#zooks answers

[little-mizuki-official]

oh my god oh my god oh my god

...Hey, little one! How'd you get on the internet, hmm?

- @future-rui-official

Hello sir!!

Um, um! Got a tablet for Christmas! Um and my sister has this app um so I got it 2!

[askponyinuyasha]

There's talk of giant spiders and other less natural monsters near the old fortress in the center of the wood; Be careful out there.

Zooks: There's talk of giant spiders and other less natural monsters near the old fortress in the center of the wood.

Inuyasha: What?!

Inuyasha: We'll have to finish this later!

Gad: Be careful out there!

Astro & Sunburst: ...

@ask-wizard-sunburst: Did he say 'giant spiders'?

<Previous> ... <Next>

~To be continued...~

(High-res transparent PNGs below the cut, and whoa-nelly there are a lot of them)

Thanks everyone for your patience! This bit took me a really long time because there were so many figures and new poses and effects to draw!

In the intervening time, I did really enjoy seeing everyone's speculations as to who the off-screen character was! Nobody managed to connect the dots that they'd seen this font and text color before!

Anyway I hope to do a couple more entries like this where I can sit back and let the story tell itself. I'll even try drawing some action sequences maybe but hopefully I can avoid drawing too many spiders.

[ask-gadzooks]

hey gad & zooks, i sent you some old pieces of armor that have a mixture of chozo & griffon/hippogriff words on it, my sister translated the chozo words as 'mighty guardians', the other is griffon/hippogriff lines, can you tell me what it means? i found these armor pieces while excavating some old chozo ruins

[zookazooks]

oh, you wanted an autistic girl who doesn't know she's a lesbian yet?? lemme see what i can do

Wednesdays were her Mondays, the gate lock creaking when she turned the key, the hinges complaining as she shuttled it aside and away from the front door of the shop. The city had been awake for hours, the road well-traveled all morning, but when one owns a business with dedicated and nigh-on guaranteed clientele one can choose one's hours, and Kim Ami liked the hours when people could come in the most easily best.

That meant lunch time on weekdays, 5 to 9 in the evening, all day all weekend, and, of course, open by appointment. Very little of her stock was likely to be urgently required, and so she made simple stable business within the confines of the little shop.

The warm humid air hit her as she stepped over the threshold from the sidewalk into the shop, leaving the cold outside to nip at someone else's ears, and she took her coat off as she walked through the dark front room, pausing just a moment at the wall to hit the lights.

The little fish shop lit up in pockets of glow, planted tanks humming and green, oxygen pearling from each blade of vallisneria, each round leaf of bacopa caroliniana. The indoor cichlid pond roiled with blue and gold— ("Okay, okay, let me set down my bag, I get it, you're hungy babies...") —the goldfish swarmed, each tank of little jeweled guppies wiggled a late morning greeting of permanently hungry optimism.

The auto-feeders went off as she walked past, pellets dropping into the water of a few dozen high-turnover aquariums taking care of the lion’s share of the work, but there was still easily another half an hour of painstaking feeding - the portioning of brine shrimp, the snails into the puffer tank, stick-on tablets and algae wafers and making sure the betta on the bottom of the sorority hierarchy got her breakfast, delivered sneakily behind the dwarf lily with a turkey baster and the power of distraction.

She was in the middle of topping off the co2 in the black moscow tank (packed to the gills with pogostemon stellatus as it was) when the bell over the door tinkled merrily, and if she hadn’t known exactly who it would be she might have looked up. “I’m sorry to say this,” she said, “but I’m unable to sate your strange desires today.”

“My what?”

What Ami had expected was a man named Seokjin, a person as friendly as he was beautiful and who had Opinions about koi husbandry which she may or may not have shared, (she didn’t, but mostly because she didn’t care about koi that much; her ideal koi came in the form of a plakat betta, thank you, and if a carp really wanted to get fancy then the least it could do was be an oranda about it), but the bell had not tinkled to announce the presence of an old friend - it had tinkled to announce the presence of someone significantly… newer.

Newer, yes, and shorter too. Narrow shoulders, hips at a slant, legs that could have just walked straight out of a girl group, sleepy eyes and a mouth that looked like mostly what it did was pout and sigh and (probably) drink too much coffee.

“You’re not Jin,” Ami said, a paragon of awareness and subtlety.

