hhghgnm i am back. again. for a different thing. i hope you don't mind, i feel like i've talked a lot lately and yet here i am again :'] this will be a bit of a ramble, if i need to apologise at all, then i am doing so now (if not, thanks for your continued patience?? i know my tendency to ramble probably too much too often)

so. you've awakened the dormant single braincell dedicated purely to pokemon stuff. specifically with that one art for childe and zhongli (no surprises there). congration you done it. i thought it might be more considerate to collect my rambles into an ask here rather than leave a hefty tag ramble on a reblog so here i am, because i desperately need to talk to you about it- or at least ask,, no really i would love to talk about it more but that's very up to you

before anything else i want to let you know how much i internally screamed and cried that you gave childe a lantern. tears of joy. no jokes there. you're absolutely right it's perfect for him. also, it's been ages since i read pokespe especially gen 3 and 6 (if gen 6 is relevant? bc gen 3 remakes? my memory is too hazy so i have to include it just in case,, and beyond that i may not be caught up at all, as i haven't had the opportunity to play the games beyond gen 6 and so kinda fell out of stuff since then except for clinging to the stuff i already knew,,) so i need to reread those, but at least personality-wise the thought that struck me was... childe has some gold vibes?? is that. is that just me or. their general attitudes- i can't unsee it,, anyway, i also love the attention to detail with the pokeballs and alternate colour gigalith. thank you. if you apologised for pokemon nerd shining through, this pokemon nerd is rejoicing in what it sees. however dormant it may've been, pokemon was basically the thing that dominated my childhood interests so hahah,,, it's quite strong. also with the titles aside ace trainer and gentleman so true, so true indeed.

so uh.... here's the thing where i ask.... you gave them 5 each, but.... 6 is a full team, so.... :) :) :) any thoughts on, if they had a 6th, who/what it'd be (this question of full 6 pokemon teams also extends to the twins and xiao, not just childe and zhongli. should i be sorry?? i am sorry?? i would hate to think of such things mostly bc i would have a hard time because of overthinking it but i don't know what it's like for you for things like that-)? and eheheh,, can i ask permission to try teambuilding the teams for real. do you know of/use pokemon showdown? i semi-casually use it (with a hint of seriousness, but like. nothing compared to some people) every now and then mostly because testing teams is much easier there,, not that i have anything to stop me from making a team in one of the actual games, it's just. slower. and more of a process. but i really want to try it for them,, if you wouldn't mind, of course. the only thing that would annoy me in such an endeavour would be that shiny gigalith isn't actually amber-coloured. sigh. i don't even have to include not knowing gen 7+ things on that note because it's nothing a lil research and experimenting wouldn't fix, but alternate colours? sad that i can't do much about that one. ah, while I'm at it, not to be super finicky with details or anything,, haha, but hypothetically, for teambuilding, just as a question in general, what would their battle format preferences be...? just the usual singles, or...? if there would be any different preference, i am curious about

hopefully i didn't miss anything but then again, this is probably long enough as it is,,,, whoops

my dear we're on the EXACT same boat holy fuck.

i'm going to put the rest below a read more to spare everyone else's dash, bc you kinda enabled my pokemon floodgates lmao

i too followed pokespe up till the start of gen5 and then kinda lost track of it, but since i'm a hoenn sucker i went back to read the oras chapters (for steven. it was all for steven). if you're wondering- i remember the story being quite decent? take it as an extra chapter for the rse arc, that's basically what it is. sadly nothing will ever top everything surrounding the first 3 regions + dpp (they get extra points for the giratina ordeal), but it was aight.

and you're absolutely right, childe has gold vibes. not an exact 1:1 but there's some things that are just too similar to overlook. alternatively, he's like an unholy mix of red and gold.

i honestly can't remember why i only gave them 5 each- i think in my mind 6 has always been far too many creatures, but 4 too little, so i always fall somewhere in the middle;; as for showdown,

that's where i planned the teams. that's literally where i went to sort thru all pokemon and pick and choose the ones that better fit. i'm a bit of a random team match enjoyer, never been one for building functional competitive teams but i do like playing so random has always been the go-to option.

