#i could explain my choices for pokemon but i feel

[dexholderr]

i wanna talk abt pokemon w people, so whats your favorite type and favorite pokemon of that type ? and explain why if you want, id love to know :D

for me its a tie between dark n ground ! dark types tend to have a bad reputation in source, but most of the time they just like bein a little silly and causin a bit of harmless mischief . my fav is absol :D ! and for ground types, i just think theyre all really cool and pretty well balanced in terms of battle . a very fun type to work with ! marowak is my favorite :]

[fulgurbugs]

What would the travelers Pokémon teams be?

I can totally see Alfyn having a Blissey. Therion seems like he’d have a Gengar, potentially.

ok. upon literally hours of deliberation and team building (i actually already had ones for the OT1 travelers but decided to revisit them and change a few picks) me and my bestie @snailcruncher have settled on some teams. i will be going in depth on reasonings for these so prepare for a long post lol. im gonna put it under a readmore because really im not joking about how long it is

we also came up with some ideas/lore for why some of these would be picked in a pokemon AU setting, so i’ll be explaining any of those thoughts if they’re relevant too.

Ophilia:

one of the only teams left untouched, I think this is a good batch for her. i’m imagining a scenario where the sacred flame takes the form of a pokemon, and it’s a lampent. frosmoth and togetic felt just like… the right vibe. Lapras and Ampharos both have associations with guiding, so they’re in. Audino is a notable healing pokemon, and it feels in line with her personality as well.

Cyrus:

Alakazam for mr high iq smart guy. duh. oranguru for his role as a teacher, and Runerigus would be a late acquisition to his team in his ch4. Flareon, Glaceon, and Jolteon for the 3 scholar spell types. i also think him having 3 eeveelutions could also be kind of like, they’re really good for demonstrations for single-type stuff, as well as being popular with others. people might come up to him and be like omg you have a flareon i love flareon pleaseeee tell me more (flirtily) which of course would go over his head and he would start telling you flareon facts. I feel like Cyrus would excel in double battles.

Tressa:

Meowth: the pay day signature pokemon. this is as close as i can replicate to tressa randomly finding money. Skwovet (she can now take her pet squirrel with her in a pokeball)

Gyrados for sure. one, she lives along an ocean, so she should definitely have a water type, two, i’m imagining a scenario where she buys a magikarp cheap, seeing the potential in it, then raises it into a real powerhouse. just like her!

carbink: really funny scenario me and the bestie came up with that instead of eldrite the treasure was diancieite. the carbink is from the same cave. tressa did try to evolve it with the diancieite. it didn’t work.

pidgeot… felt like she needed a flying type (wind magic rep) and i feel like she’d gravitate to the humbler normal types… doesn’t get much more straightforward than pidgeot. Dhelmise… maybe it used to be captain leons, maybe she fished it out of the harbor in rippletide herself. either way, she thinks it’s cool

Olberic:

Aegislash: sword form, shield form…. this pokemon itself is the unbending blade. obviously i have given him several other sword based pokemon, too.

gallade, escavalier, and sirfetch’d badically all fit this. they’re knight-like, so they feel fitting i think to him.

as for conkeldurr and garganacl, they feel kind of… solidly built. like him. ( ⬇️ garganacl pick lore)

Primrose:

almost all of her pokemon can learn some kind of dance though their level up. Oricorio is the obvious choice, dragonair reps dragon dance, beautifly reps quiver dance, and lilligant… well they can learn so fucking many. we couldn’t decide on which one to give her, so we ended up giving her both. they’re her backup dancers or whatever.

mawile just feels very primrose to me. its cute or pretty or whatever, and you might underestimate it… but watch out. it bites.

Alfyn:

he feels like a guy who loves a big fluffy dog. and stoutland has also been used in games for its ability to sniff out items, so it feels like it’d be a good pick for an apothecary looking to sniff out herbs and such. Comfey is an obvious pick, i mean its signature move is. floral healing. meganium also has mentioned in its dex entries its healing and calming properties. it’s also a cool as fuck dinosaur so i think alfyn would like it.

chatot. does this even need explanation

we also wanted to give him an ice type, and settled on cubchoo. it has a perpetually runny nose… even Alfyn can’t fix it, try as he might.

as for leavanny, we had some trouble picking the last slot on this team. we were looking through friendship evos, and leavanny caught my eye. it’s dex entries mention that it’s very gentle, it also shows no mercy to foes who target young pokemon. seems fitting… we decided alfyn got it as a swadloon (maybe it could be taught to use its sewing abilities to dress wounds?) and it evolved during his ch3.

Therion:

I think Krookodile, mimikyu, and klefki are quite obvious picks, so i won’t go too in on them. Ninjask and Shedinja…. Ninjask is super speedy, so it felt right to give one to therion, but also i feel like.. he’d keep the shedinja around. even with 1 hp and one billion weaknesses… it’s still a part of his team. it and ninjask were born from the same nincada. he couldn’t abandon it like that.

and applin lol. something about therion gives me “guy who’s going for a cool as fuck hydrapple and ends up with an appletun actually”

H’aanit:

If anyone’s allowed to have legendaries, it’s the hunters. Chien-pao is as close as we can get to a snow leopard. and yeah maybe it’s a little evil but H’aanit is built different. Decidueye feels like an obvious pick, and spirit shackle is a great signature move for the h’aanit vibe. trapinch for. leghold trap. kilowattrel is literally a thunderbird. and ariados… well, it has the ability sniper, to reference hunter’s crit boosting abilities, as well as having some trapping moves like webs. for the Hunters, I’ve left their last spot blank, but this just means like, a “flex” spot that would be different each time you battled them. H’aanits got boxes of options to choose from.

now, onto the OT2 ones!

Ochette:

I’m sure you can see what i’m going for here. it’s just the closest i could get to Akala/mahina and her 3 story beasts. and again, like H’aanit, the last spot is “flex” not empty, so imagine her bringing some different new bullshit to every battle.

Cassti:

i wanted to do a few things with Castti: obviously, give her some healing-y mons, but also a few oddball picks that might have you looking twice. picked Shiinotic because of its ominous dex entries, and then. toedscruel because i realize shiinotic actuallt doesn’t get spore i think? and i think castti “put em to sleep right in the street” florenz should have a mon with spore. (edit. i actually just cant read the bulbapedia tables and shiinotic does get spore. anyways she gets two spore mons i guess cuz what if she’s gotta knock out two people at the same time. or whatever. dustox emits toxic powder from its wings, which seems like it could be something castti would want to keep on hand for poison axe. these three might seem a little weird tho, and reinforce her bad first impression in canalbrine, even though i’m sure they’d all be very well behaved and nice. Blissey and Arboliva are straightforward healing picks. I feel like these would be common for apothecaries to have in general.

and then galar-slowking. poison-activated brain nonsense. i feel like she acquires this one post-amnesia. they feel a kinship with each other.

Throné

Throné’s team is half-blacksnakes dedicated, half catered to herself. Every blacksnake has a seviper or an ekans, as well as probably most of them also having other grunt-esque pokemon, like zubats and such. throné’s taken care of hers, though, and friendship evolved it into a crobat.

chose furfrou because i think throné would like a prissy little dog she can dress up cutely. milcery, which she’s waiting on evolving until she can figure out what alcremie form she wants, and a shade-cherrim.

oh, and zangoose, of course. the natural enemy of sevipers. one appeared to her right after she left new delsta. what a sign, right?

Osvald:

Osvald we had some interesting stuff to work with, I think. we decided that most of his pokemon were newly acquired after his prison escape- not on purpose. they seem to just take a liking to him and start following him around.

the avalugg helped get him out of the frozen water at cape cold, and then stuck with him.

the teddiursa.. also just stuck with him. we wanted to give him something that felt a little oddball for him… so this doesn’t evolve. it stays cute and unevolved forever.

the shuppet was found hovering around the ruins of Osvald’s house. he was reluctant to take it, but if it was formed out of some semblance of his desire for vengeance… he has to be responsible for it.

the Indeedee is the only one of osvalds old pokemon, out of this lineup. since indeedee are so helpful to people, it was kind of a family pokemon acquired after elena’s birth (dex mentions they’re good at babysitting.) Osvald could probably also trust it with simple lab assistant tasks like moving stuff around. was a very beloved pokemon within their family. anyways, following his sentencing, clarissa managed to get ahold of the indeedee and took care of it all this time. when osvald returns, it’s clear it wants him to take her with him.

the drampa was acquired after the events of montwise, having shown up and basically just forced itself to go with osvald. somehow it seems to know what’s going on and who it can trust…

and slowking.. well, smart guy needs a smart pokemon. it’s another one that took a shine to him, though at that point he was getting used to this happening.

