#was sorting through my games to count what Pokémons I had. I have moon too but idk where it is

[noiivvern]

Do you want to play DS with me. Pick a game

[junietuesday]

During the summer before their freshman year, Michael and Jeremy go camping.

The two of them have been extremely hyped over the weeks leading up to it, because although this is a yearly tradition, this year, Michael’s and Jeremy’s parents decided that since they’re going into high school, they’re old enough to go with only Michael’s older sister as a chaperone. Said older sister has plans with friends nearby, so she agreed to leave them to their own devices as long as they stick to the campgrounds and didn’t blow anything up. Which means Michael and Jeremy had a whole week to themselves.

“Don’t murder anyone, I’ll be back in two days but I’m only a half hour’s drive away,” says Michael’s sister, as Michael and Jeremy climb out of her beat-up 2007 Toyota Corolla. “Do you need help with your bags?”

“Nope,” says Michael, popping the “p” as he circles around to the car’s trunk. “Wait, before you go, take a picture of us here, in case Mom makes sure you’re with us.”

Soon, Michael and Jeremy are starting down the winding path through the forest, which leads to the campgrounds. Michael’s practically bouncing along, looking over at Jeremy with a wide smile.

“This is gonna be so fun,” Michael says brightly, nudging Jeremy with his shoulder, and Jeremy stumbles with a snort. “Like, we can have as many snacks and s’mores as we want and go climbing those huge rocks our parents never let us touch and it’s gonna be so great.”

Jeremy grins, laughing a little, and Michael suddenly notices that his eyes are kinda pretty.

Michael turns and stares back down at the dirt path, smile falling off his face as he frowns, confused.

~

By the time Michael and Jeremy emerge from the forest path into the open campground, Michael has mostly managed to shove that strange blip from his mind as they enter their cabin, the exact same one their parents rent every year. There are two rooms, and usually each family takes one of them, but this time, since Michael and Jeremy are alone, they can share, instead of staying up late in the main area and passing out on the pull-out couch.

Jeremy dumps his backpack and the plastic bag of s’more ingredients on the floor next to the bed closest to the window, flopping onto the mattress and spreading his arms.

“I’m kinda tired from the drive,” he says, as Michael puts his own bag down more gently and moves to sit on the edge of Jeremy’s bed, “but what d’you wanna do tonight?”

Michael’s answer is immediate. “Campfire food!” he exclaims, dropping down next to Jeremy. “I want marshmallows!”

For a few minutes, they’re quiet, just relaxing next to each other. The bed isn’t exactly the most luxurious, but being here next to Jeremy just makes Michael feel…warm. And comfortable.

But soon Michael’s perpetual restlessness wins out, and he sits up and gets out of the bed, tugging Jeremy to his feet. “I know you’re tired but we were literally sitting there for hours so you’ll be fine, I don’t wanna just sit here, let’s go play Uno or something outside.”

“Fine, fine!” Jeremy says, stumbling along as Michael pulls him out the bedroom’s door. “You need to get the cards, y’know.”

“Oh.” Michael stops, and laughs, turning back around to grab the pack from his bag. But as he kneels down to dig through his backpack, his hand sort of feels tingly, and oh, it hits him.

He was holding Jeremy’s hand. Holding Jeremy’s hand makes him feel kinda buzzy.

Michael swallows, shoving that down to deal with later. He finds the pack of Uno cards, along with a standard pack of cards for good measure, and holds the two up, trying for a triumphant grin.

~

“Fuck you, fuck you fuck you!” Jeremy screeches, as Michael puts down a +4 card with a wide smirk.

“Uno!” Michael says as soon as the card drops into the pile, giggling at Jeremy’s groan of misery as he face-plants into the picnic table. “Suck on that!”

They’re in the common area of the camp, playing their games of Uno at a table right next to the lake they’ve managed to snag. It’s not terribly crowded, especially since it’s only the second week of summer and there aren’t a huge amount of cabins available here, so the only people around right now are this family eating ice cream at a table across the field, a person walking around staring at their phone who’s almost definitely playing Pokémon Go, and a man in a gray hoodie leaning against the railing of a deck into the water, which has one of those binocular things you need to stick a quarter in to use.

“You‘re an ass, I hate you,” Jeremy grumbles into the table, and Michael reaches over and ruffles his hair, earning a yelp. “Michael. Don’t touch my hair.”

“Oh, right, you only fantasize about having people whose names rhyme with Bristine Tanigula run their fingers through it,” says Michael, laughing, and Jeremy looks up and glares over his arms.

“What is this, ‘Attack Jeremy Relentlessly Hour’ or something?” Jeremy says. “She’ll never like me anyway.”

Michael frowns. “Don’t say that,” he says, more seriously. “You’re awesome. You just need to, uh, well. Actually talk to her.”

“Like that’ll ever happen,” Jeremy says, dropping his head to the table once again, and though it’s stupid, especially because he brought it up in the first place, Michael’s a little disconcerted at this turn of conversation. There’s only so many different things about his crushes Jeremy can agonize over, and it’s a little exhausting to hear them over and over again, especially in the middle of what was supposed to be their week. But Michael will bear it; he’s not Jeremy’s best friend for nothing, he supposes.

“Besides,” Jeremy continues, voice muffled into his arms, “there’s nothing ‘awesome’ about me. You just say so ‘cause you’re my best friend and you have to.”

“That’s not true,” Michael says. “You appreciate video games. Your laugh and eyes and hair and face are cute—um, I mean a bunch of girls probably think so. You’re funny. You’re smart.”

“Thanks,” Jeremy says, looking up, and Michael can see a genuine smile on his face from the compliments.

Butterflies go through Michael’s stomach.

~

About a trillion more games of Uno later, plus another few million rounds of other card games, the sun has set enough for it to be an appropriate time to make a campfire. It’s evening during early summer, so Michael and Jeremy have to change into long-sleeved shirts, but the weather is still the perfect kind of light and breezy as they pick their way through the woods, searching for sticks for firewood, the perfect roasting sticks, and, just for fun, some big sticks that are good for swords/staffs. The path is thin, unlike the road leading to the campground, and there are fallen trees and their jagged stumps all over that are hard to see in the dim light of the rising moon, but the walk is still relaxing.

The darkness cloaking the late hour and the comfortable chatter of nature and the giddiness from this being their first day allows Michael to say things closer to his heart.

“I’m really happy,” he says during a lull in the conversation, smiling softly to himself as he reaches down to grab more sticks and tuck them under his arm. “This is fun and you’re my favorite.”

“Aw, that’s kinda gay,” Jeremy jokes, but he continues sincerely, “You’re my favorite too.”

For some reason, the words make something in Michael’s chest feel weird.

Michael’s known he’s gay for about a year and a half, now, and that’s only counting when he was finally able to admit it to himself, but he and Jeremy have known about being gay for far longer, thanks to middle school. It’s an all too common occurrence for Michael’s mood to sink slightly when Jeremy calls things gay as a synonym for either “too affectionate” or “stupid”—but he knows what that feels like, and this isn’t that.

“You’re kinda gay,” Michael says, instead of any of that. Jeremy shoves him into the nearest tree, going red.

“Shut up, I bet you’re gay,” Jeremy retaliates, and for a moment, Michael contemplates telling him.

But it goes nowhere, as always. Anyway, this would be an awful time, because they’re stuck together in the middle of a camp two hours away from home, with nowhere for Jeremy to go if he decides that Michael is too gross to hang out with. And, a little selfishly, Michael just wants to enjoy this week alone with his best friend without souring the mood with a huge revelation like this, without potentially ruining everything at the cost of being true to himself.

“Yeah, okay,” Michael scoffs, swallowing the urge to come out and the fear welling up at just the thought of doing so. He continues walking, and Jeremy follows, walking backward and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Remind me which of us has the huge crush on Keanu Reeves?”

“You’re a jerk, it’s a respectful admiration,” Jeremy insists, and then swears when he trips over a tree’s stray root. Righting himself, he continues, tone miffed but, as far as Michael can tell, with honesty, “If you were gay I wouldn’t make fun of you like this.”

Michael laughs, heart softening with affection and exploding at the same time with a rush of hope. And then he pushes the warmth away, but at least this time, it’s a bit more gently than before.

~

Fifteen minutes later, Michael and Jeremy are back in front of their cabin, stacking sticks by the firepit and setting up the tinder.

Or, well, Jeremy’s doing that. Michael’s sitting in front of a slab of wood, twisting a stick back and forth in his palms with determination.

“Michael, you know that’s not gonna work,” Jeremy says, the disbeliever and coward. “I’m just gonna get the matches.”

“You’re just a disbeliever and a coward,” Michael says without looking up, rolling the stick even more firmly. “Go get your disbeliever coward matches, see if I care.”

Jeremy snorts, and Michael hears him retreat into the cabin. Michael’s hands still, as he stares down at the piece of wood his stick’s end is poked into.

Does he like Jeremy?

Well, if today was any indication, yes, probably. But how can he just suddenly have a crush on Jeremy after ten years of purely platonic friendship? This can’t have appeared today. But how did Michael not notice?

