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More aesthetic doodles

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Just some doodles I made in response to random aesthetic word pairs.

A sort of coral light fixture, and a bacteriophage siege engine.

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Mew, caught stealing spaghetti.

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(More vaguely WBJ-inspired drabbles)

Day 8: How is your world run? Who’s in power?  

  “...and tomorrow, your very own Pokémon stories will unfold!” Cee belted out to a cheering group of ten-year olds, as his Ninjask swooped overhead, nimbly slaloming through rings his Alakazam levitated. “Thank you, thank you! Remember, get lots of sleep tonight!”  

  And with a flash of light, and oohs and ahhs from the audience, he vanished with a teleport.  

  As he, his Alakazam, and his Ninjask reappeared in an alley a block away, he leaned against a wall, sighing. He wasn’t complaining that his job as the newest Elite 4 member was busy and stressful- he’d known to expect that when the Trainer’s Congress offered him the position.  

  But he’d hoped his job would have involved more things like law enforcement coordination or technique codification, not… all this public face work.  

  Why was it so important to even cheer on all these kids, anyways? Sure, more than half would stick around long enough to make it through the year of Trainer’s Leave, but maybe one in that entire school would go on to make a career from training.  

  Cee put his hands in his pockets as he started to walk towards the street. He felt a bit guilty, feeling this way, but… well, was he guilty of cynicism, or guilty of raising the hopes of kids who’d just want to forget the failure of washing out?  

  “My, the kids sure are loud today,” he heard a woman in a fruit stall comment to her customer, a younger lady coaxing her Pineco to share basket space with the purchased cantelope.  

  “They’re getting their starters tomorrow! (schooch over Dewdrop or I’ll make you hop)”  

  “Oh, that’s lovely~ I’ll never forget the day I first met little Cloudpuff!” The seller turned around and affectionately patted an Ampharos on the tummy, who bleated in good humor. “Of course, we only ever earned two badges. Even if you only needed six back then...”   The old lady sighed, but contently. “Best year of my life. It’s how I met my first boyfriend.”

   Pineco-lady chuckled. “Eight badges, lost the prelims of the tournament. Once spent three days camping down in the Domino Expanse just to hide from a rainstorm. I still take my team back there every year or so, we love the memories.”

   Well, Cee was sure feeling silly. Those common, everyday bits of being a Trainer were just his life, his normal. But to the kids who returned to their original normals, of course those moments might just be all the more precious treasures...  

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Day 7: How does the economy work in your world? What sorts of currencies do they use?

Civilization! After two nights spent in sleeping bags amid muddy dirt, Vance was relieved to see the lights of the Meridian City Pokémart. Grace was somewhat better for wear, but both of them were shocked at how naturally Leaf had taken to roughing it. She led the group virtually the whole journey, navigated without ever checking a map, and somehow had managed to pack a fresh outfit for every day into that small bag of hers.

And yet, upon entry into the Mart, she seemed to freeze right back into the timid girl they’d first met. Though… to any new trainer, the shelves packed with Pokémon merchandise, pharmacuticals, healthy food, and unhealthy food was quite an experience. “Come on,” Vance coaxed. “Let’s get some ice-cream or something!”

“We’re not all made of money,” Grace objected, but wavered upon seeing a Rawst Berry ice cream sandwich in the freezer. “...Well. It’s a special occasion…”

“Um...” Leaf murmured, grabbing an ice cream bar of her own, smiling a bit at the pleasant chill. “What do we do now?”

The clerk, overhearing, sighed. He wished that parents would actually teach their kids how to pay for things so he didn’t have to tutor the snots every spring. “Hey, miss, did your parents give you any balance cards?” From the way she froze up blankly at the question, he could tell the answer was no.

Physical cash was almost never used anymore; adults did things almost purely through digital accounts. Children on Trainer’s Leave were also eligible for payment accounts, and most would have some opened by their parents with a travel allowance, but rechargable stored-value cards saw more actual use in that crowd- it was an open secret that the kids would gamble on battles, and physical tokens were just how things were settled.

“Look, let’s just look you up...” He pointed a camera at her. Many adults refused to enable facial recognition access on their own bank accounts for privacy reasons, but tracking children on their first ventures into the world was, for better or for worse, much better tolerated.

The kiosk chirped approvingly, as the man checked the screen. “See, that wasn’t hard, you’re good to cover this. Huh. Auroz? Odd name for a girl… whatever, move on, already.”

Leaf tiptoed out of the shop with, apparently, her purchase, bewildered at the exchange.

