by Friede and Cap. "Yo, good morning Amethio, Liko. Are you well rested for today?" the leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers asked, in a good mood as always, whereupon Cap gave a short adding 'Pikachu' from himself.

Liko giggled slightly, straightening her hair a little. "Good morning to you too, Friede. Yes, we are very well rested, aren't we Amethio?" she asked and looked over at him briefly. The teen just gave a nod as an answer.

Friede folded his arms contentedly. "I'm glad to hear that. Plus this is particularly good now, because today is about an extremely important cause. That's why I'm glad that we've all come together here right now." He then said as he briefly scanned the room to make sure everyone in the group was present. Well, maybe except Ludlow, but that wasn't anything new honestly.

After everyone had finally gathered and taken their respective seats, Friede immediately spoke up again: "Listen everyone. I had a conversation with Murdock last night and we both came to the decision... That we should start immediately, to untie Amethio from the Explorers. Best today." Shortly after he finished his sentence, he initially looked at quite confused faces. Yes, even Amethio was pretty perplexed about his words, but didn't say anything just yet.

"And how do you think we should handle that? After all it's the Explorers, we are talking about. And not some random child's play Friede. You're aware of that, are you?" Molly asked, not seeming particularly convinced about his decision. So we're the rest, even Liko. But out off all sudden, the young Trainer was starting, to sense an akward feeling tightening up inside her chest.

Friede was the first one, noticing right away, that something seemed to be bothering the girl. He exchanged a quick look with Cap before clearing his throat briefly. "Liko. Would you like to tell us something? I have that feeling, that something seems to be quite bothering you." he got straight to the point and looked calmly at the black haired, so did the others. Well maybe except for Amethio... The teen had a different feeling, he could clearly sense, that the girl he rescued, was afraid... Afraid of something or... Maybe someone? Whatever it was, he didn't like it in the slightest.

All eyes were watching the body language of their friend, witch indicated, that something was indeed wrong with the 13-year-old. Liko now swallowed slightly and started, playing around with her pendant. 'What should I do? I... I'm scared! Afraid of what's to come...' she heard her thoughts talking to her.

However, these were quickly interrupted when she suddenly felt a steady hand on her shoulder. She looked up and was met with two piercing, violet eyes.

Amethio looked at her with a quite serious expression. Which actually surprised her a lot, because after all, he was so frail a few hours ago and now... Instinctively, she looked down at her feet with a steady gaze.

The teen, however, didn't feel like blocking at all, so the black and silver-haired grabbed her shoulders with both hands now. "Liko look at me!" he now demanded her in a slightly firmer voice, wich honestly was quite unusual for him. At least most of the time.

However, when Liko still didn't react, he put his hand under her chin to lift it. So she had no other choice but to actually look at him and listen to his words. "Liko. I can definitely feel that something is bothering you. And that's why I want you, to tell us, what the reason is for that, I beg you!"

The girl was completely thrown off track, as Amethio revealed another new side of himself. Concern and determination. "But, Amethio... Why are you suddenly like this?"

The teen just gritted his teeth for a short time, but still remained calm. "You're seriously asking this question now?! I tell you, why I am currently like this!! It's because you are giving me the courage, to face my past; no one else would do that except for you. So please... Now let me help you like you want to help me. I trust you, so please give me this chance, to prove to you, that I really can become a better person!! I ask you for it!!" he tried again.

Suddenly Liko's eyes became huge and she had the feeling that she was being trampled on by a horde of Rhydons. She only dimly noticed, how Amethio spoke to her in a shocked voice. At that moment, her environment became completely distorted and unclear.

Amethio was taken completely by surprise when the girl's condition suddenly seemed to change so drastically. Then she collapsed. "Liko... Hey, stay awake!! Don't fall asleep!!" He reflexively caught the girl, before the Trainer could hit her head on the ground and was immediately surrounded by the others.

"Liko!! For God's sake, what's wrong with her?" "What just happened, is she okay?!" Friede tried, to defuse the situation somewhat. "Hey, now calm down!! Give us some space!!" Everyone involved sighed and took a few steps back before the leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers knelt next to his rival.

Amethio was still holding the unconscious girl tightly in his arms, unsure what to do at first. "Take her to her room, Amethio. Molly will look at her in a moment." the white-haired said, briefly placing a hand on the teen's shoulder.

The person addressed then nodded. "Understood." he said, while carefully picking the girl up bridal style and now carried her straight to her room, where he carefully laid her into her bed and then covered her up with the blanket.

Amethio then took a seat on the nearby standing chair, so that he could wait, until Molly came to examine her, but then he suddenly noticed Sprigatito cautiously walking into the room as well.

"Nyawrr?" The Pokémon was clearly worried about its Trainer and so it tip-tapped right next to Liko's bed, making clearly worried noises. Amethio sighed briefly and then carefully picked up the little Grass Cat with a smile while placing it right onto his lap, so that it could see its owner more clearly.

