#and then all the spotlights around neo

[kalmeria]

sophia and neo navigation cards. if you care

[rwbyrg]

If it's alright, I'm just curious, do you have any thoughts of your own or theories about Oscar or Ruby or both of them in terms of v10? To add, do you have any theories for the merge and how it will end up for both Oscar and Ozpin? Like will it be a good or bad thing? Sorry if these questions seem vague lol

Of course it's alright to ask! I do have many thoughts and a handful of theories. I'll admit most of them are wishful thinking since there's truly no way to tell where the story will go until it actually happens. But if I were to distill it to the ones I'm most expecting and why, then I'd probably say:

Expansion on Ruby's solo arc that kicked off in V9

Acknowledging the setups (plural) between Ruby and Oscar's arcs

The merge-curse is eventually broken (blame the allusions)

I'll elaborate a bit below.

1. Expanding on Ruby's Arc

What we saw Ruby go through in V9 is very much not the end of that particular plot line, imo. We saw a bit of this in Justice League: Part 2 and the final ep of RWBY Beyond where she talks to Clark and Yang about her struggles a bit. Ruby needs to learn how to both ask for and accept help from those around her so the weight of everything she's carrying doesn't crush her. Especially now when they're down to the wire and she's come back as a resurrected martyr who's face has been used at the centre of the resistance movement she's now helping to lead. How will she live up to the expectations and pressures of that impossible pedestal when she's only a human girl with very normal knees who's barely keeping it together? Also, while I don't know exactly how they're going to address everything she experienced, and I struggle to imagine her speaking about Neo's Horror House to anyone directly... that sort of trauma doesn't just go away once it's over. So I would be very surprised if the effects of it didn't ripple throughout the remaining chapters of the show. Especially when every other member of RWBY has seemingly had the bulk of their main character arcs already. It's long overdue for Ruby to get that time in the spotlight. Which does sort of lead into my next point...

2. Acknowledging the Setups in Ruby and Oscar's Dynamic

For starters, we've got the merge and ascension parallels to address. Ruby and Oscar have always mirrored each other's issues around identity, choice, fear, responsibility, leadership, etc., and this buildup seems to be coming to a head following V9. From Oscar's "I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" to Ruby's "What if you could be anyone?", and how the two of them will relate to each other in light of those contrasting - but similar - experiences. Especially with Ruby having just come back from the tree to find Oscar fighting against the merge harder than ever before. But we also have their attachments to each other to sort out as well. Ruby and Oscar have been watching each other's backs in different ways since V5, their reunion hug in V8 was interrupted where no other "pairing's" was, and they were the only "pairing" still to be split up between the Ever After and Remnant. Not to mention that, while they were separated, Ruby was pushed to a breaking point after being shown an illusion of losing Oscar, while Oscar was back in the real world eulogizing about how he lost Ruby. CRWBY doesn't setup relationship parallels and focuses as intensely and intentionally as this without pay off at some point.

Again, while the specifics are nearly impossible to predict, I'm expecting a bit of a Dojo Scene Reprise, heart-to-heart of sorts, and/or, something that puts those attachments to the test. My immediate thought is that this test will finally push Oscar to unlocking his semblance since getting shot, falling from Atlas, being kidnapped, and tortured were all not enough to make it happen. (Although my wishful thinking is that it unlocks in a happier moment, I think that's much less likely.)

If I were to engage in pure speculation on this, my easiest bet is that it will come at the hands of Tyrian. When our Little Prince was first introduced, it was almost as if he was waking from a nightmare of that villain laughing with glee at the opportunity to hunt down a certain rose. And with this being the Vacuo arc with Ruby and Oscar getting a lot of focus, and Tyrian already on the prowl within the kingdom, it would make a lot of sense. The little prince fated to have a confrontation with a venomous antagonist in the desert over his attachment to a rose is about as textbook as it gets. (I could also see it go to Cinder or being delayed until they follow through on the threat of Ruby being kidnapped by Salem, if that's the route they decide to take. But again we'll have to wait and see how it plays out.)

3. Oscar and the Merge

I'm not entirely sure where they're headed with this one between now and the resolution... but I do think the resolution itself will otherwise be a happy one, if not bittersweet. RWBY is a story about breaking cycles, and Oz has been part of one of the longest on Remnant since the very beginning. Pairing that with this show being, ultimately, a happy story, as well as a looking at two of Oscar and Oz's shared allusions, I can only imagine they will be separated by the end.

The first allusions to mention are from The Marvelous Land of Oz. Princess Ozma (aka Oscar) is the rightful heir to the kingdom and next in line to take over when it's time for the wizard to retire. It's very clear that - however this plays out - Oscar is the final incarnation. Typically, when one ruler leaves the throne that's it. They're gone. Oz has fiddled with Remnant's history for countless millennia now in his endless fight against Salem. When the dust settles and it's time for Remnant to rebuild, it should be up to the new generation to take charge without his influence from "the old world" in the mix.

From a Little Prince lens - for those unfamiliar with the book - the aviator (aka Oz) spends much of the story waffling about the little prince he is stranded with in the desert... only to be very sad when his new friend leaves him behind to go home to the stars. RWBY is already subverting this story a bit with Oscar being the one wanting to be rid of his pilot instead of the other way around. If I were to guess how the show will carry this further, it would be that Oz moves on, but perhaps with some lingering attachment on either (or both) sides. Maybe a bit of a "all this time I wanted it to end, but now that it's finally happening, I wish I (you) didn't have to go".

At least that's what seems to make sense to me, thematically speaking. Oscar will be irreversibly changed by these events even if he is freed from the curse, however. There is no question about it. Because that is what the Hero's Journey is all about.

The hero leaves their farm and they fall through a new world. It is both horrifying and exciting in equal measure. And throughout it all they are changed by the experiences they have and the people they meet - both good and bad, within their control and outside of it. And when the quest is finally over, there is grief. Because you are not the same person you were when you left home, and you can never truly return to what you had and who you were before it all happened.