* * * * *

Elsewhere in town, a new trainer by the name of Auroz, who had enabled text alerts on his account out of paranoia, received a concerning message indicating his account had been accessed, to the tune of 300 pesos.

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(Domino drabbles)

Day 6: How does gender & sexuality work in your world?  

  Katrina woke up to a tapping on her window. After glancing out in confusion, she catapulted herself out of bed at the sight of a dragon casually hovering over the fire escape. The dragon she’d tripped into making friends with yesterday...  

  “Tab!” she hissed at the Latias, “Did you fly here without a disguise?! Did anyone see you?”  

  Tab giggled. “Nah, I just couldn’t be bothered to work out how your apartment’s doorbell worked. On the way over I had a proper human disguise.” With a shimmer the image of a human man appeared just inside the window, to Katrina’s puzzlement.  

  “Wait, sorry, do you preferred being called a guy then..?”  

  Human-Tab sighed. “Right, the social constructs… Crash-course, for Latii physical gender presentation boils down to how we color our scales, but is traditionally assigned on the same… system… you do. So, some Latii try to match their human disguises to their gender on that basis, but, well… most of us just pick a human bodytype based on aesthetics.”  

  Katrina seemed satisfied at the explanation, if a bit flustered at broaching the topic. “So wait, are there Latii that show up in, like, green or yellow or purple..?”  

  Tab looked reflective. “Well, purple has some special meanings it’s a bit rude to claim on a lark, but otherwise I think it happens, yes...”

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(Same spiel, Pokémon drabbles loosely inspired by Worldbuilding June prompts)

Day 5: What sorts of civilizations and architecture fill your world?

Tab dived under the bridge, dipping a talon into the water to kick up a mist as she skimmed the surface. The Latias loved Channel City, especially at this time of year, when the Cheri festival was held in the park by the river- it smelled lovely. And she was smelling it now, in fact, she just had pass by the baseball stadium and another bridge and she’d be there!

A short flight for any Latias, of course; perhaps if she’d been spotted by any of the drivers trapped in traffic on the bridge things would have been more exciting… Channel City had a flair for the monumental, certainly- filling itself with buildings inspired by classical Johtoan styles as well as the Kalosian idea of what ancient ruins should look like- but the street layouts were awful. Even with a dragon’s eye view she could only rarely work out the path between any two points, and she doubted most of the humans did any better. In any case, she would not in fact have been spotted; her kind was good at disguising themselves. Barely any humans knew they even lived among them! She ducked behind a model of the Tin Tower erected at the festival, putting on her illusion of mild-mannered human reporter Tab.

“Of course you fly and leave me to the mercies of festival traffic.”

...that would be Katrina, her partner on the reporting beat, one of the few humans who did know her true species, and, therefore, pretty much the only roommate she could find.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were- wait, you got here before me anyways!”

Katrina chuckled. “Nah, I’ve been here for hours, getting photos and interviews. Your basic human-interest story, you know?”

“Hnau-interest. Everybody loves berries.”

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(drabbles from the Domino region for Worldbuilding June, some more tied to the prompt than others.)

Day 4: What’s its history?

Grace ran through the pouring rain, miserable. All that preparation and nobody had thought about an umbrella… although her dad had ensured her bag was waterproof, at least.

Rosa was much less perturbed, the Chikorita splashing through puddles happily. Well. No sense cleaning her up anytime soon. Grace glanced up, noticing the outline of a building just up ahead- shelter!

She ran up the stone steps to the grand oak door, worried she might not be able to make her knock audible over the storm… but the point became moot, as the door had long ago fallen off its hinges. And yet it was not completely uninhabited, judging by a small light within…

“Hello?!” Grace called, after a moment hearing a familiar voice return. “Hello?” Sure enough, as she crossed the drafty, moldy hallway into the lit room, her eyes were greeted with the sight of that Leaf girl from earlier, huddling next to her Cyndaquil for warmth.

“We… can be here, right?” the shorter-hair girl asked nervously, glancing around as though one of the knights from the faded paintings on the walls might pop out to arrest her. “Nah, we’re fine,” Grace assured her, as Rosa shook herself dry to indignant yelps from the Cyndaquil.

“HELLO?!” called a less-familiar voice, as a green-haired boy in an orange blazer ran into the hall. “Oh! Um… hey, do you mind if I wait here with you until the storm lets up?”

A little impatient at having to explain herself a second time in a row, Grace huffed. “Nobody lives here, okay?”