Partitio:

Talonflame: partitio’s aptitude for fire magic and the “chickadee” nickname made this an obvious choice for an ace. I can imagine a young partitio’s first pokemon being a fletchling, for sure.

bramblegast. the funny tumbleweed. put it on the team immediately.

Milotic: Paritio picked up a feebas. having a knack for seeing the potential in pokemon, he wasn’t wrong, and now hes got this thing. it’s very popular with other people, though it seems an odd pick for partito at first glance to strangers.

armarouge: ok this one’s a little convoluted so i will explain it later. kind of vibes based pick tho lol. revavroom kind of. uhh. steam engine. (we can pretend)

there ain’t a more partitio pokemon out there than gholdengo. everyone say thank you scarvi for giving partitio most of his team.

Agnea:

hey, it’s another oricorio! i think you can guess why.

volcarona: learns fiery dance, but we thought up even more lore on this one. the larvesta was a family pokemon. mostly belonging to Garud (we ended up deciding that the Bristarnis had a lot of bug types, who help out with the sewing stuff and larvesta does give a little bit silkworm, lol..)

anyways, part of his blessing for sending agnea off was telling her to take the larvesta, who also turned out to be a dazzling star in the end too… after a lot of hard work.

altaria and leafeon rep dragon and swords dance. i just feel like they’re good picks for her energy, too. lunatone reps the moonstep. I’ve also opted to give her a sunny cherrim, which i think would be cute contrasted with Throné’s gloomy one.

Temenos:

temenos has quite the oddball lineup for a cleric. but hes kind of an oddball cleric so i think it works.

Absol. man. a lot of shit happens to temenos. this absol is stressed tf out 24 fucking 7. sorry man.

Clefable: felt like we had to give him a healer-adjacent pokemon and this one evolves with a moonstone. feels fitting for mr night-ability mistral tbh.

Lokix. alright. another scenario based pick. Temenos caught this thing on the pilgrims way as a nymble at like level 2. probably rustling in the metaphorical tall grass, crick is all “get behind me, it could be dangerous” and then. lvl 2. nymble. doesn’t even need to be fought to be caught. and then temenos is all hey crick, it’s a “crick”et pokemon! (we’ll ignore that the dex says grasshopper) he’d keep it just to mess with crick, but it ends up sticking around.

Houndoom. well, temenos is the pontiff’s hound, so we did need to pick a dog for him. it’s a houndour in the beginning, houndoom by the end. probably evolved in a moment of crisis (in ch4?) the yamask is from crackridge.

wooloo. this is actually Crick’s. it wasn’t helping with the little lamb allegations… after the events of stormhail, Temenos takes it in.

Hikari:

Kingambit: i mean. come on. gotta get a kingambit for the future king.

Gardevoirs dex entire mention that it is dedicated to its trainer/cause to the bitter end, and would do anything to protect it. perfect for Hikari.

Morpeko and Zweilous. some literally two-faced pokemon. (maybe he feels a little bit of a kinship with them in that way) i also really wanted to give Hikari a pseudo-legendary, and i think that his zweilous would probably evolve just in the nick of time to kick some ass against mugen. Hydreigons might be notoriously destructive, but something about the personalities merging into one brain in evolution seems to have mellowed Hikari’s out. it’s remarkably personable, for a hydreigon.

lucario: i really wanted to give him a pokemon that learns copycat, and lucario fits that bill. plus, he definitely needed a fighting type.

Cerudelge: formed from bitterness of old cursed armor, but also an extremely skilled sword fighter… one of hikari’s aces.

I also like to imagine that a lot of hikari’s pokemon are quite difficult to deal with (his ceruledge in particular is quite belligerent and mean) but they all have utmost respect for him as a trainer, once they’re on the battlefield. but onlookers sometimes worry… how the hell does he deal with it all?

other notes about some of the picks :

Partitio’s amarouge. Paritio picked up a. charcadet later on, and hikari personally warned him that it might be difficult to deal with. (his charcadet and later ceruledge were super hard to train for him) of course, partitio did end up in possession of the cool nice armor that evolved it into the better mannered and nobler armarouge… but honestly, even his charcadet was far better behaved.

paritio and tressa both get those shitty fish that get cool. must be because they both have an eye for a diamond in the rough.

agnea and throné’s cherrims are best friends. throné rarely got to see her cherrim sunny-form until she left new delsta… she wonders if maybe it was upset about being so nocturnal before, with the blacksnakes.

castti and osvald, team mom and team dad somehow both ended up with slowkings. everyone’s a little concerned about castti’s, though…

after the events of his story, Osvald leaves indeedee and teddiursa with clarissa and elena. the teddiursa and elena in particular take to each other very well… when osvald finally is able to return to elena’s life, the teddiursa is really much more her pokemon.

also. H’aanit and Ochette and far and away the best battlers of both groups. i know i only have them with one flex spot, but you can imagine that they’d swap out a lot more for whatever they need to do to build a good team. they’ve got loads more options than everyone else.

you know that thing about giving someone an applin in galar? therion did trade it over to alfyn at one point. but really they have joint custody of that thing. which definitely ended up as an appletun.

we also had some npc aces sprinkled in there, so here’s some other thoughts, just as bonus!

Malaya: Pawmot (revival blessing), rapidash.

Elena: Abra

Harvey: Hypno, Bacephalon

Pala: Kricketot (formerly belonged to her and agnea’s mom)

Roque: Metagross

Kazan: Husuian Braviary

Ori: Chatot

Trousseau: Glimmora

Cordelia: ….ferrothorn

Erhardt: Aegislash, Hisuian Samurott

Z’aanta: Zamazenta

Juvah: is literally a solgaleo

Darius: Scrafy/Pangoro

Simeon: Malamar

Esmeralda: Mismagius (wanted to give her something with perish song)

Mattias: drifblim? darkrai?

Lucia: Hatterene

Miguel: Grimmsnarl

Werner: spectrier

Mugen: Kingambit. mirror match with Hikari, but mugen’s has supreme overlord while Hikari’s has defiant.

Kaldena: we couldn’t pick but maybe she goes like lusamine mode and fuses with something.

Claude: Cradily. (uh. literally fossil pokemon)

Dolcinea: belive it or not, also an oricorio. also, solrock. but her oricorio is the prettiest.

veronica: she has somehow acquired the worlds first and only female gallade through the power of lesbianism.

Crick: … wooloo….

I do wanna make some drawings for these ideas, but this post was literally already one billion miles long and has way too many images, so it’ll probably be a separate post. thanks for the ask! and sorry for talking so much, but i fucking love making pokemon teams so much it’s insane.

and a big thank you again to my bestie @snailcruncher who helped me with a lot of these picks (and did basically all of the npc picks thank you so much i love you). tysm for pokemon octopath brainrotting with me for like 4 hours.

[avpdvoidspace]

Since you've mentioned a couple of times having comorbid OCPD, would you mind explaining more about the effect that disorder has on you? Out of every PD, it's the one I never find people talking about. Due to that, and the diagnostic criteria itself being (as ever) exasperatingly superficial and vague, It's hard to know where to even look for information about it..!