This is also, coincidentally, just what it means to grow up. Which - while not the only one, and certainly not unique to Oscar's arc alone - has always been one of the loudest allegories hiding within the merge to me. We meet and know people, we don't always have a say in how long they can stay and how they change us... and then one day they are gone, but their influence and our memories of them stay with us. And then, as RWBY has taught us since the very beginning, we keep moving forward despite it all.

( @creatoriamari tagging you here just in case to make sure you get the notif because I don't know if it still works if I saved the ask as a draft. 🙇‍♀️)

[animentality]

I'm not looking forward to season 3 of Blue Lock.

There will be good moments sprinkled here and there, like Bachira doing his monster thing, Chigiri stealing from Kaiser, Nagi and Reo getting re-married, but the Neo Egoist League Arc is way too long. It's gonna be like 25 full episodes, since the entire arc is over a hundred chapters long, and most of them will be Isagi beefing with Kaiser against players we don't care about.

Plus, all the matches are basically the same. Isagi's team wins every one, and he gets the final goal.

Also he calls Kaiser a bitch.

It's not that I hate Kaiser, I actually love him, I think he's the best character introduced in the NEL arc, it's just that the first arcs of Blue Lock knew not to focus on just one rivalry all the time.

We got new rivalries all throughout the First Selection.

We had an even dispersal of, ok Bachira's a new rival, now here's Kunigami, now here's Chigiri, now here's Nagi and Reo - these were all interesting characters who had space to breathe and develop personal relationships with our MC.

They all had matches where they got to shine as the main play makers. Kunigami got super goals. Bachira outdribbled an entire team on his own. Chigiri had the most epic First Selection moment, when he broke the chains weighing him down. Reo and Nagi were introduced as a demonic duo, and had an entire match to show how good they were together.

Even that side ass character Kuon had an interesting moment...hell, he had two. He fucked up two different games, betrayed his team, and then redeemed himself.

He wasn't even a major character, but he had a singular story to tell, that didn't rely entirely on the specific match he played in, or the goals he scored.

But the Neo Egoist League Arc is like...a rushed mess, that somehow managed to take up 40% of the entire manga at the same time.

It's got the dense, complicated character juggling of the U20 arc, except not good, lol. U20 had high stakes. It was intense, and every character was juggled, sure, but at least they all had their time to shine. That's 22+ characters who had to get some focus, plus the substitutions. I'd say Kaneshiro did a banger job of maintaining the tension, while still moving us around from person to person with consistency. But NEL?

The stakes were immediately lowered by the fact that winning the matches doesn't matter, scoring does.

And it like, cycles through every important character, gives them a single goal, and then proceeds on to the next player who needs to get a goal. Then it neglects that character for another twenty chapters.

There's no even pacing here.

And what's worse is that most of the players on these teams are...not that interesting. Karasu and Otoya, most of the European team members, who basically don't exist... I personally don't like Niko, who just does the same thing Isagi does, or Yukimiya (although at least Yukimiya's backstory is depressingly real, and kinda compelling, even if he himself isn't utilized that well).

I like Hiori, but Nanase and Kurona and Kiyora...I mean, they're kinda just there to give Isagi assists...

They're not quirky and weird and relatable like the freaks of First Selection. They don't get the time and spotlight they need for me to really care.

Like any of these characters could probably be great if the pacing was better, but... it's like the mangaka will just speed through a backstory before one of them passes to Isagi. And then that's it.

The only true spotlight is given to Kaiser or Isagi.

Now Isagi is the MC, so that's alright, although can I just say, he's kind of unlikable during the NEL arc, like, Jesus Christ, was he...awful when he was against Man City...if he hadn't apologized to Yukimiya...hmmm...and after an entire match of calling Nagi and Reo slurs too, lol...but I digress...

And Kaiser is good, he's great, but can you imagine how boring the First Selection arc would've been if it was entirely dedicated to Isagi just beefing with Barou?

Like come on.

It's basically just a glorified training arc, that abandons what made Blue Lock interesting in the first place, which is the high stakes, but then doesn't have the decency to at least still give us the great character drama that we've come to expect from BL.

And that's a shame.

It's also fucking ridiculous for a training arc to be so long.

God.

I hope it ends soon.

Please get back on track.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I really like the themes of superficiality around Neo in this episode. Fake house that shatters around her. Fake killing of Little, who cannot truly die. Fake death through the Tree, which we know "does not kill", but Neo doesn't accept that because she wants it to be obliteration. Fake people saying fake things and bleeding fake blood. Fake, fake, fake.

The illusion was stronger, strong enough to fool Ruby, but that's all it was in the end. An illusion. A stage play, complete with spotlight, starring Neo as hero and Ruby as villain. And by investing so deeply in it, Neo made herself an illusion too, a character rather than a person. And like all characters, she vanishes when the curtain falls.

[dreamieparadise]

✨️ Character Spotlight ✨️

Name: Momina Luqman

Nickname: Momo

Alias: The Heart Reader

Gender: Nonbinary

Pronouns: She/They

Sexuality: Demi/Pan

Age: TYB! 15, TYL! 25 [Verse Dependent]

Appearance: medium brown skin, heart shape face, plump two toned lips, overbite, beauty mark on the right side of her mouth, an upturned nose, large roundish almond shape eyes with long eyelashes and dark brown eyes, dark brown wavy hair. Her hair goes to mid back as a teen and to her butt as an adult. As an adult she has a stud on the right side of her nose [usually a star but sometimes a flower.] As both a teen and an adult her ears are pierced [she got them pierced by her mother when she was a few months old.] She has a curvy body and her weight fluctuates a lot. Her hair tangles and gets messy easily.

