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#i just really like team galactic
lollitree · 1 year
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So as a kid I remember getting the Manaphy egg from Pokemon Ranger 2 and sending it over to Diamond. What I didn't know, was that that was a limited time event. And because I loved replaying the DPPt story I would always restart my game. I would often send my favs/special pokemon over to another game and then back? Eventually sending all those to my Platinum game WHICH I LOST.
So I HAD that event Manaphy, it was the only time I ever got an event Pokemon as a kid (though I didn't know it) AND I THREW IT AWAY I'm devastated
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timegears-moved · 1 year
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just noticed that while the text is glitching out before the very last sada/turo fight with koraidon/miraidon it briefly flashes to "ai sada/turo has no intention of fighting anymore" before it goes back to saying the paradise protection protocol is challenging you
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meistoshi · 4 months
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i have a whole Thing for this. but satoshi's core-deep terrified of lys & everything he represents. sole reason kalos is the region satoshi returns to the Least.
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foone · 5 months
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Alternative names for humanity along the lines of "Homo sapiens" (Wise man) and "Pan narrans" (Storytelling Chimpanzee) that I'm too lazy to look up/make up Latin for:
chef ape
throwing ape
walking ape
The idea being that we're apparently unique in the animal kingdom in that we cook our food, so we're the Chef Apes. We're also one of the best animals at throwing things: humans have more accuracy and strength when throwing stuff than other apes, by a long shot
And apparently our ability to walk slowly for ages was key to our early survival as persistence predators. We can't outrun a gazelle or mammoth or whatever, but we don't tire easily and so we can just keep following it until it runs out of stamina
Pan basipila: the baseball playing Bonobo
If only baseball had a cooking element, it would be the perfect Human Sport.
We need to devise a sport where you cook something, follow someone for a long time, and then throw it at them.
The most human thing is the surprise pie to the face
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Also as much as I like Terry Pratchett's suggestion of "Pan narrans" I wouldn't be surprised if we turn out to not be the only animal that tells stories...
Elephants. I bet elephants do.
Like, there was that case where an injured elephant went to a ranger station for help. One it had never been to before, but other elephants had.
The theory being then that some other elephant had told this elephant "hey if you're hurt, go here, the humans will help"
That, combined with how they have burial rituals (some which might indicate there's an elephant religion!), and that we're working on figuring out how elephants communicate...
It wouldn't surprise me if we learn sometimes in the next decade or two that "oh yeah, elephants tell stories too. They've got FICTION."
So "Pan narrans" isn't what I'd want to bet on as our uniquely human thing.
But at the end of the day, maybe the whole idea of there being a uniquely human thing is, in itself, just another story we're telling.
So maybe it is a good fit after all.
But I especially like the idea that we're the Baseball Ape because I have this image in my head of a galactic council of aliens. Some angry alien who looks like Cthulhu had a baby with a spider has the floor, and they're ranting about "why do the Hu-mons deserve a seat?"
The Crogath are stronger, the Eldru are smarter, the Cybernetic Essense lives longer, the Dromans go farther and faster, the Moltriri have us beat in fiction and poetry, what is so special about these damn bipedal fleshbags that makes them unique in the universe?
And then WHAM. Right between the eyes. A handheld translator device, a bit bigger than a modern smartphone, beans the speaker out of nowhere.
And there's an (untranslated) yell in the chamber as the prime representative calls for order.
"WE CAN THROW, MOTHERFUCKER!"
(it takes a while to properly explain the insult. Crogathi (especially drones) don't really have mothers or sexual reproduction, so they don't really get why that would be an insult. It's finally translated as something like "bud-biter")
and it's true. even after the World Series becomes the Galactic Series, no non-human team ever manages to win.
The Eldrul Librarians almost make the cut in 2486 but accidentally piss off the ghost of Colonel Sanders and end up inheriting the Hanshin Tigers' curse.
alien textbooks describe The Colonel as some kind of human patron deity of baseball and cooked avian food, who should not be disrespected at all costs, or his vengeance from his place beyond the grave will be swift and punishing
(they're right)
"Look, we can't PROVE he was why Gemini Noctis went supernova unexpectedly, but given the protests that had happened right beforehand, and the incredible powers ascribed to the human spirits, do you really want to risk it?"
the funniest possible future: humanity gets a key place in galactic politics because we're never able to adequately convince the universe at large that our ghost stories are just that, stories, and they're terrified shitless that we'll unleash spectral torment on them
"humans? look man, living humans are a pushover. you can easily rip them in half, crack their planets with a quark bomb, their ships are little more than tin cans with a tachyon drive taped on the side. but it's not the living humans you have to worry about... it's the ghosts."
"humans are a bit like the Nontilek, with a two-stage lifespan, a grub and an adult. What you think of as "adult" humans is just their infant stage, and they only fully transform once they "die". Once fully hatched into Ghost form, their powers are almost limitless."
you want humans off a colony planet and bomb them from orbit? good luck, now you have a few million ascended humans who can pass through solid matter and can't be killed, and they will never rest until you and your descendants are gone or dead.
you don't believe me? look at this: One of their most popular stories is about them building an empire that spanned a large chunk of their little planet, then having it MURDER THEIR OWN GOD.
It only worked for a few revolutions, and he just came back, promising that one day all of them would join him in the next phase of their lifespan.
They still, to this day, thousands of orbits later, erect little statues of the means they used to execute their deity.
not even the Crogathi, who literally worship death itself, tell stories that frightening to their newly hatched grubs.
Humans are scary, man, stay away and just give them whatever they want.
the rest of the alien's education on the dangers of humans is just a selection of human movies. the sixth sense, poltergeist, ghostbusters, the shining, the devil's backbone, and, of course, field of dreams.
ghosts AND baseball? it's everything they're scared about humans all in one package!
the obvious twist you could do, of course, is simple:
the aliens are right.
humans are a two-phase species where the elder form has immense power but leaves communication and decision making to the younger form, which will be confused and angry if you acknowledge the presence of their elder-stage members among them.
this often leads to them cutting off contact or their elder-stage members causing immense damage through seeming "accidents" on the contacting vessel. This is believed to be some kind of religious prohibition that they are not able to explain.
so it's official contact protocol to pretend you cannot perceive the elder-stage humans among them, and to give them what they want to avoid possible retribution.
No means to combat elder-stage humans has yet been found, and the limits of their power is not known.
All alien captains are required to study the fate of the SS Ennolon, which contacted a lone human craft in the galactic year of 12,783. They had initiated contact and were getting along fine, until the human showed the Droman captain a picture of their "late father".
Captain Droless, accounting for the difficulty in telling humans apart, then pointed at the father sitting in a chair nearby and said "That is them, correct?".
The human looked at the chair, reacted in confusion, then anger, and asked the contacting crew to immediately leave.
It was another 400 cycles before contact could be reestablished between the Droman Federation and the Human Alliance.
the intergalactic guide describes humans as a powerful race of immortal energy beings who have the strange habit of sending their larvae out on missions around the galaxy, occasionally contacting other races, but refusing to acknowledge their elders, except in stories
they seem to frequently put their young in dangerous situations without lifting a hand to help, so this is suspected to be some sort of pilgrimage or coming-of-age ritual.
