he/him 21
i'm gonna be real i'm only here to lurk and reblog stuff i like. my wife is piers from hit video games pokemon sword and shield and my very dead art blog is @kingkilometart
"COUNTRY BOY X EMO CITY BOY, HIMBO X GOTH, SHORT AND STRONG X TALL AND SKINNY, SUNSHINE ONE X GRUMPY ONE C'MON GUYS THEY'RE EVERYTHING it is MIND boggling they aren't more popular"
Rashmelie propaganda under cut!
Rashmelie:
"this essay is going to be reused whole cloth from the submission of them to the 17 million years of pining poll! because unfortunately i do not have the energy to go insane enough to write up anything new oh.
my god. where the fuck do i start with them for real.
okay so, theyve been friends since early childhood, and before either of them came out (Rashmi is agender, they/them, while Amelie is a trans girl, she/her, and they are both mspec which is a bit less relevant but is also there). the earliest time that we know that they have feelings for each other is when theyre both 14, and Rashmi - already out, with their entire family (parents and grandma) supporting them without question - is moving. uhhh 90% of american geography names are the same to me so i might lie there. from Nevada, where they both grew up, to New York, where Rashmi is planning on studying dance further, which has always been their plan; around 14 is when they ran out of teachers at home.
they quietly hope Amelie doesnt confess her feelings for them, as they fear it might tempt them to stay, which they cannot allow themself to do. Amelie, meanwhile, is very carefully not thinking about gender, because her parents are quite frankly the worst. over the course of the years before they meet back up, Amelie has had some dates, but each time, they dont work out, and in her own words, put logs on the flame she carries for Rashmi.
Rashmi, meanwhile. gets married. one of Rashmi's biggest struggles in their romantic pursuits has been the fact that they are both Indian and queer. it has been a struggle for them to find someone who respects both - someone who respects their gender identity while not throwing their culture under the bus. that is one of the factors contributing to the way their relationship with "Ajay" (we learn that this name isnt his real one, but it was magically replaced in Rashmi's memories of him and we dont know it) played out: he is also Indian, and the first thing he asked them upon meeting them was what their pronouns were. and it was all good.
until it wasnt.
i would love to get into that deeper, but the important point is that "Ajay" is kind of a piece of garbage, whose crimes include finding Rashmi's address when they didnt give it out, deliberately not sending Amelie her wedding invitation because Rashmi told him they used to have a crush on her, driving them to drop out of dance school, and general possessiveness (notable being the fact that, whenever he is home, he always asks them to stay home too, which leads to them dropping their social circle and their hobbies). one of the places it grows from is "Ajay" being ace and not quite believing that Rashmi accepts that. he also has a substance abuse problem.
all of that culminates as they return from a short visit to their parents, and he in a fit pushes them down a long flight of stairs.
in the meantime... god, i cant even figure out what parts of information are important about Amelie here. i would put as notable the fact that she only figured out she was a girl something like a year before the events of the game - and only ever came out to Rashmi, who in turn told their parents...
and who didnt realize that Amelie's workplace didnt know. her workplace is just. terrible in social terms. she loves the work itself (its food industry, a restaurant in a casino, dont remember the exact job description) but her coworkers are being the absolute worst. a cesspool of toxic masculinity. also an environment for Amelie's undiagnosed psychosis. she is prone to auditory hallucinations.
after being outed to her boss while also hearing from Rashmi's parents that their husband is... lets just say bad for them, she, while safely at home, hallucinates that her boss or maybe her father is breaking down the door.
simultaneously with Rashmi as they are falling down the stairs, they make Wishes.
these are not widely understood; from the context of the game, it seems as though some people get a Wish when in significant peril, or in distress. you do not need to use the Wish immediately as you get it, but they both did.
essentially, what Rashmi Wishes for is a way to escape from their husband that wouldnt raise a fuss; and Amelie Wishes for a place where she and Rashmi can both be safe. (i am very muddly on the details there) their Wishes create the anomalous clocktower where the game takes place."
(I'm just putting some stats here but check under the cut for receipts)
Piers has 1562 fics on A03. 29/1562 = 1.8% Only 1.8% of fics in Piers' tag involve MiloPiers.
Milo has 529 fics on Ao3. 29/529 = 5.4%. Even with Milo's SEVERE UNDERRATED-NESS, MiloPiers can just barely make up 1/20 of Milo fics.