Birthday: July 8th

Height: TYB! 5'0'', TYL! 5'3''

Ethnicity: Somali

Personality: Bubbly, caring, and a social butterfly. Momo absolutely loves meeting and learning about new people. She is tries her best to be understanding, accepting and patient but in all honesty she is someone who gets irritated easily. However, she is learning to manage her irritation. Thankfully she is someone who's temper dies out as quickly as it appears. Being an older sister is something they are proud of, they are very nurturing and will mother just about anyone [including her own parents when there is a chance.] But despite this they are also very anxious and awkward, desperately not wanting to be disliked and thus also has people pleasing tendencies. They are unintentionally loud but try their best to be quieter when this is brought to their attention. Just like 99.99% of Somali people, they talk with their hands. They are also a very animated person, often giggling and bouncing around. Unfortunately they are also someone who tears up very easily [this even if they aren't sad] and it's something she is very embarrassed of. They are also very stubborn and can be impulsive but those closest to them can keep her in check.

Main Love Interest: Gokudera Hayato

Family: father, mother, 6 siblings [Momo is the second oldest but first girl]...over 100+ relatives if you count her tribes.

Abilities:

Psychic: medium, can see and interact with spirits. Uses this ability to gather information such as names, secrets, and ability to map places [but she is terrible with directions/telling people where to go] sometimes has visions of the future and can tell if someone is cursed or has evil around them.

Weapons: qolxad [dagger], belawa [short sword], gãschãn [shield] and a gun. All have been decaled/DIYed to Momo's desired look.

Flame(s): Main sun, secondary lightning. Her flames are strong due to the strength of her will and can be all-encompassing. She can easily summon them without thinking, just needing a strong emotion to have them bursting forward. A snake tattoo appears on her body when she uses her sun flames.

Affiliation: Amare family/Luqman family, Neo-Vongola, CEDEF [when Colonnello comes calling]

Mentor(s): Reborn, Colonnello

Job: Information Gatherer, soldier [!?]

Languages: English, Somali, French, Japanese, Tagalog, and Italian

Likes: socializing, helping, learning, napping,

Dislikes: rudeness, wasted time, math,

Health: Momo is someone who has chronic health issues, along with anxiety. These issues get exasperated when she uses her abilities. She uses her sun flames in order to keep pushing herself past her limit when needed.

Love languages: Quality time, acts of service

Trivia:

⭐Momina means "faithful", "truly believing". Luqman means "wise" or "intelligent."

⭐her number is 63

⭐ associations: apples, flowers, purples and pinks, stars, the moon

⭐ Her best friend/sister is none other than Miruku Osashima [@mimiruku]

⭐ Has a tendency to talk to herself but because of her abilities people who know sometimes get confused and think she's speaking to spirits. She sometimes lies because that's less embarrassing [she isn't a very good liar.]

⭐ Momo has a tendency to claim those close to her as family as, in her mind the hierarchy is family and then friends. This isn't too say she doesn't love and care for her friends deeply, just that she is very family oriented.

⭐ has a lisp, but it lessened as she grew into adulthood.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3242: Ninetales (Expedition)

Ninetales could hit hard. Really hard. With enough Energy, it could KO any Pokemon in the game. It also had to discard the Energy it wanted to use to attack, which made it really hard to use consistency. Fire was a type that had ways to recycle Energy back into play, so support did indeed exist. The issue for a lot of these e-series cards was that there was almost always a ton of competition in any format that used any other cards. Ninetales, however, was so strong in the right spot that it was going to be tough to quite replicate that, and that gave it a bit more of a push into main formats than you'd probably expect from it.

80 HP was very average for Stage 1's of the era. There were a lot of Pokemon in this range where the strongest attacks could make it fall, but not every deck was getting there and doing so usually took a lot of effort. 2 hit KO's were far more common, so Ninetales had a chance to do its job. The Water Weakness was a pain against things like Dark Feraligatr, Kingdra, and Swampert depending on the format. The Retreat Cost, being just 1, was very reasonable. It was still probably nice to keep something like Switch around just in case you needed that one extra Energy on the next Ninetales or if your supporting Pokemon got hit by Pokemon Reversal or Double Gust.

Mislead needed a Fire and a Colorless Energy. 2 coins were flipped, and if either was heads, the Defending Pokemon was Confused. This was really annoying to deal with before the Ruby & Sapphire cards came out since the coin flip was needed just to retreat, but switching cards still got out of it if those were available so this was more of a desperation play. It didn't do any damage, after all.

Ethereal Flame technically started at 30 damage for 3 Colorless Energy. Realistically it was more, but you had to discard all Fire Energy attached to Ninetales to use it. There was no choice here, and no damage varying once you chose it. Each discarded Energy added 20 damage, so you were getting 90 for 3 and that could go up from there. Ninetales could KO a lot of notable Pokemon with the right support. Sadly, Typhlosion was based on a coin flip and was therefore a bit unreliable with this much discarding. It took Blaziken in Ruby & Sapphire to get some consistency to this, and it was there where this had a chance to shine.

Ninetales had a bit of time in the spotlight. At the start of the e-On format, Ninetales was one of the best ways to use Blaziken, hitting extremely hard like very few things could. Once more sets were released, Ninetales got left behind, less because it was bad (it was still solid until it rotated) but because things like Rayquaza ex and Blaziken ex were even better. In earlier formats, Ninetales was usually worse than using Magcargo in Neo-On despite the higher damage ceiling because Magcargo was more likely to get off multiple attacks and was often strong enough to do what was needed anyway, while it was pretty good in e-card due to the slower pace of play giving more chances for Typhlosion to hit those flips. The main moment was still in early e-On with Blaziken, where it was one of the most popular decks for a while and something everyone had to prepare for.

[nov4-rocket5]

I completely understand why people hate Jaune from how he acts in canon, how he has too much screentime, to how he's portrayed as Chad Thundercock by fanfic writers, to how he's the writer's pet.