Is this even a crush? He’s never had a proper one before, he hasn’t known anyone well enough to—even though the books and movies have people falling in love at first sight, that can’t be real. How would you get a crush on someone you’ve barely even met? But Jeremy’s definitely someone Michael‘s met. For all Michael knows, this could be romance.

What if it is romance? Jeremy would never like him back, would never even consider dating him—mostly because Jeremy’s straight as an ruler, almost painfully so, but also because he’d probably be too freaked out by the fact his best friend who he’s been hugging and sleeping next to has been gay all along, and even has a crush on him. Even putting aside that line of thought that makes Michael want to hide, Michael doesn’t think he’s ready to date anyone yet, despite the fact that he’s already fourteen and his classmates have already long begun to go out with each other. So there’s no point to this stupid crush and it should hopefully go away soon.

Yeah. It should go away soon.

“Okay, here we go,” says Jeremy from behind him, startling Michael out of his thoughts, and Michael turns to see Jeremy kneeling in front of the firepit, striking a match against the side of the matchbox. He gets the match’s tip lit, but then his expression flashes to realization. “Michael, can you go get the—the rainbow fire stuff? It’s in the left pocket of my bag. And the s’more ingredients!”

Michael takes a deep breath, then mock-salutes. “Got it,” he says, pulling himself to his feet. He crosses the grass and pushes open the cabin door, closing it behind him and pressing his forehead to the wood, trying to breathe.

Four in, seven hold, eight out.

He does that four times, then he finally goes and grabs the packet of chemicals from Jeremy’s backpack pocket—it was actually in the right pocket, but Michael knew to check there first anyway—along with the bag with the packs of marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers. He’s regained most of the skip in his step when he returns to Jeremy, who’s built up the campfire to a surprisingly great size.

Jeremy’s face, flickering in the light of the campfire’s flames and the glowing moon above, lights up when he sees Michael.

“Yes!” Jeremy says, jumping up, and he runs over to grab the folding chairs leaning up against the side of their cabin and set them up next to each other by the fire as Michael pulls over a little metal table to put the snacks on. The fire warms his body as he tears open the packs of food, Jeremy passing him his roasting stick, already sharpened and peeled and ready to go.

“You know the drill,” Michael says as he spears a marshmallow onto his stick, “give me your burnt ones immediately or I’ll steal them myself.”

“You’re such a weirdo, why do you like the burnt ones?” Jeremy says as always, but doesn’t protest. “They’re horrible and fried and gross.”

“Says you,” Michael says, sticking his marshmallow straight into the fire, pulling it back out to let it burn for a few seconds, then extinguishing it at the perfect time. Burning marshmallows is a subtle art that Jeremy will never understand. “You just want to be all fancy and stuck up about your marshmallows.”

“No, I’m a reasonable human being that doesn’t like things that are burnt to a crisp,” says Jeremy, gently rotating his own marshmallow at a safe distance from the flames. “You just have no functioning tastebuds.”

Michael glances over, and his heart does a little flip in his chest at the sight of Jeremy’s grin, as he stares intently to get his marshmallow “perfectly” browned.

…Just for a bit. Michael can indulge in this just for a bit.

~FIN

Word Count: 2425

Team: Michael

Prompts: all main prompts, the crescent moon, the forest path, the gray car

@bmc-gift-exchange

[theangrypokemaniac]

@nyarthsis

If Team Rocket 'always had a heart for unpopular Pokémon', that's an admission their Alola catches aren't particular loveable creatures, so I'm not thinking anything too controversial.

You're saying they take pity on the animals no one wants, as in it's normal for me not to find them adorable.

Some Pokémon, such as Lucario, become fan favourites without the advertisement of a regular role the anime. With Wobbuffet, Bewear, Stufful, Mareanie and Mimikyu, do people like them for themselves, or because of their association with Team Rocket?

I think its the latter. I can't imagine there would be such interest in them were they to be owned by a Twerp or appear as a one-off. Really then, it's not what or who they are, it's to whom they belong that matters.

Alola has really devalued catching. Rather than be true to the source material, so battering a Pokémon into submission, as Ash did with Bulbasaur, Primeape, Muk, and many others, now you have to ask their permission!

Bewear didn't even get that. She hung around for no reason, and her 'friend' Stufful was belatedly tacked on. I see why those two were left behind, as Team Rocket had no right to take them elsewhere.

In terms of welfare, Mimikyu and Mareanie are better off staying with them, free and safe, rather than locked in the insalubrious depths of H.Q., but then it never bothered the writers sending previous Pokémon into an uncertain future, so what difference does it make now?

It can only be that, like their predecessors, there is no intention to ever bring them back, but unlike the rest, the fans can't even be allowed the vain hope of a return, not with this rather awkward disposal.

It's feasible that Jessie and James could call their base and request old monsters to join them, but it's difficult to imagine they'd fly across the world to Alola, wander through the woods, pick 'em up and go all the way back again. Why make parting so final and irreversible?

It does imply that Game Freak don't like them, so why should I?

I keep noticing this fickle attitude. A new era starts, we're expected to fall instantaneously in love with every element, beg for more and yet more. Then, once the next region arrives, this adoration asked of us is meant to evaporate and immediately transfer to the next batch.

Well why start to like them, if eventually the makers don't care, to the extent you wouldn't even know previous Pokémon had ever been alive?

Have you heard one mention of Seviper, Yanmega, Dustox, Cacnea, Carnivine, and Mime Junior since they left?

Why were they happy to chuck Wobbuffet after Sinnoh, yet fetched for Kalos?

How could Team Rocket live without it for an entire generation but suddenly it's indispensable again? What do you imagine the rest of their Pokémon felt about that?

Have Jessie and James wondered allowed how Arbok, Weezing, Lickitung and Victreebel are doing?

What of the last two generations?

What is this nonsense where every character is so detached from the past?

Supposing I was to force myself to appreciate them: since they've gone, never to return, I'd be dissatisfied with the show, thus no better off than I am now.

My feelings don't run on a switch. I can't find myself besotted one minute then dump the object of affection without a second thought, just because Nintendo want it from me.

Even if I had a more positive opinion of the current interpretation, there's no benefit to becoming involved when it's all so fleeting.

Mareanie is ugly, with three teeth. I think he's a sea anenome, so ought to be more attractive, but it's covered in nipples instead!

It looks like a bonsai tree growing breasts, reminiscent of the hideous content lurking within an Hieronymous Bosch painting.

The idea that all Mimikyu copy Pikachu, the most famous Pokémon, when in their world it's nothing special, is too stupid for me to accept. How could that be coincidence?

It's referencing reality, acknowledging the real world's view of Pikachu as the star, so if it's breaking the fourth wall, it invites disbelief.

Wobbuffet does sod all. It's a complete dead weight and has no attacks. Yet it's the one to survive generation after generation. Where's the logic in that?

I suspect his popularity rests on being there so long he's considered part of the furniture, the sole catch in which you can invest an emotional connection whilst fairly certain he'll remain around.

By now it ought to have developed some semblance of a personality, but it's as faceless as ever. Other Pokémon that have been and gone had a bit more about them, but Wobba's so bland no one can summon the energy to write him out.

If he went, what would you miss? Breaking out of his ball and hissing 'WAAAAAHBUHFEH'? Is that so integral?

I have several objections:

What is it meant to be?

Why does its tail have eyes?

Why is that never mentioned?

Is it a sort of quadruped, or has it only one foot with four toes, arranged like the bottom of a medical walking stick?

A lot of my reactions to Pokémon are influenced by encountering them in the games. With Wobbuffet, I remember first coming across it in the cave near Blackthorn City, and just as you're winning the fight, it pulls out Destiny Bond and suddenly you're both down.

When you finally get one, it's tricky to train. You have no choice but to guess whether the opposition will launch a physical or special move, and mostly you get it wrong. He never learns anything else and doesn't evolve, so it's that forever.

Persevering with Magikarp is worthwhile, but what's to be gained from taking any time out to fight with Wobbuffet?

The anime eliminates this problem. You're aware of the nature of the approaching onslaught because you can see it coming, and the opponent said it aloud.

In this context Wobbuffet should be the most powerful Pokémon in the universe. Come on, it can deflect every attack!

Is it? No. It has a successful defence about once a generation, and still loses the battle. I can't say if it's worse to be utterly pointless, or to not fulfil one's potential.

I resent it muscling in on the motto, as if it's considers itself of equal rank to Meowth. No it's not!

When I was young, there was a tendency for magazines to refer to Team Rocket as a duo. Meowth was judged to be in the same position as Pikachu: a main character yes, and valuable enough to be accorded the privilege of liberty, but still very much owned by people.

You would see references to Jessie and James as his Trainers, though how they assumed this worked went unexplained. Even if shared, one had to have to caught him, thus be his proper owner.

Later on this developed into them being three equal members, and the term 'TRio' emerged, but now, although perhaps not officially recognised, there's an attitude of treating them as a quartet.

It's just wrong! Wobbuffet's not been around since day one. He didn't join Team Rocket voluntarily because he had nowhere else to go. It was a choice made for him by his original Trainer, so out of his hands, or rather his flippers.