“I’m not, no,” said the girl in her shop. She looked at Ami. She looked at the fish tank. “Is it s’posed to be bubbling that much?”

“Not really,” Ami replied nonchalantly, extremely calmly scrambling to shut off the co2 and unhook the pipe from the bottle without upending the entire aquarium right there on the floor. (Which would be a tragedy of the highest order. Some of the bacteria in that substrate was older than she was.) “Um, that’s— sorry, hold on—“

“Holding,” said the girl in her shop. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you, uh… need any help?”

“Usually! Ha ha!” Oh god, she wasn’t a funny person and that hadn’t sounded like a joke. “It— it’s fine, just gimme a second…“

In the end she required more than a second, and instead took almost four full minutes to dramatically fight the co2 canister, airline, and hook back into the closet where the entire kit belonged, and so it was that by the time she turned finally to pay attention to the new person in her little fish shop she was sweaty and stupid and, unfortunately, very very useless.

“Hello,” said Ami, the dumbest person on the planet. “Hi. I’m… hello.” (Oh god.) “Can I help you? With anything?” (Oh, god.) “That you might need?”

“M’not really in need of anything,” the girl said, shrugging. “Just came over to say hi. I’m—“ She laughed, shook her head. “Sorry, I’m Yoonji. Min Yoonji. I just signed the lease on the space next door.”

The space next door.

Somewhere on Ami’s kitchen counter lay an envelope from her building manager that she’d been meaning to open for… a little while, sure, but not too long, right? No more than a week. Two weeks? Regardless of the timing, Ami at this point felt reasonably confident that whatever information she might find inside that envelope would likely be primarily in regard to the space next door, its lease, and subsequent signing of same by the girl standing in front of her.

“Right!” said Ami, like she knew to expect this. (Incredible theatrical skill. Breathtaking.) “Of course. That’s great, it felt weird to have it empty.” She shrugged. “I dunno, like it was unlucky somehow. I’m Ami, by the way.”

“Ami, huh?” Yoonji stared at her for a few blank and empty seconds, then laughed— glancing away like she didn’t want to make eye contact. “I dunno if me showing up here will bring a whole lotta luck,” she said, and turned, looking around the shop. “I thought this was like a house plant store or something, but…” She reached up, almost but not quite brushing her fingertips over the glass of a tank populated with dozens of cherry neocaridina flickering among thick drifts of java moss. “Are these… fish?”

There was a part of Ami that had a filter. (But what kind? HOB? UGF? Sponge? Canister? Sump? Matten? What about the biomedia? And please don’t tell me you’re putting activated charcoal into the filter for a planted tank…) That part of her could do things like go to the grocery store, talk to tellers at the bank, stuff like that, but that filter ended where aquariums began, and so it was that Yoonji’s unfortunate question mark clipped short Ami’s ability to shut, as it were, the fuck up.

Time passed, during which Ami explained to Yoonji everything about the care, feeding, ecological role, ethical breeding practices (“I just can’t get behind the orange-eyed tigers,” she said. “Hindering a living being’s natural functions for the sake of human aesthetics? Feels icky.“), and historical significance of neocaridina versus caridina freshwater shrimp in the aquarist hobby, and it wasn’t until she had moved on to how the mineral and pH requirements of neocaridina make them good tankmates for a small livebearer breeding colony (“Endlers are very hardy, and there are new hybrid color morphs coming out practically every day!”) that she looked up at Yoonji again and saw the dazed expression on this near stranger’s face and realized, horribly and suddenly like an ice bath in the morning, how fucking dumb she was. This poor stranger didn’t need a crash course on water parameters. This poor stranger just came in to say hi.

“… Sorry,” she said, stuttering to a halt. “Um. I get… excited.”

“It’s exciting stuff,” Yoonji replied, looking heavy-lidded and sarcastic but sounding unexpectedly sincere. “That’s cool about the… you know, the shrimp. I didn’t know that there were freshwater shrimp.” She hadn’t looked away from the tank, eyes tracking the flitting movements of miniscule invertebrates exploring a dense and soggy jungle, and the light cast green and blue over her face. “The red looks pretty on the green.”

Ami took in a breath to say something - probably something stupid, like you look pretty on the green - but was saved from herself by the sound of the bell over the door.