I get that but I still like the CANON character because currently as of right now whenever it's just team RWBY, shit is just boring. Blake lost some braincells somewhere in Menagerie and now is nothing more than a damsel in distress who needs Yang and Ruby to save her, Weiss never does shit besides threaten her little brother and drink tea in her mansion, Yang's too busy babying Ruby while making kissy faces with Blake, and Ruby's crying every two seconds about having some burden placed on her shoulders when NO ONE has done that. They had 5 whole episodes just to themselves in volume 9 and it was BORING SLOP. Ruby and Weiss never got to talk about Penny's death all of it was off-screen. Weiss never got to talk about the guilt she feels from letting Atlas fall. Shit only picked up once Neo and Jaune came into the story. But that's really because KERRY, EDDY, and MILES don't know how to write the female characters.

I like the blonde's blind optimism. I like how he treated Jessica in the movie helping some kid through her anxiety is great I just don't get why no one else volunteered to do the same. I especially like how human he comes off with him basically helping the community with small time shit. He's just consistently a good guy a boring one but a good guy nonetheless.

It also helps that his cut reminds me of Laios from Delicious in Dugeon.

Yeah, a lot of people like to blame RWBY's lackluster main cast development/characterization on Jaune eating up screentime. But the core problem is that CRWBY just seemed to struggle with juggling a huge cast of characters.

Which is odd, because Early RvB had a huge cast that all were handled pretty well.

Let's be honest, plenty of characters besides just Jaune eat up screentime. Pyrrha got loredumped on and is one of the main focuses of Volume 3, all while Team RWBY just kinda dicked around Vytal for most of the season.

Look at the WF subplot. Jaune wasn't stealing spotlight on that at all; CRWBY was just terrible at writing "le racism" and decided to drop it by Vol 6 because they realized how much they sucked at it.

The only reason Weiss is sometimes deemed the best out of the other 3 members of her team is because she's the only one with a tangible character arc and development. Even then CRWBY choked in the end on that too.

Jaune went from pretty bad, to solid, to kinda bad again but not as bad. Team RWBY aren't underdeveloped because of him, they're underdeveloped because the way they've been handled is just incompetent. If you cut him from the show entirely the problem would be blamed on some other character.

[manofthepipis]

In a hypothetical scenario where Spamton could physically (and was mentally ready to) talk about his puppetification with all the horrors it entailed…what aspects would he discuss?

Also those post-its drawings are so gooood what the hell

Ooo so i've thought about this question a lot, like rolling the possibilities in my brain, and it makes for some rlly angsty convos that aren't meant to be but great in a hypothetical.

First, so i write ol spammy boy's puppetification due to my own hcs about how it all went down. like after he looked into the Brightest Spotlight Ever™️, he begs to his phone pal to show him more about the world above him. But in the attempt to do so, his benefactor ends up breaking him. This is when the physical glitches start and with each glitch, he becomes more and more of a literal puppet until the transformation is complete. I'd think these glitches were attempts to "fix" his programming, (maybe make him more sentient in the light world? wouldn't that be cool) but the phone guy just took more of spamton's control away from him. I believe spamton agreed to this, not knowing the consequences, but in his mind, providing more control to the guy on the phone was his ticket to becoming [bigger and better]. He was thinking that this was his way to get to that pretty light he saw in the shadow crystal, but nope, poor dude was let down and fell due to his own hubris. This preludes their connection being totally lost.

Over time, seeing less and less of himself and anticipating that feeling of the loss of self with every emerging error until it just embeds itself into his character... it's a dark theme and i love to mess with it lol. Computer body horror is just top tier

I think he'd reach out to Swatch first, as they were a front-row witness to his downfall, and he couldn't answer any question or concern they had about what was going on. He'd clear things up, detail what happened and how it wasn't him making these changes, it was his top investor. The glitches don't do any further permanent damage, they're just an after-effect now, but it's enough to make Swatch, and those around spamton, want to help him out with it. Like, Swatch was left horribly confused as to why spamton lost his marbles so abruptly and decided to latch onto neo, but this would provide an explanation rather than just give spamton an excuse for what he did.

He'd be glad to tell the addisons. Give em a good ol extra punch of guilt. While they were moping and writhing in their jealousy, thinking that spamton had it all and more, spamton was actually going through becoming a living jigsaw cosplay. After all the panic of reliving it, it'd be like him to start rlly guilting them with a smile on his face, rlly rubbing salt in the wound until it got too much.

that's my take on it at least! Honestly I can't decide if he'd talk about the implications of their existence with other darkners, but instead with us/Kris. I mean, it'd be hilarious af if he just dropped the identity of the knight and all those other mysteries, but if he did i'm 98% sure we'd just see him as unreliable and keep theorizing lmao

[itsclydebitches]

Personally I'm glad someone finally gave Ruby the business but it shouldn't have been Jaune, of all people - "What about you? It's all about you!" Or at least he shouldn't have contributed to the argument like this when all of WBY are here and none of them say anything. Idk, it just reminds me of Watts shouting down at Cinder in V8.

I think it makes perfect sense given that Jaune is the one who had ("had") to kill Penny and then spent decades dodging assassination/protecting people/trying to find a way out for Team RWBY when they arrive. Given everything he's been through, he's not just in a position to be justifiably pissed at Ruby's leadership, but specifically pissed that - from his ignorant perspective - she's just standing around (AKA unknowingly having flashbacks) while being the target of Neo's attack in the first place. I'd be surprised if Jaune wasn't the most pissed after everything he's been through, up through and including the death of his village.