If he was an independent Pokémon who just tagged along one day, that would be different, but it belongs to Jessie. Promoting one of hers means James is lesser, and no longer equal.

In each generation Team Rocket catch at least one local Pokémon, but as Wobbuffet's there, it ends up with Jessie having more on her side than James, and I dislike the imbalance. Plus the one he does get is violent.

It can't be solved by giving him another new one, as then he's captured two in the region, and she has only one, so again it's skewed.

Whilst Wobbuffet does count in numbers, he's not on the level of the rest, who fight regularly. He's both there and not simultaneously.

I'm still irked the way Lickitung was ejected to make room.

It was the best Pokémon they ever had! It took out Pikachu, Vulpix and Bulbasaur with one move! It would've won those Princess Dolls for Jessie if the writers hadn't changed the rules so that Lick only affects those of sound mind!

It was as if they realised their mistake too late, and so Lickitung was featured less and less to avoid it dominating a fight, then hurriedly traded away for something reliably feeble.

The following analogy you may not understand, but I think it fits rather aptly:

There's a game called Final Fantasy VIII. One of the side quests involves you racing through a castle under a time limit. If successful, you are rewarded with Odin as a Guardian Force, which is a deity that will provide a defence.

Unlike others, he is out of your control, but every so often, as you enter battle, he turns up and annihilates your opponents. It's very welcome.

Unfortunately this game was programmed by bunyips, who clearly didn't want the last section of the game to be accidently easier for you. Oh no. If you're progressing, it ain't gonna be through luck, or turning the console on and off until he arises.

Therefore, towards the close, you come up against ex-friend Seifer. Odin is fixed to rush to your aid, but when he does, bloody Seifer slices him in half, horse and all!

He killed Odin, the ancient King of the North! The Lord of Valhallah! The Father of the Vikings!

It's not normal fighting death, it's irreversible. He's gone for good.

After this Gilgamesh introduces himself as a replacement. He too will randomly appear and set about the enemy.

The problem is that whilst Odin destroyed monsters unfailingly, with Gilgamesh it's a rarity.

He uses four swords, and which you get is also a lottery.

One is the same as Odin's, two deal average damage, but not death, and the worst one depletes 1 HP, so it might as well not have bothered.

Not only does it arrive but a fraction of the time, but it's in a fraction of those times that it's of any assistance, which is something of a comedown.

Lickitung is Odin: didn't see it often, but it tore the place apart!

Wobbuffet is Gilgamesh: once in a blue moon it provides rescue, but it's on a lot lower percentage than it's predecessor.

It's difficult not to be disappointed.

[ask-the-guiding-light-cast]

Guiding Light turns two years old today!

It’s crazy to think this all began only a couple of years back... and also hilarious it falls on the same day as “International Mystery Dungeon Day” over on Twitter. More after the cut. This is gonna be a long one, so I appreciate anyone willing to read this. ^^

For a long time, I had been a casual consumer of fan fics. It started in the late 2000s when I was in a Spyro craze thanks to the more story-driven Legend of Spyro trilogy. I had an itch that I needed scratched and FFN fulfilled that to some extent. I also looked at some Mario fics, including Paper Mario: The Temple of the Sun, which I greatly enjoyed and thought did a good job adapting the formula that made Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door so beloved and putting a unique spin on things.

But it was until the early 2010s that I actually started getting back into Pokémon games with Gen V. After Emerald, I fell out of touch with Pokémon for a time. When Gen VI came around, I dipped my toe into the fandom through Twitch livestreams, but also through reading a few anime-based fics that are very long and still going, even now. 

At the same time, I ended up buying PMD: Explorers of Sky... and damaged my cartridge before I could properly finish the game with my Vulpix/Riolu team. So, I watched cutscenes for what I missed on YouTube, then got Gates to Infinity and, later, Super Mystery Dungeon and had fun with both of them... though more for the stories and characters than the actual gameplay. Truth be told, I don’t care much for roguelikes at all.

It was during the gap in time between Super’s release and the first official footage of Sun & Moon in mid-2016 that I found myself hit with a recurring thought: “What if someone made a PMD story where the hero and the partner are forced to fight one another with the fate of the world at stake?” I wound up (loosely) brainstorming an idea for a PMD story revolving around an antagonistic Hoopa character who would use its ring portals to collect entire communities, including the Pokémon living in them... all so that he would never be bored. This would lead him to “collect” the partner to add to his “toys,” so when the hero shows up, he’d sic the partner on them.

But that was as far as I got with the idea. I ended up graduating college and took a job with late evening hours. It left me pretty tired and exhausted and unmotivated to do much of anything. I withdrew from the parts of the Pokémon community I was involved in.

Then the Generation VII games came out and, while divisive in the fandom, I found myself really liking some of the concepts. There were so many times when I thought, “Gee, I wonder what this would be like if it were in a PMD game?” For example, one of the ideas I had was a sort of edgy rival rescue team akin to Gladion, which would have a Midnight Lycanroc, a Zoroark, and a Type: Null character in it.

So, toward the end of 2016 and early 2017, I started creating an idea for a Choose Your Own Adventure story with the intent of putting it on this really small forum I was a part of. It would be a Gen VII-themed PMD story, but because I didn’t think that sounded interesting enough, I decided that, not only would the human keep their memories, but they would be from the real world and be a major Pokémon nerd. The idea was that the choices the readers made would affect the relationship between the human and partner. I even came up with a point system. The more points the readers earned for their choices, the “closer” the relationship the hero and partner would have and the happier an ending the story would get. If the hero and partner couldn’t stand each other, one of them would likely end up working with the bad guy and winning. If they became steadfast friends, they’d work together to save the world.

Unfortunately, the forum shut down before I got too far into planning it, so I shelved the idea and continued focusing on my job. And things stayed that way for several months, until I ended up getting into med school and scrambling to move.

During the downtime I had when I wasn’t doing moving related stuff, I decided to look at FFN again and found Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Defenders of Warmth. I wound up reading through the entirety of the story quite quickly. I guess you could say it sparked something in my head. The fic itself focuses on what, at the time, was the newest Gen (Gen V). It also has multiple humans and is set on a continent separate from the canon locations (which were just the Air and Grass Continents, since Gates and Super didn’t exist when the fic was written). In short, it renewed my desire to pursue my idea of a Gen VII-flavored PMD story.

So, I set about creating my story outline. It is so... so much different from the actual story, though I’ve gone into that in previous posts (search for #amby answers). Originally, I used Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time as the framework for the fic: an alien invasion in a colorful, comedic world. I took more specific cues, too. Zero was meant to be a (mostly) silent antagonist a la Princess Shroob, for example.

The problem was, I really didn’t have much confidence in myself or my abilities. I’d like to say I was writing for myself, but I really did want validation, too. I think any author is lying to themselves if they say they don’t feel this way at some point. Because of this, I figured if I put the fic on FFN, it would get ignored. The site’s huge! There were, at the time, around 85k fics in the Pokémon section alone. (That number’s since gone up to over 90k!)

Given I had experience with forums, I decided to post it to Serebii, because the fic community seemed much smaller and more open to giving feedback to one another. In an effort to try and, y’know, establish some connections, I actually read other pieces and reviewed them before posting any stories. This also helped me build up a backlog of chapters and prove to myself I enjoyed writing this enough to keep going.

When I finally did post the fic, it was a bumpy start, for sure. I do think I made a lot of mistakes out of the gate, including uploading chapters way too quickly for readers on Serebii to (reasonably) try to keep pace. That probably cost me a few potential readers... or made them silent readers who I never ended up hearing from. Which is why I’m especially thankful to @girl-like-substance (who I can seem to tag, drat) for all of the well-thought-out feedback given throughout the fic’s run. I don’t think I would’ve made such significant strides in my writing otherwise... and there are plenty of long-running fics where the quality tends to stagnate.

In any case... it was thanks to a request from @deliriousabsol to put the fic somewhere more mobile-friendly that I chose to mirror Guiding Light on FFN starting in October 2017. I would’ve kept going on Serebii had she not asked so nicely, so she’s the one you can thank for it showing up there! (She’s a fellow author who does cyberpunk-themed fics and art and her characters have cameoed in the fic.)

And, honestly, I’m just... beyond shocked at what wound up happening to the fic once it hit FFN. Well, actually, for the first several months I was lucky if I even got a comment when I put up a chapter. I’m not sure any of the people who first commented on FFN still follow the fic anymore. I haven’t seen/heard from them at all, so I assumed they moved on with their lives.

In any case, around March of 2018, the word count on FFN passed 300k and... somehow, the fic starting getting more attention. Like, a lot more attention. This was... not really something I was even remotely prepared for.

(Yes, this means there’s gonna be a giveaway. More on that later.) I never would’ve thought I’d reach a number like this. I never imagined I’d meet another PMD author who’d be willing to do a fun collab (thanks @virgil134, Spiteful Murkrow, and Namohysip). I really did not imagine that I’d ever get fanart of characters that I wrote (huge thanks @thebreak-ofdawn, @ask-nicky-and-others, and @cresselia92). I mean, above everything, I not expect the fic or characters to resonate with anybody the way it wound up.

