#ultra run

[dispatches-from-the-lorecord]

Leo and Pepe have the sweetest brotherly relationship, and Iqarus is the last person Arceus should have made immortal

[February 5 2023]

{Popia140:}

Writing the script for another Ultra comic, the scene after Pepe and Cynthia defeat Lum and the brothers reunite and it’s nice to put in a few feelsy scenes to the Trollkitten original :StarsWeep:

{Trollkitten:}

I love this

{Popia140:}

Thank you :BeePog:

{Trollkitten:}

I love seeing what I would consider one of my favorite TPP works for one of my favorite TPP runs get some more love from another lorewriter

Ultra really has everything I love about TPP. Character development, weird reality-bending shenanigans, a fantastic villain, unearthly creatures from beyond the pale, and interesting ties to other runs

{Popia140:}

I guess I just really liked the gentleness of Pepe’s character, and still wanted to put some of his old sensitivity here, considering the stress he’s been in during the run

And also soft Leo??!! 👀

{Trollkitten:}

Yeah

He may have been decapitated, but he hasn't lost his head

{Haji:}

Yeah :tppAYAYA:

On that note, anyone else find it funny "Leo" ended up being the short name and not "Leon"?

{Trollkitten:}

...I guess that is kind of funny

Because if it had been Leon...

Then when Sword happened and we just happened to have a Champion Leon who just happened to have a little brother...

:LUL:

All things considered, I think it was for the best. Pepe and Napoleon have had enough adventures for a while, they don't need Eternatus on top of that

{Haji:}

Yeah

{Trollkitten:}

Although I can imagine one of them saying, "Great. That's, what, our THIRD planet-eating eldritch abomination in the past five years?"

{Haji:}

Now I'm laughing to remember that joke I made about Leo, Pepe, and D being told Icarus was their great-great-something-or-rather and being confused. In actuality, it was Leon, Hop, and Iris and explains so much about the champ's perceived invincibility :Kappa:

{Popia140:}

That’s a pretty good explanation!

{Trollkitten:}

There was some lore back when we did Conquest for the first time that Napoleon and D were descendants of the ancient warlord Abin the Third (Pepe didn't exist back then), which made them distantly related to Bill and Alice

I wonder if Iquarus's 'invincibility' was more a gift or a curse. Given how Iquarus had the self-preservation instincts of a masochistic lemming, it was likely a little of both

{Mitzi:}

it's less 'invincibility' and more 'fence horse refuses to deal with iqarus's family until forced to' :Kappa:

the horse would foist this off on yveltal/plume/ho-oh/the death god of your choice, but a side-effect of its deal with iqarus is that it has to deal with his descendants until his genes work out of the gene pool :Kappa:

... actually that'd make a fairly significant chunk of the human population invincible surprisingly fast

{Trollkitten:}

That could explain why so many of our Hosts can walk into walls for days on end and not sleep for a moment of it

And how humans even survive in a world full of things like Scyther and Hydreigon

{Mitzi:}

lore discussion question: who did iqarus make babies with :Kappa:

{Newbie:}

akari? :Kappa:

the idea of Terra being his descendant is funny to me so i kinda wanna go with that

{Mitzi:}

'everyone in the tppverse is invincible because of an extremely ill-considered deal god made that one time'

{Newbie:}

immortality is inheritable? 🤔

{Mitzi:}

well, The Deal arceus made with iqarus must be, to an extent, if leon is supernaturally invulnerable

{Haji:}

I personally don't think so, but those descended of an immortal tend to have some weird side effects 😂

{Trollkitten:}

I don't even know why Arceus chose Iquarus to begin with

Maybe he figured no one would miss that idiot

{Newbie:}

or Iqarus did something in a past life and Arceus decided to make him its errand boy in retaliation or something

{Trollkitten:}

Perhaps Iquarus died the first time he did something stupid and Arceus reached out to him in the afterlife for a deal: "You do this for me, and I'll ensure you live to a ripe old age"

Arceus is still slapping himself in the face for thinking that was a good idea

He really should have asked Iquarus how he died to begin with before evaluating whether or not he could be trusted with a matter of this magnitude

Iquarus probably tried to cross the street without looking both ways (or at all)

{Mitzi:}

those trams, bro

{Haji:}

-cackles-ICARUS GOT LITERALLY ISAKEI'D

Truck-kun said hi

{Newbie:}

i was just about to say—

{Mitzi:}

more like train-kun in this period. possibly tram-kun

{Trollkitten:}

And created a major time paradox because his passing down the gift/curse to his descendants ironically caused the version of him born in the new timeline to be sturdy enough to survive the incident

{Haji:}

Probably

{Mitzi:}

... would not surprise me if iqarus managed to grandfather paradox himself

the fun way, as opposed to the murder way

{Trollkitten:}

Haha yep

{Sol:}

iqarus is actually elfilis from kirby, getting hit by a kirby truck sent him to the pokemon dimension :DBStyle:

[deweydecimalchickens]

Endlessly refreshing the Barkley Marathons updates to see if my girl Jasmin Paris makes it onto loop 5. About 8 hours ago she was on track to be the first woman ever to finish the race.