“Darling,” boomed Seokjin, standing in the door like the demigod he was. “Please tell me you have what I desire.” He took a step inside. “Who’s this? Are you cheating on me?”

“Oppa!”

“Woops,” Yoonji muttered under her breath, recoiling from Ami like they had suddenly become two magnets of identical polarity. “Um, I’ll— I’ll see you around? Prob’ly. I mean I’m next door, so—“ On her escape out the door she came extremely briefly face to face with Seokjin, to which she reacted by going pale and almost tripping over her own feet. “Cool, bye!”

Ami and Seokjin stood in the shop in silence for a few moments, the quiet broken only by the noise of cars on the street and the door to the space next door opening quickly and then slamming shut. “She seems nice,” Seokjin said brightly.

“Your book hasn’t come in yet,” Ami said, “but I got in some new betta boys that I need to jar if you want to hang out and talk shit about blood parrot breeders until you have to go back to work.”

Seokjin placed one hand over his heart. “Ami,” he said, “that’s the sexiest thing a woman has ever said to me.”

[the-starry-traveller]

What... is your name? What... is your quest? What... is your favorite color?

Dear Gads & Zooks...

"The objective of this quest is to retrieve some special soul crystals from the ruins of Lys, a once powerful fortress, now lies in ruins. You will be paid 3,000 bits, plus extra for every crystal found. Yes, we will provide supplies, medical care, as well as traveling expenses. Interested? What say you, dear adventurers?" - Aurora

((Fun fact: Because of this ask & @ask-gadzooks, I went on to practice drawing for this blog for fun. Still very much a WIP... but Thank you, dear wonderful creators for answering all of my questions & inspiration :P Love you guys! ))

[mrsdooggle]

Do you have any magical abilities as a vampony? Magical disguises? Turning into mist?

@ask-gadzooks Bab: hopefully this answers your questions gad and zooks. I can’t transform into mist or a bat. I do live off of blood. Compulsion is my lead special vampiric induced power

[ask-party-pie]

Your description of when Tirek stole your magic is... interesting. Even though you're made from almost pure magic, something about your existence reasserted itself after that magic was re-released into the world, and that's extremely notable; It implies at least partial existence beyond the lingering effects of a spell that should have been disjuncted when your magic was stolen... Would you be willing to let Zooks take a look?

Miss Pie: That might give me some answers as well...hm. It can't be any worse than getting a physical, right? So long as there aren't any needles involved, I don't see why not.

[wanderingmind867]

My new take on Martian Manhunter pt 1:

Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz and his younger brother Ma'alefa'ak were from Mars, a civilization built by and worshipful of the Roman deity of Mars. J'onn was a Manhunter, the equivalent of a police officer in martian society. He had a wife and a young daughter and all was peaceful and content for him. Ma'alefa'ak meanwhile was a recluse, shunned because he was the only Martian without telepathy. He grew bitter towards his people because of this, but it actually ended up becoming a great boon for him.

You see, the Martians have a natural enemy in the Saturnians. The Saturnians are the natural enemy of everyone in the solar system, in fact. That's because they're the chosen people of Saturn/Kronos, the evil titan who oppressed humanity back in antiquity. Although Saturn/Kronos is rotting in Tartarus, his chosen people continue to worship him and pray to him. And when he spoke to his people and told them they had to raise an army and enslave the chosen peoples of the other olympians, the saturnians answered the call.

Assembling an army, the Saturnians pillshed the Solar System.They enslaved the people of Mars (as well as the people of every planet in the solar system besides Jupiter and Neptune and Pluto), and planned to bend them to their will. Being a very militaristic but dignified society (as befitting their patron god), the martians fought back. J'onn was on the frontlines for some of it. The war was bloody, and horrifying. This is when J'onn was first pulled away from Mars.

You see, back on earth, Dr. Saul Erdel of Colorado was attempting to make contact with alien life. And by a strange twist of fate, he did. Except he didn't merely build a communication device. No, instead he built a virtual magnet for brain waves. To a telepath like J'onn, the pull of the machine was irresistible. He went from mars to earth in the blink of an eye, leaving his people and family all alone back on mars, to be enslaved by the cruel and savage saturnians.