A part of me feels like I don’t really deserve it. I’ve made a lot of serious gaffes with writing this. When initial Serebii feedback had people intrigued by Shane’s jerkass attitude (when I didn’t actually intend for him to come off as a jerk), I dialed things up in the hopes I’d keep their attention. It probably cost me readers. Then there’s the slow pacing of the early episodes and the mistake of making Special Episode 3 as long as it was... which my speaks to my (bad) tendency to give into some of my strongest impulses even though I had an outline I was trying to stick to.

And, I mean, there’s also some of the “shamlessly shameful” stuff I’ve done with the fic. I’m not fooling myself. Guiding Light has grown progressively more furry and, uh, probably fanservicey, too. All the big furbait (and some scalebait) ‘mons are accounted for. There’s a lot more sexual humor when I initially promised myself I would stay away from romance and keep everything platonic. I practically turned Xerneas into waifu bait, if some of these asks are anything to go by. This blog certainly didn’t help in that regard. Maybe I’m just being my usual nervous self? 

I am worried that this fic’s performance has, somehow, affected my thoughts and behavior. There are very popular fic authors who let their popularity get to their head... or chose to open up Patreons (something that makes me uncomfortable) or start doing things like taking commissions for written pieces, which is understandable... though I think it’s an easy way to lose your passion for writing. I guess some of that worry stems from a debacle I learned about on a Discord server I’m in, but that’s not something I’m comfortable discussing publicly. 

And I haven’t even talked much about the blog itself. Like, it somehow passed 100 followers? Where? When? How? I don’t actually draw stuff like many other Pokéasks. And, like, for a lot of folks, I have no idea if they’ve actually read the fic or just check in on the blog. It’s the same with the fic, I suppose. If you’re a silent reader/follower, I would really love to hear from you! I promise... I don’t bite or anything. I’d love to know what (if anything) you’re thinking. And if you’re a blog that’s following this one and we haven’t interacted, please feel free to reach out! It’s honestly hard to tell if people like what I’m doing, so any feedback is always appreciated.

In any case, if I haven’t lost you by now, I guess all I can say is... thank you. Thank you all so much for all of the support... whether it’s on the fic, the blog, or both of them. I really do hope this final episode can meet your expectations. I’ll try my very best to make this an ending to remember. Nothing would make me happier than to hear you guys enjoy it and feel it does justice to the PMD series.

Sorry for all the rambling. The inbox is open again if you’d like to send any messages for the ficaversary. Again, thank you all so much! You’re the best!

[sage-nebula]

re meme!! 2, 10, 19, 26 and 31!

2.) Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life.

In order of when I discovered them:

Ash/Misty from Pokémon was Baby’s First OTP, back before I even knew what shipping was. I recognized that Misty had a crush on him, and that Ash had a crush on her, and man, I was dead set on the fact that they were going to be boyfriend and girlfriend. As an adult I know that the anime will most likely never end and as such Ash will never have an endgame relationship, and I’ve also come to ship them both with other people (e.g. Ash with Clemont, Misty with Lana). But this is still one of the truest of OTPs for me, in that if they ever were revealed to be canon endgame in any way, shape, or form, I would be absolutely over the moon. (Plus, I mean, they reunited in the SM anime and their interactions there were cute af, so it’s not like I’ve got nothing to go on even after all these years, haha.)

As much grief as I expect to get from this one, when I was in high school I shipped L/Light from Death Note, and though I hate to say it, this is one of the important ones because of who I shipped it with and how we enjoyed it. Basically, the person who introduced both the Death Note manga and the ship to me was my best friend at the time, who was also the first and only person I’ve ever been in love with. I had feelings for her even back then, though I was oblivious to it (and I remained oblivious even when I was jealous that I wasn’t the one taking her to prom “as a friend” like . . . god, teen!me), and so even though it was silly . . . we used to talk a lot through Yahoo! Instant Messenger, and sometimes we’d slip seamlessly into pseudo-roleplays of L (me) and Light (her). We didn’t do anything lewd, but because of some fan content we saw (most notably a doujin where Watari and Light were competing for L’s attention---it was pure crack but we loved it), we’d often role play where Light was tsuntsun about his feelings for L and like . . . I don’t know, it’s so silly looking back on it, but those little role plays made me so happy, not because of the ship so much, but because of the way she, as Light, really wanted me, as L . . . you really think I would have clued into the fact that I was head over heels for her, but compulsory heterosexuality will really make fools out of people, I swear. Anyway, the point is, this was a very important ship for that time in my life, and given how much of an impact the relationship I had with that girl had on my life overall, ultimately, this ended up being a very important ship altogether even though I don’t ship it like that anymore.

And finally, Yuugi/Jounouchi from Yu-Gi-Oh, not only because it’s my favorite ship of all time, but also because it led to me meeting you! 💜 It also led to me writing my magnum opus, but more importantly it led to me meeting you, and for that I’m very grateful, SB.

10.) Do you ship any characters that have never met?

I mean, do Keith and Lotor count? I feel like they count. And even if they don’t, they did when I started shipping them, so . . . :P Aside from them, I’ve got a few Pokémon ones like that too, I think, but otherwise I typically need some sort of interaction in canon to go on. Usually, anyway.

19.) Have you ever shipped something despite yourself?

I don’t think so? I’m pretty self-aware and accepting of the things I do or don’t like lmao. And I tend to be pretty consistent with that sort of thing, too.

26.) Have you noticed a pattern in your shipping? Is there a romantic dynamic you’re more drawn to?

Best friends to lovers is absolutely my favorite ship. The ships that I love the most (e.g. Yuugi/Jounouchi, Makoto/Haru from Free!, etc) tend to follow this trope. This doesn’t mean that every single ship that I like will follow this trope, but even when we look back at my first ever ship, Ash/Misty---well, that one fits the bill, too. Considering that having a solid foundation of best friendship is what I consider to be the recipe for an ideal romance in real life, it’s no wonder that’s my favorite romantic trope in fiction as well.

31.) Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love.

On top of how much they compliment and sing praises for another, something else that Lotor and Keith begin to do as they develop feelings for each other is try to impress each other. And one way this happens, at least in Paradigm Shift, is one day Lotor just so happens to not put a shirt back on after taking a shower, so he comes out with his hair still damp and a few drops of water on his chest to see if Keith notices. And Keith shows no reaction. But a day or so after that Keith just so happens to take his shirt off after training and leave it off, so his skin is slick with sweat and his hair is all disheveled to see if Lotor notices . . . and he gets the barest of reactions, but still enough to keep him in the game.

Acxa just digs headache medicine out of the first aid pack because she knows where this is going and she knows she’s going to need it.

[dj-orion-x]

Games list 2021

New year, more video games. I'm going to go a bit more in detail with this one, giving some personal opinions about each game. 2020 | 2019 New experiences

Gauntlet Slayer Edition An okay game. Decently fun co-op, but way too short. Based on the achievements, they want you to play an 8 hour game for hundreds more, which just isn't worth it.

Human Fall Flat Really fun. Played it co-op, and a bunch of silly stuff happened. Once you know how to break the game, some of the puzzles become inconsequential, but I think that's a good thing.

The Forest I think this is my first foray into survival crafting, and this one's pretty fun. Started it by playing co-op, finished it solo. Co-op definitely would've been more fun.

Persona 5 Royal I have a lot to say about this one, but I'll keep it short. Incredibly fun game with a very satisfying gameplay loop, but it's overhyped as hell.

Valheim The second full survival-crafter I've played, and oh no I'm hooked. The combat's a bit of a chore, but it's fine once you get used to it. The main draw for me is the building and how incredible and modular it is. If this game had a creative mode, there'd be no hope left for me. It's what my life would be dedicated to. X X

Yakuza 0 Honestly, same kind of feelings as P5R. Very fun game with very satisfying combat. From a completionist's perspective, a lot of the side content is largely pointless (doesn't forward the story, doesn't really help strengthen you unless done to near completion, etc.), some of which reeks of "give the intern programmer a task" (e.g. any of the casino games). Most of it is hilarious, so that's fine, though.

Deltarune Ep. 2 I feel this episode had a lot more of Toby flexing his #gamer muscles, but it's all still hilarious and incredibly well-written.

Pico Park A fun short co-op game. I played this with a bunch of college friends. All of us are engineers in some capacity, so we know all about planning, so maybe not as many "wtf are you doing" moments as I would've expected.

Metroid Dread I'm not even that big into Metroid, but GOTY GOTY GOTY GOTY GOTY GOTY GOTY GOTY GOTY

A Bird Story It had been a while since I played To The Moon, but this was still rather nice. I'll get to the actual story eventually.

New Pokémon Snap It's about damn time. They added a bunch of new stuff from the original which my tiny peanut brain too attached to the original couldn't handle sometimes, but it's still a very cozy experience.

Halo Infinite Worth it just for the Grappleshot. Everything else is okay. Revisits

Ring Fit Adventure Kind of an ongoing game, but I made it through the main campaign. Now it's just New Game+, going through the previous areas again. I put it down for a while after getting vaccinated and being able to go back to the actual gym. But now that Apocalypse 2(!) is happening, I might have to pick it back up...