(From a twitter thread on October 1st, 2022)
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since @thelemonsnek posted the comic they did for this au I figured now is a good time to post this! AU details under the cut :>
Ingo got eeby deebied still. not to ancient Hisui, just a museum dedicated to Hisui! he still has amnesia
He works night security. Like the movie, the whole place comes to life at night. why does it do this? why was Ingo involved? idk it’s not important this is a silly au first and foremost
his “warden band” is from the gift shop. Lady Sneasler has decided he’s her warden now because she’s the only noble with no warden in the museum. she kept stealing the actual warden band from her display to give to Ingo. Ingo still isn’t sure how she was opening the case with her claws
Akari is there, and she’s Dawn. she snuck in at night on a dare early in her journey, got caught and gave a fake name, and then kept coming back to visit because a) cool haunted(?) museum, b) as the whole Galactic mess went down, it became nice to have someone who didn’t know her for that. she may have reverse adopted Ingo as her uncle
yes, Ingo is unaware of who Akari really is. he’s BAD at keeping up with current events
he doesn’t have his full hisuian team, but he has a Magneton and Kadabra, they’re good for fending off the museum “pokemon” without actually damaging them. he also has Gligar but doesn’t get a chance to battle with it much
Volo is still a villain. he’s causing the “frenzies” that Akari and Ingo work together to fix. he’s trying to meet Arceus to end his “cursed, half-life existence”. He’s the only person in the museum who views their lives like that, literally everyone else is chill with it. He does have actual Giratina under his command
theres a few versions of Ingo and Emmet’s reunion we came up with but my personal favourite is “Emmet breaks in to steal the azure flute to meet Arceus to get Ingo back, gets caught. By Ingo.”
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fanfic-obsessed · 7 months
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Derailed
This is another funny one.  I certainly giggled while writing it. 
When Palpatine goes to imply that Padme is cheating on Anakin, Anakin does not freak out. Instead he brightens and says something to the effect of ‘Oh! it must have been time to drug Obi Wan again’ and/or several other things that leave Palpatine with the impression that Anakin and Padme are having regular threesomes with Obi Wan…or are regularly drugging and having their way with Obi Wan.
Note 1:This is not what is happening. There really isn’t even any drugging going on. It turns out that the twins, still gestating, radiate such a strong aura of light and love that it allows war weary, exhausted Jedi to sleep and sleep well.  So Padme always has a few Jedi napping, and hidden if they are in public, wherever she is. Including her apartment.  There was some discussion of having her move into the temple, with Padme present as the Jedi are very into consent, but it was decided that it would endanger her and/or cause a scandal and likely expose her and Anakin’s marriage to the general public. 
Note :2 Anakin was legally considered underage in both cultures at the time of their wedding-Jedi considered adulthood as far as signing legal contracts is concerned at knighthood. Naboo is a bit different, there are some things in which Naboo is very formalized, including their record keeping. They also do not really have a mechanism for errors in those records. So when little Anakin Skywalker’s identification records were created he was asked his birthdate-the question itself was in formal legalese, thus not very clear. Not knowing his actual birthdate, and not quite understanding the question, he gave the date of the Boonta Eve Classic, where he won his freedom.  There was so much confusion that it was never checked before it was entered into the Naboo system, which then fed into the galactic system. Legally, as far as the galactic computer systems are concerned Padme married a 10 year old.  
Note 3: Padme has teamed up with various clone commanders to have their Jedi dragged to where they can get some sleep if it seems like they try running off Force for too long. The first of which was Cody, who is the founding member of the 'I love my my Jedi but What the Fuck' support group.
Anakin then asks a dumbfounded Palpatine if it was a specific date, to which Palpatine(who had been making the entire rumor out of whole cloth) just nodded. Anakin nodded to himself and said that he was surprised that they noticed Obi Wan but not all the other members of the Jedi Council. Or all the other Jedi that pass through Padme’s apartment. 
Anakin has now accidentally convinced Palpatine that there is some Jedi Orgy happening in the senatorial apartments (maybe? Possibly Including other members of the delegation of 2000????). Everything Anakin says after that point sounds like it supports this idea (In defense of Palpatine, it all sounded suspicious) but does have innocent explanations. Including at one point saying something to the effect of “The Twins (because the healers did come over and let them know they were having twins) belonged to all of the Jedi’” and, just before leaving (still cheerfully oblivious),  says that his nightmares have gone away since finding out that that Master Windu is a cuddler.
And Palpatine. Just. Bluescreens. Like full on we passed the woman with Math gif and onto the Blue Screen of Death at the idea that Mace Windu was a cuddler. 
He can’t even remember what he was trying to do at the start of the conversation. For several hours Palpatine can’t even remember what he was trying to do with the Sith Plan. 
He just has to sit with the knowledge that Master Mace Windu, head of the Jedi Council, is a cuddler.  Palpatine does not know what to do with this knowledge.  Palpatine is not sure he wants to know what to do with this knowledge. 
As a fix it, I would say that this possible Jedi/Senatorial Orgy continues to make Palpatine crazier and crazier, dragging him into paranoia until he is gently retired from office (because everyone believes that the war cracked him, wasn’t it so sad) and sent off to a quiet lake house on Naboo. I picture him as Mr.Crocker from Fairly Odd Parents, where he twitches into all kinds of weird configurations and screams JEDI CUDDLES at the top of his lungs and tries to ‘prove’ that these orgies between Jedi and senators exist, but fails because they do not.
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toadlessgirl · 1 year
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Okay, time to get pretentious and REALLY talk about this shot.
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So put on your over-analysis goggles, and let’s talk about the Imperial Cog, Renaissance-era military forts, 18th century prison architecture, the military-industrial complex, the surveillance state, and why this single shot of Mon Mothma standing in a doorway in “Nobody’s Listening!” (the 9th episode of Andor season one) is making me so feral I want to kiss Luke Hull and his entire production design team right on the mouth.
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For those of you not in the know - the shape on the screen behind Major Partagaz is the crest of the Galactic Empire - often called the Imperial Cog. It appears throughout Star Wars media on flags, tie fighter helmets, uniforms and as a glowing hologram outside ISB HQ.
In canon it was adapted from the crest of the Galactic Republic. 
irl it was created by original trilogy costume designer John Mollo. Mollo has stated that the symbol was inspired by the shape of historical fortifications.
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Bastion forts (aka star forts) first appear during the Renaissance with the advent of the cannon. Their shape eliminated blind spots, allowing for a 360 degree field of fire.
An apt metaphor for the Empire. Powerful, imposing and leaving you with nowhere to hide.
The Imperial crest also strongly resembles a gear or cog - hence the common “Imperial Cog” nickname.
Given how inextricably linked military and industry are, it’s also an apt metaphor. Both alluding to the Empire’s massive industrial power, and how it treats all of its citizens with a startling lack of humanity, valuing them only for what they are able to produce for the Empire.
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The idea of the cog is repeated in the shape of whatever it is that they’re producing in the prison. They’re literally cogs in the Imperial machine making more cogs for the machine... while inside a larger cog.
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This shape, in relation to a prison, also references something else which was almost certainly intentional on the production team’s part.
In the 1791 British philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham proposed a design for a prison he referred to as the “panopticon” - the name derived from the Greek word for “all seeing”.
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The basic design for the panopticon was a large circular rotunda of cells with a single watchtower in the center. The plan would allow a single guard to theoretically observe every cell in the prison, but more importantly cause the prisoners to believe they are under surevillance at all times, while never being certain.
Later philosophers (notably Michel Foucault) used the panopticon as a metaphor for social control under totalitarian regimes or surveillance states. The perceived constant surveillance of a panopticon causes prisoners to self-police due to the belief they are always being watched, even if they don’t know for certain that is true. They live in constant fear even if nobody is actually watching them, even if “Nobody’s Listening!” 
The idea of the metaphorical panopticon has in more recent years been adapted to many other examples of social control: CCTV, social media and business management...
Like the concept of cubicles in an open floor plan office.
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So that all being established - let’s finally talk about Mon Mothma’s apartment.
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The cog shape is everywhere. There’s hardly a shot where at least one cog isn’t visible. Every room is connected by cog-shaped doorways.
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The shape serves as a backdrop to most scenes, often centered and featured prominently.
(Side Note: The cog also appears as a repeated pattern on room dividers with the interesting added detail of intersecting lines that make them resemble spider webs.
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The fact that Mon is often filmed directly through these web-like screens (particularly when conducting rebellion business) leads me to believe that this was a very intentional choice.