if i had to give them a sixth slot, it'd probably be: for childe either a pawmot, luxray, or gengar. i feel like his team needs a bit more electric to honor his delusion beyond lanturn, or alternatively some poison or ghost to represent the Abyss. i'd also lowkey give him a nidoqueen, he seems like the kinda guy who'd have one. for zhongli it'd be either rhydon, tyrantrum, aggron, or maybe bastiodon? steel types would fit as steel comes from the earth, ultimately. claydol i could also sorta see, like some sort of living relic. if i allowed myself to pick from the starters, torterra (bc azhdaha). as a joke i'd give him drampa. i feel like almost no dragon types would fit and it lowkey frustrates me lmao for xiao i feel like another flying type would be overkill, so maybe something like an umbreon or a mightyena? he has an absol already, he'd absolutely have a mightyena. if not, then maybe a crobat? if childe has gold vibes then xiao most definitely has silver vibes, although i don't think he'd really mistreat his pokemon at all. i could also see him having an ariados or shedinja ngl for aether and lumine i gave them five bc eevee was like their childhood shared pokemon and then they sort of got matching duos, so they kind of share all five? but strictly speaking they're two different trainers. idk. if i had to give them like another shared pokemon, it'd be castform. or maybe something like a kecleon, sawsbuck, or togekiss. if we count them as separate trainers then i'd give them a pair of indeedee, to follow tradition with the meowstics and ralts line. that'd make it seven mons but it'd still be possible. i honestly don't have the brain rn for six for each tho lmao plus since they kinda share them i think they'd stop at seven. like three each to make six + eevee. if not then i lean towards castform. aether would dress it up like those images where the cloud bumps are boobs and lumine would hate him for it.

as for their battle performances, the twins would absolutely fight doubles. like you could catch them one on one but most of the time it'd be either both or neither. xiao and zhongli would be used to fighting doubles as team partners, but it wouldn't be like their main mode. i think both would've kinda gone their own ways and now fought singles, but wouldn't be against doubles on their own. childe would be singles all the way, OR triples, if only for the chaos. also childe would lowkey go into contests. i mean he has milotic, he kinda has to have been there at some point. maybe tonia wanted to see it so he agreed for his princess. or like- tonia was being bullied by mean girls for it and he decided he'd curbstomp them with a feebas.

anyway aaaaaa,, i went on a ramble again, this is really just my pokemon nerd speaking. i hope that was useful! it's nice to know i'm not the only one on this bandwagon hahah;;

full list of my OCs because I wanna babble about them!!

Marlowe Flynn (you can see more on them on my roleplay blog for them, @blxndebutlering, if you’re interested)

Jubilee Parsons

Lea Hawthorne

Jezebel Paganini

Nadya Sidorov

Bella M. Figaro

Adalyn Smith

Alabaster (Sylvana Locke)

Blair and Connor Slingby

Heather and Lucien Humphries

Lily and Charles Knox

Aubrey and Ashleigh Sutcliff

Anna Marie Spears

Margaret “Peggy” Wilson

Beatrice Till

Morana and Morello Cosgrove

Queenie

Katherine Lennox

Jane Durless-Barnett

Victoria Masters

Lenore Roberts

Gemma Carter

Vivian Jones

Sitaaron Bahl

Harathi Sadana

Felicity Moretti

Adrianna Genovese

reply to the post or reblog to answer~? Who do you wanna hear about? <3

this is sort of a silly question but what are some good opera recordings for someone who’s never watched opera before…. im VERY interested in the drama and stories and everything u talk about and have been wanting to watch some lately..

ehehehe (rubbing my hands together)... these will be video productions and not audio bc i find introductions work best with the videos

MY FAVORITE RECORDINGS OF MY BIG 4 FAVORITE OPERAS THAT I WILL NEVER SHUT UP ABOUT:

- don giovanni: salzburg festival 1987 owns so much. it's a very simple production (no 'gimmicks', set in original setting, kinda nothing special costumewise or setwise) but the acting and general flow is really good and gets across Exactly what don giovanni, as a piece of media, is. i think the met 1990 one is also good and is also good at getting across don g. but it's like... too glitzy sometimes and isn't as... idk... accurate. (i have a copy of the 1987 salzburg w/ subtitles so dm me about it, but i know both of these exist online but without subtitles.)