You might remember her from previous ultra running achievements like "fastest woman to complete a Barkley Fun Run (3 loops, 60 miles)" and "overall winner and record-smasher of the Pennine Way Spine Race while expressing milk for her baby at aid stations".

For the uninitiated, Barkley is the most straight-up insane race that exists:

Limited to 35-40 attendees

5 loops totalling 100+ miles

Entrance requirements are...unclear, but include an essay section and a scavenger-hunt-type item

Course is unmarked and very mountainous; GPS navigation not permitted

Invented to mock James Earl Ray, who managed a measly 12 miles in the area during his prison escape

Most people don't finish the race, or even the Fun Run (only 10 people were left running as of last night, and that was a record high)

"Checkpoints" come in the form of finding a book that's been hidden on the course and tearing out the page matching your race number

Start time is whenever the organiser lights his cigarette

[spectorsvoid]

DROPS THIS AND RUNS AWAY HUEGHEHEHE

idk what compelled me to make this honestly I just redownloaded cookie run kingdom and had the idea of "what if I put my autism into this..." and so I went with it!

[marsalta]

Therefore you and me.

!!!FLASHING LIGHTS & COLD FEET ENDING!!!

[vellichorom]

* smells like autumn...

saw parable cookification becoming a light trend even before i posted these- SOOO ~ now seems like as good a time as any to snuggle into the bandwagon,

( ft @tomi-chuu‘s ever beloved stanley ~ )

[faoluoo]

the end is near

[adamkeepr]

[ some art i've done + wips while i'm still a busy ass guy ^_^ ]

[squuote]

I do like the idea that stanley would punch the narrator if he ever saw him face to face but I also enjoy the idea that stanley would try to scamper off and hide from the narrator. the narrator tries to say hi and stanley scampers off like a hamster to get back to his office.

I don’t think he’s afraid of the narrator but I do think he would be weirded out by another physical person being around him after having been only around nonphysical entities for a good long while

[mostlyexcited]

Life update:

After months of working my actual butt off, ya girl won the non-elite women’s division of Run Rabbit Run 100-miler over the weekend. 15th out of ~430 total people who started.

Body and mind are still in shock, but heart is undoubtedly full ❤️

[lilydoesdrawsometimes]

KICKS HIM

I love him so much isn't he great? Bonus Moss Doodles:

Don't bother trying to read this, it's cursed and my handwriting is evil

A couple of them Featuring @vellichorom's sona <3

[oceandiagonale]

grumbling forever and ever as I make a reference of the general layout of the aether foundation so I can actually know where everything is in it >:(

other references I pulled from to try to figure this thing out:

[dispatches-from-the-lorecord]

Behind the scenes with The Calling

[January 14, 2023]

{Popia140:}

So I speedran through The Calling [Haji’s old Randomized Platinum fic] and lemme just say how I really love how the gym battle system worked, the dancing and literal physical combat between the Pokémon and the literal trainers themselves

Pepe’s adorable, but that scene in Floaroma when he stops the grunts from the stealing the man’s honey with his creepily calm assertiveness was pretty badass to me, ngl, considering his reluctance to confront and fight

Even though it is old, the mystery surrounding certain locations is pretty good (Old Chateau, the Ravaged Path, that weird pool thing in the Oreburgh Mines) it’s cool to see someone’s interpretation of events different from my own

Also Pepe and Pearl’s relationship was very fun to read! The mystery of Napoleon’s disappearance really piqued my interest, and I was not really sure if he was his older brother in this interpretation (idk if they got separated from birth or something, or just simply not brothers at all) but it’s nice to see that Pearl still cares for him

Another thing that interested me was Pepe’s religious upbringing, with the fossils and all and being raised in some church, before moving to Twinleaf Town- I think it really gave his character good background and depth, which also ties into his peacemaking pacifist-like mindset

But anyways that’s all I have to say about Haji’s The Calling series, hope you don’t mind my rambling review @Haji

{Haji:}

I don't mind at all! You're making me blush :AYAYA:

I really enjoy the battle system. I've been trying to study different dance styles to make each one unique in how it functions.

I would normally be all like "shhh spoilers" but considering the story hasn't had an update in like five years, it seems silly to ask you to wait. It's a separated at birth situation. Why though is because I play a lot with destiny in the TPP universe especially having a single timeline in a seemingly cyclonic world

Timeline wise as you may have noticed while reading, this is actually before original Platinum

{Popia140:}

oooh! Did not know that! :Begwan:

So I was right with the separated at birth theory!

{Haji:}

Yeeeaaah.... [Pepe’s religious background] was one of the factors in my nervousness. At the time I preceded every Author Note basically going "Look, my lore is weird. Don't eat me" or something because I knew even if that's how it played in my head, I was scared of "going against the grain" with what everyone else was doing. Which mostly was Pepe the Frog memes and artistic snob portrayal

{Popia140:}

Personally, I felt that the artistic snob sort of personality didn’t mesh well with his shyness (in my opinion, it’s just a matter of taste), but I imagine that if he did paint, it would be out of a sort of therapy for his trauma under the voices and the crazy things he experienced in his life… or he just wanted to paint a cute Skitty because he has a weakness for cute things :Begwan:

Could go both ways, imo

Also, who was the girl during the blackout at the Ravaged Path?