Even in the very heart of the Empire the nascent Rebellion is starting to build a web of networks and intelligence.)
I had originally presumed that the repeated appearance of the cog was just Luke Hull and his production team adding some brilliant visual storytelling to their already amazing sets. But the following line from episode ten leads me to believe they intended for these details to have an in-story explanation as well.
When speaking to Tay and Davo Skuldon about the apartment Mon states that “It’s state property. The rules are strict on decor. Our choices for change are limited.”
While it’s unclear whether the “state” in this instance is Mon’s home planet of Chandrila or the Empire itself - that second option makes the decor even more insidious.
If Mon’s apartment is Empire property that means the shape of the doors is intentional in-world, not just for the sake of visual storytelling. It means that this was a conscious decision by the Empire. A reminder to even the richest and most powerful of its citizens that they are always watching - whether you can see them or not.
Which brings us back to our original shot.
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My favorite thing about this shot isn’t just that is shows how very alone Mon Mothma is. 
It isn’t just that she’s in the heart of the Empire, surrounded and dwarfed - just another cog in their machine.
It isn’t just that’s she trapped in her own metaphorical prison, worrying her self sick about who may be watching, not safe even in her own home.
What makes this shot truly extraordinary to me, is that right in the midst of the Empire you can see a new symbol forming.
Forming with Mon Mothma right at the center.
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It’s a bit blocky, still constrained by the the harsh lines of the Empire, but giving how intentional every design decision on this show has been I find it pretty hard to believe it’s there by accident.
A symbol that will one day adorn the helmet of a boy from Tatooine.
One that will come to represent what all rebellions are built on...
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fairytale-poll · 1 month
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ROUND 1C, MATCH 8 OUT OF 8!
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Propaganda Under the Cut:
Mira:
She’s a badass and I love her
She embodies one of the truest parts of the Little Mermaid dating back to the original story: She loves the prince, even if he does not love her in return. It isn’t out of desperation or a desire to be sought and wanted, it is simple and pure love for another soul. A love so true that she lets him go without so much as a word of protest because when you truly love someone your greatest wish is for their happiness.
Will beat the shit out of the sea witch (good for her).
Bug:
Their a bug that falls in love with a human they rescue and becomes human, but even when they don't get to keep their human body, they still get to be with their love. It's a sci-fi fairytale musical.
Little Mermaid meets Starship Troopers musical starring awesome puppets and the most trans coded main character ever. Please. Please vote Bug Starship I love him. Go watch Kick it Up a Notch from Starship. Go watch Status Quo from Starship. You will understand.
He's a bug and he lives in space on a bug planet but he really wants to be a starship ranger which you can only be if you are a human and then one day a spaceship lands on his planet and so he goes to an evil bug called Pincer who then helps him become a human. And Bug falls in love with a human on the spaceship and it's very sweet. The musical and storyline are based on the little mermaid story, the creators themselves called it "the little mermaid but in space". Bug wanting to be a human/a starship ranger and achieving that and falling in love with a human is very much like the little mermaid
Starship is a musical that can only be described as The Little Mermaid meets Starship Troopers. It follows Bug, an alien bug who dreams of being a Starship Ranger, a galactic explorer/soldier, but the rigid confines of bug society keeps him trapped in a job he hates. He reaches a Starship Ranger named February from the hive and immediately falls in love with her. In order to be with her and pursue his dream, he makes a deal with a giant scorpion named Pincer who through sci-fi bs gives him a human body. Near the end of the second act he sacrifices his human body and returns to his bug body, and saves the day and wins February's heart. It's truly the ultimate Little Mermaid. He has multiple songs, and his bug body is portrayed by a puppet!! Vote for Bug!!
“It's a big, big, universe So many dimensions And unanswered questions Not to mention Life What an invention Life There's no choice involved in what you are given One mind, one voice, one body to live in It's a short, small thing we lead With so much potential Pointless or essential Which one can I be? Where do I fit? Where do I stand? Who are they to say what I am? And how can I stay inside this awful world I know? I need a way out I need an escape I'd rather be dead than to live in this place I wish that something or someone could just take it all away Someone take me away” dear god….. can anybody hear me…. (song from starship)
They are the purest little mermaid adaptation done in the most unuque way. An alien insect gets turned into a human, a race he has always loved and admired, to be with the woman he fell in love with. Also just a great musical.
Bug's whole arc is so so in tune with that of the little mermaid. He is an alien who has fallen in love with humanity through a crashed spaceship and trades his place in the hive for a chance to be with both with the human he's falling for and to be a Starship Ranger. He body swaps with human in a cryogenic pod! It's literally sci-fi Little Mermaid!
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silvergarnet12 · 17 days
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Splatoon was the first Nintendo game to push me out of my comfort zone of single player games, and with the closure of it's servers I wanted to draw a tribute to a game that really means a lot to me.
Some long rambles about the game under the cut.
When I first played the Global Testfire I was 15, and the only mutliplayer games I played were with friends in the same room.
Splatoon was also the first shooter I ever picked up, as I always liked bright colours over more realistic graphics in my games, and back then the only shooters I knew about were Halo(and that was only really a name to me!) and the CoD games.
Any worries I had about being bad quickly vanished as the sheer vibe of chaotic fun the game had, particularly when no one had played it before, got rid of any worries, and all I remember is having fun. And choosing to play as the guy instead of the girl for the first time, solely becuase I wanted a ponytail like in real life(I would continue to use the guy through the series as a tradition, a contrast to what I saw most people online doing).
When the game came out I binged the single player, and vividly remember the first time I fought DJ Octavio, and the first time I heard Calamari Inkantation. If ever a game was to convince me that a song could irreversibly change your life, it was Splatoon. Because to teenage me, in that moment, with Calamari Inkantation playing in the background while I fought an octupus DJ, it did.
It gave me terminal brainworms for this series. And here I am, 8 yrs later. Older and more tired, been through some shit, had some good times, tried, succeeded and failed in things throughout the years.
I've always been grateful that they made the decision for the player character from 1 to return, everytime they've shown up it's felt a bit like seeing an old friend, especially since as the games time skips have always had them close to my age(which probably helped my attachement back in the first game). So hi Three, can't believe we both probably pay taxes now.
I have the original two Inkling Amiibos, in a collection that is slowly building, I'm still attached to Marie, and yes I was on her team for the Final Splatfest.
I cried when it was over, just like I did in 2's Final Fest(I was team chaos, two for two baby!) and will probably do so for 3's as well. Something about this series just makes me super attached to it's world and characters.
So booyah Splatoon, my final online game of yours was well and truly years ago, but I replayed story mode to share you with a friend recently, and I think I'll refight Octavio tonight in honour of the good times.
You encouraged me to try out games I wouldn't have otherwise(hello Overwatch and Deep Rock Galactic), and outlasted one of the other major games of my teenage years(...Overwatch 1 I miss you). So thank you for that.
I'll miss Squid Jump, Inkstrike, the og kit for the NZap 89(why does it's new one not vibe with me ;-;), the Squid Sister's broadcasts and the more saturated colours. At least I can always return to the Plaza in 3, and that Spyke isn't dead like I was concerned he was when 3 released, and see the Squid Sisters perform during Splatfests again.
I have so much more to say in my heart about you but no more ways to word it.
You've been a fantastic game, and will always be a treasured experience that I am grateful to have been a apart of from the very beginning.
Now bring back Moray Towers in 3 damn it! It's in 2 but I DON'T WANT TO LOSE MY FAVOURITE STAGE IF IT"S NOT IN 4.
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binart · 9 months
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SRPA Chapter 3
(First) (Previous) (Next)
(Content warning for hallucinations, dissociation & PTSD episodes!)  
In late evening of the next day, Keith messaged Lance.
All members of their team had retreated back to their rooms (though Hedrox and En suspiciously left together), and Lance had just finished a call with his mom. She apologized like she did in all of them, for crying. But she clearly missed him just as much as he missed her.