Sure. I agree that it's very difficult to find information about ocpd online. I guess I could categorize my experience with ocpd into three categories: things that are absolutely recognized symptoms of ocpd, things that overlap with other obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders (like things more traditionally thought of as OCD symptoms), and things that I have to assume come from ocpd because they seem to but I don't know if they're universal because I don't see other people talking about having ocpd. So in terms of things that are definitely ocpd experiences: I really don't feel safe or comfortable in situations I don't have at least some control over. I need to control my space, my food, who is around me, etc to feel safe. This also applies to my time and schedule. I get very agitated when it's interrupted, even if I don't show it. I tend to plan my day's activities pretty rigidly and it stresses me out when I'm not able to follow through. I also have very rigid ways I like to do things, and it stresses me out if I have to do something with someone else's method or if someone in my apartment does something differently to how I would do it, especially things like eating without washing hands first, not taking shoes off before coming in, etc. I try to keep this kind of thing in check because I don't want to be controlling or obnoxious, but it causes me a lot of stress internally. This has been very difficult when I've had a job and I'm being told to do things a particular way but it's not MY way. It's also difficult when I'm intentionally trying to push myself to try a different method for, say, drawing something. Even though I'm making the choice, I'm breaking my method and it feels extremely Wrong. The next category is overlap with other obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders. I definitely get intrusive thoughts and the anxiety inducing spiral of 'something bad will happen if I don't have the tv volume set to an odd number' and 'I feel compelled to make sure my foot touches to the floor in a very certain way right now for Reasons'. I also have health anxiety that gets worse if I try to engage in reassurance seeking behavior (but this only started after I got diagnosed with a chronic illness, so it could be a combination of ocpd and trauma). But you can apply the mechanics of health anxiety to other things that pop into my head to frighten me with no basis in reality that start the reassurance seeking/me becoming more convinced the terrible thing is true cycle. Then the third category, which is random things I think are ocpd but who knows because there aren't a lot of other people out there talking about their personal experiences with it: I like recording things. Every day, I write the weather conditions down in a notebook. I also have very rigid records of my drawing time and draw with a stopwatch going to make sure I'm keeping track and write everything in a notepad++ file like so

I get extremely stressed out if anything gets in the way of this process! You could say my life kind of revolves around this actually. I've actually drawn at least an hour a day for about a decade (knock on wood...), and I track it every day. In general, I have a lot of fun creating methods and systems to follow rigidly. It's like a game even. Maybe why I like playing games with a lot of organization/time management... Love giving myself a list of tasks and completing them. Speaking of games, I love Pokemon Legends Arceus because it is essentially a checklist simulator. Also, I experience something similar to special interests but maybe not exactly the same. I wouldn't say hyperfixations either because they're not fleeting. They're very enduring. I wish I could explain more about how they're unique from either special interests (in the autistic meaning of the phrase) and hyperfixations (like with ADHD), but it's kind of hard to explain without feeling like I'm explaining it poorly. And last, something that could go in either this category or the second because it's something I've heard people diagnosed with OCD talk about experiencing is I have a weird thing with my memory where my visual/auditory memory are weirdly strongly connected. So if I'm listening to something while drawing, if I listen to it again, I can 'see' what I was drawing at the time. If I look at the drawing, I'll remember the part of the audiobook or whatever I was listening to. It's to the point that if I was listening to an audiobook while playing a certain video game, hearing the audiobook again will make me crave playing the video game really intensely! It's like I can see exactly where I was in the game as if I was playing it right now. Anyway, I hope that was helpful. I tried to include everything I could think of. My life is very rigid, but I guess if there's one more thing I could say about that, it's that the rigidity excites me and feels like it lights up my brain with feel-good chemicals. I think having ocpd is like a combination of extreme anxiety and the ability to create fun engaging activities all by myself and with very few resources.

[chongoblog]

Brawl Tier List (Based On The Relevance of What They Were Doing When We Meet Them In Subspace Emissary)

I'll explain some of my choices under the cut

So a lot of these choices are pretty obvious, although some are a bit iffy or require explanation of the Subspace story which can be found in trophy descriptions & The Dojo.

The first category was for characters who were engaged in the Subspace plot from the get-go and were the "good guys". In case you didn't know, King Dedede is the hero of Subspace, and if it weren't for him, Tabuu would have won, since he made the "reset badges", and his initial plan was to hold onto some people and give them the reset badges in case Tabuu used his Off Waves. Meta Knight is considered to be a good guy, even though he mostly just wanted to get the Halberd back. Fox I put into this category as well since he's first seen giving chase to the Halberd in his Arwing, so I consider that pretty engaged, even if we don't know the exact reasoning.

The second category is open and shut. They're the Bad Guys. Ganon, Bowser, and everyone's favorite winner, Wario. Technically Wario kinda defected from Tabuu and wanted to just steal all the trophies, but I'm counting him here.

Next was the "Used by Tabuu" tier. According to the lore, the entire Subspace Army is made from the power of Game and Watch (although it says the Game & Watch are unaware of this). Pikachu's electricity was being used to power a lot of the operations (most notably the Subspace Bomb Factory iirc). And it's implied that R.O.B was coerced into helping Tabuu, feeling so ashamed that he put on the Ancient Minister garb to hide himself out of shame.

The "Was Doing What You Expect" Tier is a tricky one, since some characters like Mario & Kirby weren't doing what you'd expect in their normal games, but they were fighting, which is something you'd expect in Smash, but I was kinda lenient. Pit was watching from Skyworld, which is in character. It's shown that Pokemon Trainer was looking for Ivysaur and Charizard, so we can assume he was on that journey when we found him in the Ruined Zoo. ZSS's motivations are kind of unclear about whether she knew about the Subspace Bombs and tried to stop them or if she just knew her Power Suit was there and wanted to get to it. I always figured it was the latter, so I'm putting it in this tier. Marth was defending a castle, which sounds right (I haven't played Fire Emblem). Ice Climbers were climbing ice. Monkeys were getting their bananas. Link was getting Master Sword. Yoshi was sleeping (which only gets him out of "Just Standing There" tier because he is Yoshi).

Next are the ones who just kinda showed up. And it so happens that all five of them make a pretty grand entrance. Sonic is the obvious example here. Ness also counts since there's no implication that either he or Lucas actually live in or even near the Ruined Zoo, but then again in the dialogue-less cutscenes tying together over 30 characters, I don't think that detail was important. Falco makes a grand entrance, although you could argue that he was meant to be Fox's backup. Ike makes a grand entrance with this Great Aether. Captain Falcon literally shows up to jump out of his car, punch a robot and kill approximately 50 aliens in one fell swoop, so either there was an F-Zero track around the Island of the Ancients that we don't see and he quit in the middle of his race to do that, or he just did that. Either way there's something wrong with him.

And then finally we have the characters who were Just Standing There. Luigi obviously was minding his own business when he got got by Dedede. Peach and Zelda I almost put in the "Doing What You Expect Tier" (or at LEAST Peach since she knew Mario at least), but honestly? They were just standing there. No hate, obviously. Sometimes you just gotta Stand There. Olimar was minding his own business letting his Pikmin eat a robot before they were murdered. Lucario was vibing on top of a mountain (as you do). Lucas was just being sad. And Snake? We don't see any sign that he's on a mission. We just see that he's been on the Halberd for an undisclosed period of time before dramatically revealing himself way way later. I like to imagine he accidentally fell asleep.

And then the last tier are for the 3 characters that are unlocked after Subspace, so I don't really count them.

Anyway in case you can't tell I am back on my ADHD meds! Hope you enjoyed this. See you all for the Nuzlocke stream later.

[loupy-mongoose]

Yes, I know what day it is. No, this isn't a joke post.

I was inspired to attempt designing a Mega Mew. It turned out to be a lot of fun, thinking about what would make sense. Now, this is my first concept, so any and all parts of it are open to reworking, but I like this enough to show and explain my process!

I'll go in-depth about my choices below, but I'll warn there's potential religious implication--I kinda leaned into a connection to Arceus, but I don't know how much it counts as religion. It's mostly just the canon lore with a sprinkling of widely accepted head-canons and theories. (Religion may play more of a role if I decide to add this Mega to my story.)

As a disclaimer, this is all just for my own fun and I'm not claiming it to be canon in the slightest. I just felt like it would be more fun to weave the canon into it. :)

Without further ado, on with the word wall!

The Type: Psychic/Fairy--Connected with the choice of the chest decoration/gem. A few Pokedex entries state that Mew will only appear to those who are "pure of heart". Mega evolution is said to happen when the Pokemon has a strong bond with the trainer. Considering that, for a trainer to have SEEN a Mew, let alone catch it and have a bond strong enough to Mega evolve would be, in my humble opinion, the ultimate feat for a trainer. So I wanted to put in a symbolic representation of Mew opening its heart, showcasing its full trust in its trainer. It's also the center of Mew's powers, thus the wispy ribbony things. I felt that the Fairy type best fits with the whole bond thing. (The mischievous side of fairies also fits Mew, but maybe not so much in its Mega form, as I'll explain below.)