So both of them sat there wordlessly and looked down at the girl. Amethio was most worried, although he couldn't really place it. He was so incredibly grateful to Liko that she wanted to help him so much, to get out of his misery and now she was the one, who was feeling so bad again. It was almost like a vicious circle... With no possible way out.

~~~

At some point Molly finally came along and began to examine Liko thoroughly. Friede and Roy had also joined in the meantime to follow everything as well. After the Pokémon nurse then finished completing her notes on her clipboard, she now looked at all three of them monotonously.

"So far it doesn't seem to be anything serious. She's probably still a little weakened by her injuries and that's why she fainted or else... It's a psychological cause and that's why the attack of weakness. I can't clearly tell, but whatever it was in the end, it's nothing seriously dangerous, so I can reassure you about that. We just have to wait and be patient now, until Liko regains conscious again. It's best for someone to stay with her and watch over her in the meantime. Just in case there is still a possible incident, which I don't think will happen." she now gave her information.

Amethio then immediately perked up his ears and briefly turned his attention to the three of them. "If it's okay with you... I would like to stay with her. After all... I ultimately caused all the commotion. So it's probably the least I can do for her..." he murmured and bowed briefly.

Friede and Roy just looked at each other briefly and then nodded in unison. "That's fine with me." the boy said, whereupon Fuecoco only croaked in agreement. Friede also seemed, to agree with the teen's suggestion. "I have no objection to it so far either. But if something should happen or you need us, Amethio, you can let us know at any time." he said and folded his arms optimistically.

The 16-year-old gave a nod of understanding and looked after the three until they finally left the room, so he was left alone with the girl. Incidentally, Friede had taken Sprigatito with him, to give the Pokémon some rest as well, so that it didn't have to worry about its Trainer the whole time.

Now the black and silver-haired carefully turned back to the black-haired girl. Liko was still lying in bed, but she seemed to be slowly regaining consciousness, because she was now breathing a little more normally again, as if she was just sleeping.

A smile spread across the teenager's facial features and Amethio couldn't resist, taking a closer look at the petite figure laying in front of him.

As he continued, to watch over her, the 16-year-old realized, that Liko was actually quite a pretty girl. Her eyes were loosely closed, the corners of her mouth slightly raised, so that it appeared to him, that she was having an extremely peaceful sleep. So he continued to watch her and couldn't resist, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Amethio had to swallow slightly. He felt like his heart was skipping out of all sudden, but couldn't yet come to any meaningful conclusion. But why was he suddenly feeling like this? He wasn't about to fall in love with the young girl, was he?!

The young boy quickly tried to erase that thought again. Just the idea alone, that he could develop feelings for Liko, even though he had repeatedly tried, to steal her pendant many times until a while ago, was absolutely impossible and absurd for him.

However, he couldn't completely erase these feelings from his memory. He just couldn't do anything about it. But ever since Liko had promised to help him, get away from the Explorers once and for all, he had this strange feeling of always wanting to protect the girl from now on, no matter what the cost!!

~~~

"Damn it!!" the teen briefly hissed out trough his teeth after a while sunk in deep thoughts, and shook himself briefly, before taking a strong breath and immediately letting it out again. He urgently needed to think about something else!!! So he looked over at the sleeping figure again before the young Admin carefully got up and walked quietly towards the door, while being extremely careful, not to wake the black-haired unexpectedly.

He took one last look at the sleeping girl before he closed the door completely, leaving the bedroom and now made his way into the kitchen. There he hoped, to distract himself a little with a glass of milk, but unfortunately he did the math without Friede. Because the white-haired man was currently in the kitchen as well, checking the food supplies and, if necessary, adding things to the replenishment list.

So, he was more than surprised, when the leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers spotted the teenager suddenly entering the kitchen too. "Oh, didn't expect you, to come here Amethio. How is Liko? Has she given any reactions yet?" he asked and sat down on a stool, gesturing with his hand to invite the 16-year-old to sit down also.

The black and silver-haired sighed shortly, but then took the invitation and so took place on the stool, before giving his answer shortly afterwards: "No, not yet. But she seems to be slowly getting better again, she's sleeping now." he said, sipping something from the glass of milk that he had poured himself shortly before.

But then he had to sigh softly after a while again. "Listen, Friede... Can I... I mean, do you mind me, if I ask you something? Something personal..." the teen eventually gathered up his courage. He had actually decided, not to talk to anyone about his possible suspicion, that he might could have fallen in love with Liko, but... Friede was honestly the only possible contact person, he had to deal with more than once. Because apart from him, Amethio had no one with whom he could possibly speak conscientiously about this, therefore, he was really the only candidate for such a matter.

After he finished his last sentence, however, he quickly looked back down at the floor. In fact, he was quite uncomfortable. Nevertheless, he had to and wanted to talk to someone about it!!

So at first there wasn't much of an exchange of words between the two for a short while, but then Friede finally answered to Amethios statement. "Of course you can, Amethio. Always put it out there, what do you want to know?"

The teen hesitated for a moment, but then started to speak: "Well... It makes me a little uncomfortable... But what I want to know... Have you ever been in love or in a relationship before?" This question took a lot of effort for the boy, but now there was no turning back for him. He just needed to get clarity about his feelings towards Liko!