Astroneer Started this one in late 2020, so doesn't really count as a revisit, but whatever. Sort-of-survival-mostly-crafting, which I'm more a fan of. Finished this one off by getting all the achievements with friends.

Hades Also started late 2020. This is probably the only rogue-like I'll ever fully enjoy. Got all the achievements, but there's still plenty more to do. Maybe I'll actually revisit it another day.

Phantasy Star Online 2 (Ep. 4-6), New Genesis Ch.1) Episode 4 makes me want to die with its isekai bullshit. Episode 5 was really good with its isekai bullshit. Episode 6 tied all previous episodes together really well, and was overall super good. New Genesis's changes are fun, but the story seems a bit too generic right now, and there's not a whole lot to do afterwards.

Long Live the Queen Came back to this after like 6 years just for the achievements. I remembered most of the story beats, which was honestly kind of surprising.

Trials of Mana remake I played through with Kevin, Angela, and Duran, the three characters I didn't use when I first played the original, so maybe that hindered my enjoyment a bit. Even aside from that, the gameplay has a bit of a slow start. But I did eventually get really into it. It's very fun, but they really didn't want to spend a lot on voicework resources. Misc. These are ongoing/exclusively multiplayer, etc. games I've played without a well-defined end. Not much more to say about any of them, so they just get the classic list treatment. Puzzle and Dragons Fire Emblem Heroes Rocket League Animal Crossing: New Horizons Among Us 7 Days to Die

[pokemaniacal]

Grubbin, Charjabug and Vikavolt

Today’s Pokémon are probably the strangest thing Alola has thrown at me so far, and definitely spice up the early game a bit – electrical Bug-types with battery-like abilities, which (thank all the gods) conspicuously do not become butterflies or moths.  We’ve had beetle Pokémon before – Heracross – and even stag beetle Pokémon – Pinsir – but Grubbin, Charjabug and Vikavolt have little in common with either, as we’ll see.

Vikavolt’s species designation – “the Stag Beetle Pokémon” – immediately gives away what it’s supposed to be.  Stag beetles are a family characterised by their oversized, powerful mandibles; where Pinsir uses these to tenderise and brutalise enemies in close combat, Vikavolt instead uses them to charge up its Electric attacks.  This family includes some of the largest beetles – and by extension some of the largest insects – in the world, like the giraffe stag beetle, which can reach an impressive 12 cm long, not counting the mandibles (Vikavolt is quoted as 1.5m long, which probably does include the mandibles but is nonetheless downright terrifying).  Drawing on the beetles’ hard carapaces, Vikavolt’s design is very angular, with lots of sharp corners and straight lines, giving it an almost robotic appearance.  The Sun and Moon website describes it as “like a fortress that zooms through the forest,” which is an odd image, in that zooming through forests is not in my experience something fortresses are known for, but pushes the same sort of design angle.  It’s odd that the Pokédex says it “zips around,” and that the website talks about its speed and aerial acrobatic skill, since Vikavolt is very much not a “zippy” Pokémon, nor is it one that has much cause to be “on sharp lookout for an opening.”  Stag beetles, much like fortresses, are not exactly graceful in flight, so Vikavolt is slow, and not an actual Flying-type (though it does come with Levitate).  This is not a subtle Pokémon.  Vikavolt is forceful, rampant and destructive, like Genesect, Drapion or Scolipede.  From reading its flavour text, you get the impression that Vikavolt is very good at navigating around opponents to hit their weak points from unexpected directions, but using this thing is rather different: Vikavolt actually handles like a drugged whale, but has no qualms about blasting its way through any and all obstacles with overwhelming electrical attacks.  Still, I suppose they did give it Acrobatics and Agility, so I suppose I shouldn’t be too critical of any disconnect there.

What’s interesting about Charjabug and Vikavolt is the weird relationship they have in the wild.  Charjabug, we’re told, have a phenomenal capacity to store electricity (hence the battery-inspired design).  Vikavolt can take advantage of this by picking Charjabug up and carrying them into battle, slung under their bodies.  Charjabug’s extra power can then supercharge Vikavolt’s already devastating electrical beam attacks.  In the game, this tactic is represented by Charjabug’s signature ability, Battery, which enhances the special attacks of allies in multiple battles.  The ability doesn’t carry over to Vikavolt (who replaces it with Levitate), so at the moment its competitive relevance is pretty sharply limited, though I expect in future it will probably be distributed more widely (it sure kicks the cr@p out of Plus and Minus, while conveying much the same theme).  I suppose you can do a kind of support-focused Eviolite Charjabug in doubles (for those not in the know, a Pokémon holding an Eviolite that is not yet fully evolved gets a substantial +50% buff to both defence and special defence), but… ehhhhhhhh?  As for where this even comes from in terms of Charjabug’s flavour, larval insects spend most of their existence eating, storing energy in order to sustain their metamorphoses into their adult forms… so we might think that Grubbin, in a similar vein, are devoted entirely to charging themselves up with electrical energy so that, as Charjabug, they can act as power-packs for adult Vikavolt.  In turn, we may suspect that Vikavolt’s ability to generate its own electricity is relatively limited compared to more conventional Electric-types.  Charjabug, then, isn’t an intermediary stage in quite the same way as Metapod, Silcoon, etc.; it’s actually a fairly specialised organism in its own right that provides important support to its own much rarer adult form.  Of course, in the games, trainers’ Vikavolt don’t have the luxury of having Charjabug to assist them with free power… except for Sophocles’ Totem Vikavolt, who totally squanders the Battery bonus by using only physical attacks, a la Ghetsis’ Hydreigon on Black and White 2.

*headdesk*

Before me move on, a quick note on Vikavolt’s evolutionary path.  Actually playing with Grubbin in the game’s story is a bit of a pain, because Charjabug is one of three Pokémon (the others being Nosepass and Magneton) whose evolution requires exposure to a “special magnetic field.”  In Sun and Moon, this means you have to take them to the Vast Poni Canyon, close to the end of the game, and long after you will have first encountered an enemy Vikavolt (Sophocles’ Totem), which is extremely unusual for the past three generations (normally a Gym Leader’s signature Pokémon is one that either would have recently become available to you, or very soon will).  Three-stage Bug Pokémon in the past have been known for evolving very quickly, and being strong early- to mid-game choices as a result.  This is basically the key draw of early-game Pokémon – they tend to reach their peak power very quickly.  Purely because of the geography of the game’s setting, this is emphatically not true of Vikavolt, making a very odd departure from the way Pokémon availability normally works, to the extent that I almost think it has to be an oversight.

Once you actually get Vikavolt, it’s a pretty tricky Pokémon to use.  Vikavolt takes “artillery” to a whole new level. Painfully slow and with defences no better than decent, it nonetheless comes with a special attack score to rival some of the most powerful in the game, like Chandelure.  Certainly it has the strongest special attacks of any Bug Pokémon in the game, with even Pheromosa and Volcarona noticeably behind; among Electric-types, only Xurkitree and Mega Ampharos can best it.  The previous Pokémon to wear the Bug/Electric type combination, Galvantula, was able to wield incredible forces by enhancing the accuracy of Thunder with the Compoundeyes ability.  Vikavolt’s Thunderbolt (or Discharge in doubles) just blows that out of the water on raw power alone, but can’t match Galvantula’s blistering speed.  Bug/Electric, as Galvantula taught us, is a pretty solid combination.  You only have two weaknesses, Fire and Rock, and Vikavolt adds a useful Ground immunity, courtesy of the Levitate ability.  Bug attacks – for both Galvantula and Vikavolt, this is primarily Bug Buzz – cover Electric’s blind spot for Grass-types, and being a Bug-type also makes it thematically appropriate for you to learn Energy Ball, so it’s difficult for Ground-types to switch in and absorb your Thunderbolts with impunity.  Those three attacks form the core of Vikavolt’s offensive capabilities.  Flash Cannon is its other significant special attack, and is mostly useful to punish anyone who tries to counter you with a bulky Fairy-type special tank like Florges or Sylveon; if you’re confident your team can handle them by other means, ditch Flash Cannon.  Air Slash is technically there, but it’s a weak move and doesn’t really fill any major holes in Vikavolt’s type coverage.  Volt Switch, the special Electric-type counterpart to U-Turn, is on Vikavolt’s movelist as well.  It’s a fantastic move, and always worth consideration, but Vikavolt’s simply not the best Pokémon to use it, for similar reasons to Incineroar, Gumshoos and Toucannon: being slow with mediocre defences, it’s a very difficult Pokémon to get into play safely, and once it’s there, its time is best spent causing as much havoc as possible with its obscene special attack stat.  It shouldn’t be aiming to keep itself safe with a hit-and-run, because it may not live to do it a second time; it should be aiming to brutally murder things in, if possible, a single Choice Specs- or Life Orb-boosted attack.