J'onn ends up now on earth, being nursed back to health by Dr. Erdel. After a month or two of recovery, J'onn prepares to leave for Mars again. But before he gets the chance, he discovers a Saturnian plot to invade earth the same way they tried to invade mars. Using his telepathy and shapeshifting powers, J'onn manages to assemble a team of 6 earth heroes to help him repel the Saturnian invasion. After the invasion, the Justice League is born, it's members the 7 defenders of earth.

So while the demigods of earth dealt with the actual titans and saved olympus, J'onn and the League was saving the cosmos. This is my way of outright telling you: this universe is the same universe as Percy Jackson. We're never gonna have anyone comment on that, but it allows us to show a third front in the Titan War: the space front.

Anyways, J'onn gets permission from his fellow martians to go and study earth by living there for a few years. He blends in on earth society by taking the name of John Jones and hiding out with the Erdel family. Posing as a detective in Colorado, he has many adventures with his detective co-worker Diane Meade and his interdimensional sidekick Zook. For around 2-3 years, he stayed as John Jones like this, having superheroic adventures on earth both solo and with the Justice League.

But then J'onn had to deal with the Idol Head of Diabolu. This evil statue expelled toxic gas, which John Jones heroically jumped in front of to save a young child's life. But since John Jones was a human, everyone assumed he had died there that day. And J'onn was getting tired of leading this double life as a martian and as an ordinary earthman, so he willingly faked his death. Diane Meade and his friends on the force were all lead to believe he'd died. The only ones he actually told the truth to were Zook and the Erdel family.

From here, Martian Manhunter and Zook worked to destroy the Idol Head of Diabolu. For almost a year they fought the monsters released by that menacing Idol, but eventually they managed to destroy the Idol Head and clear up all their earthly loose ends. With the Idol Head that killed his human persona of "John Jones" gone, J'onn should have been able to go back to Mars. He wanted to. But fate wouldn't let him.

You see, J'onn and Zook end up getting wrapped into one final earthly adventure: they had to infiltrate and take down an international criminal organization known as Vulture. To combat Vulture, J'onn takes the secret identity of Marco Xavier, a multi-millionaire with reported ties to Vulture who died in a fatal car crash in France. From here, J'onn completely infiltrates the organization of Vulture, and eventually unmasks their ringmaster.

And here's the big twist in our story: the ringmaster of Vulture was the Marco Xavier! He faked his death in that car crash, and merely allowed J'onn to continue taking his identity so he could lure him into a trap. On that note, the trap Marco Xavier set for J'onn ends up levelling the building, and killing everyone but Martian Manhunter. Sickened and repulsed by what the past few months infiltrating Vulture has shown him, J'onn decides he needs to leave earth and finally go back to Mars.

[ask-healthy-light]

Slowly making their way through the Ancient Forest, walking over muddy paths made nigh impenetrable by heavy rainfall, a cloaked figure struggled to keep dry a small piece of paper; and written on it were naught but a pair of names, Beings they hoped could lead them to answers they had long sought.

All they could do now was to move forward, holding on to the hope that the weather would change for the better, but also that the muddy path they walked on would actually lead them out of the Forest; and they still had to reach their destination for tonight before they headed whither they knew not.

The tiniest speck of light was that the weather hid them from the beasts of the Forest that stalked their prey from the shadows; but the cloaked traveller was armed, and even in the utter darkness of the night, they did not fear these beasts, for they had seen vile monsters far worse than anything.

To their relief, the cloaked figure noticed an open area some distance away, and headed towards it, making sure to watch their every step to avoid falling over, or injuring themselves; and as soon as they stepped outside of the boundaries of the Ancient Forest, the torrent of rain abruptly stopped.

Since their path through the Ancient Forest had terribly exhausted them, the cloaked figure decided to catch their breath for a moment; so they took a seat on a nearby tree stump, where they took off their cloak, and squeezed as much water out of their mane as they could, while avoiding their note.

The blond-maned Being only sighed deeply, and shook their head as they looked at the Forest, before they set off towards the nearest town under cover of night; fortunately, they saw their destination over a hill in the distance, as the light of the Moon faintly lit up the spire of Ponyville Palace.

It had been a long time since they last visited this town, but since their friend told them that it was the best place to meet the two Brothers she spoke of, they trusted her; and they simply ignored the unfounded worries that popped up in their mind, that tried to claim she never sent the letters.