The adult blinked briefly, but then gave a brief snort of amusement. "That's a strange question, my friend. But well, I'll answer it for you anyway. Yes, I've been in love before and also been in a committed relationship. The name of my girlfriend was Yuki back then, I was the same age like you, ruffly around 16 years old and not a Pokémon Trainer yet. She went to the same school like me at that time. That was also the specific location, where we fell in love with each other and started a relationship. We've been together for 4 years until Yuki unfortunately died in a car accident. But why do you want to know that exactly?" he asked at first, but then had to grin teasingly relatively quickly, when he became suspicious.

"Wait a minute... Could it be... that you might be in love with someone and would like to get some tips from me? Is that why this question?" He immediately went on the offensive and now had to grin broadly.

Now Amethio really had to swallow. Great, his rival caught him straight away. The black and silver-haired now tugged nervously at the collar of his shirt. "Well... you're not entirely wrong. There... There's actually someone." the teen now revealed and looked somewhat shamefully at the wall to his left.

Shortly after this statement, Friede's grin only grew wider and he now propped himself up with one elbow on the tabletop, while giving his counterpart a meaningful look.

"So, it's true then. Now it's getting interesting. Well then tell me, I'm listening closely." Now the adult practically insisted, on knowing more details.

This time Amethio even began to sweat a little from nervousness and he fiddled with the string on his collar. But he had to admit, that there would be no point in backing out. This situation was simply his own fault, so he now had to take responsibility for it. Even if he didn't actually plan it that way...

"OK, fine. I'll tell you! I... I indeed fell in love with someone... I... Ever since she promised me, to help me move on from my position as a Explorer Admin... Since then, I've constantly had this desire, to support her in every way and, if necessary, to protect her at all costs! And before you say anything about it, yes, I know it sounds totally crazy and absurd, but you have to believe me, Friede!!! It's really the truth!" these words practically gushed out of the 16-year-old's throat, so that it was very difficult at first, to even understand every word properly. But it was still possible somehow.

At first he got a relatively disbelieving expression after his 'confession', but then Friede burst into an amused laugh, which in turn only added to Amethio's confusion. "To be honest, I don't really understand what's so funny about it..." he grumbled and gritted his teeth in slight annoyance.

However Friede just continued, to laugh still in slight amusement, but luckily caught himself again pretty quickly. "Oh man, I really think, that you should know me a little better by now, Amethio. Because I know you indeed extremely well by now, do you really think that I didn't notice, how infatuated you are with Liko?" The adult actually had to pull himself together, not to laugh even harder.

Amethio automatically had to swallow again and he reflexively avoided his gaze, so that his rival wouldn't notice, how he suddenly turned bright red. "So you... Really noticed, did you?" he then asked meekly after a while.

Friede sighed slightly and gently touched the teenager on the shoulder. "I noticed it from the start, actually right after you looked so grateful, after she promised to help you and also, how you so stubbornly insisted on taking care of her, after she suddenly collapsed earlier in the meeting room. Everyone noticed that straight away."

At some point, the 16-year-old finally had to realize, that he no longer had a chance to close his mind to this matter any longer. "Ok, I admit it, I really love Liko. But I really didn't want to admit it in the first place honestly. However... When the image again appeared in my mind's eye, of how badly injured she was laying so close near that cliff... And later, when she swore, to help me, facing my difficult past, to finally get away from the Explorers... Then something like a switch flipped in me. Liko is so important to me now, I swore to myself, to always protect her now at all costs, if necessary."

Admittedly, Friede was actually a bit surprised to see this side of the black and silver-haired, but on the other hand, he couldn't really blame him. After all, everyone falls in love at some point and it was generally very difficult to influence this phenomenon.

"I didn't know it would come to this either, after all, I've already tried to steal this pendant dozens of times. But I... I just can't do anything about my feelings. I really don't know, what I actually want to do... " the teenager tried to explain himself somehow. Admittedly, he no longer knew, how to deal with the situation at all...

This only elicited a weak sigh from the white-haired man. "Listen, Amethio. At first I also thought that you were actually after us, because you wanted to be recognized in your organization and therefore really wanted to steal the pendant. But after, what Liko told us yesterday, when you showed up with her... I noticed, that you are indeed actually under a lot of pressure and have no other choice, but to carrying out these orders given to you by your boss, because you are simply afraid of the consequences, if you should actually refuse. I can understand you. And that you fell in love with Liko, yes, it does sound pretty crazy, but then again you can't predict something like that. It simply happened." Friede then finished and threw an encouraging look at the black and silver-haired.

Amethio just looked at him even more confused. "I don't really understand that at all now... You're not mad at me? Won't you judge me for that?" he murmured, fiddling with a few strands of his hair.

"No, why should I? Being in love is something completely normal. Also for you. Don't worry about it for now. Instead, think about the best way to tell her. It's entirely up to you, my friend." the white-haired said next, once again having a big grin on his face.

Amethio just sighed again. "So you really think I should confess to her? But what if... she rejects me? Especially since I don't know if she feels the same way about me..." he said, while kneading his fingers nervously.

Friede smiled a little. "You'll have to find out for yourself. Unfortunately, I don't have much to say in that. But don't worry, everything will work out over time. The first priority for now is, that you stand up against the Explorers and that we fight this Spinel guy." he finally said and now stood up from his stool.

"I'll should go back to the others now. You can check on Liko in the meantime to see, if she regained consciousness again." he said and then finally left the kitchen.