As Lance grabbed some tissues from the shelf above his bed to blow his nose with, his phone next to his pillow dinged; the specific beep to indicate one of the old Voltron crew was messaging him. He dove for it.
A text from Keith, “Samurai 😫✨💦” in his phone, read: “Meeting with the team tomorrow. 0700. Deploying in the PM. See you then.”
One thing Lance found really endearing about Keith was his old person way of texting. If someone mixed Keith's texts in with his dad's, they'd be practically indistinguishable aside from the subject of the texts. He scrolled up to their last conversation.
“Good training. En wanted extra pointers. Staying behind for a bit.”
                                “K, I'll save u some of those spicy green chips u like 👍”
“Good luck........... Chip fiend Hedrox won't be happy. L. O. L.”
                                 “🤣 Thanks for the heads up man! See you soon.”
“Over and Out.”
                                  “🫡”
“L. O. L !”
“🫡”
He set his phone down and buried his face into the softness of his mattress. Then he threw his pillow across the room for good measure. He went about his nightly routine a little lighter despite the homesickness pulling at his chest, and wondered what they'd be doing tomorrow. They still hadn't gotten a replacement for Torat, and Hedrox confirmed there was still possibly a weeks-long wait before they could move on any intel from the bugged base. Maybe they'd be going on a super spy infiltration somewhere? Though there were plenty of other things the Blade of Marmora was doing these days too. They were trying to become a more public-facing organization, after all.
Slipping into a hazy state of half-consciousness before long, Lance only vaguely registered a far away blue flash against his closed lids, and an oddly familiar fuzzy jostling of his arms before falling asleep.
0700 on the dot. He arrived at the team meeting room, same one as where they gathered the last time, only now without Torat leaning up against the wall. As Lance walked in to see the others already there and waiting, he wondered what the big guy was doing now. He'd been transferred to a different team, but that was about all he knew.
“Morning, Lieutenant.” Kestin, though usually pretty quiet, was the first to notice him, and waved. Keith looked up from the hologram table he was studying with En and Hedrox, and smiled.
“Mornin'.” Lance was still a little tired despite mostly adjusting to the longer day cycle, but everyone else seemed full of energy. En sharply saluted him, then turned back to face Keith.
“Hey Lance, sleep well?” Lance nodded in between a tired yawn. “Pff, you sure?”
“I got my nine hours, I just had a super weird dream..” He'd dreamt of one of those pretty furry moths back on Earth, except huge, that kept trying to lick his face and sit on him. It was mildly terrifying. “Anyway, I'm good. What's going on with this mission?”
“Big supply delivery to a colony. I'll show you the details.” From all around, everyone approached the table and regarded the screen sat within it. Just as before, a series of images with accompanying text lit up in the 3-d display. Lance eyed a familiar looking planet.
“Elysium-2?” Keith nodded.
“You've seen the news, then. Good. The refugees from the original settlement landed about half a year ago, and we're gonna hand out some medical and food supplies that are running lower than initially projected.”
“And actually—the Blade wasn't the only one to volunteer to offer supplies, but the Inter-galactic Coalition thought it might be good PR for us,” Hedrox supplied as he raised a lanky finger. “Looootta people are still afraid to trust us since, y'know. Most of us are half-Galra and all..”
There was a brief silence, then En leaned forward and regarded his teammate with lowered brows. “A prejudice we shall eradicate, in time.” Hedrox tilted his head back and forth in a strange motion before letting out a watery chuckle.
“That we will! Anyway, what are our roles, Commander?”
“..We'll be working distribution and security. There's a couple of teams on this for the different areas of the settlement given how big it is, and we'll be stationed here.” He pointed to a glowing yellow point on the planet-sphere in front of them. It swiftly zoomed in to show a 3-d rendering of the area. Two additional yellow spots appeared. “We'll drop down and hand out supplies here, and monitor security over here.” One of the dots was placed within a very modern looking building, similar in design to the ones quickly built back when New Altea was being settled.
“There's been reports of potential suspicious movement in the system, so in case anything happens, we want our best on sight.” Keith looked at Lance. “You in?” Immediately Lance's face grew hot. He certainly didn't feel like he deserved to be called their best, but he cleared his throat and gave a assured 'mhm!' regardless. “Good, that's everyone on board, then. We'll go over the specifics of the layout and the expected timeline for everything going down. After that we'll grab our gear and Kestin will take us in.”
Pre-mission anxiety skimmed and bubbled in the pit of his stomach once again, but this time Lance found it a little easier to ignore.
Touchdown was at 1300. Kestin joined up in the atmosphere with two additional fighter pilot personnel manning the supply ships to make up B squad; Keith's team, Kolivan's team, and another Blade commander called Thiga's team. Landing went without incident from teams A to D who kept in close contact despite the miles of distance between them. Lance gripped his sniper rifle's strap across his torso tightly when the ship lurched to a stop and snuck a subtle glance at his friend beside him.
For this mission, he'd be separated from Keith. Lance was, embarrassingly, more anxious about that than anything else. It was important for higher profile blade members like Kolivan and Keith (as well as Krolia in D team) to be the face of the operation, and so they would be handing out supplies to the residents. There was potential danger there if the reports of suspicious movement were to be believed, and so Lance was pretty sure that's why Keith delegated Lance to overseeing the security division of their group. He and Hedrox would rendezvous with the blades under Thiga's command in the building across the way from the supply ships, then from there observe to make sure everything went smoothly. He didn't like the idea of Keith openly risking himself while stashing Lance away, but was surprisingly too embarrassed to say anything. His mask was activated, and as the doors to the shuttle hissed open, Lance headed towards the exit.
“Hey Lance.” He turned around to face an also masked Keith. “Watch my back out there, alright?” Lance thought about his only strength—his aim, and how he'd probably be useless if he were at Keith's side like he wanted to be.
“..You bet. Careful out there, Keith.” He nodded, and Lance picked up his pace to meet up with Hedrox.
His nest this time was a lot different from the last; A large office-like space within the building had been cleared out to make way for several massive server-looking machines that were clearly Marmorite-y in design. He had no idea what they were for. Hedrox and Lance entered to find the security team already there and settled in. When they noticed their approach, all but one of the members of Commander Thiga's team whipped up and gave sharp salutes. “Lieutenant!” There were six of them in total, all of various size and race behind their masks, and stood stone rigid in front of him as he shifted uncomfortably. Normally Lance would have loved to be treated with such clear importance, but he was distracted by the unease of not being able to see if Keith was okay.
“Uh, at ease, soldiers.” He wanted to get himself set up at the windowed opening straight away, but realized he should probably do the leader stuff he was meant to do. “Status?”
“Ready and at your command, Lieutenant!” The shortest blade rumbled in the deepest voice Lance had ever heard. “And might I add what an honor it is to work alongside a Paladin of Voltron..!” Lance jerked, then immediately caught himself and stiffly walked over to the windowed opening. He turned away.
“Cool, cool, uh, I'll set my stuff up here, and you guys do... your thing. Let me know if anything happens.”
The stony line of blades once again saluted, and quickly set about their work. Hedrox pulled out some supplies from their blade-issued backpack, and sidled over to Lance.
“You good, Lieutenant..?” He whispered through their personal comms as he set up several tablet devices next to Lance. With his rifle now pointed towards the platform in front of the supply ships where Keith was standing, Lance breathed out a small chunk of worry. His right ring finger tapped the comms button on his palm.
“Why'd Keith make me leader? I dunno how to lead! I'm just here to shoot bad guys if they show up.” Hedrox snorted.
“Oh, I dunno, Lieutenant. Maybe because the Commander always goes on about how much everyone respects you, and how insanely skilled you are, and how much he trusts you?” Lance whipped his head up to look at them so quickly his neck clicked.