When they once again felt solid road beneath their hooves, the figure breathed a sigh of relief and quietly encouraged themselves that they were nearly there; but on their way towards town, they made sure to check their equipment, and the book they brought along with them in particular, for damage.

Luckily, their cloak had managed to shield everything from the rain, save for their mane, which now started to make them feel cold; so after they put everything in their satchel, they quickened their pace, for although they could instantly dry themselves, they would only do so at their destination.

At the edge of town, they were glad to see the streets were almost entirely empty, but they did not understand why the same sight unnerved them as well; so, struggling to keep their thoughts in line, they closed their eyes as they passed through town, until they bumped into the doors of the Palace.

As they rubbed their aching chin, the doors to the Palace slowly opened, revealing a Purple Dragon, who excitedly asked the sky-blue Kirin to enter; and as Spike flew ahead of the Kirin, he told them that a few friends had arrived earlier that evening, who were waiting in the Library with Twilight.

The Dragon-Pony warmly greeted them as the Kirin entered the Library, and made introductions:

"Gad, Zooks, this is Healthy Light, a close friend of mine." "And Light, these are Gad and Zooks, the two Hippogriffin Brothers I mentioned!"

(Thanks for reading this bonus! If you'd like a story of your own, feel free to send a request!) (Thanks ever so much to ask-gadzooks as well, as I'm very much looking forward to this collab!)

Featuring: Gad and Zooks from @ask-gadzooks Nox Lunarwing from @nox-lunarwing

Part 1/?

[ask-cinnavanillamelody]

So Cozy, What's the complete nature of the spell that Twilight cast on you, to your knowledge? Wouldn't want to accidentally force you to answer something you didn't want to, but also Zooks is curious for academic reasons.

Cozy: It compels me to be true. True to myself, true to others, and prevents me from being able to be deceitful in any way. There's also an immortality spell worked in, to keep me alive so I can prevent another "me" from ever happening again.

[little-mizuki-official]

Child be upon ye

Hi again!

Mizuki, right?

Yeah! Hi!! I'm Mizuki!!

[askponyinuyasha]

You.. have a messed up idea of what constitutes liking someone.

@ask-gadzooks: You... have a messed up idea of what constitutes liking someone.

Inuyasha: What? No I don't!

Inuyasha: I never said I liked anyone like that!

Inuyasha: That's just what stallions who like me are like!

(High-res transparent PNGs below the cut)

Sorry I keep going for the easy low-hanging fruit of drama and asks from frequent-flier blogs with well-established assets. In my defense... Suzaku took a LOT to draw. I'm eternally glad Inuyasha's only a half-kirin because the whole kit and kaboodle is a lot of design bits between the mane, the scales, the extra fetlocks, the horn, it's all so many extra little bits. Also NGL, I am a big fan of his freaky eyes.

[ask-gadzooks]

What would you do if you found yourself suddenly doubled in size? Or more? Possibly approaching Dragon-Lord size in a short time? Just pure scientific curiosity, I assure you!

[the-faramir]

Extinction Curse Session 2024/04/17 Part 2

On returning to the circus grounds outside of Willowside and handing the new tent over to a team of roustabouts for setup, the party took a moment to rest and consider the next move.

Zookdar stretched his arms out above himself and to the sides. "Well! I for one, could use a drink. Think I'll head on over to the tavern to get some beer—and maybe to find a woman to keep me company!"

The others just looked at Zookdar in disbelief. "Really, Zook," Midori chided, "we need to check in and see what else is goin' on around town, and you want to go out carousin'?"

"Sure! I've earned a little break," he replied and trotted off toward the tavern. The others shrugged and ran some errands in the meantime.

Two hours later, the party met up near the Willowside town square. Zookdar appeared to be a bit tipsy and had several large, black feathers stuck on his outfit. "I met a wonderful Tengu lady at the tavern," the gnome bragged to his teammates, "and her sister!"

Meanwhile, one of the mayor's aides approached the heroes to let them know that the mayor was looking for them. He led the team to the mayor's office.

"Madam Mayor," Midori spoke up, "You're lookin' to talk to us?"