But that right there is the problem. Jaune is the one who kills Penny. Jaune is the one who spends a lifetime in the Ever After. Jaune is the one with strong ties to the citizens. Jaune is the one with plans and theories and knowledge about how to get home. Jaune is the one going through an extreme mental crisis of his own, just like Ruby. He's the perfect character to lash out at her, but he shouldn't be. There's no reason the story should have Jaune go through All The Plot when WBY is right there, twiddling their thumbs with gags and romance because the story can't find anything else for them to do. It's the problem we knew was coming back when the Volume 8 finale hit: you can't ignore Jaune killing Penny, but making him that focus draws attention away from the girls in a detrimental fashion. Then they tossed in a "Jaune lived a lifetime off screen" plot-point and now we've got a character who is way more interesting and impactful than 3/4ths of our title team.

Volume 9 did a good job of keeping Jaune off screen for a while, but that doesn't mean the girls discovered any new conflicts or goals during that period of freedom. With the exception of Ruby, they're static. Blake and Yang's relationship hasn't changed at all since they confessed. Weiss has only made noises about being sad over Atlas, with no actual development. All three of them literally had magic smoke ask them if they need to improve or change in any way and they went nope! We're good to go. Jaune steals the spotlight because the story is actually willing to give him compelling and complex storylines - even when they're handled badly. He gets to do so much on screen and go through so much whereas WBY are just kinda... there. What are their character arcs this Volume, especially now that Blake and Yang have finally kissed? No idea.

[maochira]

Blue Lock writing event: Neo Egoist League Assistant Trio

Edit: this is a series now! I'm just too lazy to edit everything to make it say series instead of event

Hi hi!! Do you like my father figure coaches series? Then this is the right thing for you! Welcome to my new writing event! A first part is actually already posted (link), so check it out after you read this!

In this you, the reader, are an assistant to the coaches in the Neo Egoist League! But you're not alone, Mao (me) and Claire (@deerangle3) will be joining you. We switch around which teams we assist, so we get to meet all the coaches and players! But don't worry, Claire and I won't take the spotlight, we'll be side characters or make cameos most of the time (unless you want us to be involved more.)

You can request lots of fun stuff for this! You falling in love with one of the players? Sure! Just some silly fun or random scenes? Shoot you requests my way! More situation examples are down below. You can also come up with your own! I will also write more than the requests I get for this. I'll definitely write my own ideas as well!

This writing event is something I'm super excited about. I love writing inserts of me and Claire and I LOVE my father figure coaches series a lot, so I really wanted to combine that with the x reader stuff I love to write as well!

Here's a headcanon post of Claire and me being assistants, that might get you some ideas for requests! I seriously recommend reading it, it's super funny. Also, I will keep Claire's barking for Chris down VERY MUCH. But she simps for other characters as well so I'll add that.

Scenario/headcanon examples:

-you fall in love with a player

-you become best friends with a player/multiple players

-spending time with the team/specific players outside of training

-spending time with the coach outside of training

-helping/taking care of an injured player

-reader can be the sibling of a player!

And like I already said, feel free to come up with your own ideas! I'd be happy to write anything for this. You can request stuff for any character you'd like! I'll try my best even for characters I haven't written so far. Also, I won't write anything romantic including Claire or me x reader. I don't think anyone would request that but just making sure LMAO

Disclaimer: I will not write anything romantic involving the coaches or Ego as they serve more as father figures to the assistants (except Loki, he'd be more of a brother figure), besides that, it would be good if you checked out my request rules as well

[jesterkasa-circus-clown-blues]

‘‘ The greed of an ordinary man. Crawl to move forward.

Narcissist fools himself. Give it your all and act like you are the brightest star ,,

Name [ ♥️ ] : Tsukasa Tenma! Obviously~!

Pronouns [ 🌀 ] : Mostly he/him, but I do want to try neos as well~!

Age [ 🌟 ] : Around my 20s, though my current vessel is a minor !!!

Media [ ‼️ ] : Project Sekai, though I come from an alternate universe of the game!

My Canon [ 💙 ] : (this is my 5th attempt UGH)

1. I am in the ringmaster of a circus ring with my treasured performers! (emu, rui, and nene!)

2. I am semi canon divergent personality wise- I’m abit quieter and more eccentric (not to mention THIRSTY for the spotlight~!) then the ingame version of me. Say I’m a fusion of ingame tsukasa and rui! ☆☆

3. I miss my wife, tails (Rui <33)

4. Died in a circus fire, resurrected by a video game!!

5. Toya-kyun, the player!

DNI: anti-kin, radqueers, transid, pro endos, cluster b abuse believers, bigots of any kind, nsfw blogs, people above 18, THOSE ruikasa fans

BYF: My kin is a bit problematic, though I am a different person than who I once was, so I wish to separate from the bad parts. Also, I’m autistic, so DO tell me if I’m ever impolite! Tone tags are VERY BERY much appreciated!!

Tags!!

kins obtained! (Yes yes! Shocking isn’t it~? ☆)

#//🎭 = Jesterkasa

#//🩷 = sad mother!Kafka (Honkai Star Rail)

#//🪽= Klaha (Gardenia by Malice Mizer)

#//🎬 = Director!Rui (project sekai)

#//🌸 = Goddess!Emu (project sekai)

#//📐 = Bill Cipher (Reverse Falls)

[LIST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE!!!]

#//🎪 — running rehearsals = Me blabbering utter nonsense~!! ☆☆

#//🫧 — like a fleeting bubble = trying to unjumble my memories

#//👤 — into character = my experience outside of my kins

#//🧶 — closely knit bonds = longing for my old friends

#//📖 — stories of the past = introducing myself as my other kins!

#//📰 — extra! extra! = reblogging INTERESTING posts~

#//💫 — from the audience! = answering my asks~!

#//‼️ — calling all superstars! = kin calls!

ANON DEARESTS—!! 💫

#// 🐦 anon = The silent spectator!

#// 🎈 anon = Rui-kyun!!

#// legoshi = big sibling from the interwebs!!

#// 🐇 anon = My personal bunny, Kokichi-kyun!