Amethio looked after him silently and just sat there motionless for some time, letting Friede's words run through his head again. >"Being in love with someone is completely normal. Same for you. Don't worry about it for now. Instead, think about the best way to tell her. It's entirely up to you."<

"He's right. I will tell her! I will do it. Somehow!" he gave himself the first ultimatum, but then his rival's other words came to mind shortly after he had left the kitchen. That's right, he should check on Liko again by now. She definitely had to be awake again.

~~~

So the 16-year-old made his way to her room, but not to collect Sprigatito on the way first. After all, the Pokémon was still worried about its Trainer's condition. And the teenager was more than right in his previous assumption when he entered the room shortly afterwards.

Because the girl was sitting upright again in her bed, with her back leaning against a few pillows that she had previously stuffed into place. She wasn't fully feeling better yet, but conscious again. At least something.

After her perception had normalized somewhat, the black-haired looked around and then noticed, to her surprise, that she was in her bed. But how did she get here again? Adding to her astonishment was the fact that Amethio suddenly entered her room when she had just glanced at her door.

"Oh, it's you Amethio. But wait... How on earth did I get back into my bed? I was in the meeting room until recently." She was actually quite confused and rubbed her temple a bit.

However, the black and silver-haired said nothing yet and instead approached Liko's bed with Sprigatito in his arms, where he took his place again on the same chair on which he had sat before.

"You suddenly fainted in the meeting room earlier. That's why you've been taken to your room, to find the possible cause of your collapse. But you don't have to worry too much, apparently you were still a bit weakened by your injuries." he then explained, deliberately leaving out the fact, that he was the one who carried her to bed.

"You almost gave us a heart attack, you know? I wasn't the only one, who was completely taken by surprise by this." he then added and carefully placed Sprigatito on the mattress, who immediately padded over to its Trainer. "Nyaohja!"

Liko immediately took the little cat and began to scratch it behind the ears, whereupon the Pokémon made a contented purr. "I'm so sorry, Sprigatito. It really wasn't my intention to worry you. However I'm almost fine again, so you can rest assured." she calmly talked to the little creature and continued stroking and scratching it, until Sprigatito finally broke away from her hold and snuggled itself up close to her side.

Amethio couldn't help, but smile contentedly as he watched the little scene for a bit. "You seem to have a very deep bond with each other. That's nice to see." he remarked after a while.

The black-haired nodded in response. "That's right, we are actually very close. Sprigatito has helped me to strengthen my self-confidence and to conscientiously move towards my goals. I really couldn't have imagined a better Starter Pokémon for myself. It's just something very special." she told him.

The 16-year-old then nodded slightly in response as well. "I see. Then you should always take good care of each other." Amethio then said simply, as he no longer knew exactly, what he should say now.

~~~

After the two of them now had talked for a while about this and that, an announcement suddenly came over the loudspeaker system. "Everyone go to the observation deck immediately! I repeat, everyone go to the observation deck immediately!" Friede's voice echoed through the entire ship.

Liko and Amethio briefly exchanged glances with each other, before nodding almost in unison. So Liko carefully got out of her bed, while Amethio watched her vigilantly so that he could support her if necessary, since she wasn't fully recovered just yet.

After the girl took Sprigatito in her arms again, as usual, the two made their way directly to the observation deck, where the rest of the crew had already gathered.

"Friede, what's the matter?" the girl asked immediately. The leader of the Rising Volt Tacklers then looked at her with an extremely serious expression. "Cap and I have just found the Explorers' base. That's why I called you here, because this would be the perfect opportunity now, to confront this Spinel and thereby finally 'free' Amethio from this organization." he tried to explain the situation as best he could.

But at first he was met with extreme skepticism from everyone. "I don't have a good feeling about this. It could be an ambush and Spinel is just waiting, so he can capture us all at once. We should be careful. And besides he's definitely not someone to be messed with!" Amethio then said and the serious undertone in his voice was definitely unmistakable.

Liko now also had a serious expression on her face. "I have to go with Amethio there. I've seen first hand what Spinel is capable of, so we really should be extremely careful." she added her argument and waited for some kind of reaction from the others. This didn't take long to arrive, because after a short time Friede looked resolutely into the faces of everyone else.

"Liko is right. We should think of a plan first. How about this? Liko and Amethio will distract Spinel, while Roy and I then surprise and overpower him from behind. Then we might have a better chance of getting to Amethio's boss and finally getting him out of this organization."