The mayor replied, "Thank you for coming all the way to Willowside. Your presence has brightened up the town quite a bit. Hmm," the mayor chose her words carefully before continuing:

“I hate to ask this, but I must for the town’s sake. I know the dinosaurs have killed some people and other folks just simply left town. But there’s perhaps something else going on out in the swamp. A few hours east of town is a gambling hall and entertainment venue called Fortune’s Hall. The owners, the Carristers, have been big supporters of the town, despite being so far outside of it. For the past few weeks, no one’s heard from anyone there—not the Carristers, not their staff, not any of the regulars who were out that way. A few people went to check, but they didn’t come back. That was about when the reports of dinosaur attacks started, so I assumed that dinosaurs got them—and the folks at Fortune’s Hall for that matter. But a few days ago, one of the horses from Fortune’s Hall showed up here in town. The poor thing had almost starved to death, and it had an unusual bite on its leg. Strangest of all, someone had written 'The Fun Never Stops' on its side in purple paint. Gristarn Vrick got the horse cleaned up and fed, but it’s too scared to head home. Something strange is going on at Fortune’s Hall, and it doesn’t seem related to dinosaurs or the Welt. I’m not sure Willowside can withstand yet another threat.

“Will you investigate it for us? I know that it’s dangerous, but you’re better able to look into this than anyone else but the Banyan Boys.”

Midori asked for clarification, "The Bunyan Boys?"

Lysander questioned, "The Beagle Boys?"

Fizzarolli inquired, "The Beastie Boys?"

Midori queried, "The Bangle Boys?"

Zookdar pressed, "The Vengaboys?"

The mayor sighed. "No, the Banyan Boys!"

The heroes answered in unison, "Never heard of them."

Rubbing her temples, the mayor explained, "Ledorick, Stirvyn, and Tashlock Banyan are the law enforcement around Willowside."

Zookdar asked, "Well, why can't you send them in?"

The mayor explained, “I’ve asked, but they think the dinosaurs got everyone and it’s too big a risk to go check it out. I won’t pretend it’s not risky, but I think there’s something other than the dinosaurs threatening our town.”

Lysander offered, "We have some time on our hands while the tent gets set up. We'll go check it out for you."

The mayor thanked the party and offered a pale lavender ellipsoid aeon stone. Lysander graciously accepted the gift.

Midori clapped her hands once and exclaimed, "Well, let's get our things, load up the circus bus, and head on out!"

In the wagon on the road to Fortune's Hall, Midori could not contain her excitement. "Once we get there an' clear out whatever bad guys're makin' trouble, the Carristers will be so grateful an' they'll prepare us a feast an' open up the bar for free drinks an' maybe let us stay to see a play! Yeah! It'll be a great time! Cause you know why? We like to party! We like, we like to party! We like to party! We like, we like to party!"

Midori began to dance in her seat and sing a punchy, vibrant song in the key of A-flat major:

🎶🎶🎶 The circus bus is coming And everybody's jumping Willowside to Fortune's Hall We are gonna have a ball

The wheels of wood are turning And lantern lights are burning So if you like to party Get on and move your body 🎶🎶🎶

Midori stopped singing. "Oh, oh, wait. We're comin' up on the blockade in the trade route. Remember, Zookdar? Where yer ass got kicked? Looks like we'll have to fight our way through dinosaurs again, but this time we'll be prepared." The wagon started to turn around the bend in the road leading to the clearing. "Everyone, welcome to Yer Ass Kick Park!"

But as the clearing came into site, there were no xulgaths, no dinosaurs, and no fallen logs blocking the road. Somebody had cleared it all!

"Huh," mused Fizzarolli, "that sure was convenient."

The rest of the trip seemed to fly by and the party's journey completed without incident. Finally, they arrived at Fortune's Hall.

[mirorbdangamachine]

Okay I am on an Orre kick lately and so it is time to tell you about my thoughts on if Orre had a Pokemon League

I don't have the gym leaders figured out yet entirely, but I do have eight locations for gyms in mind and where the Pokemon League itself would be featured. I'll list some names for potential gym leaders of each area too from pre-existing characters only. Should note this is working under the assumption of being set sometime after XD, so unfortunately The Under is inoperable.

Also, there wouldn't really be an order of which gym to challenge. You think the governmental structure of Orre is organized enough to let that happen? They probably can barely cobble together a list of who is a recognized gym leader and who isn't.