Unlike all those other sledgehammer-style Pokémon I’ve been reviewing so far, Vikavolt actually learns Agility, and the thought of what this thing could do if it could actually move is nothing short of terrifying.  Even after using Agility, there are still a number of perfectly respectable Pokémon that will outrun Vikavolt, especially ones that carry Choice Scarves, so you’re probably never going to make Vikavolt a proper sweeper as such, but it might be worth playing around with.  Getting Trick Room support from your team is a bit difficult to pull off in singles, but makes Vikavolt damn near unstoppable for a short time if it works.  Alternatively, you can Thunder Wave things to slow down important targets in a way that helps your entire team, but playing support seems like something of a waste of Vikavolt’s talent for destruction.  If you’re facing multiple opponents, you can slow them all down with String Shot or Electro Web; these moves aren’t worth it in singles but can be useful support options in other formats.  Finally, Vikavolt can learn Roost for healing, so, like many Alolan Pokémon, you could theoretically try shoehorning it into a sort of off-tank role, dumping speed and putting a lot of points into Vikavolt’s HP.  I’m not convinced it has the durability to really make that work though.

In sum, Vikavolt is another of these Pokémon that Alola seems to like, with one or two very powerful tricks up its sleeve, but enough substantial flaws to make it very difficult to use and abuse.  It’s not really a glass cannon, but perhaps something of a porcelain one.  That’s an unusual role for a Bug-type, or for that matter an Electric-type, to have (I think the closest comparison is probably Magnezone), so although it’s just about the only Alolan Pokémon that effectively has no unique move or ability, I’m happy to call it pretty original on that score.  Its style is profoundly weird; it looks like a distinctly inorganic Pokémon, but it isn’t, and some of the writing team seem like they may have been a little out of touch with how Vikavolt actually fights.  On the other hand, it does some really creative things with the relationship between its different evolutionary stages, and the battery theme fits surprisingly well with an insectoid design base.  It’s a bit bizarre, but it’s undeniably very cool.

[beautiful-lusamine-blog]

Lusamun, do you have any advice for someone who really wants to write something, but can't get the motivation or courage to write it? You're a really good writer, so I was wondering if you had advice.

{Ahhh! I don’t think I’m that good but thank you very much :D 

Okay, so this one took me a while, because I really wanted to make sure I responded properly. Behind a Read More because of length}

{Go ahead and skip to the last two paragraphs for the answer to your question, unless you want a huge story about my life in fandoms and other random shit. Which you probably don’t. 

So as you may or may not know, I haven’t been an active member of the Pokémon fandom for that long. I’ve always been a fan of the series, having played my first game at about 6 or 7. I just haven’t ever been involved in the fandom, per say. I may have read a couple of fics, but I never really got involved.

Now let’s talk about writing. Creative writing is fun, but it’s really, really hard. I wrote a lot of random stuff a few years ago - Just during Study Hall I would write little books (when I probably should have been doing homework so I wasn’t quite as screwed some nights), but I could never find the motivation to continue them. I had no idea where things were going, the characters and settings were unrealistic (Even by the standards of fantasy and sci-fi novels), and after a few chapters I just started to hate the setting, story, and characters I had created - This is unrelated, but I also wrote things that were very heteronormative and centered on relationships... Which was a super bad idea, because when I started to realize I mayyyybbeeee wasn’t interested in girls I grew to hate my protagonists even more. They seemed to taunt me, and at the time I was still very confused, so that didn’t help at all.

Then, I found fanfiction. Fanfiction is something I previously had a very skewed image of - Only what I’d heard people say about it: It was all shippy and all porn, it was all terribly written with awful grammar and stories that realistically make no sense (Why would a mom leave a fourteen-year-old at home alone for  a month!), by twelve to fourteen-year-old girls, stuff like “Naruto and One Direction are all married and all adopted me now they kiss and touch each others’ butts every night and then touch MY butts!!!” (If you get that reference because you’ve seen the parody video “Welcome to Fanfiction (And Wattpad!!)” good for you. It’s a brilliant satire. Have a cookie.)

But I was so, so wrong. I just kind of, I don’t know, stumbled into fanfiction. At first I just read shippy fluff (And sometimes smut to be honest) because I thought it was all that was available. This isn’t related, but through this fanficiton is kind of how I realized that a certain type of paring happened to appeal to me a little more - I always knew I was fine with that, and would ship it if the ship was good, but I didn’t ever consider, you know, empathizing with it in a weird sort of way. Without fanficiton I’d probably still be very confused.

Sorry. I’m rambling. Point is, I found stuff that wasn’t just that! I actually found a Yogscast fanficiton with good plot to it. MindfulWrath’s “The Rise and Fall.” (She is on Archive of Our Own for those interested! If you say Lusamine sent you she will probably be very confused XD) I CRIED. Literally! Over someone else’s take on fictional characters! Anyways, I tried my own hand at writing Yogscast fanfiction.

What I did wasn’t very well written, but it got better over time. I knew what I wanted, though. I knew how it would end, and I knew the story along the way (Except for a tinnny gap at the beginning), and I had an idol to encourage me. I thought it would work great! Annnnd.... I lost motivation. I tried to come back, but the gaps between chapters became larger, and larger, and larger.

Eventually, it all stopped. I tried another one, which also kind of copied MindfulWrath. But I didn’t really care. I just wanted to write. I had foreseen such cool scenes, but I could just never get trough the exposition, never could actually write them, and that sucked. My second Yogscast fic turned out pretty much the same. So I stopped writing.

Fast-forward to the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon. I knew a few things instantly: I HAD A MASSIVE CRUSH ON GLADION. I also knew that it was one of my favorite Pokémon games of all time. I loved the characters, the darker, more personal story, the dynamic between Gladion, Lillie, and Lusamine, the complexity of Lusamine, Guzma, Gladion, and Lillie, the music, Lillie’s desire to be braver and be just like her trainer friend, which I related to a lot. The music was also phenomenal. Oh, and shirtless Kukui/Masked Royale. That was pretty nice, too.

So somehow I just found these RP blogs for Guzma and Plumeria. Don’t really remember. They led me to one of Gladion, which I of course followed. I did that on my personal account, I think. I also fell in love with branch-chief--faba’s blog. I knew I wanted to make one, to interact and write stories with others, and to understand a character in a new way.

Lusamine. I knew instantly, it had to be Lusamine. She was abusive, she was regretful, she was determined, ambitious, and obsessive; she was possessive, she was brutal, she was tender, she was awful, she was redeemed by the end, and oh my goodness, just such a deep villain. Her facial expressions in-game (Especially that manic smile one) made me certain that she was the character I wanted to RP. Definitely.

At first, things were a little shaky. I didn’t have that many people who wanted to RP with me, and since I didn’t get many Asks due to my low follower count, I didn’t really have anything to do.

But, the numbers climbed steadily, if slowly, and then I went on vacation for the holidays. While there, I started a thread with branch-chief--faba for the first time (Who was super nice and didn’t get bothered by the fact that I had literally no idea what I was doing!!), and posted a couple of Ask memes.

Within a week, I went from like 40 followers? Or maybe 30-50? TO 100. It just happened so quickly, it was crazy. People were being nice, and following, and encouraging me to keep going. I loved it. So I started actually writing things for the blog - Things that were actually pretty long, many, many paragraphs. It was a lot of work, but I didn’t feel exhausted at all - Because people always said nice things when I did! It replenished my energy easily! It became a privilege when someone sent an Ask that allowed me to write something long.

I’ve never thought about stopping the writings I do for this blog.

So what’s the moral of the story here? What does this have to do with your question, you ask?

Well, here’s the thing: Writing is really, really tough. And if you write things that no one sees or compliments - It’s hard to keep going. Really hard, in fact. But here on this blog, it’s easy for me. What I’m trying to say is... Umm...

Don’t do what I did. Don’t just get confused and angry when the words stop coming out for a particular thing you’re writing. No, the story isn’t bad, you’re not a bad writer, it’s just not happening anymore. And if it happens again someday, that’s great, but sometimes it doesn’t. That’s okay too. People grow. Writers grow and , just like all people, and sometimes you realize you don’t want to write that something anymore. Ideas are fluid, and sometimes things change - Your opinions may change, your thought process may grow and you won’t be able to write things anymore, but it’s okay. Don’t force it. And, I can’t stress this enough, get your writing out there. Because if it weren’t for people complementing me, I wouldn’t be writing for this blog. That’s why I do. You’ve all been so amazing and supportive, and if you hadn’t, I would have stopped doing this a long time ago. Don’t worry about getting motivated - Just think about all of the coolest things you plan to write, and then start. Let people see it, put it up online, take constructive criticism. And if at some point you lose motivation? That’s okay! It’s okay! You’re not an awful writer, it might just be time to reconsider things, or take a break, or maybe give up on the story - which isn’t a bad thing at all.

Try your best and you’ll accomplish it!!!    

[sage-nebula]

Top 5 Pokemon types (I assume Fire and Dragon will be up there!), top 5 Pokemon locations (from any regions, gameverse or animeverse), top 5 BotW locations, top 5 Zelda characters that aren't Zelda or Link, aaand top 5 Hogwarts classes!

Hmmmm, let’s see!

Top 5 Pokémon Types:

Fire

Ghost

Dark

Dragon

. . . Normal . . . ?