Now, Pokemon Sword and Shield has 6,572 fics on Ao3. 29/6572 = 0.4%. Not even 1%.
Seems pretty unpopular to me
On ao3, Piers has 1,562 fics to his name
Here's the top ten most popular relationship tags in Piers' tag after I nixed all the relationships that didn't involve him
Milo is NOWHERE to be seen. Horrible AND sad.
SO, even with filtering out any and all ships (and friendships!) that don't involve Piers, Milo/Piers cannot break into the top 10. UNPOPULAR
(I'm aware that the number may be a touch skewed since MiloPiers may appear in a fic that involves another non-Piers related ship. I've read a few of those myself but trust me MiloPiers wouldn't be anywhere NEAR top 10 even without editing. It's sad)
Now, Milo is (tragically) much less popular with only 529
Of his top 10 most popular ship tags, MiloPiers actually does make an appearance without me having to do any editing at all!
ALlllllllllllllllllll the way down at number 10 (also ignoring the fact that a lot of the ships in his own tag don't even involve him)
Left: Literally their dynamic. Would you deny the emo boy x country boy their win?
Right: Canon art from Piers' concept art sheet.. taken from this post which also has some lovely MiloPiers content :)
Just look at their height difference !! They could have chosen any characters for a height comparison but no! Milo is one of the only 2 other characters to make an appearance on Piers' concept art - not even Piers' own sister makes it onto this sheet! But Milo is important enough to be there <3
Actually, wait, additional sts2 fun facts about the card art since I spent so long exporting stuff and code hunting: we see way more of our main cast interacting in card art now (mostly multiplayer cards), and their heights do NOT match the in game models it's really funny.
How tall is Defect? Well, in game Defect seems to one of if not the tallest, but according to card art, defect is shorter than Regent (Tiny in game) and also the Silent (middle of the pack in game). The Silent is maybe as tall or a little bit shorter than Ironclad. Necrobinder refuses to stand close enough to anyone for me to get a gauge. She's just sort of floating at all times.
Also!! The characters are now featured on curses in a way I find super interesting. It seems to be character relevant. Each seem to be featured on 2 (mostly), with the rest of the curses seeming more generic.
Ironclad is the most straight forward, he's featured on Folly (from Vakuu) and Regret. I think both of these are understandable, my guy made a bad deal that he's still not free of. Man regrets everything and can (currently) do nothing about it but keep rolling that boulder.
Necrobinder's the only character who might only be on one curse. The only one I'm sure is her is Poor Sleep, given that she recently lost her parents and then signed herself over to being a Lich, this does not surprise me. The interesting part here is the hand, my instinct was that this was a threat, but looking at it in detail, I actually think it's Osty reaching out to comfort her? Which is cute!
Regent's curses are Greed and Enthralled, given that his majesty seems to be the sort that can't be content with what his majesty has, these two add up. Nothing is enough. Of note is the Rose in Enthralled is also from Vakuu, and between that + the dialogue, we have some implication that Regent falls under Vakuu's sway. RIP.
Defect, I think, is maybe my favorite set. Defect has spore mind, Mushrooms literally growing out of its eye. It's body taken by something else. There's something potent in there of Defect harboring a fear of being subsumed. Of being broken down and taken over. It's second card is Shame, which specifically features the other characters (Ironclad + Silent for sure, mayyyybe necro as the third?) being the ones to shame Defect. This indicates the Defect values the other's opinions a lot! It honestly seems to be the most social out of all of our characters. Which is wild! The Defect Wants To Be Friends. Everyone else is here for murder though.
The Silent is the only one miiiight be featured on 3. She's for sure on 2, she may also be on Clumsy, but it's hard to make out. Putting Clumsy to the side, the Silent has Doubt and Decay for sure. Both are very fitting for her character. She's literally dying of the Blight currently, and she seems to have a lot of doubt/anxiety of what her sisters think of her. She got out. She fully escaped the Spire, unlike the Defect or Ironclad. But she comes back. Seeking a greater trophy, seeking familial approval despite the fact she's literally dying. Her body is failing her, and yet her energy is focused on seeking a prize that earns respect.
All of them are really good, it adds characterization to the curses not present before. I Am Enjoying them