“H-He said all that..?!”
“Uh-huh. It's also favouritism for sure, but you still absolutely deserve to be here if that's what you're worried about.”
“Distribution commencing, Lieutenant,” a blade informed from off to the side. Lance studied Keith in his scope next to Kolivan and some other masked blade that was probably that Thiga guy, and swallowed to help with his suddenly very dry throat. En was there, too, loading the heavier of the alien supply crates onto hovering carts.
“U-Understood, thanks.” He pressed the button on his thumb once again. “I didn't know Keith said all that stuff!” Hedrox once again tilted their head strangely as they typed away.
“Really? I thought with how obvious the both of you are about your feelings for each other, you already knew..” Lance nearly fumbled his rifle then and there. His pulse picked up as his face grew sweaty.
“F-Fee—Um! What?!" Quiznack, why were they talking about this?! And how did he know?!
“Lieutenant... Come on. Or, actually... Would it be helpful if I told you how much I love the intricacies of human social interactions? And humans in general. You guys are so cool and interesting, so uh. I tend to notice that sort of stuff.” From beneath his hood, Hedrox's little sunflower bots fluttered to life around him. “But both of you are also super obvious.”
Lance was at a loss for words. Under his mask he knew he was red as a beet as he watched Keith unmask and start handing out supply kits to the forming lines of residents. His ponytail had gotten a bit loose and strands once again framed his handsome face. He was smiling.
“Keith's—I mean. He's—into guys?” His hands were sweaty now too, with his arms beginning to shake from holding them so tightly still. He hoped nothing was going to happen, because his aim was definitely shot!
“Maybe not all of them, but you? Yeah, Lieutenant, yeah. Very. It's really sweet how much he likes talking about the stuff you guys used to do together! Hmm.. I just assumed you two were already a thing, though, so maybe it's not really my place to talk about this. My bad.”
“No, uh, I was—Like I didn't know if Keith was into—“ Lance lifted his right hand away from his rifle to gesture at himself and distantly wondered how crazy he looked to the other blades who couldn't hear their conversation. He retreated back to his position. “So I didn't wanna. Assume? A-Anyway!” Frantically Lance desperately searched his mind for something else to talk about, because this was quickly becoming too much to deal with. “Human behaviours? That's your thing? How'd that come about?” Hedrox chuckled.
“Subject change, understood. Yes! Humans are the coolest—I'm gonna move to Earth someday, so I started studying your speaking and social patterns so it's easier to fit in. And because it's fun.”
From through his scope, Keith raised a hand to his ear, nodded, then continued to pass out supply canisters. “Huh.. Why us? I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of cooler alien species out there than plain old humans.”
“Now that's where you're wrong, Lieutenant! Humans are fascinating. All so similar, yet none exactly the same.” They pressed their back up against the plain, modern wall next to Lance. “..On my planet, conformity was umm.. kind of a given. Our ancestors were actually a hivemind, so.. we stay close to our roots and expectations.” A hivemind? Lance could recall only a single occasion where team Voltron interacted with one of them, and it was super weird.
“Data crunching comes really easily to most of us,” Hedrox continued. “And I actually found out about Earth when I was snooping around the Blade database of our highest ranking members and found—um, the Commander's mom. Super classified, by the way, don't tell anyone I was doing that.” Lance laughed.
“Reminds me of Pidge, but yeah, my lips are sealed dude, don't worry.”
“Coolies, thanks. Anyway when I learned about Earth I quickly discovered all of the amazing things you guys have like movies, and music, and so many different cultures, and—and individuality in general! Also, related, I'm insanely ugly by Yorith standards. Look.” Lance obeyed and turned his head to watch as Hedrox's mask shifted away from his face,
and one of the most shockingly attractive faces Lance had ever seen appeared. Blue tinged skin, rosegold eyes with soft lashes, near-glowing long golden locks curling around a sharp but also somehow soft jawline, intricate neon swirling designs tracing around the outer portions of his face and onto his horn... Maybe not as much of Lance's type as Keith was, but man oh man he was hot hot.
“........Dude. You're hot, what?”
“I know, right?!” Quickly, they reactivated their mask when they saw the other blades turn to examine them. “One day me and En are gonna settle down on Earth and I'm gonna be a crazy popular stone—er, rockstar, that is. That's my dream.” Some of his tiny floating bots scooted out of the window as he curled his legs in close, and Lance wondered what his and En's relationship was. “But only once the empire is totally gone.”
From the opening his rifle was pointed out, excited chatter from the beings below drifted upwards and into his ears. There was a sizable crowd now, and Lance listened to Hedrox as he kept his eyes peeled for threats. “Yeah, I get it. Too risky otherwise. My family's in New Altea just in case they keep attacking..”
Hedrox sighed. “Yup.. The empire invaded my home planet half a millennia ago and everything sucked, of course. But when I was growing up it was at least always.. quiet. Then one day they sent in some giant planet cracker and destroyed it. For some rare material near the core used to make ship parts.” Lance went cold, and thought of his old house, half buried beneath rubble and waves.
“Geez.. Sorry to hear that.”
“It's okay.. I've had a while to get over it. That's also where I met En, actually! He was in charge of the mining operation before he double-crossed the empire for killing most of his crew.”
“En.. worked for the empire?” Sharp, immediate fear pierced Lance as he watched the very same alien pass close by keith with a large hover cart. He obscured his vision of Keith for a moment before continuing on to the residents below. “C-Can we trust him?!” His breath sped up, and his scope immediately honed in on En's masked head.
“Yeah, don't worry, Lieutenant, he's trustworthy. His non-Galran half makes it so that, when he bonds with someone, it's a lifetime thing. He's got a rough exterior, sure, but only to keep his extra soft inside parts safe!” Lance still felt queasy watching them move around so closely to Keith. “And if you need more convincing,” Hedrox began, and pulled off one of his gloves. He lifted up his palm, and it glowed a brilliant color Lance couldn't even put a name to. “On top of all my amazing gifts and genius, I can read souls.” His fingers wiggled. “Hivemind remnants, and all that. He's good people, I checked very thoroughly, since originally I was gonna, uh. Kill him.”
Man, that was a lot to take in. “...Okay, I guess—Yeah, I trust you, at least. I'm just worried about—I dunno, something happening to Keith.”
“I get you, Lieutenant, all of us are pretty much the same. The Commander's the whole reason we were even able to do anything with our lives, after all. We basically owe him everything.”
Before Lance could respond, he noticed a subtle shift of Keith's head, before his eyes widened. A blade made a noise of concern from beside him, Keith shouted something, then En dashed towards Keith and grabbed him. Lance moved to immediately take him out, and then—a massive explosion.
The force of it reached Lance and the rest of the security team as the building gave a violent shudder, though he couldn't see an impact crater. Dust and smoke filled their view, and Lance quickly pressed his comms. “Keith?! You okay?!” Rapidly he pulled his scope around to try and see past the debris. Hedrox sent out all of his drones, then began furiously typing away at his console. For a moment there was no response. Then,
“Ugh.. I'm alright.” Keith's strained voice filtered into his ears, and he coughed. “En's hurt. D squad was just attacked too. Can you see anything from up there?” Lance quickly scanned the horizon again, still just as obscured. Screams and wails came from down below.
“Just getting smoke and dust up here..!”
“Must be a smokescreen. Kestin, what's your status?”
Kestin spoke in a mildly panicked tone into their comms. “The ship's controls are jammed. Something external. If we can get it online I can activate thrusters to help with visuals. Hedrox?”
They were already out the door. “I'm grabbing En, then I'll come help.” Lance turned back and squinted through the obscurity. In the corner of his eye, a hundred or so meters away from Keith, something glowed. Purple. He swivelled and pointed his rifle, zoomed in, recognized the glowing insignia, then fired.
“Your 3 o'clock, incoming sentry drones, guys!”
