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#i LOVE pokemon cards. i can't keep up with every set but i started collecting again now and then a few years ago
aquanutart · 6 months
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I absolutely LOVE the Squirtle/Wartortle illustrations by kantaro in Pokemon 151!
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The Squirtle jumping so joyfully from the rock into the ocean, the colors are STUNNING! I love the contrast of the Squirtle's aqua blue framed in the vivid orange sky, the soft bit of blue reflecting in its shell and its tail just catching the sun, how little and squishy its body looks as it launches itself towards the water with such tremendous excitement!
The lineless style of the background gives me the feel of a travel poster and I sense the tropical environment around it from the rocks and trees framing the corners, the waterfall splashing with as much energy as the Squirtle!
The layered blues on the surface of the water and the bubbles rising at the corner make me FEEL the liquid rising to meet the Squirtle--I can just feel how the next moment it's going to break through and be immersed in a cool island swim!
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And the Wartortle running along the sunset beach, this is somehow everything I always imagined for Wartortle! I adore the way the rich purple melts into the warm red/orange sky, the matching purple clouds and shadows in the foreground, and how the dimming sunlight glows red on Wartortle's deep blues!
I love how the yellow and orange of the sky illuminate the lapping waves, I can just feel the gentle motion of the sea at dusk. The aqua color of the ocean matches Wartortle's ears and tail and sets off the red-orange sand, I just love how the colors are here!
Wartortle looks so round and squishy, I love its happiness as it goes frolicking through the shallows, chasing the bubbles caught in the setting sun! The shine and deep shadow on its shell give it an almost jewel texture like real tortoise shell; I love the silhouetted splash Wartortle leaves as it goes running across the shore. It's so full of energy and delight at the end of a gorgeous day! The colors in these are SO vivid and harmonized and the style is so cute and bursting with energy and joy. I just LOVE it (also Squirtle is my starter)
#pokemon#pokemon tcg#long post#i have deep affection for bulbasaur as well though and i also love the bulbasaur/ivysaur cards in this set#i SO wish we'd gotten art of the final evolutions in the same style as the pre-evos' standard cards!!#(yes i do love the full art ones but i also love the illustrations on the standard cards!)#from the way the settings in these two were going; i would have imagined blastoise to be set at night (??)#i LOVE pokemon cards. i can't keep up with every set but i started collecting again now and then a few years ago#and 151 has really got me wanting the full set the way i haven't since childhood. SO many beautiful illustrations (but there always are)#it's like having little pieces of art of my favorite characters and it's only.. slightly... less expensive than actually commissioning ....#i KNOW it's less expensive to buy the individuals online but it's so much less fun#part of the fun is having YOUR own pokemon journey ((going to the store)) and seeing what YOU encounter ((when you open the pack))#i do buy them online sometimes but i usually dont form as strong associations with them as when i open a pack in a certain setting or place#i tend to try to save them to open right before a significant event like starting something new or a holiday. so that i form associations#and it's like 'oh that's the galarian obstagoon from when my mom came home for christmas'#and 'that's the snorlax who reassured me when i was hurt'#i don't buy them too often so i've got to make it count#anyway i know i should wait for the prices on this one to come down because it's absolutely ridiculous#i didn't buy anything at release because i was like $6 for one booster pack??? but i couldn't take just sitting and watching them sell out#i really like the poster because i can look at so many beautiful pictures all together#i could say stuff like this about literally every pokemon illustration (if i had time to write it out) and sometimes i've wanted to#i just chose these two because these are a couple of my original favorite pokemon and i just couldn't keep it to myself. i LOVE these
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change-the-rules · 7 years
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FROM ONE PIKACHU TO ANOTHER sidenote do they play pokemon in the au do they have fave pokes. also i can't wait for alex and maggie to meet and realize they're soulmates and to be like "ok but i'm still mad about the trex and feathers thing" and then forl ucy to come in like "guys theyve been dead for years"
oh oh dude okay so I hadn’t really thought about it in context of the soulmate au specifically so it hasn’t been mentioned and it probably won’t be but they totally do and on valentines day when Magie is like 6 she doodles a pokeball and some cheesy shit like I choose you to be my soulmate and it’s adorable.
Also that is totally like an ongoing ‘fight’ Alex and Maggie have, like Maggie actually took some paleontology classes for funsies and as an adult she actually thinks it’s really cool the kind of strides we’ve made in science and the hows and whys T-Rexes probably had feathers but then there’s the little kid nostalgia and Alex gets so worked about science facts so Maggie just ‘nope 15 years later and it’s still lame’ and they bicker endlessly about it 
And when Lucy is like ‘guys guess what? they’ve been dead for years, technically none of them have feathers anymore.’  