SIT BACK, RELAX AND ENJOY THE SHOW!! ☆

[claitea]

can you tell us more about alto 👉👈

here's the basic rundown on them!

some more things about them though:

i use the day i finish designing an oc as their birthday, so alto's is september 13. they're 23 at the time of bw2

full team is fearow, unfezant, swanna, rufflet and vullaby. they're like 4th-5th gym level kind of strength in battle

somewhat inspired by the time that as a kid i went to this beach, known for having a one-winged pelican around. i never got to see it but i always remembered it. alto's initial partner pokemon was going to be a pelipper, but i did want to give the underappreciated fearow (which i actually really like! a lot more than pelipper haha) a little spotlight. i still kept the one-winged pelipper concept - it's now the logo of the skyline sanctuary visible on alto's second outfit. it lives with the rest of alto's family at the sanctuary as one of the helper pokemon

taught themself how to sing and dance as a kid so they could play with the birds in the sanctuary, but ending up really liking it and they do it as a hobby. you could NOT convince alto to sing or dance in front of other people though. gun to their head they will not

sucks at throwing poke balls but thats what the capture styler's for

afraid of thunderstorms, not in the afraid of loud noises way but because their family are all extremely wary of them. they're dangerous times for bird pokemon so they have to be on guard during them, so even when they're not at the sanctuary, storms put them on edge

alto doesn't battle often, but people who have battled them think they're annoying to fight lmao. when facing wild pokemon as a ranger, their main tactics are dodging and disrupting to get openings to use their styler, and they incorporate those same tactics in their battles

also despite part of why i made alto being that they were going to be paired with n i dont think i explained their whole story here???

between the remains of team plasma that either joined neo team plasma or are making up for their actions in the driftveil safehouse, there's a small number that still fully believe pokemon should be separated from humans for their sake. they operate independently, still convincing some to release pokemon or outright stealing them just like the original plasma. this is one of the reasons some rangers were dispatched to unova to help recover these pokemon

alto gets assigned to capture and calm an ursaring who took its release very badly and is now rampaging through the forest. while searching for it, he runs across n who was busy playing with pansage so deep in the forest he didn't get the evacuation memo. n asks what someone else is doing so far into the woods, alto explains their mission, n volunteers to help, alto thinks thats insane you cant do that and leaves. "i don't need help. i got this"

they don't got this

they end up taking a direct slash, and it would have been worse had n not worried about someone going that far into the forest alone with a dangerous pokemon and went in the same direction. n jumps in, calms the ursaring himself, and drags alto out to get medical help

alto usually takes a while to warm up to new people but on account of n literally saving their life he gets to skip most of the aloof alto phase. they end up great friends, alto admiring n a lot

alto, however, has a very strong sense of justice and never forgives criminals. in particular they hate team plasma because of what they've had to witness firsthand. n is ex-plasma, the ex-King no less. n soon learns about alto's views and knows that he should tell alto the truth soon. its harder then when he told hilda though, he's already such good friends with alto and this aill likely ruin it

he finally ends up telling them about a year after their first meeting. just as he thought, alto's distraught and leaves

over the next month though alto feels like shit over the whole thing. yes they're not sure if they can trust n after he kept that information from them for a year. but n was different to how any of the still malevolent team plasma members were like...?

they happen to get assigned to work with the driftveil safehouse to help them handle some pokemon

surprise asshole n's sisters live there and they've been told all about you

both of them are reluctant to work with alto not just because of what happened with n but because it shows they don't trust anyone at the safehouse. for the sake of professionalism alto promises to put all bias aside and carry out whatever tasks needed of them

working with the safehouse makes them realize that people can change. every ex-plasma member here is genuinely trying their best to atone. alto finally admits to themself that they really screwed up with n and asks anthea and concordia if they can tell n they want to apologize. they slowly patch things up with him from there

[t4tklonoa]

you're one of the most based coroika fans ive ever seen . What are your thoughts on (and hcs for maybe?) the best 8

Thank u v much!!! I try my best.......

AND. I absolutely love the best 8 I think they are so silly. the designs are super cool (even if they ar just the promo kids) and their personalities are v distinctive and fun

although I think the group is alitttlle too big ? and I miss the side characters that are part of the teams getting at least a little spotlight like with Avi (I only rll hav this problem with the hierarchy). I am not asking that every side character gets one but at least one or two since the important teams are doubled would be nice. and from the looks of it (slight spoilers for chapter 75) Wire doesn't have a v important connection to any of his teammates.... BUT also it's v early to determine if any side characters will get more attention ! so u can tots just ignore this part (also buzz glasses and polpo may be the lucky ones since they appear alot with their captains)

also headcanons under cut bc I'm supppper normal abt the coroikers and hav one million headcanons ^^ (also haven't been able to read the most recent inkling almanac. some hc's may make no sense considering the new info)

MITSU !!!

It is so genderqueer ur honor. slaps she/it pronouns on her

she grew up along Kojake they are siblings... Mitsu and Kojake developed their own kind of sign language to communicate, it's v bare bones but they are living their best life out there man

I refuse to believe it collects junk as a hobby only. Poor thang doesn't have a house it lives in junk yards with Kojake

not a headcanon but she's so cool. wow

HORNMET !!!