The boy glanced behind him nervously. “Nobody? But… this place is a castle… who would leave it empty?” Sure enough, now that she had time to dry off and take in her surroundings, the building was pretty large… with very old-fashioned decorations. And yet…

“I know there were some castles around here from, like, two thousand years ago...” Grace murmured, “back when these lands were ruled by the Unovan kings. But most of them are ruins now. Unless...” She took a look at a pair of swords hanging above an unused fireplace. “Hm… these are just flat sheet metal… I guess this place was rebuilt as a tourist trap?”

The boy frowned. “Then why is it empty now?”

Grace shrugged. “Didn’t trap enough tourists?” She saw Leaf hesitantly raise a hand. “What’s up?”

Leaf asked, slowly, “It’s… not going to trap us, right?”

Grace and the boy both chuckled. “No, it’s just the sort of place visitors from far-away parts of Domino would come visit for vacation back before airplanes let them go to Alola or Kalos or, I dunno, Suocé.”

“Oh.” Leaf smiled, looking a bit more comfortable.

“Alola’s alright. I’m actually from Kalos,” the boy commented, squirming to find a more comfortable seating.

“Ooh! Did you do the League there?! What Pokémon live in Kalos?!” Leaf squealed, making the foreign trainer blush somewhat.

“I- um- it’s my first year too, my family just… sends all of us overseas for our Trainer’s Leave,” he confessed.

Grace narrowed her eyes quizically, asking, “So, wait, did you get your starter here, or back home?”

This seemed to make the boy uncomfortable. “Um… I’ll show him to you if you promise not to laugh.” The two girls shrugged casually, so he took out a Pokéball. “Hey Nibble! Come out!”

A Magikarp materialized, looking startled at the strangers staring at it.

“Interesting for a first Pokémon,” Grace commented, prompting Vance to hug the fish defensively.

“He’ll be really strong someday! It’s just… a Macraul family tradition to work hard for whatever it is you want! My parents said they want to make sure I understand that...”

“Aw, don’t worry, nobody here will ever eat you,” Leaf cooed, petting the Magikarp on his head, prompting a sideeye from Grace.

“There’s nothing wrong with Magikarp,” Grace assured him. “A bit unsual for a starter, is all… does he know how to do anything besides splash about yet?”

“...no,” he confessed. “My big brother was supposed to meet me around here to help me get started, but I haven’t found him...”

Leaf giggled. “That’s probably part of the challenge! They said he’d be there but he actually won’t be!” The Macraul kid looked a bit unnerved at the thought, earning Leaf a glare from Grace. “Er- what’s your first name, anyways?”

“Oh, I’m Vance,” Vance vanced.

“I’m, uh- oh yeah, Leaf! And this is Dawn!” Leaf chirped, gesturing to her Cyndaquil.

“Grace. And Rosa.” Grace introduced. “...if you’re heading for Meridian City, I could probably help you teach Nibble an attack on the way.”

Vance squirmed, looking a bit conflicted. “Maybe, yeah...”

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(Worldbuilding June drabbles continue)

Day 3: Who lives in your world?

At 10 AM, the Pokémon Lab in Imago Town would open. It would be an hour’s drive to get there, so her dad had to leave at 9. Dressing and breakfast meant waking up at 8.

Grace woke up at 6. Though... her sleep was quite intermittent, even before then.

She made breakfast, popping two toaster pastries into the toaster oven. It felt a little irresponsible to have a treat like that, but it was a special day.

Her mom joined her around 7:30, running through a list of things to not forget. Grace didn’t forget them. They hugged, as her mom explained she couldn’t bear to come to the lab and drag out the goodbye even longer. Her dad came in, making sure she remembered the same list. Strangely, neither of them remembered to ask her if she had a powerbank for her new cell phone. She did, but having only one secretly worried her.

At the last minute, her mom changed her mind, deciding to cram into the pickup truck and go with them to the lab after all. “I want to meet who you pick...” she explained, hesitantly, as the truck rolled to life down the dusty road.

In a few hours, Grace was going to be a trainer.

* * *

The night before...

At 9 PM, the library in Imago Town was closing. The librarian checked the rooms, only seeing one patron remaining- a kid studying an atlas of the Domino region. Cramming for the start of the training season, presumably. “Are you ready to leave?” she asked, willing to bend the hours a little given the occasion. The kid- a girl, she thought, though most people were pretty androgynous at that age- glanced up with a start, taking a second for words to come to her.

“I’m ready,” she agreed, quickly standing and reaching for the atlas.

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll put that away for you,” the librarian assured her. “You have a busy day tomorrow, right?”