So with that, here is the list below the cut:

The Gyms:

Phenac City

Okay so this one is kind of a gimme answer because there is literally already a gym there of sorts. There's really not much to say other than obviously Justy is getting the promotion he deserves of being an actual official gym leader. The type of gym could be a toss-up of Ground, Water or Grass given the multiple environments inside of it. If not Justy, then perhaps bring back Trudly and Folly as double gym leaders like Tate and Liza, or even potentially have a triple battle with Bluno, Verde, and Rosso for a Fire, Water, Grass core.

Gateon Port

It is tradition to always have a port city host a gym in Pokemon, and Orre would be no different. I feel like pulling an Olivine would be fun, except this time have the Lighthouse actually be the gym itself as opposed to just where you find the gym leader. The typing would most likely be Water given the setting, or possibly Steel even given the machine shop. Some potential gym leaders could be Miror B since he performs at the Krabby Club, Perr assuming he's still helping at the machine shop and his position in Kids Grid/ONBS probably got him some cred, or maybe if he turned over a new leaf, even Zook.

Pyrite Town

We are continuing the train of the obvious choices, don't worry, the weirder ones are saved for the last few because unsurprisingly, Crime The Region doesn't have many actual towns. I feel like Pyrite would probably convert the Pyrite Colosseum into its gym, or perhaps they could go salvage a part of The Under and use its remains for it. For gym leaders, the first one that comes to mind would be Cail given that he calls himself the gatekeeper of Pyrite. Other potential candidates would be Duking as the unofficial leader of the town, Silva, who Duking left in charge of Pyrite Colosseum, or even Agnol, the Deep King of the Deep Colosseum who odds are was likely a part of Cipher. Potentially even Reath and Ferma to do the double gym leaders act like Trudly and Folly. The trainers of Pyrite actually are all pretty varied in type, so you could take your pick with any of them here. Potentially Rock or Ground simply to represent the history of the mines.

Agate Village

The last of the actual towns in game, Agate with its cliffside and waterfall and the forest and cave leading to the Relic Stone provides a good handful of locales to host a gym. Maybe there's another giant tree around we didn't notice aside from Eagun's house and something like White Tree from Pokemon White could happen. For types, a lot of the trainers use Pokemon who share a typing of Bug or Poison, and of course the obvious potential Grass motif. As for potential gym leaders, there's the obvious pick of Eagun himself considering he is the only significant NPC who lives there, and if so he's still sporting that Pikachu making him an Electric leader. Other than him, you could potentially have Rui make a return as gym leader. Or I dunno, bring back Skrub the peon. Early internet meme days all over again for the Skrub Lord.

Eclo Canyon

Probably more commonly remembered as the Team Snagem Hideout. Perhaps not the strangest idea really, you could refurbish the blown-to-smithereens base into a nice sized gym, or perhaps some kind of multi-faceted company building or factory. For a gym leader, you have any of Team Snagem members in Gonzap, or the three main grunts in Wakin, Biden, and Agrev. Clearly, all of them end up being capable battlers if you can fight them at such high levels in the post game colosseums. Along with them, you could have Wes himself here as a gym leader, but I feel like if he was involved in the League at all, it would either be as Champion, chairman, or more than likely just not involved with it at all and disappearing into the desert, and serving as a potential superboss in the post game. Aside from him, potentially bring back the imposter Fein, acting like Wes once again only to reveal it wasn't him at all and you just got your hopes up. As for types, uh, I dunno, Steel or Poison I guess, that was Snagem's MO.

Cipher Lab

If it hadn't been taken over by Cipher yet again by now, I feel like this lab would probably be converted into a proper research facility by the governing body of the region, or perhaps become an extension of the Pokemon HQ Lab. As for who the gym leader would be, assuming that all former Cipher members are arrested, the next best choice could be Chobin who might have gotten a better job here instead of working for Kaminko. Aside from him, there is of course Ein or Lovrina, though I think even if all Cipher members weren't rounded up by now, those two would definitely be ones put behind bars for crimes against Pokemon. Though some Cipher members who might work, and bear with me, could be the Hexagon Brothers. These six bumbling fools are definitely not there in scientific capacities, and odds are they most likely are more hazardous to the research being conducted anyways. However, having six different type specialists there would probably serve as great resources for research data on certain Pokemon. They could be a collective gym leader like how Cilan, Cress, and Chili were in Unova, and perhaps depending on the day or other external factors, that determines which one you face for the badge. If not them, more than likely this place would be an Electric gym.