Body Shape/The Crown: It's probably obvious that I leaned into Mega Mewtwo Y for the general shape, and the head crest thing. But I took the crest in a different direction--As a connection to Arceus. This is where potential religion comes in, but again, it's mostly just canon Pokemon lore. Within the lore, Arceus is considered to be the first Pokemon/being. Mew is widely accepted to be among the first Pokemon created by Arceus, and many see Mew as the one to create the rest of Pokemon life. (Barring the Creation Trio and possibly the Lake Spirits--I don't know where the latter stand in the general lore.) So I took it in the direction of Mew being an Heir, giving it a crest that resembles both Arceus' head shape and a crown. In a way, I feel this Mega could also count as an Origin form (or a peek at it), if we were to see the Creation Trio and Mew as direct siblings. (Megas are theorized to be them tapping into their primal power, so I think it works.) If there is a reason other than Mega Mewtwo Y for the body, it would be that Mew is more "mature", and takes on a more grown-up and "regal" appearance.

The Colors: The main body of course is Mew's natural body color, while the white (gold on the shiny) accents are taken from Arceus. The purple is meant to be an "overflow stain" of its Psychic power, but also bleeds into...

A Connection to Mewtwo: Mewtwo was created to be the worlds most powerful Pokemon, and as such it makes sense to me that Mew's Mega form would be brought into the mix. For normal Mewtwo it mostly shows in the colors (although the chest bump could be a smaller-scale version of the heart gem), but where it really shows is in Mewtwo's Y form. Again, tapping into its primal power, but taking a slightly altered form.

HOO boy! HUGE thank you to anyone who read all that! This has been a very fun project! ^w^

[nami-moittli]

I have decided to jump onto the Twst x Pokemon train, so have my picks for Heartslabyul pkmn teams! (Yes, some of them have been stolen ideas, but man, people are correct)

There is definitely a Theme I chose for Cater. Due to the rose aspect of the dorm. I wanted all the Heartslabyul members to have at least one grass type, so I thought that Fomantis would work well! Dedenne is there for Cater’s connection to the internet and stuff, plus it’s a cute pikaclone, so it’s a good parallel to Mimikyu (Who he secretly likes the most, yet is one of the Pokemon he uses the least) Sylveon is there for funsies :)

Another clear theme here of food. For his token grass type I chose Eldegoss, simply cause I thought it fit him. Smeargle is there for his “Paint The Roses”/“Doodle Suit” and Alcremie would have the clovers instead of the strawberries, but the site I was using didn’t have that option, so oh well

First off, Inteleon is there bc I wanted to have Ace, Deuce & Yuu have a starter trio, and I thought it’d make sense for Ace to choose the one that’s effective against Yuu’s, and Deuce would have the one weak against Yuu’s, and since I wanted to give Ace Cinderace, that means that Deuce gets Inteleon. + color coding fun. Why those three? ADeuce is from Twst Britain. Galar is basically pkmn Britain. Or wtvr. I’m American, I don’t know these things lol. Scraggy is an obvious choice, and his token grass type would have to be Breloom for the fighting type aspect :) Bagon makes sense to me as both are aiming to be something greater. Don’t worry buddy, you’ll learn to fly one day. Patrat feels like a good fit, since I wanted to give him a route one pkmn, and Patrat fit him best to me. Flamigo is another fighting type, and more importantly represents the Heartslabyul flamingos

Cinderace has already been explained, but Vespiquen is for ME and ME alone. But uh, roses=flowers=bees. Vespiquen 👍 Nicket just felt like an Ace pkmn, and Pidgy is the most Normal pkmn out there, so Ace, being the most normal person in NRC, it makes sense. Plus Ace’s wind magic. Shaymin, while yes, is a mythical, but shh, it’s the closest thing that pkmn has to hedgehogs (I’m pretty sure at least) and it’s sky form just fit Ace a lot to me. And again, wind magic. Corvisquire was just for the vibes honestly. If you’d like, you can switch out Vespiquen for idk, Rattata or Raticate and Corvisquire for a different rt. 1 pkmn in your head 🤷‍♀️

Roserade is obvious, and again, Shaymin for the hedgehogs. Rapidash is for the equestrian club, plus the fire aspect of Riddle. I wanted Riddle to have a feminine pkmn for the queen aspect, but a lot of them I could see Vil with too, and I didn’t want to repeat pkmn too much (at all if possible, but that might be a bit easier said than done, and I’m not that far in planning this yet to know) plus I wanted another fire type, so Delphox fit. I had already given Sinistea to Trey, so Sinistcha is now Riddle’s. For Comfey, I wanted to give him a pkmn that represented his mom, and since his parents are medical mages, I wanted to give Riddle a “medical” pkmn too. (His dad would have a Blissey and his mom would have Audino, methinks) So add the “medical” aspect plus the “rose(/flowers)” aspect, and you get Comfey

And as a bonus!

(Pls Twst, Chenya/RSA cards WHEN?)

I didn’t want to give him a full team, so Spinda feels obvious to me, Skitty bc cat and Meowstic bc I wanted him to have a psychic pkmn + cat (side note, I honestly really wanted to give Riddle an espurr, but I couldn’t justify it enough to myself to actually give him one, so oh well)

[genshinemblem564]

Sagau x SMT

Hi, sorry for being so absent. My anxiety meds lost their effect and I only got my increased dose prescribed a few days ago. I also picked up a copy of SMTV the same day and I have been HOOKED. So now that I'm able to function again, I thought I'd write something. SMTV is the only SMT game I've played, so i may get some things wrong if i go too much into details, and rather than be another fanfiction, this will be more of a storyboard. (I've already got two other fanfics I need to work on) Anyway, sorry this got a bit long, but I hope you enjoy.

CW: Reader, (Y/N), and you used interchangeably at the start

• There are many ways you could write this, but I find the one that works best for me is in the form of a reverse isekai.

• The characters that appear vary slightly depending on the reader's age and academic advancement. For example, if reader is in high school, Xingqiu may be brought along to help them get close to you. If (Y/N) is in college, it would be someone older like Kaveh. Regardless, the characters that would appear are Xiao for obvious reasons, Faruzan, because they at least gathered that your written language was different from theirs, a few archons of your choice, and Childe, sent by the Tsaritsa as he was the first, and only depending on your progress, Fatui member to earn their creator's blessing. There were supposed to be a few more, but I couldn't think of any at the time of writing this.

• The characters who are looking for you do their best to blend in while doing so, only speeking when prompted, while the others all take part-time jobs so they can afford any resources necessary to find you, and to make sure they aren't living on the streets.

• The crossover starts in the same way regardless. You and a character are walking home when you come across a crowd of people blocking the path. It seems transit had been delayed, so you decide to find a detour, and on a secluded road when the two of you are alone, a crack in reality forms before bursting open to form a portal.

• You felt uneasy, but before instincts could take over, a swarm of monsters came through and dragged the two of you through, the shock of it all causing you to pass out, and when you wake up the first thing you see is Xiao.

• The portal had long since closed as Xiao was preoccupied with your safety. He explains all of this before dropping two swords to the ground, whether it's the choice weapon of you or the character doesn't matter, the weapon he brought for you needed to be light or it would have only served to slow him down.

• From here, your elemental powers awaken slowly and in their weakest form as you strike down the first few daemons with zio.

• The way you recruit demons works more like catching pokemon. Walking through this strange world, you were ambushed by a pixie. You instinctually held out your hands to shield yourself, only to let loose a spell. When you opened your eyes, the pixie was still there, and Xiao was confused as the demonic energy had completely vanished from this being. You purified Pixie.

• After exploring this land a fair bit, you spotted a group of angels being attacked by a powerful demon, and you decide to help them out. After the battle, the angels expressed surprise at the sight of a group of purified demons, and they requested, almost demanded, you speak with their superior.

• After your demons grew enough in power, they were able to make their own portals to and from that world.