A small hoard of bright, glowing purple poured into view. They weren't running, no—there were barely visible bursts from jet-boosters coming from the swarm's backs. Some of the other security blades began firing away on their own rifles alongside Lance. But there were what looked to be hundreds. The telltale sound of galran rifle firing began at the same time as another explosion roared off to his right. The foundations shook. Lance couldn't breathe.
Focus. Focus! Find Keith. Keep him safe.
The smokescreen thinned slightly for a moment and Lance spotted Keith next to Kolivan, carrying a limp En with his arm under their shoulders. Another set of glowing insignia's erupted from his right.
“9 o'clock too. Couple hundred drones on both sides!”
“Keep us covered until Hedrox can get us into the ship.” He watched as Keith immediately vanished from his view, followed by Kolivan and then En. From his wrist, he watched as the battery on their cloaking began to drain.
Didn't need to tell him twice. “Roger.” He switched his rifle to rapid-cooldown mode so he could fire off more shots, held his breath, then began to take them out.
Easy. No complexity to their movements. Lining themselves up to be mowed down. Hedrox's cloaking went up, too. More screaming from down below. Couldn't worry about civilians. Keep Keith safe. Exhale, inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire. Exhale. Distantly,
“Alrighty, in we go!” The doors to the shuttle opened, but some sentries from his left had nearly made it there already. Nope, no no no! Not today. Immediately he took them out.
“You six, focus on the eastern sentries!” Lance barked a command to the other blades with him. They were all obnoxiously slow, and he couldn't rely on them to help with the sentries already too close to Keith. He had to do it himself. The sky brightened, and so did the ground, and Lance, once again, took aim.
It was impossible to say how long it was until Hedrox and Kestin brought the ships back online and activated their thrusters. He was lost to the repetition of taking aim, firing, taking aim, firing. His vision swam, his wrist ached, his rifle was his old bayard again, but he was going be damn sure no one could hurt his friend.
And then, wind. The flash of light and familiar sound of the ships bursting to life; a booming twister whipped up the smokescreen that was making his job harder until it was nearly cleared away. Civilian bodies on the ground came into clear view. Don't look.
To his right, through the light filling his mask, too many sentries were still closing in. Still a threat. Keith. Inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire.. No response?
His rifle was overheated. The other blades were still too slow. Useless. He arose from his weapon, and would apologize for bruising egos later on after Keith was safe. The other sniper closest to him was the big one who didn't salute, though was easy enough to pry off and throw out of the space he needed to work. Back looking through a scope, inhale, position, fire, position, fire, position, fire. The sentries fell like flies. He could do this, he could be helpful.
“Lance, status?!”
“East and west sentries just about taken care of.” ..Was that his voice? He sounded weird. Like he was talking through a mile of water. Huh. His bracers had at some point shifted into his paladin uniform again, too. Now that Lance had a second to think about it, that was also pretty strange. Was something wrong with him?
“Huh?!”
“Commander, look—he's right! How'd they—”
“—Com..mand..er! These tactics.. are known to me.. We are being.. herded. Southern f-forces... We must needs—evacuate.” Man, En spoke annoyingly slow. The rest of the sentries to his left and right were already downed by the time they finished gasping out the intel. Lance grabbed another blade's sniper rifle and slipped through the opening of the building, activating his boosters so he could get around to the other side and start taking care of the rest. His pulse was surprisingly quiet as he landed down on the ground next to the corpse of Silvio.
“Heyy, uhh, Keith?” Several miles of water now, his voice was barely audible to himself. He wasn't sure if Keith even responded. “'Think something might be wrong with me. Dr. Nguyen was prob'ly right. I'll tell you after. ” He laughed at how easy it was to admit to Keith now, when he promised himself he'd never breathe a word.
A whisper of a voice. Keith? Impossible to tell. The light in his mask was near blinding, but he rounded the first corner of the building, watched a hilariously massive swarm of sentries arise from a crater in the ground, looked back for a second at the ship Keith was on, then, somehow, looked at it from above.
His bones felt strange. There was wind pushing all around him. Oh, he was flying. How did that happen? He tried to laugh but water came up.
And for a second, he thought he heard Blue.
-
CLIFF HANGER! okay so one of my goals has been to get across that Lance is a very unreliable narrator, and has avoidant tendencies where he doesn't like to think about the things that upset him (let alone talk about them!!), so I hope that's come across in these chapters! I wanted to vaguely hint at things like, for example, his old therapist (Dr. Nguyen) at one point recommending Lance not becoming a soldier again. Or how Lance planned on never telling Keith about that since obviously Keith wouldn't have invited him to be a Blade if he knew, & would probably feel really guilty! But I also worry I'm being too vague, so. I at least want to offer some clarity and context here. 🤣 Apologies if it's confusing at times!
ALSO. Kosmo has taken to teleporting into Lance's room and cuddling with him almost every night. This will be revealed to Lance later on LMFAO.
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kafus · 5 months
Text
okay i just talked to every NPC in veilstone because it's been a long time and man sinnoh's NPCs are peak, at least out of the 2D games i feel like they provide the most humor and the most random lore tidbits and stuff. i love this region. i'm going to talk about it
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first off sinnoh is full of little things like this. random dialogue/flavor text that ties back to the mythos of the region. i love how widespread the sinnoh myths are
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i'm also obsessed with when there's two NPCs that link together like this. you talk to one and you move on and then you talk to another and you're like oh! lmao. by the way the rage candy bars being here is cool because sinnoh is canonically connected to johto through the sinjoh ruins and the rage candy bars are from johto, which means they're imported and sold here. in general i'm obsessed with the locations in pokemon that have special treats associated with them, like the pewter crunchies of pewter city in kanto, or the lava cookies from lavaridge in hoenn. iconic
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btw don't worry lady literally everyone sucks at making poffins. unless you have four players it's pretty much impossible to make poffins that are better than the storebought ones. good luck getting four people with rare berries who are good at the minigame to play with you, ESPECIALLY in 2023 jesus christ. the basement poffins are OPTIMAL
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anyway in speaking of linking NPCs, these two - i wonder if the dialogue in the french version of this game is turned into english? they did that for lt. surge's french pikachu trade, the french versions of HGSS make the pikachu english instead lol. but anyway as usual it's very fascinating to me how much pokemon loves to drop foreign language in its titles, and fittingly i know a lot of people with english as their second language got interested in learning english from a young age due to wanting to play pokemon. how many kids do you think got interested in french because of dialogue like this. the girl even implies what the meaning of his words is
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veilstone isn't short on game hints either, useless to me now as an adult longterm pokemon player who knows all this stuff already but still really cool to see. if sinnoh is your first time playing pokemon, those hints on trade evos and stuff are always appreciated.
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of course, funny dialogue too that got a wheeze out of my nose, not uncommon for pokemon NPC dialogue SDKFSFDK some of this shit takes me so offguard it's like extra funny
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like GIRL ISN'T THAT WHAT A PARASOL IS FOR????
edit: my DUMB ASS (lighthearted) has been reminded that parasols are for the sun and are NOT an umbrella equivalent. okay she makes more sense now LOOL
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also LOOKER JUSTIFYING HIS GAMBLING :skull emoji: this shit is taking me out. see this is useful because it's like oh galactic is really all over this city huh. not only their massive building but they have their logo in the fucking slot machines, they probably have some amount of ownership over this place like team rocket did over the celadon game corner. but also it's funny because SDFSDFK
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OH AND MAYLENE'S DAD IS JUST... HERE? generic NPC. generic sprite. no name. he's just here. maylene's dad. you know, one of the gym leaders. help girl
anyways i'm aware i basically just posted most of the dialogue in veilstone city verbatim but I JUST THINK IT'S INTERESTING! I MISS WHEN POKEMON GAMES WERE FULL OF DIALOGUE LIKE THIS AHHHH i have more to say about the galactic lore but i'm running out of image space and i need to use the bathroom and get some food so i'll post about that a little later
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lastoneout · 2 years
Text
if/when the pla protag gets back to their time do you think it fucks with them that everyone they knew in the past is dead? like this isn’t like other pokemon media going to another world things, their friends aren’t off living their own lives somewhere else, they’re dead. have been for decades. probably have graves the protag could visit, well some of them, anyway. I bet some of them weren’t important enough for graves or memorials that lasted that long. some of them probably never even really got recorded as existing at all, and now the protag is the only one who remembers them.