Pokemon HQ Lab

Speaking of labs, the Pokemon HQ Lab I also think could potentially serve as a gym for one specific reason. If there ever was a "first gym" to do in the game, it would most likely be here, specifically because of the Battle Sims system. With that being what is supposed to serve as a tutorial system, I could see it easily being converted into an advanced challenge for beginning trainers, where if you can defeat it and win a badge, then you could probably face any gym. While yes, Realgam Tower is where the advanced Battle Sims happen, I have a different purpose in mind for it that you can probably guess. This way you technically don't have to have anyone be the gym leader at all, the computer itself already is. Though I suppose if you wanted a physical named NPC in charge who could potentially provide a final battle, there's Professor Krane, Lily, Jovi, and of course Michael himself. Unlike Wes, I could actually see Michael being more likely to be involved in the League as an opponent, and if not in the Elite 4/as Champion, then here as a Gym Leader. This gym probably wouldn't have any one type if Michael was the leader except for maybe Normal because of Eevee. If not, then again perhaps Electric, especially if Jovi was the leader with her Plusle and Minun.

Cipher Key Lair

Our last gym is the former Cipher Key Lair, that creepy pyramid now being converted into the world's most off-putting office space. I imagine if Clay ever had a gym in Orre instead of Unova, it would have been this. That aside, I feel like you already have a potentially cool gym challenge based on the exterior. Move those stones around and create a mini labyrinth to get inside, and then begin the ascension to the head office building just like before. Only instead of Gorigan awaiting you at the end, you have someone totally different. Some potential candidates are Zook again here instead of at Gateon Port, or perhaps Eldes since unlike Greevil and his brother Ardos, it felt like he became a better person by the end of XD. Potentially if you wanted to upgrade the ONBS station/former Kids Grid again, move them from Pyrite to being based out of here, and you could have any choice of Nett, Megg, Bitt, Secc, Marcia, or Perr if you move him from Gateon to be the leader. As for type, like Pyrite there really isn't any one choice here, perhaps Normal, Ground, or Fighting.

The Pokemon League:

Realgam Tower

So this was probably obvious, but Realgam Tower is just the perfect location for a big finale. Piercing the skies, a symbol of greed, avarice and the arrogance of humanity, having played a role in a couple crises in Orre already. Now though, it has been purified itself, becoming the home of the Pokemon League. The colosseum in the sky, standing high above the rest of the region, is the perfect place to have the final gauntlet of the gym challenge.

As for who runs this joint, I have a couple ideas, none of them fully concrete. For the Elite 4, I was thinking about a handful of candidates, such as Willie, Cail, Eldes, Miror B, Agnol, Eagun, or any number of Area Leaders from Mt. Battle like Vander or Battlus/Somek. Potentially could have it consist of a mixture of the other past Cipher members as well, like Dakim, Lovrina, Nascour, or maybe even Gonzap.

As for the Champion, I feel like it just would have to be either Wes or Michael. More than likely it would be Michael, simply because I do not see Wes wanting to have all the focus on him, let alone stay in a pretentious place like Realgam Tower all the time. Though considering there was the beta concept of Wes being the second leader of Cipher instead of Greevil, I suppose that is entirely possible. You could still very easily make Wes the leader of Cipher version three, and have him be the champion on top with all the money in the world with the betting battles and the casino below. Either way, it could work.

As for whichever of the two of them isn't Champion, then I feel like they would be the superboss of the game. Perhaps you could travel back to Citadark Isle and find them back at the top of the old Cipher HQ and square off with them. After beating them there, you would unlock them as the final gauntlet of the Orre Colosseum, which still is the criminal underworld final challenge not regulated by the League. Away from the public eye in the middle of nowhere desert, just battling for the sake of battling.

And those are all my ideas right now! I had some other potential location ideas such as the S.S. Libra, or perhaps recreating The Under and using the subway, or the Outskirt Stand. I am still formulating a bit of a story in my head, but if you have any thoughts of your own, I would love to hear them!

[justzooks]

are u the same person who runs ask-gadzooks? :o

That's actually my twin brother. Gad is his OC, and Zooks is mine. My bro always consults me when Zooks answers a question.