I think I'll leave it here, while I definitely would like to write more on this, this was also an exercise to get my brain back into the writing mindset after not being able to for so long. I also have two other fanfictions that I should focus on first, as stated above. I might write more on this as those come closer to ending, but if any writers want to use this, feel free

[hongluboobs]

Please tell us the reason behind the pokemon choices! I get most of them, but am curious about Meowstic and Nihelego in particular. Is it for the nihilEGO pun?

OKAY i am on my iphone so i’m typing this from scratch again instead of my drafts. also it is night. tumblr decided to not give me notifs until now but it’s okay!! we ball😁

I’m unsure how much you know abt pokémon so I’m gonna do my best to explain but this is a lifelong special interest so i may miss some things^^

Quick going over the ones you didn’t ask about:

Mewtwo: clone created to replicate Mew, Went Horribly Wrong, ended up destroying the lab it was born in. It’s even a really long time since I’ve seen the movie but i believe the mewtwo there is neglected child core. This is REALLY Angela especially because in pokedex entries they often talk about the thing that makes mewtwo nothing like mew is that it’s “heartless”. poor poor angela baby…

Mega Gardevoir: This is a mostly aesthetic pick. That thing really looks like her if it’s shiny (see image) and the colors match perfect. the way gardevoir is portrayed in pmd reminds me a lot of Angela. Gardevoir is about immense loyalty to a trainer (even if it ruins your life forever and the trainer does not care, as shown in pmd) and i read it as something about the script

Porygon2: Honestly this could be any of the mons in this line but Porygon is a digital being and the first fully synthetic pokemon which begins acting in ways which were not programmed as it evolves. Kind of represents Angela acting in ways a machine should not and breaking free of her predetermined role to me :)

Now onto the pokémon you actually asked about!! :)

First up, Meowstic!

This first part is a small design thing but this thing has Angela’s face to me, especially with the yellow eyes with red pupils. Angela’s eyes are inconsistent in canon but I like to represent them with both red and yellow to represent both of her “parents” (sorry Benjamin… i love you but u aren’t included there😔)

This pokedex entry is one of the main reasons this is an angela pokémon to me, aside from vibes.

It has the same “closed eyes to repress” thing that Lobcorp angela has going on, just with repressing incredibly explosive powers instead of repressing The Horrors!

These pokedex entries are really goofy but they read very angela to me :) its unfriendliness is part of its charm!

Also i have no idea when i’ll ever get to post these so now is a good time as any to drop meowstic angela :)

Nihilego is a slightly different case because it’s tied less to dex entries and more to how it is used in the story of sun and moon. I haven’t played those games in YEARS so i might be a little bit questionable with my reasoning but this one’s really important.

Nihilego is intentionally designed to mirror one of the human characters in pokémon sun and moon.

(image i found online. i see it somewhat differently but it’s close enough for this)

Anyway this human character’s mother has neglected/abandoned her in obsessive pursuit of this pokémon and other Ultra Beasts.

The fact this pokémon not only has a similar silhouette to angela but serves as a “replacement” for a human character in a parent’s mind while also being Distinctly Nonhuman… it’s by no means a perfect comparison but there’s Something There

This dex entry always gets me too… it’s just a girlie… :(

It really makes me want to replay sun/moon because i feel like my memory of the story being really shaky has me on the edge of a breakthrough about this thing… but it looks like angela and i can draw story parallels basically:)

I have No Idea if this is coherent but I hope it cleared things up a little ^^^

[crowborn666-writes]

hello :) would u be willing to write a romantic arven x reader (who uses she/they pronouns pls) where the reader gets anxious very easily, maybe like generalized anxiety, and almost nothing makes them feel better. so in an attempt to help, arven finds out a way to soothe her (ur choice) and it actually works for them and she’s really happy and yeah <3

Darling Deerlings

(Of course anon! Hope you like it! I actually have a lot of anxiety, so if you’re like this, don’t worry about being alone! (Also I’m making an excuse to write about one of my favorite grass types))