Fire has been my favorite since Gen I, wherein I gleefully set Erika’s entire gym ablaze with my charizard, laughing all the while at the idea of grass-types posing a threat to me. (I’m awful, I know.) I also have two on my One True Team™, so that’s a testament to how much I love them, haha. I loooooove most ghost-types, both in terms of lore and overall design, but I never had one on my OTT™ until Gen VII graced us with the amazing grace that is mimikyu. Dark-types are also great; I love most dark-types, even if the only one I have my OTT™ is my umbreon. When it comes to dragons, I prefer ones that are dragon by species over dragon-type, technically (e.g. I’m always going to prefer charizard and consider charizard to be more of a dragon than, say, Alolan exeggutor, which may be a dragon-type but is not an actual dragon by species), but a lot of dragons by species are also dragon by type, so it still does count. And lastly, I don’t think I have a fifth favorite, but, uh . . . normal types are cute . . . ? Hahaha.

Top 5 Pokémon Locations:

These are practically all going to be in Johto, orz. All the same, not in any particular order:

The Charicific Valley --- It’s literally a wild charizard reserve, what’s not to love? Even if it’s anime only, it’s still a place where charizard can live freely and happily. It’s a dream come true, tbh.

Ilex Forest / Celebi’s Shrine --- This whole area has a very mystical feeling, especially since Celebi’s Shrine is so unassuming, yet so important when it comes to the fact that a time-traveling legendary has an attachment to it. And it makes you wonder, like, did people used to pray here? Is it possible that the people of Azalea Town still do? Johto pays so much more adherence to legends than Kanto does, so it’s possible . . . but it’s also possible that it’s forgotten. Ilex Forest just has a sort of Lost Woods vibe to it, though. I love it.

The Burned Tower / Bell Tower --- Likewise, I love both of these towers for a similar reason. There’s so much history here, and with the Bell Tower especially you know that it still is visited by Ho-Oh in the right circumstances. These are sacred places, even if (or perhaps especially because) one of them was burned to the ground. It just has that sort of feeling to it, that you’re walking somewhere special whenever you go there.

The Ruins of Alph --- THE GREATEST MYSTERY IN THE WORLD, THE GREATEST SOURCE OF LOST POTENTIAL, LIKE---what is this place? Why is this place the way it is? Radio signals don’t work there. The unown haunt it. But why? We know that the Sinjoh Ruins might have something to do with it, given the connection there, and that Arceus and the unown have some kind of connection, but we still don’t know what, precisely, that connection is. There’s so much mystery and I feel that there’s so much more to be done with the Ruins of Alph, more dimensions that can be accessed from them, more that can be uncovered and explored. I want to uncover that, I want to see it!

All of the mystical / legendary islands in Hoenn --- Okay, there are too many to list here, but like . . . Mirage Island, which changes location and really does appear and disappear like a mirage. Faraway Island, which to this day is the only known habitat of Mew. Birth Island, where you find Deoxys in the original Gen III games. Southern Island, where you find one of the Latis. And all of the mystical islands where you find Hoopa’s Rings in ORAS. Like . . . these places, they’re always so remote, the music is usually mystical and fills you with this sense of wonder and legend and myth. God, I crave this sort of thing, these are always my favorite places, and Hoenn was so great for that because they could include so many different little islands scattered throughout the region. (Something you would think Alola would have done as well, but alas . . .)

So yeah, all my favorite places are in, like, Johto or Hoenn, hahaha. But really, I love mystical, legend-infused places. Give me your remote islands with legendaries. Give me your sacred places of ancient worship. Give me your alternate dimensions with your eldritch abominations. I want to see and explore it all.

Top 5 BotW Locations:

My House --- I’m really attached to the idea that Link has a home, haha. I like to keep Keith there a lot, I always go back there to cook, et cetera. I really love that Link has a place to call home amidst all the adventuring and traveling.

The Temple of Time --- I’m mad that the Temple of Time can’t play an actually important role in this game, even if I kind of understand it. Even so, I’m very attached to the Temple of Time and probably always will be. It’s sacred to me even if it’s just a cool place in this game where the Old Man tells you who he really is.

The Lost Woods --- This is the best rendition of the Lost Woods yet. Although I’m not too fond of Korok Village itself (too many framerate drops, the music isn’t great, Koroks are annoying), I love the Lost Woods, how creepy and ethereal they are, and the music is fantastic. A++++, best Lost Woods yet.

The Forgotten Temple --- One of my newest favorite locations. To me, the Forgotten Temple is definitely linked to SS. How much is debatable; that’s clearly the Statue of the Goddess in the very back, but I’m not sure if this temple is supposed to be the Sealed Grounds (maybe built on top of the Sealed Grounds?) or what. But it has a very mystical feel to it all the same, so I love it.

The Mounted Archery Camp --- In truth, I can’t decide on a fifth, so this one will go here because JINI IS WAITING COME WIND OR STORM, AND WANTS LINK TO BE CAREFUL. ;__; JINIIIIIII

I’m really attached to Jini, okay.

Top 5 Zelda Characters (that aren’t Zelda or Link):

Tatl --- Tatl is always going to be best companion, best girl, as far as I’m concerned. I love how she actually had a full personality of her own; she’s incredibly snarky (especially in the N64 original; they toned her down for the 3DS remake and I’m mad), unwilling to help at first, and is extremely focused on protecting her little brother, Tael, regardless of what happens to others. But she develops; she becomes more helpful, more attached to Link as well, and she even continues to develop after you beat the game once, because the first time you go to the moon she doesn’t want to go until Tael says that, fine, he’ll go. Every time after that she jumps at the chance, saying that Link is her partner and if he’s going, she’s going, too. I love how much development, personality, and history she gets. She even gets it in response to other characters, such as how she keeps snarking Kafei as he tells his story. Tatl’s not a perfect person, but I love that. I love her. (And I mean, she’s a wonderfully protective big sis. Give credit where credit is due.)

Urbosa --- QUEEN. Urbosa is everything I ever wanted from the Gerudo and more. She’s clearly a fierce warrior, but she also has a nurturing aspect to her as well with how she looks after Zelda and the others. She’s incredibly badass with the way she calls lightning with finger snaps. And on top of it all, she calls upon Gerudo history and marks her beef with Calamity Ganon as being personal due to the time he was reincarnated as a Gerudo. Fuckin’---I love her. Far and away the best Champion in the game (excluding Link, of course). I love her. 

Marin --- Marin is especially notable because of how much characterization she got despite the fact that Link’s Awakening is a GB game. She could have easily been just another boring maiden, but we see that she, too, takes to calling Link “thief” if he steals from the shop; Link gets to go on a date with her, in which we see more of her personality through the various shenanigans they get up to; and we even learn that she has suspicions about a world outside of Koholint Island, that while everyone else on Koholint believes that there is no world outside of the island, she does. And she’s so desperate to see what’s out there that she daydreams about being a seagull, just so she can fly away. That’s pretty deep for a GB!Zelda character, and I love that she was fleshed out so much. I’m always going to love my girl Marin, and I’ll always headcanon that she, like Link, washed up on Koholint’s shore. I hope that she got to find a life outside of the island one day, as a person or seagull or otherwise.

Kafei --- Not only is Kafei being notable for one of the few (and perhaps the first) instances where you get to play as someone other than Link temporarily, but I love him as a character, too. I think my favorite part of Kafei is how deadpan he is about so many things; he refuses to even acknowledge Tatl’s snarking, much less rise to it, and he insists on calling Link “green-hat boy” for pretty much the entire time they know each other. But he’s also so sincere; if you fail to get the Sun’s Mask back, his despair over losing it is palpable. I do wish he realized that Anju would accept him regardless, but even so, that’s just another fault, and characters who have flaws are good. I love Kafei, he’s great. (And I also still believe that he’s a Terminian Sheikah.)

Fi --- Lastly, Fi. I wish that we saw more development from her over the course of the game, but the connection between the Hero and the Master Sword has always been important to me, and SS just made it even more so. Her goodbye can still bring tears to my eyes. Here’s hoping that the BotW DLC gives us a chance to see her interact with this Link. Please, Nintendo. Please.

Top 5 Hogwarts Classes:

Care of Magical Creatures

Defense Against the Dark Arts

Transfiguration

Charms

Ancient Runes

Those are the ones I’d be most interested in, anyway!

[sage-nebula]

In terms of heroic achievements which pokemon protagonist do you think accomplished the most/least?

I’m assuming you mean objectively, in terms of the player characters we see in the games, rather than my specific ‘verse, so I’m going to go just based on what we see in the games without applying any characterization. So that said, let’s just list out their heroic accomplishments, shall we?

RED / LEAF:

Forced Team Rocket, an organization equal to the mafia irl, to disband.

Defeated Green, who was acting like a power hungry twit, and took his place as Champion. I’m counting this because Green being so drunk on power would have made him a terrible Champion for Kanto.

ETHAN / LYRA:

Forced Neo Team Rocket to disband (again).