- the rake's progress: glyndebourne 2010 just GETS it. rake's is an opera that needs to be set in its original setting of like, a funhouse mirror version of the 18th century, and the hockney production (which this is) gets it like no other production. also the singers are good and have been nice to me on twitter dot com. there's other rakes that can be found online but they take the opera like... too seriously as an arthouse piece and not a funhouse one. (again i have a copy of this so dm me. it's in english but you probably will need to reference the (also online) libretto bc english opera sounds strange if you aren't used to it)

the marriage of figaro: oooh this one is hard. the other 3 here i can kinda point to like one thing or the other and be like 'thats it thats the one' but there's no production of marriage of figaro that sticks with me as The one. generally as long as it has subtitles and doesn't have the aforementioned arthouse feel youre fine LOL there's like 50 good ones on youtube

rigoletto: i like the 1982 ponnelle movie sue me. tbh this is less bc i particularly have a thing for the ponnelle movie as much as it is... like... sorry but nobody comprehends rigoletto in the same shrimp colors way i do so there's no production i've seen where i stop and go "yes this is IT" (mostly this is because directors do not know that the title character is disabled despite that being like the core of the entire show) but the 1982 movie is good. it is on youtube but i believe it does not have subtitles so you'd have to have a libretto on hand (thankfully that is also online)

other starter operas and their best productions-

the barber of seville: my mutuals would kill me and bury me in a roadside ditch if i didn't say the 2007 met opera one (which i have a link to but i would have to check for subtitles). the royal opera house one from 2009 (iirc? its the one where joyce didonato broke her leg) is also baller too tho but i'd have to search for it bc i haven't ripped my blu-ray of that yet

carmen: shit man the best carmen i've ever seen was a live show so this one is hard for me. the met one from... 2009? is good but now that ive seen a carmen that's like genuinely bone-chilling it's hard to find anything that compares

la boheme and la traviata: i'm putting these together because they're both 'girl gets tuberculosis and mcfucking dies' but in like different ways. and also bc i am not the expert on either of them so i'd have to do research (read: consult my mutuals and discord until someone reaches a conclusion) so put a pin in this one

il trovatore: trovatore is not usually considered a starter opera but its so integral to this blog as the Warrior Cats: The New Prophecy Opera that it needs to be mentioned. again nobody gets trovatore like i and da mutuals do so there's no trovatore that like, Has the emotional impact i think it should have so uh. watch either the met 2013 or 2015 one (which ik i have around somewhere but i'd have to track for subtitles) and then watch the hawkfrost 3rd planet pmv right after so you can Understand the Gravitas etc

others: ask me personally bc i talk about many more operas than just that and they are all insane.

Hi 👋 you have been on my radar for some time, but I've had a rough few months and haven't been able to read as much fanfiction as I would like... but I'm about to tuck into your stuff while I go on vacation! ❤️ looking forward to reading! Ps- you don't have to answer this, just wanted to say hi and give you some kudos!! 😊

I’ve been on your radar?!?! *fangirls incoherently* Me? ME?!?! *sqeuals*

Aww darling you’re too kind. You’ve written some of the most decadently naughty things I’ve ever read so *wow* *hi**covert glomp*

I’m sorry to hear about your hardship lately- I’m here if you ever wanna chat ❤️- but I’m super happy to hear of your vacation. Safe and happy travels my darling!!! And if you do read my stuff *eheheh nervous laughing and profuse sweating* I hope you find something you enjoy.

Much love to you darling 😍❤️😍❤️