Arven x Reader

Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Romantic

Summary: Your anxiety can be a bit much sometimes, but Arven’s there to help you every step of the way.

~~~~~~

“I-I don’t know about this Arven…”

“Oh c’mon,” he replied, “It’s just a Deerling! It won’t hurt you.”

“But what if a Sawsbuck shows up?” Your anxiety began pouring out of your mouth, hands tucking closer to your chest as the Deerling took a tentative step closer.

“Then I’ll protect you. Now c’mere, if you really want to, of course.”

That’s the thing you liked about Arven, he urged you to try new things, but never pushed you out of your comfort zone. You let him take your hands in his, his warm chest circling you to press at your back. His hands guided yours, palms to backs, out towards the Deerling.

It was almost like the Pokémon understood, staying still until you were ready for touch.

A shaky gasp left you as the Deerling’s soft fur met your hand, a soft trill from the Deerling showing it was content with your touch.

“See? Not so bad.” Arven murmured in your ear, kissing your temple afterwards. “You wanna try in your own?”

A quiet nod, and Arven’s hands left yours, moving to rest comfortably on your upper arms as his chin found your shoulder.

As you pet the Deerling Arven’s thoughts went back to Area Zero. You had been doing well regarding your anxiety before then, but by the end of Area Zero it had you both messed up some. Arven recovered quicker than you did, and so he was working to help you heal as well.

You pulled your hand back from the Deerling before you got too overwhelmed, watching as it bounded away to join some friends.

You and Arven came back the next day, having been coming from Levincia to Artazon. You had stopped for a quick lunch break when the group of Deerling came running up with cheerful trills.

You, Arven, and your Pokémon greeted them warmly, and Arven was quick to make another sandwich for them to share.

He offered to let you try and feed them too, which you politely declined. Arven fed the Deerling one by one, each delighted by the taste.

The group of Deerling pranced around the picnic table with your Pokémon after everyone was done eating. You moved to stand next to Arven and help him clean up.

“The Deerling are awfully friendly.” You piped up, turning as one came up to give you a flower it found. “Oh, thank you!”

“Yeah. Guess they’re used to people taking this route.” Arven replied, turning to receiving his own flower. “Thank you, Deerling!”

“Deer!”

“Saaawsbuck!”

The loud belting cry had you tensing up, the huge form of a Sawsbuck coming into view as it created a hill.

You immediately turned to hide your face in Arven’s chest, hands grasping fistfuls of his vest and shirt. A faint memory of the loud, brutish paradox pokemon coming to mind with the intensity of the Sawsbuck cry.

Arven was quick to wrap his arms around your shaking form, quietly murmuring in your ear. “Hey, it’s okay. The Sawsbuck isn’t mad.”

You could hear the Deerling chirp and bleat back at their older companion, as Arven patted your back and gently urged you to turn your head.

“Look, it’s just here to see what’s going on.”

You shakily turned, seeing the Sawsbuck greeting each Deerling, and then your pokemon, all with friendly sniffs. Arven held out his hand, one arm still wrapped around you.

“(Y/n) here is just a bit skittish of louder sounds.” Arven explained to the pokemon, letting it sniff his palm before it looked to you.

“Saws.” It huffed, significantly quieter this time.

Your shivering now gone, you slowly held out a hand for the Sawsbuck to sniff.

It sniffed your palm as well, blinking with gentle eyes before it leaned in a bit. Arven reached to pet carefully between its horns, while you stuck with running your thumb back and forth across its cheek.

Once you both pulled away, the Sawsbuck turned, following after the Deerling that pranced away, all giving their own forms of goodbye.

Your group waved goodbye in return, Arven moving to hold you close to him. “How you doin’?”

“I’m alright.” You breathed, tucking your head under his chin, “Thank you for being there, Arven.”

“Anytime.”

[celestialholz]

Treasures, Ruined (or 'Are the Elite Four the Treasures of Ruin?')

My fellow thought-experimentee @serene-hatterene mentioned a little while ago that the Treasures of Ruin bear a passing resemblance to our Paldean Elite Four, and I agree... though I don't think it means a heel turn is coming. None of them are evil - there's been literally zero foreshadowing of any form, and I personally refuse to believe that there is a single shred of evil in Hassel specifically. This man is sunshine incarnate - he even goddamn looks like the sun, and is painted as such in Surrendering Sunflora.

No, no evil here. But I'll tell you what I do think.

The Treasures of Ruin are the Elite Four if they were to go down a very different and much darker path, hence the Dark typing.

That's a fun statement, isn't it? Allow me to explain...

We will start in dex order, with Wo-Chien, our Hassel counterpart.

This is most of Wo-Chien's lore.

Now, there are multiple things of note here:

Tablets were classically used pre-paper manufacturing to write or draw things upon - like a musician might wish to do, or an artist;

Hassel comes from a noble family, who don't agree with his life choices - whilst he doesn't seem to bear grudges in his present state of mind, it isn't a stretch at all to imagine that he could were his mind dark enough;

Plants. Wo-Chien drains plant life, and holds control over it.

... Now, imagine if you will a moment, a darker timeline: a timeline where, embittered by his family's treatment and his own musical failure, Hassel finds Brassius, and instead of healing and supporting and encouraging him as he does in our canon, leading them to a beautiful and loving companionship, he instead does the opposite: takes out his spite and his anger, leads Brassius instead to ruin and to the death he saved him from in another life.

... No, you're crying. (/j, I am also weeping, god I hate noticing things sometimes. IT'S OKAY GUYS THEY'RE HAPPY AND LOVED AND ALIVE IN OUR WORLD *ugly sobbing*)

This idea is backed up further by the fact that Wo-Chien's shrine must be opened via purple stakes - Poison, seeping into the Grass.

Oh, and as Bulbapedia points out:

... Huh. Imagine that, the emotional guy darkened due to his own feelings - or, indeed, that of our favourite Grass gym leader...

And then there's the fact that Hass' lead Pokemon Noivern nearly always starts battle by halving your HP with Super Fang... which has exactly the same effect as Ruination, the Treasures' signature move.

Anyway, let's move on, before I sob myself to sleep...

We arrive next at Chien-Pao, or our Larry counterpart.

Lore incoming...

Whilst Wo-Chien is represented by grudges, Chien-Pao is represented by hatred - and we know Larry a. hates his boss, b. hates his three jobs, and c. probably hates his life, as tired and done as he seems to be.

And so, imagine a world where that hatred, rather than be channeled into exhaustion and exasperation, becomes instead active - becomes instead a very powerful man who can apparently master types on a whim tearing down all before him, telling the world that's kept him down to bow before him. He becomes the boss; he becomes the hatred of those 'slain' by the corporate structure, and he simply sits there and watches the chaos.

Now, lovely little tired sweetheart Larry would rather eat onigiri, tell you you're very good at battling and go to sleep... but then, Hass would never drain Brassius either. It's all in the possibility, the alternate universe.

Interesting supplementary points here include:

Staraptor has the same base attack as Chien-Pao... who, like the rest of the Treasures, was patch-nerfed. It did have 130 atk, ten points higher than Staraptor;

It's represented by orange stakes, the colour of the Fighting type - Larry's one major weakness on his gym team, which later he adopts Flying types for and becomes strong against;

This man is a facade. He gives you the TM for it, he lives the gimmick... and when one tears down a facade, the person beneath is revealed. Not that I'm saying the person beneath wants to watch the world burn, but... not too tricky to imagine someone snapping under Larry's level of pressure, is it?

What's mightier than the sword, so the saying goes? The pen. You know, those things people use a lot in an office...

God, let's see if Rika can cheer us up a bit, although I doubt it given the topic... we move, then, to Ting-Lu.

The lore has this to say on the subject of Ting-Lu:

Ting-Lu represents fear: and if any of you have also sat there like me in fear for your champion prospects (and possibly life) as Rika stares you down during the interview process, I think we know why.

Fear... and control over the earth. The translation is a little more literal here, given that they share their specialist types.

Our Rika is fun and laid-back, but in another world, well... imagine a woman motivated by the fear of those before her, intimidating all who stand before her in both words and in battle, swallowing her enemies with the power of the earth. As a fun counterpoint, the Rika we know and love even says that you shouldn't find her worrying when you meet her during your gym challenge:

Couple of additional things:

Ting-Lu's stakes are green - Grass, life, swallowed whole by the ground;

Rika's rocking the classically evil red eyes;

Most of her Pokemon have the capacity to learn Fissure, which is referenced in Ting-Lu's bio.

We know comparatively little about Rika compared to Hassel or Larry, but the type-share kinda says it all here.

And finally, we reach everyone's favourite overachieving tiny sister, Poppy.

Here's some lore for y'all:

Now again, in comparison to Hassel and Larry, we know next to nothing about Poppy, but envy specifically is interesting. The kid is very clearly far too powerful for her age, and it's therefore quite simple to imagine envy-based corruption occurring - of her dominating her peers, of her envy that everyone else seems to fit in where she doesn't. Thankfully in the Elite Four she's amongst friends, but... the composition of this team, jesus. Take a look:

Kid is made of nuclear weapons, my god. The young mind is impressionable, easy to lead astray... except she's all fine and adorable, because she has structure, and an outlet for her power. Without that... well, Chi-Yu's on fire, so... I think this about sums it up.

Little bit more on the intrigue:

Mmm. Lighter. Well yeah, she would be...

There's a saying in gemology, or the sculpting of gems, about jade - what Chi-Yu's bead eyes are made of. And it goes like this:

... Like a bell? Like that one she has on her team?

Chi-Yu is represented by blue stakes, or the Water type; the tears of a lost little girl, her fieriness extinguished.