like we all make jokes about the protag going back with Ingo and punting Cyrus into the next decade for the whole Team Galactic thing but like, after all that, do you think it hits them at some point that everyone’s dead now? do they look at Cyrus and just feel devastated because he might be the only thing that’s left of Cyllene? do they stay up late reading Laventon’s wikipedia page trying to reconcile the historical figure who has university buildings named after him and books written about him with the friendly father-figure who hugged them and remembered their birthday and made sure they ate dinner? do they research the history of the clans, trying to find whatever remnants might exist just to see something familiar, something that reminds them of the friends they made? do they go to memorials and graveyards and whatever historic buildings remain desperate to find some sense of closure, or maybe just comfort, to try and imagine that people they left behind are still there, just for a moment?
do they go back up to the top of mt. coronet and stand there in the ruined temple, eyes closed, wondering if maybe when they walk back down instead of the bustling towns of the future they’ll find a small camp with a familiar flag waving out front? does some deep, small part of them wish that they could go back, even just for a moment, just to see everyone one last time? do they regret not cherishing the time they did have, being so eager to get back home that they didn’t stop to appreciate what they were leaving behind?
cuz I mean sure the protag probably only spent a couple of years in the past, depending, but a couple of years is a long time when you’re a teenager finally coming into your own, even if they knew deep down the Hisui of the past wasn’t their real home and that they had to leave one day, I think it would be hard for them to truly let go of everything that happened to them, and especially the bonds they formed with the people there. it might not hit them right away, but nah I bet they would always feel just a little bit out of place once they came back, and I think eventually they’d really have to contend with the fact that everyone they knew is dead and gone and they’ll never see them again, and it's gonna be hard.
(and yeah they probably have Ingo, but he lives on the other side of the world and is an adult, it’s gonna be different for him. fifteen year olds are still kids, and kids really latch on to people in ways you don’t expect, especially when things are going Very Badly. I think Ingo would understand, but also, probably not as much as the protag would need him to.) 
I just really wonder sometimes...
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pokenimagines · 1 year
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SFW | Leon | Fic
So, taking a bat to the canon timeline here for a second, how would Leon react to finding out that his crush/s/o was the trainer responsible for all times the world had to be saved bc some rich guy in a suit (or rich lady, looking at Lusamine) decided to terrorize the world with the power of a pokemon who has only been spoken of in legends and folktales? And at this point, they're just tired, they want to take a nap and have a good time exploring a region without all the drama.
I don't think I translated it being his crush/significant other very well. But here we go. You just being like "So this is my life." and Leon just being "Well...damn...aight."
Rules | Discord Server (16+)
SFW Leon: Over It
Leon could tell you were something special from the moment you two battled for the first time. It happened by change, in all honesty. He had been lost and you ended up being the one to find him. You had no clue who he was, but he could tell you were a trainer. You had that air about you, and he wanted to risk it all and just battle you...so that's what he did. Out in the wild area, just you two and your pokemon to bear witness.
Leon tasted defeat for the first time that day. You had swept his entire team with two of your pokemon. He was stunned silent before a grin broke out.
After that, he became a bit attached. He began asking questions and wanting to get to know you. You had started off being very reluctant to tell him anything, but overtime you warmed up to him. After he revealed he was actually the Champion of the region, you decided to reveal something about yourself.
"So you ever heard about the incident over in Kanto with Team Rocket?" You began asking him as you two walked the wild area together.
"Odd question, but ya. I recall my mom talking about the gang being taken down by some kid. They stole pokemon, right?" He asked and you nodded.
"That was me." You said, making him stop, "I had just turned ten and went on my pokemon journey. It was custom to do that when you were ten over in Kanto...a bit weird for other regions but that's how it was back then. I got roped up into everything and ended up taking down the leader."
"You...took down a criminal gang when you were ten?" Leon was in disbelief.
"Yup...and recall hearing about the battle of Hoenn? Where there were two groups that summoned legendary pokemon? One wanted to flood the world, while the other wanted to create more land?" You asked and Leon stopped.
"You did that too...?" He asked and you nodded.
"Yup. After the Kanto incident, my mom got worried and we moved. I wanted to take another crack at the gyms though, and she let me. I was about twelve when that went down." You explaiend.
"So you've taken down...three groups?" Leon swore you had to be joking.
"When I was fourteen I moved to Sinnoh, around the same time that the Team Galactic thing was going on. Fought them and Giratina was basically released and...well I almost died on that one. He was...terrifying." You explained and Leon stopped you, putting a hand on your shoulder.
"You can't be serious..." He said, almost looking sad.
"At sixteen my mom moved to live with our aunt. I really just wanted an adventure and decided to run off and do it, despite the dangers. Ran into Team Plasma who wanted to enslave the world. I did make a good friend though, his name is N. After that I was old enough to move around. Decided I wanted to study Mega Evolution and study under Professor Sycamore in Kalos. Stop the gym battling and everything, y'know? Wanted to throw myself in research...sadly Sycamore had a friend named Lysandre that dragged me into another unwanted adventure with Team Flare." Leon just stared at you.
"Finally I went on vacation to Alola and discovered Ultra Beasts and discovered Aether Foundation wasn't as benevolent as it seemed. Ended up helping a kid named Lillie out there. That was a wild adventure. Now I'm here though; Sycamore said that he wanted to go himself since I'm still his apprentice and learn about Gigantamaxing, but he had too much work. So he sent me." You said with a sigh.
"And now you're here..." Leon said and you nodded.
"Now I'm here. Was planning on just watching the gym challenges and maybe try one of those raid dens to see everything for myself after meeting Professor Magnolia...but then I ran into you and got sidetracked." You said with a sad smile. "Kinda just hoping to have a normal adventure for once."
"I can make that happen." Leon said, a sudden burst of energy coming over him, "I knew you were amazing but I didn't know to this extent...how about you do the gym challenge. If anything pops up, I can deal with it. That way you can finally just have a relaxed adventure." Leon said and you chuckled.
"If anything pops up?" You teased, "How bad do you think my luck is?"
"It's like my sense of direction." Leon was quick to respond.
"Ouch...but fine. I'll do the gym challenge and if any criminal organizations pop up, I'll call you to deal with it, aight?" You said, holding your hand out to shake on it. He took his hand in yours and gave you a firm shake.
"Let's have a champion time."
•❅──────✧❅✦❅✧──────❅• Thank you for reading! Did you know we have a discord? It has everything from RPs, General Discussions, and even an 18+ area to go hog wild in! We even do announcements early for when the inbox is opening for requests, as well as other events! Come in and join us!
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isagrimorie · 5 months
Text
I think another part of me wishes that they kept more implants on Seven before removing all of it (Sorry, Jeri, I know you hated the whole makeup thing).
I wish they played up more about how truly dangerous it was to have Seven of Nine aboard before she acclimated to the Voyager way of life. Seven says that most of the crew are afraid of her and Tom concurred but we didn't really see it.
The showrunners were so overeager for Sexy Borg Lady that they skipped through a really great narrative about how scary and dangerous it was to have a barely reformed Borg onboard.
Having a Borg aboard should have been like a livewire situation. Handled with extreme care.
Unfortunately, it seems the network and Berman only allowed up to three episodes of continuity. Seven being in her partial Borg get up in The Gift (4x02) was already pushing it.
Seven is friendly (for a newly severed Borg) but don't think for one second she's not dangerous.
