it's a battle, win or lose

Pokemon sideblog | I follow from OurLordApollo | Mostly reblogs but I'd like to eventually post more | Geeta is my beloved failurewoman | I am Lucian's #1 fan

[star-trim-furfrou]

**I AM NO LONGER TAGGING SPOILERS FOR LEGENDS Z-A OR MEGA DIMENSION***

Previously farbeagle

I figured it was high time I made an intro post

Original posts tag: bark bark

Asia / 30 / Main: OurLordApollo / AO3: WizardGlick/ Mostly Pokémon games, with a little bit of PokéAni here and there

Extra Info:

Characters:

Games:

Blue, Gold, Crystal, Ruby, Diamond, Platinum, Heart Gold, White, X, Omega Ruby, Sun, Ultra Sun, Shield (partial), Brilliant Diamond (ugh), Legends: Arceus, Violet, Legends: Z-A + Mega Dimension

Plus Pokémon Ranger, Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, and Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time!

I did a ranking listy thing

Top 5:

1. Brassius

2. Lucian

3. Geeta

4. Molayne

5. Eusine

OTPs:

I'm generally multiship, but there are a handful of ships I absolutely will NOT budge on (expanding into OT3+ is a maybe, but I absolutely will not see these broken up)

SnazzyShipping (Cynthia/Lucian)

OriginShipping (Wallace/Steven)

EphemeralArtShipping (Hassel/Brassius)

RocketShipping (Jessie/James)

SacredShipping (Eusine/Morty)

But what I love the most about Pokémon is queerplatonic relationships and mentor/mentee friendships and intergenerational friendships and enemies-to-friends!!!!

[star-trim-furfrou]

Went kind of nuts and decided to invent an internal structure for the Gingko Guild in case I ever want to write fic where they play more than just a passing role

The central question of my work was: What makes Volo bad at his job?

(The first half is just me yapping about research; scroll down to the bolded text if you just want the relevant stuff)

Per Cogita:

Shirking your work to come pester me again? Even beneath a bleeding sky, you never change.

How you complain for one shirking his own work this very moment. Poor Ginter of the Ginkgo Guild must have his hands full with you."

Obviously, I first turned to researching historical guilds. Because I already paid my research dues getting my history degree, I went straight to Wikipedia and didn't look back.

Now, from a purely gameplay perspective, the Gingko Guild has no real reason exist. They provide you 0 services that could not have been fulfilled my another merchant, except for the circumstance where Volo sells you healing items. At no point does the Gingko Guild do anything particularly guild-y. Ginter could have been a shopkeeper more closely associated with Jubilife Village; Volo could have been a traveling merchant, etc.

So:

In the canon of the game, the Gingko Guild does not visibly operate as a guild. However, they were deliberately called "guild;" therefore we can extrapolate they they were, in fact, intended to function with the structure of a guild, and it's not a huge intuitive leap to impose a guild structure upon them. That's why I'm bothering with this.

Establishing that was the first mental step. Next: How does a guild work?

From Wikipedia (paraphrased):

-Guild: a professional association of merchants who oversee the practice of their trade in a particular territory

-Typically, the key privilege was that only guild members were allowed to sell their goods within a city*

-There might be controls of maximum/minimum prices, hours of trading, etc

-Some guilds maintained welfare funds for sick or elderly members, supported widows and orphans, organized feasts, and reinforced communal religious life

I aslo have unsourced notes about the possibility of entrance fees, periodic dues, the establishment of a guild hall where goods might be kept, etc

*Here's where it gets interesting. The Gingko Guild is not running Jubilife Village. Choy, Anvin, Bonn, Simona, etc, are clearly not members of the guild, and Ginter's power and influence is clearly nothing next to Kamado's. So the Gingko Guild is not a classic, powerful merchant guild, and its members clearly do not enjoy the advantage of a trade monopoly

So! With all of the above in mind, here is what I came up with (half extrapolation, half some bullshit I made up) for the structure and function of the Gingko Guild, as well as my answer to the question "what makes Volo bad at his job?":