Maggie looks up at her with the biggest saddest eyes and Alex pouts because she was going to get Maggie to see reason this time but now look at how sad she is and Lucy is just jfc how did I end up with such nerds for soulmates and she has to go put on Jurassic Park 2 and cuddle with them(Jurassic Park is Maggie’s go to comfort movie but Jurassic Park: The Lost World  is Lucy’s ‘I fucked up by saying the dinosaurs were extinct to end an argument so now we have to watch a T-Rex rampage through San Diego to balance it out).
Sooooo….I got so carried away with various pokemon hcs that I had to put it under a cut….
I have so many poke hc’s for them in general but like I tend hc Maggie as a gamer, little Maggie growing up and she can’t afford to collect the cards but she loves the anime and eventually saves up enough to get a gameboy color. Her first game is red and she plays it so many times she practically wears out the cartridge. She’s the first person (and only for awhile) in blue springs to catch Mew. She eventually collects and plays all the games and she’s a complete expert on all the glitches and secrets. 
Alex was more of a casual fan she watched the anime sometimes but Vicky liked playing the games so Alex asked her parents to buy her a gameboy color and trading pokemon on the playground is probably the most social Alex ever was without alcohol.
She did really REALLY get into collecting the cards though and at one point Maggie and Alex visit Eliza in Midvale and Alex’s room is as she left it. Maggie is having fun poking around and teasing Alex for her Xena memorabilia and Dana Scully and BtVS posters(seriously Danvers, Faith is practically eye-fucking the camera in that one across from your bed how did you not know)  when she finds the three thick Pokemon card binders and freezes. Alex notices and grabs them like I totally forgot I had these and she starts flipping through one reminiscing and handing another to Maggie and Maggie almost shits herself because Alex has a first edition base set holo Charizard, she has all the starters, she has all the original 151 cards in various editions from different series and collections , She has holos, she has Japanese cards, she has shining cards. Kara ends up stopping by because I could hear Maggie’s erratic heart rate from National city and ‘holy shit is everyone okay?’ 
Alex’s attachment to the cards is more nostalgia than anything so she’s like you can have them if you want, Maggie almost has a heart attack. Of course she refuses those cards are worth more than she makes in a month but Alex brings them back to National City and they just kind of end up ‘Maggie’s’ anyway.
Lucy collected the cards too but she actually played the trading card game. Being an army brat could be isolating but pokemon in the 90s was inescapable and it was something to do on any base, in any school she ended up in for awhile. Lucy played to win and for keeps and she ended up with her own pretty decent collection of cards even though hers aren’t nearly in the kind of mint condition Alex’s are in. Maggie still hyperventilates sometimes if she catches sight of the 5 card binders on the bookcase(Alex organized Lucy’s collection from an old shoebox into binders of their own). 
For her birthday Lucy and Alex get Maggie an unopened special edition pokemon gameboy color from the yellow bundle. She cries because she had wanted that one more than anything as a kid but couldn’t afford it and they spend the night cuddled up together playing pokemon on their gameboys like the nerds they are. 
Maggie and Winn stay up all night outside gamestop for the 20th aanniversary red and blue 3ds bundle.  
Maggie’s ultimate fav is Bulbasaur she remembers watching the anime and wishing she had one to protect her from the bullies and eventually she gets older and decides she may never have a Bulbasaur but she can be one for others. 
She has a bunch of favorites though including pikachu (she will physically fight anyone who says something about anyone not being a ‘real fan’ because pikachu is too famous or popular a pokemon), Aerodactly, Kabuto(her first body on the beach she sees a horseshoe crab and has to try really hard not to lose her shit because she’s from landlocked nebraska, and she is looking a kabuto and basically it’s an effort to remind herself that she is a newly promoted detective that needs to get her shit together) Tauros, Nidoqueen, Donphan, Tyranitar(basically if it’s vaguely dino-like she has a soft spot but dragons can go either way stemming from her childhood belief they arent as cool as dinos), Mightyena, Groudon, alright I’m going to stop but she develops favorites in each gen.
Alex meanwhile is staunchly first gen and she and Maggie bicker about constantly. 
Alex tended to favor water pokemon but not exclusively some of her faves Lapras, Vaporeon, Porygon, Starmie, Dratini, Ninetails, Abra/Alakazam and Onix. She also has a secret soft spot for Togepi as well as Espeon and Umbreon who she thinks of kind of like her and Kara, sun and moon and argues that they still technically count as 1st gen because they’re eevee evolutions. 