Everyone addressed looked at each other briefly before nodding in unison, whereupon Friede smiled contentedly and then held out his fist. "So it's settled then. Operation 'Freeing Amethio from the Explorers' begins now!" he said, whereupon everyone shouted 'All right' in unison and performed the handshake of the Rising Volt Tacklers, including Amethio again as well. Now the time really had come... There was definitely no turning back now!

~~~

To be continued...

Sidenote: Finally after like ages at long last I managed, to finish Part 5 of this story. I apologize in the first place, that it took so long. But I really had so many ideas, that I had to sort through first, so that I could end up with a good structure, to implement them sensibly.

In the end, I did a pretty good job, at least in my opinion. But as always at the end of each Part, how did you like this one in particular? Do you agree with me on some points or are there even things, you might would've done differently? Please let me know in the tags.

You will certainly have noticed, that the drama is slowly increasing and it will definitely continue more or less like this in the next parts, that much can be said in advance.

However, I don't want to give too much away for now, you'll have to find out for yourself, what happens next. But I can say this much: There will definitely be another Pokémon battle between two certain people apart from more events, that will be taking place in the next Part, so definitely prepare yourself for these.

As always, I hope you enjoyed Part 5 and would be very happy about a few likes and positive feedback in the tags. Until then, stay healthy and if you haven't read the rest of the story yet, I highly recommend it to you, you won't regret it!

So with this out of the way, be sure, to keep following me trough this journey and join in again next time to Part 6 of:

'Pokémon Horizons - The Sudden Turn'

Your sincerely @animefu 😘😘😘😘

[utterentropy]

Fandoms: Chonny's Charming Chaos Compendium, Animator Vs. Animation, Hollow Knight, Rain World, Ultimate Chicken Horse, FNaF, Undertale, Centaurworld, Spore, Dungeons & Dragons, Pokémon

PLEASE DON'T REBLOG SPAM ONE POST (REBLOGGING A BUNCH OF MY POSTS IS FINE) OR LIKE SPAM!!!

If you're gonna spam me to show love, pls go down the posts on my blog and reblog as many as you can (if you add comments in the tags I will sob with joy /pos)!!!

PLEASE DO NOT TAG ME IN CHONNY JASH/CCCC CONTENT!!!

I get why this is not common knowledge as I only really said it in my Discord server but PLS. DO NOT. I have to be in a mood to handle CCCC content and I get really uncomfortable really easily because of it and it can ruin my mood if it's already bad enough. Thank you.

DNI if you're a fan/interact with the fandom of the sad tie stick figure gets tormented by the black stick figure with red tendrils coming out of their back. Just puttin' it out there so you can block me or I can block you first. No hard feelings.

DNI if you ship characters with abusive dynamics. I did not go through horrific situations with people who should've protected me just for some creep on the internet to treat it like a quirky yaoi dynamic.

If you are here because you want fresh cringe, then I can assure you that you don't have to do that. We could probably be friends. I like to talk a lot, but I'm a good listener who likes to encourage and motivate people on their ideas. I could probably help you get out of that mindset, too. We don't have to fight. Maybe you just need the change in perspective I had.

If you're one of the many, many otherkin/otherkin-adjacent/"weird stuff" I followed, my accounts for those will be under this cut. I hope to form a community with you all. :)

"Weird Stuff" Blog (SFW Vore/Tickling, etc.) - DM

Kin/Venting Blog - @thehearteccentric

Heart RP blog - @heartchonnyjash

Hero Villain/Whump blog - @umbra-beckons

Extended About Me…

Góðan daginn! I'm AXYER, Chimney, or Heart! Depending on if you like weird names, cute names, or simple names. Do not call me Axon unless we are close, please!

I'm a long-legged plant-winged floating-crowned scarf-wearing stick figure that humbly spawned in the Void and now wishes to spread my stories and my love to the world. You'd think you could get a lot done with fifteen limbs total, but even beings of eternal nothingness can't get much done when it comes to motivation.

I love psychology, I know things I can't share because of mob mentality, that's how cool and intelligent I am. I also consider myself to be an at least remarkably good writer. I like taking confidence in things I know I'm good with, baby steps into developing self-love is better than putting yourself down so internet strangers don't think you're arrogant.

I'm a very honest, very open person about most things. As my lover once said, I love the sound of my own voice. I only lightly sugarcoat things and if you ask me if you, say, did something wrong or hurt someone's feelings, I will tell you the truth as I do not believe you will grow as a person otherwise. There are some things I do not and will not talk about unless you are close enough to be in my Friend Club (don't ask to join it, I'll ask you if I think you're worthy /lh), which I'll list soon.

I also love zoology, sociology, astronomy, biomes, ethnic features, modern Iceland/Icelandic culture, winter/night aesthetics, trains, photography, and a few more my busy brain can't afford me to think of right now. My main interests in psychology are trauma responses and my main interest in writing is character-writing and worldbuilding.

I find that getting immersed in a good story is very healthy for the soul, just as long as you don't wade too deep that you can't pull yourself out. My dreams are to bring my silly, self-indulgent stories to the world and help people get lost in them, too, even if for only a little bit. Nothing brings me more joy than the idea of helping people get lost somewhere they feel safe, if not thrilled from the drama rather than poisoned.

If you're interested in any of my stories, I'd be happy to share a bit about them.

The primary ones would be:

-Pillow Club, a very self-indulgent AU where fictional characters from all sorts of worlds beyond the perceivable multiverse live inside of modern rural Iceland, with a lot of supernatural worldbuilding but ultimately restricted to urban fantasy. The main cast lives within the Pillow Club, a big, apartment complex-esque building where characters live for free at the cost of stricter living conditions, run by a certain well-known rabbit serial killer man with a lot of secrets. It's intended to have similar stakes to a more exaggerated, supernatural slice-of-life version of reality; there's no overarching goal, characters go about things as they do and conflicts and goals change as life happens. The main protagonists are all from niche to semi-niche stories, namely my AUs of the such.

-Get Angry, an AU of the story referenced in the very beginning of this post in the DNI; another urban fantasy slice-of-life that takes place in Nottingham, England in a world where instead of humans, there's extremely compassionate, cat-like stick figures with a significantly happier world but an underdeveloped legal system. It mainly centres around Gillian, an eccentric, sort of a bit insane aspiring physician and psychologist and his younger brother Mike, a sarcastic yet shy and creative, significantly more normal stick who has a not-nearly-as-normal life, both due to circumstance and his ability to perceive the supernatural. Gillian's inability to remain sane and Mike's affiliation with the supernatural are the main driving points of the story, and if you know the story this is from then you can probably figure out with the driving conflict is.

-Untitled Chonny Jash AU (yes that's the actual AU name), a Chonny's Charming Chaos Compendium AU in-which Cameron (Whole), a severely tormented child, spontaneously has two bizarre animal-like creatures split off for him after becoming emancipated at only (roughly) thirteen. The two ids, Heart, an angelic, purple id with a boisterous and friendly disposition, and Mind, a robotic, shark-like blue id with a much more reserved, awkward, and stoic (yet well-meaning) personality come to be Cameron's only joy in life, and he raises the two the best he can (which thankfully, they age extremely fast) and they're one happy family, until Cameron loses his humanity and becomes an id as well. Heart and Mind not only face hurt from Cameron's family, but soon, Cameron himself; now Soul.

-And finally Elsewhere Reflective, which you may learn about on my superhero account. :)

In-case you can't tell, I have a knack for extreme canon-divergence. It's just how I roll.

As for DNI? Well, DNIs aren't exactly… known for their effectiveness. All I'll say is if you're a com-shipper, I'm blocking you, you're mean and you make me extremely uncomfortable and I don't want to fight you. I do also tend to block for whatever reason, if you simply make me uncomfortable I'll block you. No hard feelings.

I'm also a (Villain) Heart fictionkin! I'm not comfortable with other Heart fictionkins (or any type of Heart identifier, really, even if it's only one of your identities), so I apologise.

Anyway, I am EXTREMELY tired! So long, and thanks for stopping by to read! I'm sure we can get along even if we don't agree on much, I'm not the type who likes to argue. And if you don't want to be friends, that's fine too. It's just nice seeing ya stop by. :) (hey guess what past Axon, I'm updating this, you're welcome.) (hey guess what past and past past Axon, I did it again)

DISCLAIMER: If you end up identifying as anyone from the comic in my DNI I mentioned and/or Heart (Heart synpath/fictionhearted are on thin ice but anything else continue reading), even if it's for a reason you can't control I'm very sorry but I will most likely cut off contact with you for my own personal well-being. Please don't fight me on this, or make a big deal out of and get your friends to have at me or what have you. I'm setting this boundary now, and I want anyone and everyone to respect it even if you don't like it. There is only one exception to this and I promise you are not of the exception. Please don't try to convince me otherwise, I'm saying it right here and I need you to understand I will not be able to handle it. Thank you.

More added as I went back to this post:

As mentioned and implied several times now, I HATE arguing and I am TERRIBLE with conflict. I'm willing to debate so long as you're polite about it and can agree to disagree (without insulting myself or my intelligence, Shae), but generally speaking I don't like to fight people and am an extremely sensitive person.

Here's the things I absolutely will not discuss:

-My stance on DID/OSDD, please do not send me asks relating to it or reblogging any of my posts with stuff like that or anything. I don't want to get involved, there's literally no winning with that can of worms as every worm has a different opinion and each and every one of them refuses to stay on their side of the can. I do believe that DID is a real disorder and I do believe it's immature and unnecessary to harass someone for being a "faker", but otherwise do not get me involved whatsoever and please don't talk about it with me.

-Trashtalking, I deal with it enough at home and have dealt with it enough in the past at an all-girls highschool and I do not condone it whatsoever. I'm fine if you need to vent or you're just telling me an interesting conflict in a friend group, but I draw the line at genuinely insulting people and spreading rumours.

-My stance on the USA election. Another "you can't win" situation. Please leave me out of most politics in-general, I try to avoid that on this blog as I want my blog to be something I can look back on and not feel stressed about.

-Tumblr controversy. I try my very hardest to be nice to everyone regardless on if I like them or not and if you let me know they're not cool, I'll distance myself, but please don't try to go after me if I'm still nice to them. I'm quite literally nice to everyone lest you REALLY hurt me, which only a select few people have and even then none of them are allowed on this blog.