-The Gingko Guild operates independently of Commander Kamado and the political structure of Jubilife Village/the Galaxy Expedition Team

-Members are expected to pay a monthly due, which may be paid late without interest (so one could pay $100 in January and $200 in March) (THOSE ARE ARBITRARY FIGURES IDK ANYTHING ABOUT ECONOMICS)

-Ginter's cart serves as the "guild hall," inasmuch as guild members have items that need to be stored

-Ginter is grooming Tuli to be his successor

-Ginter pays a percentage of the guild's profits to Kamado in exchange for permission to sell goods within the village

-Ginter/other guild members are discouraged from selling the same items as merchants within the village, and may not sell identical items for different prices (hence Ginter selling items in sets— it's a loophole).

-Gingko Guild members may sell items all across Hisui so long as they adhere to Ginter's pricing guidelines and conduct themselves well

-If a guild member finds something unusual, rare, unfamiliar, bulky, etc, they should bring it to Ginter to appraise and sell for them. He will compensate them after the item is sold.

-Guild members are allowed to keep 100% of their profits up to a certain threshold, after which they are expected to donate a certain percentage back to the guild

-Payments to the guild are split evenly between a welfare fund and a fund that directly contributes to the interests of the guild (investing in the building of roads, dock repairs, etc)

-The above is the primary benefit of joining the guild, however, the uniform also comes with a certain level of implicit trust, and thus someone wearing the uniform of the Gingko Guild enjoys a certain level of friendliness even from strangers. There is also a level of brotherhood; two guild members know they can rely on each other even before anything else about each other.

-Guild members are responsible for obtaining their own supply of goods to be sold

-Guild members may barter at their discretion

What makes Volo bad at his job?

-Volo frequently misses payments, misses meetings, misses opportunites, fails to turn a profit, is consistently the guild's lowest earning member, is often in debt to Ginter, is lazy about bookkeeping, and doodles in the margins of his logbook.

[If you skipped ahead to this point and you're wondering what the canonical basis for all this is, there is none. That's the point of the post.]

[ajcrowlor]

big tshirt that says MY INTERPRETATIONS MUST HAVE A STRONG BASIS IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL on the front and THIS IS FUN TO ME on the back

[ajcrowlor]

big tshirt that says MY INTERPRETATIONS MUST HAVE A STRONG BASIS IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL on the front and THIS IS FUN TO ME on the back

[ajcrowlor]

big tshirt that says MY INTERPRETATIONS MUST HAVE A STRONG BASIS IN THE SOURCE MATERIAL on the front and THIS IS FUN TO ME on the back

[omeletcat]

Lillie pixel art improvement!!! :DDDD

[princerevelucide]

idkkkk i like this little clefairy song

[pokemonarchive]

Team Rocket's Meowth (2025) - Glory of the Rocket Gang Illustrator: Shimaris Yukichi Destined Rivals

[pokemonarchive]

Celebi and the Ilex Forest Shrine (2000) - Pokémon Crystal Illustrator: Ken Sugimori

[pigeon-wizard]

Villaintines, day 23, Companion

i think i 100% pushed myself a little hard to do a full body duo piece with a kinda tricky reference pose to go off of but i think it looks ok, look at my yuri rare pair, boy! (gender neutral)

[artistibatt]

Commission for @pigeon-wizard

My very first commission that I had a blast making for my buddy! :3

[ Commissions OPEN at https://artistree.io/artistibatt ]

[khasluna]

[star-trim-furfrou]

Those polls got me thinkin about Pkmn butches and I was like Well Lebanne has butch potential but she'd probably have to be trained and then I got lightheaded

[abortedansha]

is Skyla butch

yes

no

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

[abortedansha]

is Rika butch

yes

no

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

[abortedansha]

@/hitoitsuhito on Twitter

[skitty-daily]

Skitty/Delcatty fanart by Megumi Mizutani, one of the Pokemon designers