So, now we've analysed the similarities of the characters, let's take a look at the story of the Treasures.

'The king's greed', huh...

... Huh. Geeta, who owns a Kingambit, who is the Top Champion. Now, aside from Larry, who seems to just straight-up dislike her, we don't know how the other three feel about their 'king' here - but we do know from the gym leader rematches that multiple of those guys aren't fans of her hardline stance. She and Tulip style-clash, Katy resents her for having her go easy on challengers, and Grusha seems afraid of her power to oust him. She seems to be a divisive woman, and... well, it's irrelevant, because we're here to imagine an alternate universe, friends. In another life, Geeta greedily overworks her people, taking the desire she has to host the greatest League and turning it dark; in another life, grudges, hates, fears and envies lead to a world of destruction and rebellion instead of a united found family. What is a king there is a queen here, and what would our queen be able to do, if she was attacked by all four of her treasures at once? Very little.

Four treasures, one king, two worlds. We even have the people to 'seal them away' - us, Nemona, Penny, Arven, and all the rematch gym leaders, who at that point outlevel the Elite Four. After all, if the shoe fits... two of us have already have taken down all four of them.

Let's all be glad we live in the good timeline, folks, where our Elite Four are loved and wholesome.

... It's fascinating isn't it, that we've pulled up these stakes up, crumbled them to dust... released the Poison, the Fighting, the Grass, the Water... that we've all seeped toxicity into the earth, lost the fight, had the life sucked away, and doused youthful enthusiasm.

... Nah, can't mean anything. Can't mean anything that we're the wielders who have already defeated them. Can't mean anything that Geeta's name in Japanese is 'omodaka', which directly translates to 'heightened surface', like the high places you nearly always find these stakes on.

... Nah, guys. Just a coincidence. They're all perfectly lovely... in our world. Still, quite the AU, right? ;)

[leggerefiore]

“Volo… What do you even do for a living in the modern day?” you finally asked the blond man as you sat across from each other at a café. Okay, fine, he was immortal and undying, sure. That was somewhat comprehensible. He was obsessed with Sinnoh mythology and artefacts. How he had money, however… His home was quite small, obviously not needing much as a single man before finding you again, and his choices in items were usually a bit out of date.

And, yet… His clothing was obviously nice, and he had enough to travel around for his archaeology interests. You would assume he was an archaeologist if it were not for the fact he would inevitably run into Cynthia. It was clear he wanted to avoid her for whatever reason.

Volo placed down his tea as hummed. “Well, I was a merchant once upon a time, and I am well-travelled,” he reminded you. Did he actually take being a merchant seriously in the end? Is that how Cynthia's family ended up so well established? You felt even more intrigued now. The blond gazed at you for a while. “… Obviously, I have a reserve of money from that time and my occasional input on archaeological finds,” Volo explained, “I'm believed to be some old hermit by my colleagues.”

“Well, they aren't necessarily wrong,” the words escaped you with little thought. The immortal man made a mildly annoyed expression towards you. You made no moves to apologise. He was an old hermit. Well, you guessed he did wander enough not to warrant being called a hermit, but he was certainly old. His age just was not apparent on him. “I wonder how they would feel about your Togepi and Arceus merchandise collection,” you continued, “They might be shocked to hear you hug a Togepi plush when stressed.” Or occasionally a real one whenever there was one in the house. He clearly chose his land based on the fact the Togepi line liked it.

“… I could squeeze you if you would prefer,” he readjusted his hat's brim to shadow over his eyes. You just laughed at his attempt as a threat.

“I'd enjoy that, Volo,” you teased him.

“How utterly frustrating. I'm still losing to you centuries into the future,” Volo just sighed in reply and took another sip of his tea, “Speaking of which, I need to get poffins for my pokemon.”

You deeply enjoyed how pleasant he was when he was not trying to overthrow a god.

[justmoveyourhand]

Y'all we are so spoiled by BlogATog.

For anyone not in the know, it's a Tumblr Q&A blog run by Mark Rosewater, head of design for Magic the Gathering. He shares teasers for upcoming sets in the form of riddle-like hints and gives a lot of insight into choices made behind the scenes. It's fascinating. And, to my knowledge, almost entirely unique.

I'm in a lot of gaming circles. I've been heavily invested in Heroclix, Yu-Gi-Oh, Warhammer 40k, Pokemon (VGC, Smogon singles, and TCG) at various times in my life, and none of them have the same kind of open relationship with its playerbase. The best you can hope for is panels at conventions and big tournaments, or the one disastrous attempt at explaining a banlist yugioh did back in 2012(ish). I would LOVE to hear the behind-the scenes reasoning for Yugiohs recent shift away from negation-based endboards, how 40k chooses which models to update and which can wait (both on rules and physical model), why it took wizkids so long to realize that Resources were worse for Heroclix than relics, why Furfrou hasn't been in Pokemon game since it's first appearance. But magic? Magic, ANYONE can go on Tumblr and ask the most random question, and you've got a good chance at getting a compact but solid answer. Especially if it's your birthday.

There's been a lot of discourse around magic lately, namely around pricing, and I feel that that's valid. But I also feel like it should be stated that clearly the faces behind the game care. That blog could have been abandoned years ago, and I don't think anyone would have been surprised. But it's kept going, and man I appreciate it.

[misc-obeyme]

My love for pokemon has been ignited again recently, so let’s crossover it with another thing i like (Obeyme :D). What pokemon’s type the casts specialized in? Here’s my take:

Lucifer is probably dark or fire type (cuz it fits his aesthetics)

Mammon would be electric or dark type

Levi is obiviously water type

Satan probably psychic/grass? (Or he doesn’t specialized in any types at all, just cats)

Asmo is bug/fairy (i’m leaning onto bug types more cuz bugs are fashionable cuz y’know there’re plenty of clothes are based of bugs’ patterns?)

Beel: fighting type

Belphie: normal or ghost

Thirteen is definitely poison

raphael just gives me massive steel type

Diavolo would be dark/fire/ghost??? (Not sure)

And i think Solomon would be a professor (cuz i can’t think of a type that fits this old man lol). And i really struggle with the remaining characters tho (my imagination has really gone dry)

Ohhh boy. Not me being a huge Pokemon fan ldsaklfdsj. I shall not reveal my true age by telling you how many of these games I have played. MOVING ON

Okay, let's see, I've seen some speculation about what kinds of Pokemon the characters would have, but I haven't considered it myself. Mostly because I know that if I tried to create teams for all the characters I would go down a rabbit hole the likes of which no one has ever seen. I would spend days, possibly weeks, maybe even months, hyper fixating on it.

I think there are a lot of Pokemon that fit the characters but most of my ideas involve mixed type teams.

But if they were like gym leaders and had only one specific type that they specialized in? I think I can manage that?

These are just my general thoughts, kind of off the top of my head, but it's all subject to change at a moment's notice lol.

I agree with Lucifer being Dark. I can just see him having a Houndoom, Zoroark, possibly an Umbreon.

I can't help but think that Mammon would be Normal because there is no way that guy doesn't have a Meowth. Also wouldn't it be cute if he had a lil Eevee?? I also see him with a Zigzagoon.

Levi is definitely Water. Gyarados, Lapras, maybe a Greninja? Yeah that feels right.

Satan would absolutely just be cats. Though I do believe I saw someone say Mimikyu would be a good one for him, too, and I agreed with that argument! But if I had to choose a type for him, I think Psychic is a good choice. Since he tends to be more focused on knowledge and the mind, I think it could work. Plus can you imagine him with a Galarian Ponyta? And of course he'd have a Meowstic!

I tend to lean more toward Fairy for Asmo just because I'm pretty sure he doesn't like bugs lol. But I think if I was gonna choose something for Asmo, it'd be Grass. I know, but hear me out. How many Grass type Pokemon are straight up beautiful flowers? Give him a Bellossom or a Sunflora or a Roselia.

Then I would give Bug type to Beel lol. Though I absolutely feel like Fighting would work, too ('cause like omg Beel with a Machamp). I just think it goes with the whole fly situation, you know? Plus how cute would it be for him to have a Butterfree? I mean yeah okay he can have a Scyther too and like a Joltik but also give that guy a Cutiefly you know what I'm saying?

Belphie definitely gives me Ghost vibes for some reason. I can't explain it, but I just see him definitely having a Drifloon. Also a Gengar. And a Pumpkaboo just because that feels right too lol. I have no idea why.

I think Diavolo would be the Dragon type. That feels right to me. Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp, maybe a Drampa or Goodra. I dunno, just feels like the right type for him.

I really can't decide on a single type for Barbatos. I think he'd like a Ghost type like Sinistea or a Fairy type like Comfey. But he's got the Little Ds, right?? They're close enough! Demon type lol.

Now I could totally see Solomon being one of those absolutely unhinged professor types lol. But I could also see him having Flying or Ice type. Or Psychic or Fairy. I think he could have any of those. Like give that grandpa an Alakazam or an Altaria or a Glaceon or a Clefable. Okay see this is what I mean when I start being unable to choose a specific type lol.

I could also see Simeon having Flying type. Again with a Swablu or Altaria, but also a Togekiss or Swanna.

Luke would be Fairy type. Especially considering how many Fairy type Pokemon are also desserts. Give that kid an Alcremie, a Slurpuff, and of course a Fidough! Also a Togepi to match Simeon's Togekiss.

I agree that Thirteen would be Poison. That feels accurate! Give her a Seviper and a Croagunk! Oh and a Salazzle.

I think Raphael could be Steel, Ground, or Rock lol. Or even Fighting I think would work too. I don't think there's a spear like Steel type, but there is the swords Aegislash. But I think I could see him with an Onix or like a Solrock too.