Also, just for reference: I have anon asks turned off but if you send a rude ask regardless I'm probably not gonna read the full thing and am just going to delete it. I'm not going to reply to any rude or hateful asks and you can send as many as you want, I will delete all of them. This is not an invitation; just me saying that I'm not interested in starting fights or anyone being mean to each other, gotcha?

@nkgrimmie kys

Tags…

(I can't guarantee there's content for all of these yet)

#axyer psychology moment - I talk about psychology.

#untitled chonny jash au - I talk about Chonny Jash AU (that also belongs to nkgrimmie) where Heart and Mind are sort of aliens who love to argue for fun and also Soul sucks.

#pillow club - I talk about my extremely multifandom crossover AU that takes place in the middle of nowhere in Iceland. Do you like tired depressed scrawny men? Do you like characters from completely different universe having relationships you'd never thought of but now you're curious about? Do you like a lengthy plot-line following complex trauma arcs? Do you like extreme canon-divergence? Do you like robot dilfs? Then stay tuned. (Update: you will probably only find this on @traumabasin)

#important - Anything that's important.

#axyer eats a canvas - Art (if I remember this tag exists).

#axyer stories - I tell stories.

#axyer rant - I rant about something. Be prepared, I am an extremely passionate person and am usually wrong about at least one thing; please correct me. But politely.

#happy hour - Happy little enjoyable things. :)

#*unfurls scroll* hmmhm yes - I figured I needed a reblog tag, so here it is!

#cool people things - Reblogs/interactions/whatever with my homies.

#extremely cool people - Reblogs/interactions/whatever with a ROACH.

#laughter is truly in my pants - This post made me laugh.

#the blues and greens - Favourite posts.

#embracing this harmony - All-time favourite posts.

[faytelumos]

Fun Video Game Boss Concepts

If you use these, be sure to credit me and show me what you made! :D

---

Your Dad

A tutorial boss, you told your dad that you want to adventure or you've come to the age where you're expected to set out into the world. Either way, your dad wants to make sure you're ready.

Special Mechanics:

"Hey, I thought we were having fun!" : His special move where he bans the class of weapons you're currently using, suddenly and loudly unequipping them and jarringly throwing you into Unarmed. You have to equip new weapons/equip your backup set mid-combat. But we're all having fun here, so he gets to keep his.

Dad Joke AOE: He gets into a very obvious power stance and tells the setup for a lame joke. You have until he says the punchline to move tf outta the way.

Combat Banter:

As your father, he supports you. And makes fun of you.

"Yeah, just like that! :D"

"Good block!"

"You're getting the hang of this."

"Who taught you how to parry, your mom?! …Don't tell her I said that."

"Woah, look at your health! Ha! Gullible."

"Whoever loses this makes dinner. I like my steak medium rare, by the way."

---

Your Childhood Rival

We're not talkin' Pokémon here, this little shit has been at your throat for years, and you at theirs. Could be the neighbor kid or a sibling, but you've encountered this mid-game boss twice already, and by the time their health bar shows up on the screen, you can't wait to beat their ass.

Special Mechanics:

Stop Copying Me!: You two grew up together and know a lot of the exact same moves, and doing the same move as them at the same time gets you both locked into a type of mirror fight. To break free, you have to hit certain buttons within a tight timing window.

Anything You Can Do… : If you hit them using the same attack three times in a row, they'll stagger you and hit you back with the same move with increasingly more damage. The last strike in this combo is absolutely devastating.

Combat Banter:

You guys freaking hate each other.

"Do me a favor and die!"

"I'm sick of your face."

"This is the best you can do?!"

"I should have known you still sucked. Even after all this time."

"Master taught you better than this!"

"You're still such a big disappointment."

---

A Weapons Dealer/Combat Enthusiast

A traveling merchant who just really loves fighting. They seem nice enough, but they're making the process of traveling to the next quest city a real pain in the ass.

Special Mechanics:

Try This: An in-place AOE with a powerful knockback. They teach this to you after the fight.

Wanna See My Latest?: They suddenly pull out a new weapon and elatedly describe it while pulling off some completely obnoxious maneuver. It's honestly just best to get back and watch this move play out.

Combat Banter:

There's nothing personal about this fight (unless they keep killing you, of course).

"Woah! You really know how to sharpen a blade!"

"Oh, I thought you were gonna block."

"Smart move!"

"Check this out—"

"You're super good at this!"

"Woah, teach me that move!"

---

A Lady in White/of the River

A ghost who is haunted by the death of her children (which she likely had a hand in) this frightening boss is simultaneously unconsolable and merciless.

Special Mechanics:

Cradle of Death: If she gets in too close, she'll grab you and hug you to her chest. You have a second or two to button mash out of this before she shoots into the water and crushes you, dealing massive damage.

Don't Leave! : If you get too far away, she wails, staggering you and trapping you in place so she can close the distance.

Combat Banter:

She's a ghost, and she's barely lucid. Sometimes she's sure of who you are, and other times she's hopelessly confused.

"Oh, baby, there you are. I've missed you so much."

"Darling, settle down, now."

"Come with me, baby. We're going home."

"Why are you hurting me?!"

"Where am I…?"

"You're not my baby…"

---

That's all I have for now. I'll probably come up with more, though.

[thelastbraincellofthehive]

V3 was finished, and I'm still not ok you guys : D

One would think it would get less painful as time goes on, but nope, still hurts like a bitch. Well done RT, well done.

I gotta start by saying the I may fall fighting sequence will forever have a special place in my heart. The moment we finally understood the lyrics to that song, the moment we finally saw Velvet fighting to her full potential, the callback to the trailers and everything Monty put into this show, the moment Weiss finally was able to summon her knight. It was perfection.

