Pronoun Trouble

Three Pokémon fics for the PokéPod Project, which just went live earlier today! Which means I can finally share them publicly here, as well! 😃

Fandom: Pokémon
Summary: Julian hasn't been working for Hoenn's Safari Zone for long when he first meets a particularly enigmatic Xatu.
Mirrors: This fic on AO3 The podfic version on AO3
Wordcount: 574
Ships: None
Notes: For pokepodproject
Fic: ( An Eye on the Sky )

Fandom: Pokémon
Summary: Midori had expected that starting a new Pokémon day care would be difficult; they hadn't expected this particular problem, though...
Mirrors: This fic on AO3, The podfic version on AO3
Wordcount: 996
Ships: None
Notes: For pokepodproject Gen II: Sneasel
Fic: ( An Unlikely Ally )

Fandom: Pokémon
Summary: While stuck in a creative slump, Smeargle helps a Pokémon in need.
Mirrors: This fic on AO3 (no podfic version for this fic yet, but I live in hope!)
Wordcount: About 450
Ships: None
Notes: For pokepodproject's Rare Candy collection
Fic: ( Collaboration of the Arts )

Honestly, this helps me psych myself up and keep on top of stuff, so I might make it a weekly thing. Just a heads up.

( Homework report )

( Fandom projects )

Okay, looking good! I'm going to try and finish my written assignments for class tonight, and if I do so with enough time/energy left over, I may "reward" myself by typing up and posting my first completed Poképod Project draft.

Edit: Ah, frick, I forgot I still have to make tea for work tomorrow!

I've been playing this game for just over a week now, and already the difficulty scaling is past where I find the rewards worth it. Most of the puzzles are around difficulty level 4 to 6 now, and I'm just not figuring enough of them out in the time limit I'm given. I'll still get some yarn when I finish the designated three puzzle set, but if I fail any of the puzzles, it's the lower quality yarn—even though the point total from all the puzzles, failures included, is higher than when I was playing the games on their lowest difficulty.

If I were getting more yarn per try, it might be worth it to me to keep playing. If the timers were more generous, it might be worth it to me. If I could choose which puzzles to play and which yarn to work towards, or if the difficulty scaling were a bit slower, it might be worth it to me. But at this point, I'll probably just play a few more days out of sunk cost fallacy driven hope, and then try to forget I even bought the damn game. Which is a shame, because I'd really love to have some sort of apartment-decorating game with the mechanics from the main room that I loved so much.

Honestly, I'd originally bought this game with the hopes of playing some of the puzzles with my niblings, but with how the game's set up, I'm not sure I'd even be able to reach all of the games, let alone be able to play in a way that didn't leave all of us frustrated in the end.

This disappointment aside, if Nintendo ever decided to put out a simple version of Voltorb Flip that works the same way as it does in HGSS, maybe for $2 or so, I'd buy that in a heartbeat. (They won't, they'd want to microtransaction and dark pattern the hell out of it, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it!)

I spent the past two days going more-or-less all out for Go Fest, and honestly I had a blast. I did a bunch of raids, got two shiny Zamazenta (one with the special background) and five shiny Zacian (no special backgrounds on any of these, alas), and am honestly pretty pleased with my shiny hoard overall. In addition to those, I got one of my longtime shiny wants: A shiny Pachirisu!

It's also been as hot and humid as a frog's armpit the past week or so, which made all that walking around... interesting. I did my best to stay hydrated and cool off as needed, and chugged more Gatorade than I initially anticipated, but I've come out the other side more-or-less fine. I did end up with more chafing than I expected, most of it in the usual places (only some of which I thought to apply preventative measures to, alas), and at least one surprise new place (my right underarm, just a little past my armpit region). I expect I'll need to keep those in mind for next year, alas. On the plus side, none of the chafing spots have blisters, which I am tentatively crediting my anti-sweat medication for.

Anyway, all that out of the way, I would like to announce that I've come up with the perfect nicknames for shiny versions of this weekend's legendaries:

Zamagenta and Zacyan.

Pokémon Go Hoenn Tour was this weekend! I requested both Saturday and Sunday off for the occasion, and was granted them.

Day one was kinda lackluster for me; I caught one event shiny, a Rainy Day Castform. I also hatched a shiny Bronzor (not featured in the event) and caught a shiny Beldum after the day's event ended 😂 I did manage to complete the event Special Research, though!