{Haji:}

I can see that. In fact, after Ultra events, I like to imagine he does a lot of art for that reason. Still trying to remember things and drawing out memories to make sense of it. His friends can remind him of things they recognize or talk to him about some of the more disturbing images

[The girl in the Ravaged Path] would be Mindy! The Candice replacement in this world. She was a Psychic Trainer and portrayed as a showman, but Fossil wise, I had her with Cover

{Popia140:}

Napoleon is mentioned by Pearl in the story, so I’m assuming they must have met when they were very young- where did Napoleon end up? And did Pepe learn that Napoleon was his older brother in the end, maybe after-game?

{Krizste:}

What if Pepe uses art snobism to cover his shyness. Like he's trying to appear..... Whatever the word is.. not-shy, but It just looks like snobism

{Newbie:}

Confident?

{Krizste:}

Yeah that word!

Tryna pull of confidence but just being really jank about it

{Haji:}

Given what people probably expect of him as Napoleon's brother, I can imagine him putting on that kind of face  at parties :Jebaited:

Napoleon went to stay with Aunt Grace and Richard while all this was going on. Honestly never knew he had a brother until after Ultra events. Which finding out after that just made him worse about the whole... Trying to murder Pepe multiple times while not himself thing. Pepe woke up at the villa after they got back home only to learn it's been months he's been in a coma (time shenanigans. He made sure Leo was able to wake up in the "canon" timeline in order to stop Cyrus but it seems in a weird way, Pepe took his place. Missed everything during the Bill Overlord events and was too injured to do the Unova stuff with Cly, but Leo knew he was okay enough to go with the other S1 hosts)

Pepe on the other hand found out about Napoleon during his journey, so he knew  about it WAY ahead of Leo but they still didn't meet for.... Some time??? Again, Pepe becoming a time traveler at the end of his run makes his lore in my timeline hilariously screwy

{Krizste:}

Oh yeah who was it that lost his head again? Was that pepe

{Haji:}

Yup

{Popia140:}

Ahh thanks for the answers!!

Napoleon completely in the dark about it, lol

Did their mother separate them at birth?

{Haji:}

Sort of. With Forrest's [Gardenia] backstory I was going to get more into the pre-RPlat / pre-Red war stuff that was going on when he was a kid. Gravund [Roark] and the boys would have been too little to remember but Forrest was a little younger than Pepe is now so he's got some scars from it. Basically the family got split up when fleeing the violence so Johanna has Leo with her and thought her husband and other son didn't make it. Pepe was taken to Hearthome like many other war orphans but while it wasn't separated at birth they were both around maybe one or two years old at most

And before you ask about their father, I had an idea and then I wasn't sure but I've been on the fence about things so let's just leave him as a giant question mark

{Popia140:}

Aw, that’s sad for them :BibleThump: the Quinnels never really got to bond as bros

{Haji:}

Yeah... But things are peaceful for next several decades (next Sinnoh run wasn't until Gauntlet), so they've got time. Help out with the others when duty calls, but even many of the other hosts know they can go to Napoleon's palace to get away from things for a while. Cly's mansion is often a nice hang out but it also happens to be the gang's base of operations in secret so there's always some level of alert since Unova isn't as stable as Sinnoh is. (And besides, for Aaaaaall the trauma of Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn seeming to be in a consistent state of peril, Sinnoh is lovingly close by for Leo and Pepe to give a sense of normalcy for the newbies)

{Popia140:}

Aww, a happy ending :Burrito2:

{Haji:}

I love these two so much, but my gosh I feel bad for what I put them through. I feel bad for most of the hosts I wrote for, but good lord did these two need a happy ending

{Popia140:}

They def deserved it, they went through so much

{Haji:}

[cough] can I tell you a secret? |D

{Popia140:}

yea sure

{Haji:}

Even though I stopped writing it, this is the story that has never left my mind. I've actually continued working on it, but never posted and one of my goals is to continue at some point if I ever get my projects in order

Sometimes I'll just be watching a show or something and get reminders of the characters and how much I miss them

[Bonus: a mildly out-of-order side tangent from Haji’s comment about the TPP universe being cyclical]

{Trollkitten:}

In my headcanon, the TPP-verse is cyclical the same way the Zeldaverse is cyclical. All of this has happened before, and it will happen again.

{Haji:}

Yup! Though why is always different in my books partially because the villains have different motives each time (and adds to why they think it would be any different this time because they're not like the last guy who did)

{Newbie:}

i vibe with the idea of the universe just breaking down and getting rebuilt over and over again, reality in smithereens and then being rebuilt from the ground up... or just completely coming up with entirely new plots while disregarding canon :Kappa:

{Mitzi:}

my lore somehow manages to do both. frequently at the same time

{Newbie:}

you and i are like-minded :Keepo:

[egg-on-a-legg]

mistakes were made (feat @cym-k​‘s narrator and tk!)

[objectcrazy]

Why every human narrator design built like this mf

[haveyoureadthismanga-poll]

[deer-a-day]

041

moose