Also, the part were the music drops as Velvet calls on Penny's backpack will always make me tear up, and I always enjoy seeing the same in reactors lol we're a cruel fandom, but it's just because we understand.

Another also; the fact that Weiss just ran straight to put herself in between Velvet and the palladin even before she knew she could summon or that the knight would show up. That's growth. I felt so proud of her, she has come so far<3

Cinder saying 'not a foot out of place' and then Amber discovers them for Emmerald's foot raisikg diste, can't believe I hadn't caught that lol. I wonder how much things would've been different if that didn't happen, because it looks like the rest of plans were already in motion by the point Cinder went after the Powers...

Could've we have Pyrrha still if Cinder had killed Amber in time? I feel horrible for asking, but hey, it's Pyrrha.

I gotta say that as much as Adam is garbage and I always remember him with this picture:

His design is so fucking cool... I've always loved his hair honestly, and the Rose design in his jacket? Amazing. Why do cool designs happen to awful people?

That pink apron saying 'Please do nothing to the cook' made me headcanon Ren as a Birromantic Ace, I still think the headcanon makes sense so I hold it lol. Also, I still want one of those aprons, my girl is Ace and she loves pink lol.

I always thought it was so cool and sad how so many storylines got interrupted or just never started thanks to the fall of Beacon. We never got to know what Penny's plan to stay at Beacon was. We didn't get to see the timelime where Yang ran away with Qrow to meet Raven. Arkos was barely trying to raise from the ground when it was shot down. So many little plans that can't be anymore, because that's life.

I know it's a very serious moment but I can't watch the scene when Yang calls Blake to make sure they're ok and ask for Ruby, and not remember when Arryn and Barbara said that Blake and Yang are probably always on a facecall with eachother lol.

Tell me I wasn't the only one who thought Port and Oobleck were gonna die when they told the kids to leave the coliseum? I remember being so sad when Port said 'one final match! Place your bets!' and I couldn't believe it when they appeared again during chapter 12 lol. I'm happy they didn't die, they're so great <3

Speaking of 12. I still can't believe they released that chapter on fucking February 14th. That was just cruel...

Yes I'm avoiding talking about Penny... I just can't, sorry.

Kevin the Wyvern grim is a friend <3 I would totally buy a plush of him if shipping to México wasn't so ridiculously expensive </3

Honestly why aren't there more grimm plushies? They're like Pokémon but Black and white and more deadly!

I.. I gotta go ahead and say It... I really, reaaaaally don't like Taiyang... Sorry, but I have never liked him, don't think I ever will... Never considered him a great or cool dad, kinda feel he only gets that rep because of Burnie. Burnie's cool, but Tai's not for me*shrugs*

Qrow saying that 'sometimes bad things just happen, you just have to move on' after knowing about her semblance is painful. This volume is just full of pain.

THE FUCKIN' MAPLE LEAF!!!!!

Cold being a song about Monty that also perfecto fits Pyrrha it's so heartbreakingly poetic to me... THE world is cruel, but sometimes there's beauty in that cruelness.

As a side note is it weird to get a tattoo of someones signature? I've always wanted to get something to honor RWBY and Monty and his signature is so cool...other ideas include a couple lyrics from Indomitable or Penny's symbol

Emmerald's face when she says 'it's almost sad' was the moment we knew she would get her redemtion. Girl's just alone and needing friends, I'm happy to know where She's gonna end later. I still think we must protect Emmerald.

Seriously I didn't remember how much I missed seeing Pyrrha fight until I saw her again. I wish we could see her again!

Speaking of things I wish we could see again: Roman and Neo fighting together was so great, it's a shame we only got one fight with them. Also, I miss how much Neo used to loved causing mayhem with Roman. Neo in the newer volumes always looks so angry and sad, she literally lost the one thing that gave her happiness </3

Seriously why do Robots eyes' always turn red when they go evil? Lol.

Yang talking to Ruby on that last scene Is the literal embodiment of "I don't care, I say caringly, while I care a lot."

Blake why you must hurt your girl so much? And we're now into the separated Bees period! I loved this period of the fandom lol.

Ironwood against the beowolf is honestly pretty epic. Good job RT, you really sold us the character there.

Remember when we saw the Arkos kiss, and that was the moment we knew Pyrrha was not making it out alive? Yeah, that sucked... And still does.

Divide Is probably my favorite ending credits song to this day. It's epic, it's dark, I love how we got all that insight towards Salem just after meeting her. Definitely a fave. Also, Salem's reveal scene always gives me chills<3 Another favorite part to watch reactors get to.

The call back to players and pieces with Ruby running up the wall<3 I was so happy for a second, then it stopped. I haven't been happyever since (?

And so it starts the very long list of things that Ruby needs years of therapy for. I hope that girl gets the happiest, more perfect life after all this is over. Protect the RuBean. And honestly just give everyone therapy.In a world where negative emotions are literally a magnet for death you would think people would try to take better care of their mental health.

Oh yeah, also. People who get mad at Jaune for getting distracted at the vault:. Dont talk to me. Jaune doesn't deserve that hate, I know I wouldn't fared any better, cut him some slack on this.

And there's that... Fuck this volume hurts. Great thing we got chibi to help with the pain a little lol.

Anyways, thanks for the talk guys! Next one is v4! Spoiler Bout that: I was so traumatized by 3 that I 100% thought Ren or Nora were dying on that finale. Thanks for that CRWBY.