I had much better shiny luck today. I caught a shiny Minun to start the day, then got two back-to-back shiny Groudon. I later caught a shiny Clamperl, Sunny Day Castform, another Minun, two Shuppets from research, and a Cacnea. I also hatched a shiny Tropius, which is my favorite Pokémon ♥ I finished out the day by finding a shiny Latias in the wild; a perk of shiny legendaries is that they don't run away ever, so I just kept pelting it with Pokéballs of various strengths until I caught it 😂

I also hatched two Relicanths, the one 'mon I was missing from the Hoenn 'dex, and got enough Primal Energy to revert two Groudon and an additional two Kyogre. Oh, and I helped a friend complete their own Special Research task!

I will say that I was pretty surprised at the changed format from the Kanto and Johto tours, with no "Catch every 'mon newly introduced in Hoenn!" for this event. It did mean I was slightly disappointed at the lack of Relicanth raids, but I got mine in the end, so I suppose it's fine.

And now, rest, as I am back to work tomorrow.

And here's today's Lurker Day treat! For everyone hanging around this journal, it's just a little something to say "thanks for being here". Whether you want to talk or not, I'm glad you're reading/watching/whatever.



Title: "Clear Body"

Inspired by an exchange I had on Tumblr. I had a lot of fun drawing this, and while I would also really love to share the "making of" pics I have of it, having work today left me with less free time to organize that than I'd like 😅 Still, if coloring pages or Pokémon are things you like, I hope this was a good treat for you and that you have a very good Lurker Day!

Gratuitous Icon Post! I don't have much brainpower for a more complicated entry, so here's an adorable icon of the Pokémon Piplup that was originally a sticker for Pokémon Go.

I'm sure I've mentioned here before that I feel like Sword and Shield put the final boss and the post-game boss in the wrong order. I think I might have a more comprehensive fixed storyline for that now:

( Spoilers for Pokémon Sword and Shield (if you didn't already guess) )

Anyway, opinions on Pokémon storytelling, I haz them.

What in hell's name am I supposed to do with nearly eight hundred pieces of Dynamx Candy? Legitimate question, since apparently I can't sell it! Or throw any of it away, now that I check. At least Exp candy is good for money...

(grumble grumble gripe)

I entirely blame followthebluebell, whose tags those are.

Okay. I haven't collected Pokémon cards in a good, long time, but I've picked up bits and pieces from serebii.net, so this shouldn't be completely off.

- The energy types are associated with different types of real world problems. Do I know how to divide them up? Nope! More common energy types should be associated with more common problems, though. Or maybe problem-solving or solutions? IDK.

- Pokémon cards. By which I mean the ones with the individual 'mon on them that battle one another. Maybe they show how you should approach the problem? The types of attacks and effects directly relate to that. And the evolutionary stage relates to what stage you're dealing with in the problem? Or maybe how big of a problem it is? Or maybe they're the problems themselves, and the attacks are how they're attacking you?

- There should be something significant about Starter Pokémon, I think; and something else significant about Legendaries/Mythicals/etc. Nooooo idea how to fit Mega Evolution into anything.

- Abilities, flavor text, and Pokémon lore should definitely have something to do with how individual cards are read.

- I'm torn on whether there should be three different deck types (Pokémon, Items, and Energy), or if they should all be shuffled together in one big deck. The advantage of the former is that you can always get the same number of each type of card; the advantage of the latter is maybe you don't want to do that and/or it isn't helpful?

- A fun option might be to have specific "every card type" decks dedicated to different elements, and thus different problems. An entirely Grass themed deck for, uh, IDK, personal growth?

- Energy cards. If three different decks, then the types you get are the areas you need to focus on. If elemental decks, the number you get is how much you need to focus on things.

- Items would be good for suggesting alternate methods for dealing with problems, maybe.

- Urgh. The other problem with this idea is that, while Tarot cards are generally accepted to have a set number that is already complete, new Pokémon cards are continually coming out. You don't have to worry about deck building with Tarot, but it's definitely an issue with Pokémon cards! Even if there's just one card for each Pokémon, that's still a shitload of cards at this point, and that's not even getting into any other card types.


Welp! That's as much as I'm apparently going to allow myself to think about this nonsense! ADHD was just interested enough to contemplate the particulars and not anywhere near interested enough to go out and research the available cards in more depth. Thank goodness! Anyone who wants to take this particular mess and run with it, you have my blessing.