TRANSFEM ! she has facial hair and rll enjoys showing it off

has a crush on Mitsu maybe? maybe you'll never know (she does she is alesbian)

looooves collecting rocks and sharp things

girl who bites

BARRELEYE !!!

considers all of his teammates as family :]

ABSOLUTELY. loves Polpo to death he's always talking abt how great his punk rock sis is the best

has a huge scar that goes thru his face. why? he fell off the stairs when he was little and landed on smth sharp

one million neos but orange's fav one is pop/popself

SHELLMET !!!

transfem also. she is besties with Hornmet

autism stares at u forever. also chronic :3 face

rll good at anarchy, especially clam blitz (SOMEHOW)

she's the oldest out of the best 8, due to this all her teammates are younger than her, they are all little siblings 2 her

she met her teammates when she randomly matched with them for a clam blitz round. they were rll struggling so she was like 'y'know what. I could help u get better ar this mode!' and then she adopted them

SHADY !!!

the most nonbinary to ever nonbinary. uses they/it/ika

Also autism stares at u forever. when ika met shellmet for the first time it was like !!!

missing a fang, got in a nasty fight to defend Flannel (they get bullied :( )

8 BIT !!!

exgender !!! goes by it/its and lots of neos (also goes by dynamo/dynamoself like Rider in my headcanons so they both get v confused when ppl refer to them and they are like. in the same room)

Also goes by many names ! Blaze and Flame are it's fav ones besides 8 bit

chronic fatigue, scorch is always drinking energy drinks

has a weird friendship with trisun... they talk nonstop for some months and then for some months they don't talk 2 eachother.

thang who bites

is rll into art and crafts, doesn't get the opportunity to do stuffies often but it rll loves its hobby (also boom encountered Goggles once in an art and crafts club once. boom was so akward abt it lol)

OCHO !!!

Hemigirl ! goes by he/they/bird/sparrow

has a special interests in birds, owns one million pet birds (rich kid) he loves them all tho (I have to get around to deciding their names and species ough).

had a crush on trisun but now he doesn't know how they feel abt xem (it was v one sided, Ocho barely talked to trisun. later on I think they would b qpps tho!)

doesn't have friends. has been like that their entire life... till bird met Wire ! kinda. he rll wants to get closer to them but Wire is a complex individual and Ocho has no idea how to socialize

WIRE !!!! (get ready for my autism)

nonbinary swagger. they/them

they are mute !!

fast learner, really flexible. they play many different weapons but prefer playing as support most of the time

was trained by shellmet for a bit, developed a huge ego due to this. they think they could've made it as far as they did without shellmet, bc why did they surpass her (lie they believ. they are both as strong) if they aren't just. naturally talented amIright ? (they have problems)

owns aloooot of bracelets. including chewy ones bc they rll enjoy chewing on stuff.

constantly chewing or licking their lips and fingers, they hav alot of scars around their mouth, on their lips and fingers due to this

thang who bites (u)

they have a pet Sparrow (that's how they and Ocho met) and a pet sea slug (Yellow edged polycera)

(chapter 75 kinda spoilers for tha next headcanons)

they and their team have known eachother for most of their life (paralleling blue team!) they are not the same age tho. (buzzcut is the oldest, Wire and punk are middle and the youngest is double-bun) ALSO. they all know ASL

punk does a lot of the talking for them if the ppl they are hanging out with don't know ASL or Wire is too tired to sign (punk knows Wire v well so they can tell most of the time basic stuff Wire wants to say)

[mamasplat]

Calem can’t win I either assign him Coldplay or Wonderwall. So we compromise and he gets Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.

Shauna is mostly just late 2000s early 2010s party music but I will give the spotlight to Ready or Not by Bridget Mendler

Serena gets I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind by Vashti Bunyan and I feel like that’s self explanatory because they really emphasize her kindness to even total strangers in her neo champion event

Tierno gets Timber by Pitbull and Kesha SOLELY because of its dance on just dance. (Secondary mention to Party Rock Anthem because absolutely he would)

And that leaves Trevor- who all I have for a playlist concept is rain sounds….so I’m taking suggestions because I can’t find anything that screams Trevor

[normalest-of-knees]

Episode 8 and general Volume 9 discussion under the cut because... oof-

Tw: suicidal topics involving this episode and previous ones

Where exactly do we go from here? I'm serious. Where can this even go with 2 episodes left to this nonsensical volume?

Regardless of what RT actually does next episode, one way or another Ruby herself and (hopefully) everyone else will have to deal with the fact that she wanted to die, or at the very least, not be herself anymore.

Yes, Ascension is supposed to be different, but we also don't know anything about that. Ruby isn't from this world, so it may not even work, but we've also had unreliable sources (according to the show, anyways) as to what it actually is and does. We know the basics of how it's supposed to work, but not whether it's actually good or not

I had one crazy theory come to mind after the last 2 episodes, namely after we see Summer in Ruby's reflection in the storm.... and I cannot stress how much I hope this won't happen (but given how things have gone so far-):

I'm worried we may get a "Ruby turns into Summer Rose" or "Ruby was actually Summer all along" bullshit. It's just stupid enough to be something the writers would think is a "cool" "fun" "twist".

That aside, I must once again stress (I said this on a different blog) that everything feels like its going by at a break neck pace. So much is happening yet nothing is happening at all??

Ruby seemingly doesn't run very far away at all, enough that her team can hear the gunshots of her being attacked. She gets some weird spotlight beforehand that at first I thought was supposed to convey the passage of time as she walked, but I'm not really sure. She seemingly purposefully walks towards the mansion/casino/building Neo cooked up and we immediately are inside?? There's no transition to this. You'd be forgiven for thinking after she ran away that this bit was all a dream

Then even the parts with the dead menagerie attacking Ruby are odd. How does Neo know about half of this stuff? Is she guessing? Did she somehow find out via the lamp back when Cinder used it?? And as awful as it was for Ruby to be beaten and tortured like that, it was insanely short.

I know she was already beyond her limits, but they barely do much/say much before she's considering the tea. She had so much fire when she waltzed in there ("If you want me dead then come and get me!"), but a few illusions and her Aura is broken and she's ready to be done?? Again, I know she was already having a breakdown before, but it still felt too rushed to be natural. I know we saw bruises and a few cuts (and random blood on her hands?), but otherwise she wasn't visibly looking worse than some other fights she's been in before.