Mephisto completely baffles me. Maybe Poison also? Or Fire? I could see him with a Ninetails.

Well, these are just basic ideas, and I agree with multiple types for each character. It's too hard for me to give a single type to each! For instance, I also think Mammon would have a Gimmighoul and that's a Ghost type. I didn't even give anyone Electric in the end, but I could see him having a Pikachu, too lol.

Anyway, that was fun to think about, but you can see that if I got serious about it, I'd end up getting way too into it lol. I'm always open to hear other people's thoughts and ideas on this, too! I know others have discussed it before! (For instance, I recommend checking out @/another-lost-mc because I know Jes has a Pokemon AU!)

[shes-an-oddbird]

🔍 How will Grace’s absence be explained?

3️⃣ What are three things you’re hoping to see in season 5?

🔫 Who murdered Gabriel?

🔍 How will Grace’s absence be explained?

With our first sneak peek it appears that Grace is away on a mission trip? I originally thought they might have her go back to school and it was sort of ambiguous so maybe it is still something like that but honestly a mission trip should have always been the obvious choice because it’s exactly the sort of thing she would do. Personally I don’t need an exact answer to where she is, just knowing she’s alive and well is good enough for me.

🔫 Who murdered Gabriel?

I have no idea who killed Gabriel. I don’t think it can possibly be anyone we’ve met yet although I’m not the best detective so they could have walked the killer on screen with blood still on his hands and I probably would have missed it.

3️⃣ What are three things you’re hoping to see in season 5?

So many things I would like to see but I’m going to try to narrow it down

1. I want a fun episode. Something like red vs blue where it’s a little silly and chaotic but lots of fun. We didn’t really get enough of these kinds of episodes and they can be great for introducing little details about characters and fun bonding moments. In my head I’d love for it to be a 24 hour shift where they occasionally get these really mundane calls but they’re just frequent enough to keep them up all night or maybe it’s a bottle episode where they don’t get any calls at all but no one can sleep. Maybe they play catan at work again. Maybe everyone is having like their own life crisis and we get them trying to work them out by talking to each other until an actual emergency occurs. (I really like up all night episodes and bottle episodes if you couldn’t tell).

2. I’m very much looking forward to Owen and Enzo interacting. I’m sure it’s going to be both comedic and serious and Owen’s just going to be so ridiculous about it (the way he was with Ginsburg). I really want TK to offer up the Strand house as a place for Enzo and Jonah to stay while they are in town. Owen has the space, and I just think would be so funny watching him fumble for a reason why he can’t possibly stay there.

3. Sometimes I feel like I’m on this boat alone but I adore Nancy and Mateo both as a couple and as individuals. And unfortunately they always get the short end of the stick when it comes to development and screentime. They are both genuinely good people who just want to help others and they’re a little quirky themselves but not ashamed of it. Mateo loves the things he loves whether it be superheroes or pokemon or bad movies or every single member of his little found family. And Nancy starts off a little introverted but once she’s comfortable with people she’s loud and silly and funny and she’s always very honest with her thoughts and opinions. They’re fun and relatable and all I really want is for them to have some story arcs this season. Please give Nancy a backstory, give Mateo more to do and please give their relationship some development, I’m literally begging at this point.

[torchickentacos]

Discuss. Pokeani traveling companion nightmare blunt rotation options. Long post under cut, I put way too much thought into this.

Detailed thoughts under cut.

Faba. Look, I never watched all of SM so I can't speak for his anime counterpart, but going off of gameverse Faba, there is zero way that adding him to ANYTHING will improve it. I feel like I don't need to explain this one.

Nicholai. He's a furry (not a negative) who dresses as pokemon while trying to catch them (that's the negative). He also refuses to call shorts anything but knickerbockers. Traveling with him means you'll be hearing about knickerbockers and scaring off pokemon with giant zigzagoon costumes before you can even catch pokemon.

Baron Alberto. You get to decide if he's a lickilicky or not. I feel like I don't need to explain this one much, either. Just watch the darkrai movie.

Brandon. Okay, look. On one hand, you can travel with him and just fly places in the Battle Pyramid (which flies, by the way). On the other hand, he might yell at you ("NOOOOOOO") and you might have to make occasional pit stops to haunted ruins where kids get posessed by the king of pokelantis. You also might get crushed by a Regirock in his presence. But hey, you'll have an uber.

Butler. Diane will not be there to travel with you guys, which I think turns Butler from a powerful companion to a cringefail magician without his wife to keep him in check. Diane needs a raise. You might get absorbed by Meta Groudon if you choose to travel with him. However, if you have beef with Team Magma, he'll be ready to prove himself to them. This could be either a pro or a con depending on how he goes about this. Historically it has been a... decently large con.

Brianna. Look. I could make her worse. I could fix her. I could make her an actual character, but it's honestly funnier to just keep her the exact same. She's probably a largely normal, nice girl outside of her Brianna-ness, but if you choose to travel with her then Drew will be there too so you have to watch her Brianna all over the place. Also, this means traveling with Drew, which could go very many different ways. He himself barely escaped this list, if only due to personal bias. This one's a real coin flip. On one hand, she (probably) won't get you killed like Butler or Brandon might. On the other hand, Brianna. (/affectionate. I love Brianna. Something's wrong with her <3.) Safer bet but also has potential to be an incredibly annoying, cringeworthy bet that gets you stuck watching and subsequently dealing with tween relationship drama.

Charon. Another self-explanatory one I think.

Seymour (clefairy guy). Look, this guy's just annoying to me. I don't have any concrete reasons to have him here, other than the fact that he annoys me personally.

Anime Bill. He just creeps me out. That's all.

Kenny. So, look. I won't be too harsh on Kenny here, most of my Kenny hate is a joke (I don't actually hate him but hating on him is something of a meme with my friends), but I'm also not sure he'd be my first choice of a travelling companion. He's kind of whiny and likes to get a rise out of people. He's a petty and largely joking addition but also, he could be pretty annoying. I could fix him though.

Morrison. Loud. Likes sandwiches. Largely forgotten by the fandom because nobody watches Hoenn/AG for anything but the coordinators or battle frontier brains. He's mostly on this list for being loud.

Tommy. Yeah.

Hunter J. Also... yeah. Have fun getting arrested for associating with a criminal. I'm sure some of y'all would risk it all for her, though 👏

Harley. Even if you're on his good side, whatever that side may be, you're still going to have to be around his Harley-ness, and there's no guarantee that you won't be called upon to help him ruin the life of a ten year old. He gets a gif instead of a plain image. 80/20 chance you end up in his burn book (a canonical thing that he owns).

Roderick. Again, nothing WRONG with him per se, but he's an old guy who lived on an island with wynaut for 40something years, and his only confirmed pokemon is a bellsprout iirc. Roderick also just kind of watched a couple ten year olds presumably die and he seemed disproportionately chill about it, so there's no guarantee he'll be much help in an emergency. If not for May, Drew would have drowned because Roderick was not much help. Go watch Who What When Where Wynaut. Also, he's Paul's grandfather. Not canonically, but... trust me. He does have a boat, though. So that's cool.

Sid. Actually, there's nothing wrong with Sid other than not respecting personal space much and not being able to tell when someone's not interested. Go watch Destiny Deoxys, by the way. Fun movie THAT I COULD FIX DEAR GOD LET ME FIX IT. If you don't know my issues here then send me an anon and I swear to god I'll get into it, I always have this rant locked and loaded. EDIT: Sid is also now on this list because his google images was a weird adventure I don't wish to go on again. I got this image and no others. RIP anyone who tries to look up images for any pokemon anime character ever.

Zero. Weird emo with professor/father figure issues (???) or just issues in general, honestly. Really wants Giratina's power. Invented Siri. Wears a onesie. Failed star wars villain.

Dr. Yung. Did anyone even watch the mirage island special? I did. I still don't know what happened in it. Those 30 minutes of my life are a nonexistent blur. Something about Mew and Mewtwo, idfk. Traveling with him will get you into some shit, but it'll be incredibly forgettable shit that the fandom largely is unaware of. He's also evil, by the way, but kind of looks like a sad wet cat when he's not in evil mode.

Kevin. He's just kind of boring. His sister's way cooler. He's just Kevin. When I looked him up for images, the fourth image was a really buff, bipedal bidoof, which tells you about Kevin, I think.

Greta. Fire. Explosions. G r e t a .

[marietmonti]

Here comes the third team, and today we have...Bachira!!!!

Let me explain my choices

Palafin: like Isagi and Barou, I put a Pokémon that is/resemble the character's favorite animal, so here we have a dolphin (which could be fitting also for Kunigami, considering the pokemon ability, but let's discuss this another day)

Popplio: when this Pokémon was first presented IT WAS HATED, by I don't know how many people, so I think Bachira would take sympathy for this Pokémon

Gengar: i think it's kinda obvious that it was chosen because it looks like Bachira's monster

Porygon-Z: this was choosen for its crazy behavior, that reminds me of Bachira's character, I also think he would find this Pokémon funny (I would also say that Rotom is a good alternative)

Mimikyu: is a pokemon that feels lonely and wants to be loved and accepted, try and tell me that this does not scream Bachira (and lowkey also Rin)

Ogerpon: in the story Ogerpon is a gentle pokemon that was completely mistreated by everyone and wo only wanted to be friends with everyone TELL THAT THIS DOES NOT SCREAM BACHIRA (part 2)

Explanation completed, thank you for reading, the next one will be Chigiri, by 👋