“Yes!” the girl answered with a nervous smile, slinging her bag over her shoulder and waving as she walked out the door.

Once outside, the girl glanced around. The street was empty... the librarian was not peeking out the window…

With a puff of smoke, the Zorua dismissed her human disguise. She’d have to get used to holding up that trick for hours, and it was definitely easier to hold her bag when she had legs to work with, but right now she really needed to sleep.

She’d already said her good-byes to her family, in the woods near Meridian City, a few days ago. They probably thought she’d been caught already; she hadn’t mentioned her plan to trek out to Imago, much less what she planned to do once she got here.

It wasn’t strictly a false statement when she said she wanted to travel the world with a team of other Pokémon. But she definitely left her parents with the impression that there would be a human calling the shots. A safe assumption for most Pokémon, but she had her own dream unfurling.

In a few hours, the Zorua was going to be a trainer.

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(Pokémon drabbles for Worldbuilding June)

Day 2: What’s the Geography of your world?

“Vance, I think we’re going north.”

Grace glanced at the cave tunnels stretching out into the distance, her Porygon’s holographic form illuminating the cavern.

The boy she addressed pointed defensively to his Nosepass, cheerfully wobbling through the tunnel. “Rudolph pointed us south when we entered the caves! We’ve been going the same way since!”

The Domino Expanse was a massive network of limestone caves and tunnels, running under the entire western half of the Domino region- with at least a few spurs known to stretch even further east. The breathtaking natural formations- stalagmite, stalactites, ridges, pools, fried eggs- formed from millenia of erosion and deposition made trips through it virtually required for trainers on their journeys.

But navigation through it was hardly straightforward.

“That twisty bit where we saw those Sableye curved a lot,” Grace countered. “Why don’t you ask Rudolph if we’re still going south?!”

The Nosepass froze in place, slowly turning around to face the two trainers, her stubby arms drooping in realization.

“...this is why we have Escape Ropes,” Grace sighed, placing a hand to her face.

“My brother says Escape Ropes are for people who don’t know what they’re doing,” Vance grumbled.

“Well, we don’t. LEAF!?”

The girl’s call echoed up a nearby passage, lit by the flickering light of a Cyndaquil. Their third companion sat on a rock, eyes closed, sniffing at the air and listening carefully. She winced at the noise.

“Grace! I think I smell fresh air!”

Down below, Grace glanced at Vance. “Or we can go outside and get our bearings.”

Without further discussion they scrambled up after their friend, Rudolph bouncing behind.

“This way,” Leaf directed, guiding them around a bend, revealing a pinprick of daylight in the distance.

“Aha!” They negotiated the uneven, slippery mud between them and the exit as fast as possible, relieved to see the surface again. The trainers found themselves on a hillside, watching shadows stretch from behind them across the valley.

“...the setting sun’s behind us,” Leaf observed. “We… might have been going just a little bit east...”

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(For Worldbuilding June this year, I’m writing drabbles set in a fan-Pokémon region. Hopefully I can keep them in continuity with each other, but I’m being less technical than last year)

Day 1: Tell us about your world

He watched the children spar in the lot behind the Pokécenter.

Ever since he was their age, he had known what he was.

He had traveled Gyms like them, gone on to enter the professional tournament circuit, finally settled down to run this town’s Gym for twenty years, and always been the same thing.

A Pokémon Trainer.

But that was before retirement. A new youngster was running the Gym now, and they’d finally gotten tired of him shadowing their every match.

Well, fair.

He looked down at the water. A Slowpoke had just caught a Shellder. Or had a Slowbro caught a Shellder? The pair hadn’t finished evolving yet, but they would never again be the same either.

Suspended between one thing and the next. At least they already knew what was next.

He watched the kids battle some more. The darker-skinned girl was using a Porygon; a Pokémon, for sure, and yet decidedly one from the world of humans. He wondered if it ever felt that kind of suspension from its wild-caught teammates.

He stood up. Liminality, that was the word on his mind lately. Caught between two things, possibly neither.

But possibly both. He was retired, but he was a Trainer, too.

He caught the attention of the boy watching his friends fight. “How about a friendly battle?”

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Doodled a pair of Tropius. They look a bit tired and far from home.

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A doodle of an orange-tree-inspired Tropius.

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Vampire Leafeon

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More playing around with Synfig Studio

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Trying to learn Synfig Studio; here’s my Hello, World animation.

(For some reason the preview is just a solid color but if you pop it up you can see the original file which works; I’ll have to figure that out)

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*dusts off blog* A quick doodle of a dandelion ish flower.