Defeated Lance, who was acting like a power hungry twit in a different way, and took his place as Champion. (i.e. Whereas Green crowed about being “THE MOST POWERFUL TRAINER IN THE WOOOOORLD!!!!111!1″, Lance was going around berating children and siccing his dragonite on unarmed trainers. Both were power hungry, but they just demonstrated this in different ways.)

BRENDAN / MAY:

Stopped Team Aqua/Magma’s various villainous activities all over the region, similar to Red/Leaf and Ethan/Lyra with Team Rocket, ultimately making both (depending on the version) teams disband.

Confronted the legendary pokémon (either Groudon, Kyogre, or both, possibly primal) and captured them in order to avert/end the apocalypse.

In ORAS, captured Mega Rayquaza, and then rode Mega Rayquaza into space in order to capture/defeat Deoxys and avert another apocalypse, this time via meteor.

DAWN / LUCAS:

Confronted Team Galactic’s terrorism head-on in numerous instances, similar to the other anti-Team examples above (but more extreme in this case when you remember what happened at the three lakes). This ultimately resulted in Team Galactic disbanding, especially when Cyrus was trapped in the Distortion World in Platinum.

Confronted the legendary pokémon (Dialga/Palkia/Giratina depending on the version) and defeated/captured them to stop Cyrus’ plan/avert the world’s destruction. Possibly also traveled to the Distortion World to do this.

WHITLEA (LEA) / BLAIR:

Fought through the Elite 4 at double speed in order to try and reach Alder before N did, though this endeavor ultimately failed.

Stormed N’s castle to face him / revive the legendary pokémon as the other Chosen Hero. This endeavor ended in success.

Fought Ghetsis after fighting N in order to end Team Plasma’s regime once and for all and restore the government of Unova back to what it was before N/Team Plasma took over.

Helped Looker track down the remaining Sages of Team Plasma so that they could be arrested and held accountable for their crimes.

ROSA / NATE:

Combated Neo Team Plasma’s criminal activities all over the Unova region, particularly since Lea/Blair had left this mess to be cleaned up in favor of hunting down N instead. Ultimately, this led to Team Plasma being disbanded again, once and for all this time.

Helped sort out the mess that Ghetsis and Colress were making with Reshiram/Zekrom being fused with Kyurem. This helped restore Unova back to its original state (i.e. not frozen)

Helped N confront Ghetsis.

SERENA / CALEM:

Combated Team Flare across the Kalos region, and ultimately stopped Lysandre’s mass genocide attempt by capturing/defeating the legendary pokémon he was going to use to power the ultimate weapon. Lysandre then killed himself(?). Team Flare was disbanded, but Malva is still at large for reasons unexplained.

Helped Looker stop Xerosic from forcing Emma (as Essentia) to commit petty crimes across Lumiose City. This culminated in Xerosic’s arrest.

SUN&MOON BOY / SUN&MOON GIRL:

Stopped Team Skull from being nuisances at various instances, and also rescued a yungoos they stole for the lulz. (As in, they stole it for the lulz. I can’t imagine why else they’d waste their time stealing a yungoos from a preschooler.) Ultimately forced Team Skull to disband. This is only arguably heroic, however, as Team Skull were never truly threatening, and they seem to be a bunch of severely impoverished teenagers led (kind of) by a severely emotionally unstable, potentially alcoholic abuse survivor. They were never actually helped, so ymmv on the heroism of just disbanding them and then leaving them to fend for themselves.

Helped Professor Kukui overthrow (at least partially) the religious oligarchical style of government Alola has operated under for centuries to create a League instead. “Helped” is used loosely here, however, as Kukui did pretty much all of the work himself, and all the Sun/Moon PC did was take the throne when the time was right.

Stormed Aether Paradise in order to rescue Lillie and Cosmog. Succeeded in rescuing Lillie, however, Cosmog was tortured and reduced to its second-stage evolution.

Traveled with Lillie to retrieve the second flute, and help Nebby (now a Cosmoem) evolve (into either Solgaleo or Lunala). 

Traveled into Ultra Space to aid Lillie in confronting Lusamine. Battle Lusamine/Motherbeast while in Ultra Space in order to protect Lillie and stop her nonsense, even though tbh she wouldn’t be hurting anyone if she was just left alone in Ultra Space with the Nihilego like she wanted. So, again, YMMV, since the world wasn’t actually in danger anymore (and her kids would be much, much, MUCH better off without her).

Assisted Looker, Anabel, and Nanu with tracking down and capturing the Ultra Beasts that had been unleashed on the world. Since the Ultra Beasts were shown to be legitimately dangerous, this is probably the most heroic act under the Sun/Moon PC’s belt.

CONCLUSION:

So with all of the feats listed out above, if we made a list of Most Heroic to Least Heroic, I think it would look like:

Brendan / May (as of ORAS)

Lea / Blair

Rosa / Nate

Dawn / Lucas

Serena / Calem

Sun&Moon Boy / Sun&Moon Girl

Lyra / Ethan

Red / Leaf

Brendan/May averted two (2) apocalypses as of the ORAS remakes, and one apocalypse aversion resulted in them flying into space on a giant dragon in order to battle a sentient alien virus. If that’s not heroic, I don’t know what is.

Lea/Blair had their entire regional government overtaken by a totalitarian dictatorship, and they resisted this despite not knowing whether or not they were going to be able to awaken their chosen dragon. They also succeeded in this, and then took the time to help Interpol hunt down the remaining Sages before they left on their own personal quest. Especially considering the fact that they originally faced N without Zekrom/Reshiram, I’d say that counts as pretty heroic.

Rosa/Nate did similarly, but their quest was mostly focused on cleaning up the remnants of Lea/Blair’s quest, which is why it comes in third. However, they do get extra points above the rest given the fact that Kyurem was steadily icing the entire region, and they helped stop/put an end to that. So they do still have a respectable third slot.

Dawn/Lucas get the fourth slot because Team Galactic pulled off actual acts of terrorism, such as bombing lakes and mass killing the pokémon inside so that they could capture the lake guardians and then torture them in order to create devices to restrain the mascot legendaries. They also, as of Platinum, went into the Distortion World itself to deal with this threat and avert that apocalypse. That’s pretty damn impressive, and to be honest I’d be tempted to swap them with Rosa/Nate. The only reason why I’m not is because Unova was literally being destroyed, whereas Sinnoh (aside from the lake bombings) didn’t face a similar threat (like, Cyrus was going to remake it in his image, but the Unovan people were actively suffering due to the ice; the Sinnoan people weren’t suffering like that yet). It’s close, though.

Serena/Calem are up next, and while they do get major, major props for averting a mass genocide (which is a very big deal), they also lose some heroism points because, prior to Lysandre announcing to everyone that he was about to murder everyone who hadn’t paid him an exorbitant amount of money to be saved by joining Team Flare, Team Flare didn’t actually pose very much of a threat. The most threatening thing I can remember them doing is taking over the Pokéball Factory, and that wasn’t a very big deal. Serena/Calem also lose some points for not doing anything about Malva, and they also didn’t really do too much in the post-game subplot (instead, they were mostly our vessel for watching that story unfold)—and even if they did, Emma/Essentia’s crimes were mostly petty, although they were escalating in violence. So all in all, while Serena/Calem were very heroic by stopping a genocidal maniac from, you know, committing genocide, the rest of their feats (or lack thereof) land them in slot five.

The Sun/Moon PC has the most items on their list, however, most of their feats are dubious at best due to Gen VII’s shaky (at best) writing. While they certainly accomplished some of the most amazing things (riding a massive sun lion/moon bat into Ultra Space certainly sounds/looks impressive), the true weight behind them is skewed when you realize that the morality behind their actions is so tenuous (i.e. Team Skull clearly needs help, and yet they were offered none), they really didn’t do anything at all (i.e. Kukui formed the League while the PC did fuck all), or the world was never really in danger and everyone would have been better off had Lusamine been left to rot in Ultra Space. The only inarguably heroic thing that the Sun/Moon PC accomplished was the post-game subplot, in which they actively worked to save people from a very real and present danger. Otherwise, they didn’t do very much, and though Lillie credits the PC wholesale with helping her, I would argue that Lillie accomplished what she did as a result of her own strength and mettle, not because of the PC. Therefore, they’re sixth.

Lyra/Ethan come in at slot seven, the reason for this being that they … didn’t really accomplish very much. I’m being generous by giving them defeating Lance simply because he wasn’t a good Champion, but other than that the most they did was disband Neo Team Rocket, who weren’t posing any major threat to the world. That said, Lyra/Ethan did directly combat some of their more villainous activities (the Slowpoke Well, the Mahogany Town experiments, Radio Tower takeover), and since they had the bravery to stand up and stop Neo Team Rocket in those instances, they get slot seven …

… versus Red/Leaf, who come in at dead last. The most Red/Leaf did was stop Team Rocket’s activities in the Silph Co. building, and defeat Green (and again, I’m being generous by giving that to them). That’s it. Team Rocket wasn’t even posing that serious of a threat to the world (even less so in Gen I than Gen II), and so while it was still brave of Red/Leaf to do something about it, it’s not like they were saving the world. Therefore, they come in dead last since they objectively accomplished the least.