I wish Voyager leaned more into Seven as the most dangerous entity on that ship next to Janeway.
Just like in Killjoys how no one ever forgot in the show and in the overall narrative that the most dangerous person in Team Awesome Force was Dutch.
Or how Buffy is the thing monsters are afraid of.
Seven was quite literally part of the galactic boogeyman.
Also, who else has had such a metal introduction?
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kraviolis · 5 months
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someone liked one of my TOH headcanon posts from earlier this year and it reminded me about the specific headcanons i have for exactly what types of games the hexsquad plays and how they play them.
luz is obv an RPG fantasy fan. anything with a juicy story and a character creator and complex lore she’ll love. she definitely plays series like elder scrolls and baldur’s gate and final fantasy. she also plays final fantasy 14 and has her character as the good witch luzura and she isnt good at playing it like an mmo is supposed to be played but she loves the story. when endwalker came out luz couldnt stop sobbing to the point that camila was actually worried about her. also enjoys roguelikes such as hades or binding of isaac even if she can only play for so long before getting too frustrated. she also 100% plays genshin impact and gets into arguments online with other genshin fans.
amity is a fighting game girl. she is highly competitive and practices combos with her eyes shut. she prefers the tekken series but when luz wants to play with her they play guilty gear bcus luz likes it’s art style the most. she also likes fantasy RPGs but is way more picky about which ones she plays. she likes fire emblem. she also plays ff14 with luz and is actually good at the game (she carries luz sometimes) but isnt a huge fan of MMOs. she also is the one in the friend group with the NASA ass PC rig with a custom case and the most organized wiring you’ve ever seen with the lcd screen on the liquid cooled cpu and the azura figurine inside the case. she also does custom wraps for all her consoles.
hunter likes games that are very much like, micromanagement sims. like civ5 or cities skylines or factorio (i dont know anything about it but ive been assured by my sister that hunter plays modded factorio) but he’s also a fan of like, old school FPS games like doom and half life. i can see him doing speedruns of those games. (also he 100% once got addicted to some game like fuckin. galactic pinball or something to the point where he was staying up all night and not sleeping so he could play more pinball. in order to get him to stop playing so much and actually get some sleep, gus used illusions to make hunter think he was hallucinating about pinball and scared him into not looking at a single screen or monitor for like three weeks.)
gus is a very chill gamer but he likes games that he can sink hours and hours into. instead of playing a wide variety of games he has a select few that he dedicates his time into learning every last mechanic, but there’s also some games he just plays casually. like with pokemon games he’ll put hundreds of hours into them and carefully curate his team and does like nuzlocke runs but when he plays on his and willow’s shared-custody new horizons island he’ll just walk around and catch bugs and shit and not really worry about upgrading his house and make matching fits with his favorite villager.
willow prefers cozy games, like slime rancher or stardew valley or the aforementioned shared new horizons island, but she’s also a fucking menace about them. like she goes HARD on the min-maxing and automation and shit. while gus is wandering around their island catching fish, willow’s busy rearranging her fully upgraded mansion up in the hills and harassing any villagers she doesnt like with nets and deciding what hybrids to plant in front of her bell trees (she only has bell trees for the aesthetic. gus isnt allowed to harvest them) she would also be running the most high profit slime ranch ever but the way she treats her slimes makes hunter upset whenever he sees her just fuckin throwing them off a cliff the second they arent useful to her anymore. (meanwhile hunter names each one of his slimes and always feeds them their favorite foods and cried over casey & beatrix)
vee enjoys survival/strategic horror games, like DBD, resident evil, deadspace, or even FNAF. she’s the type of person to see the goriest most violent death in a video game ever and just go “ew yucky” then carry on. masha and her are often playing DBD together while in a call and are the most annoying pair of suvivors ever. she also likes games such as original katamari and pikmin 1 and chulip. she's also the undefeated DDR champion of the friend group.
and of COURSE they all play video games together. they all have a terraria world they play on together where they all are focused on their own little projects while still working together and are slowly building up their own village/mansion/castle/fort but luz keeps rushing ahead of everyone just bcus she's so excited and she definitely somehow ends up summoning the wall of flesh accidentally
they DID have a modded minecraft world for a few months with both tech mods and magic mods but while hunter, amity, and vee all focused on their factories and computers and technology, gus, willow, and luz fucked around with all the crazy magic and accidentally found out by blowing up a factory. this is where heightened tension between the the warlocks & the scientists began. this spark eventually turned into a full fledged war that lasted two months before it ended in mutually assured destruction to the point where no one could actually load into the server without their game crashing.
bonus: camila isnt much of a gamer with one exception-- when she was in college manny introduced her to WoW and got her hooked. it was Their Game that they played together all the time. they made cosplays of their characters together. they had several dates in game. they optimized their characters to perfect compliment one another when they ran dungeons with their guild. even since manny passed camila still plays every so often and keeps in touch with their guild members. for the longest time luz has 0 idea that camila plays WoW at all and only finds out after the whole secret nerd confession.
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fantasyfantasygames · 3 months
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We Were The First
We Were The First, Starfather Games, 2009
You know how some sci-fi settings have one particular alien species that is "the eldest", first in the universe to attain starflight, providing wise guidance to the newer species? No? Well, it's an older trope, it's not as in vogue any more, and it was already getting subverted by the time Babylon 5 came around. But this game puts an interesting twist on it.
You see, in this universe, humans are The First Ones. The game is set in the distant future, after humanity has made contact with dozens of other life forms. We also have a Great Disaster in our past, perhaps even the destruction of Earth itself. We Were The First (WWtF, not to be confused with W:tF) has your characters attempting to make peaceful contact with strange aliens and help them avoid the kinds of mistakes your people made in the past.
Violence is a failure state. The entire combat system goes like this: "You can shrug off any harm done to you. If you try to harm someone else or win a fight, you succeed. However, you lose something important that you have gained or could gain this session." The few weapons you bring with you are immensely more powerful than anything you're going to run into, so someone who attacks you just wastes their time. The moment you start striking back, you've lost. Negotiation, give-and-take, and empathy-building are the game's key subsystems.
Core stats are fairly simple, consisting of Professions (Diplomat, Trader, Spacer, etc.) and some Resistances (Tenacity, Wisdom, and Calm). The complex part is your relationships with others. Each relationship has a rating from 1-3, and a Sentiment (love, curiosity, deference, obsession, etc.). You have to have some positive-emotion Sentiments and some negative. You can even have multiple relationships with the same person - You might have Love 2 and Curiosity 1, or even Love 2 and Hate 3 and Obsession 2 all with the same person. It can be a fair amount to keep track of. Luckily it borrows the Exalted 3rd rule of "If it makes sense that you have a particular rating with this person, just write it down when you need it. It doesn't have to be on your character sheet beforehand." Really, the relationship system is very close to Exalted's "intimacies". Building and changing them is a core part of the system.
The random alien and planet tables are my favorite. They flow together such that one roll modifies percentages for other rolls. Certain types of aliens are more likely on certain types of planets, and certain planet types are more likely around certain star types. Communication type, sensorium, mobility, closest Earth equivalent for visual description purposes, linguistic compatibility, emotional spectrum differences... they cover a lot. You roll up how many governments there are, what types they are, who they send as their first-contact teams, what their religions are like, and more. For some people this would be overkill, but they're really well-designed and I like them.
The biggest place where WWtF fails is that it doesn't explain why the ship is entirely humans. Why don't any of the other alien species in the Galactic Unity come along? A few half-assed rationales are given, the best of which is that they have their own ships with different life-support systems, but even that doesn't hold much water for me. It feels like a plot hole. If you can get past that, this game gets a strong recommend from me.
WWtF is distributed as a file package is compatible with Obsidian, Zim, TiddlyWiki, and other desktop wiki things. You can theoretically also just open it with a web browser.
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