Also, why in the shit fuck did her friends just stand there and do nothing? You're telling me after someone dear and close to you freaks out, runs off, then you hear gunfire and rush to see what it is, then see her on the ground visibly upset and beaten up with the villain who has been hunting her down standing over her with their weapon out, you just..... stand there?? Waiting to see what's up?? There weren't even any copies or illusions around as well, it was just Neo and Ruby there.

Ruby just picks up the cup and drinks and Yang just.... stands there. Even the close up on her eye didn't have much emotion other than if she was watching a log tumble off a waterfall or something. Like barely anything aside from "Oh wow. Huh" going on....

And yeah, CC and Neo being the ones more upset over that than anything is.... a thing.

I don't care how the group interprets Ascension, you see your close friend, your SISTER, drink some unknown liquid and then falls over looking dead and gets swallowed up by a hole in the ground with vines, you'd have a reaction. You'd be panicking and running over to the spot. Freaking out! "Where'd they go?? What's going on??" Would be an understandable reaction.

But nothing. No one even moves an inch, they just watch, get blasted by a Cat, then it's over.

I thought at least Weiss would use her glyphs or something to charge at Neo or get to Ruby as fast as she could. Summon something to knock the cup out of her hand. Anything!! Why are they so.... apathetic about it? They're not even really horrified, they're just "Oh no... anyways." Like they saw someone slip and break something they were holding. Unfortunate, but oh well.

Don't even get me started on Yang's bitching earlier.

"Why'd she run off like that?!" "That wasn't upset that was-- ugh!! Why didn't she talk to us?!" "We weren't asking her to be perfect."

If you told me Yang hardly ever interacted with Ruby ever, let alone was her sister that 'supposedly' raised her, I'd believe you. The Hell kind of reaction is this when your sister runs away crying after expressing she wasn't doing ok?? Yes, Ruby brushed people off when they'd try to ask if she was ok, but even that is still an answer! Clearly she was not ok! And even when she'd be more vulnerable or sad, she was ignored or scolded for being sullen. How in the fuck was she supposed to open up?

I honestly don't know what is even gonna happen after this. 2 episodes left and the title character committed metaphorical suicide.

They'll either make it not matter, make her reset and forget everything, become someone else entirely, or nothing will change and she'll just have to be like "Yeah, so, my bad. Anyways, here's the exit guys"

This show makes me so tired....

[crystalelemental]

Oh now that's interesting. 3* and 4* Field and Sprint candy is confirmed.

In general, I'm kinda stunned they'd even entertain the idea. When you look at the broad scope of the meta, field effects have been incredibly guarded, almost exclusively placed on limited pairs when we're not dealing with weather. This is a rather substantial change. We could see multiplicative field effects like Zones suddenly show up as part of the F2P meta. The same is true of Sprint; fast-ramping is the domain of limited pairs. More than likely, any F2P Sprint is going to get -1 cooldown or nothing, and instead focus on speed boosting. Which is still nice, mind. I think speed boosts are underrepresented in the meta and a pretty important option. Not everyone can just spam Free Moves Next, Adaman.

The real fun is...3*. 4* is expected, that's Lodge adjacent. But 3*? Those only happen in two scenarios: free story pairs with the first PML, and events like the NPC trainer classes they mysteriously stopped making. That's...honestly kind of exciting.

On the one hand, I loved the NPC trainer class additions. They were just little extras sprinkled into events, and I kinda loved the concept even if they never got to hard favorites among the trainer class designs (XY female ace trainer, my beloved). Seeing those come back would be ideal. These candy are going to be sparse, especially when contending with the other three types. New players will still need the main three, it's not like we'll get none of them. So getting event pairs that can be maxed out while the event is live is ideal; the candy is a backup, but not strictly necessary to use on them, to create a stockpile.

On the other hand, a new main story is going to pop up. Gacha won't just leave things without a main story. There will likely be a new OC rival/antagonist to face off against, and a whole thing going on. The Villain Arcs largely focused on powering up the free legendary pairs, but this new arc doesn't have anything to power up that isn't already receiving it. More than likely, it would be entirely new pairs, like in the PML arc. Some are calling for PML 2, I don't personally buy it. I played FEH, you can pick up and drop storylines whenever you want in gacha, but you have to keep potential threads open to jump back if needed. I think the announcement of PML 2 is just keeping options open, same as Giovanni hinting at another scheme. They aren't doind anything right away, but it's there if they need it later.

This opens up some options, which I hope we lean into. Man, we have got to fix the F2P situation for new regions. The only truly F2P pair in Galar is Hop. He's still the only fucking one. Not even a single BP pair to their name. This sucks, and there are a ton of missing characters from that region. A new arc with free story pairs would be a great chance to bring in options that otherwise aren't going to get anything, because they'd never sell as PokeFairs, and general pool spotlights are borderline dead. This would also solve for some of Paldea, which has approximately eighty gagillion characters running around; not all of them are PokeFair worthy. In fact, most of them aren't. Free pairs would be an easy way to add some options in.

On a personal level, my hopes for such additions would be:

Opal - I've accepted that she's not getting in otherwise, but Bede needs his mentor, he was completely alone in that Neo Champion event about connections and rivalries and it sucked. Bring in Opal.

Kabu - I'm just saying, he better have secondary Bug-type DPS. Like, actual secondary Bug type DPS. No pair in the game has that yet, let him be the first.

Katy - We're dying for Bug in this game. Good bug, I should specify.

Kofu - I don't like him, but this is definitely where he belongs.

Eri/Atticus - Look, you have to put in a few popular picks so people start playing for easy access, and these two are safe. Plus, free Fighting and Poison pairs, two of the types that most desperately need F2P options.

Chuck - We should also look backwards, at previous regions missing some people, and come together to agree that Chuck was never happening any other way. Just give him to me.

Cilan/Chili/Cress - It's what they deserve.