Lucy is mostly only really familiar with the first gen and some of the second but she doesn’t really care either way and will choose sides based on maximum amusement for the moment. Some of her favs include Squirtle/Blastoise, Arcanine, Pidgeot, Nidoking, Machamp, Lickitung, Gyarados, Flareon.
And well Alex is a BIOengineer and she studies alien physiology and genetic engineering and if anyone was going to ‘accidentally’ create real life pokemon it would be her okay.
(mostly I just really think J'onn needs a Ditto…..)
And I was talking about this with nerdsbianhokie ages ago and they pointed out that Alex has seen Jurassic Park enough times to know to not create large creatures that can kill humans and would probably go with the mini-zoo variety and then they blessed me with the mental image of a tiny little Ditto riding on J'onn’s shoulder.
Vasquez would end up making obligatory pocket size jokes that they don’t even pretend aren’t about Maggie and Lucy. They’d only stop when Alex threatens to withhold the actual mini pocket monsters from them and even then only when They’re within ear shot of Alex.
The spacefam ending up with mini-pokemon protectors. Maggie gets her fucking Bulbasaur and everyone cries. 
And then my dude I have not even touched on pokemon go hc’s
Kara blowing an entire paycheck on upgrading her pokemon storage because she can’t bring herself to turn any of her duplicates into candy and she needs to catch every single pokemon she sees. She has like a thousand pidgeys at this point.
Nerdsbianhokie was like but Kara being upset that she flies too fast for the app.
And Alex/Maggie/Lucy? Pokemon go would be terrible and awesome for those competitive nerds. They have zero shame.
Lucy exploits her military contacts, her and Alex abuse DEO resources, Alex makes Kara fly her around the world to get the region locked pokemon. 
After Lucy came back from a ‘work trip’ in Asia with a Farfetch’d,  Alex made Kara take the day off and wouldn’t let them go home til she had multiple Farfetch'ds, Kangeshkans, and Mr. Mimes. 
Maggie tries to keep up but detecting only gets her so far. She does have a network of ppl who are the type to text the location of a Lapras at 3am.When Kara realizes the edge Lucy and Alex have she starts exclusively helping Maggie. 
Alex is completely overdramatic like my own sister, MY OWN SISTER pretending to pretend to make a huge production about loyalty. And Kara’s just like ‘I’m just being fair besides Lucy and Maggie are my sisters too at this point’ and Alex just melts. She also gets Winn to build her a long range Jet pack into the kryptonite suit in an attempt and get back on top of the game but she’s melty while doing it. 
Winn Mr.tech genius manages to get himself banned from ‘suping’ up his account and has to start over at level 21. He cries.
As repayment for not commenting upon the melty-ness during the jet pack building Alex takes his phone with her on flights since he had to start over. Of course, being Alex she doesn’t actually say this she just sort of punches his arm in thanks, steals the phone and drops it back into his lap later with a few eggs hatched, some new pokemon and a full items inventory.
Lucy realizes she’s the only one currently unable to fly which oh hell no so she starts scheming. 
‘Director Lane, did you requisition military resources for a video game?’  'Of course not, it’s an app.’ (via nerdsbianhokie)
Vasquez is the first to get the original 151….All of them… no one understands, they have no obvious hacks, seemingly haven’t left North America, Ditto is still a spoty rumor at that point and Mewtwo is confirmed as not yet available or even programed and yet… Vasquez has them. When anyone asks They deflect and says you should see my wife’s.
Erin is level 48 way too early in the game.She has a Mew. Everyone is kinda of scared of them after learning about it, the true power couple.
No one ever figures out how they did it. 
J’onn just wants his agents to behave like professionals and bans non-related phone use during working hours after seven agents ran away from their posts to catch a Charizard. He’s in the middle of lecturing them when Lucy and Alex stroll in like did you guys see that Charizard?!
(Kara downloaded the app to his phone and J’onn totally caught the Charizard)
James takes pictures of the gang doing absolutely ridiculous things while trying the catch pokemon and it becomes a meme.
There’s a gym (The D.E.O was also accidently made a gym what no Vasquez and Winn had nothing to do with that what are you talking about) accessible from Alex’s apartment and it’s a bloodbath because they’re all on different teams, Maggie-Instinct, Lucy-Valor and Alex-Mystic.
Just yea……uhmmm this all got away from me *shrugs sheepishly*
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