a society with ghouls had always been a troublesome one . they were a threat to humans and humans were a threat for them - a constant conflict that spiraled each time further into chaos and disorder . it was publicly known that they could blend in and trick people into being their meals quite easily - and it happened quite often at that . the humans had developed countermeasures for these situations , initially thought to be simply a defensive mechanism . but these views had long been forgotten by now . the latter had grown to become an organisation to exterminate the ghouls , and the ghouls , while widely unknown , were not the monsters everyone thought them to be .
a society that revolves around misunderstandings and greed breeds monsters that disrupt any chance of stability . sapphire was a victim of both worlds .
her mother had been killed during her childhood , to the hands of a ghoul . her father , while being in the CGG , realised that he would not be able to protect her forever , his resolve was not strong enough to endure having to face the broken remnants of someone he held dear to his heart again - not her daughter . not the only part of his family that hadn’t been stripped away from him .
sapphire had a rough childhood . hiding away and needing to move multiple times due to her father’s job were only some of the activities that children had to face with the escalating issues between the world of the ghouls and that of the humans in certain areas . while it disturbed her , she grew up to be interested and adept to understand how ghouls worked - mostly in an attempt to understand what and why had the things that happened to her mother taken place .
such is the way that her life had been planned for the foreseeable future ever since she was little . her father became aware of her interest and an idea sparked on his mind . her studies were relatively normal for a teenage girl , she went to school , the strict guidance of her father lead her to have outstanding scores and be set aside for almost any job she would have wanted . if she had complete freedom to choose .
while leading a seemingly normal life , her father would not take it for her to not join the CGG . ever since sapphire’s mother had died , he had fallen into a deep obsession to protect her by any means necessary - or rather - a burning desire for her to be able to protect herself , he knew he would not be able to do it forever .
sapphire became independent at quite a young age , she , too , wanted revenge for her deceased mother , but she could not help but wonder how different her life had grown from other kids’ . there were often times where she hesitated . where she was unsure if she wanted to lead such a life - but it was ultimately something that she had grown to enjoy doing .
before joining up the CGG , and taking a program for junior applicants - she had had the recommendation of various of his father’s colleagues and himself . it was in her best interest to continue her studies on ghouls and the countermeasures that were available to them . she was particularly interested by the quinques that were available to the investigators . it was something that she wouldn’t ( and partly couldn’t ) admit out loud while she was in training , but she might have been a little TOO excited to fight off ghouls even before she was taken in .
A case against the world design of Pokemon Generations 5-7
So one thing that’s been bugging me is that ever since Gen 5 happened, something has felt off about the regions you traverse. Pokemon has always been a very competent RPG series, and part of that was due to how the regions were designed, and how organic exploration was in those games. The rest of this is going under the cut cos it’ll be a bit long but the short version is Gen1-4 had good world design and didn’t necessitate the use of Fly whereas Gen5-7 have relatively poor world design and are built around being more linear experiences and relying heavily on the player using Fly for any backtracking needed.
So, to explain what good map design is, in short, it’s an interconnected design that allows areas to connect into each other with a wide variety of routes and paths that expand as the game goes on. The idea behind this is if you want to go back to other places to try out new HMs or catch a Pokemon you wanted, you don’t need to teach Fly to a Pokemon. An example of this I’ll use is the Kanto region, since Gamefreak loves it so much. Kanto’s world design is actually a very strong start for the series, as alot of locations connect into and around each other, and while the initial adventure proceeds fairly linearly, areas still end up connecting nicely and serve more than one purpose. A good example is Cerulean City. You initially use it to access Nugget Bridge to get to Bill, and later in the postgame, Mewtwo’s cave, then you use it to do down and into Vermillion City. From there, you get blocked by Snorlax, and so once again, you pass through Cerulean on your way to Rock Tunnel to get to Lavender Town. And later on in the game, it connects to Saffron City once unlocked. The point here is that Cerulean City feels like an organic, real place, because you don’t just pass through and never come back again, it has alot of uses and places it connects to, it’s a present part of your journey and always accessible thanks to where it links to. Other places are like this too, Saffron connects to alot of places, making the world easier to go back to and traverse, and Vermillion already allows you to go back where you started if you want to, since Diglett’s Tunnel connects to both Pewter and Viridian, letting you use Cut to get the Old Amber very early on without needing to use Fly to go back. There’s even multiple routes to Fuchsia city, and having the path loop back around from Cinnabar to Pallet town not only adds to the feeling of how far your adventure has taken you, but organically puts you on the path to the last gym battle in Viridian, and then the Pokemon League is next door to that. It’s a solid world design that allows locations to connect into and around each other, making Fly a convenience rather than a necessity.
Generations 2, 3 and 4 all do this too. Ekruteak City eventually connects back into Violet city, as well as leading down to Goldenrod, across to Olivine and Mahogany, and Blackthorn leads back right down to where you started outside of New Bark town, so you don’t have to backtrack through the world or use Fly, and then New Bark town leads over to Victory Road. Similarly, in Gen 3 Mauville leads up into Lavaridge and Fallabor, as well as across to Verdanturf which leads back to Rustboro so you can easily go down into Petalburg when it’s time to rematch Norman, and then Mauville is revisted again to go to the route to Fortree. In Gen 4 Mt Coronet connects to a wide variety of areas, as does Hearthome city, so when you loop back around and through it, the pathways and shortcuts from down Eternia lead back towards Canalave when you need to go there, and then back around to the various lakes when it’s time to do that.
Meanwhile, Gen 5 does the exact opposite of this and throws good game design out of the window to make an ultra linear region that’s literally an oval that you explore clockwise. Each area leads into the next, nothing is interconnected, one half of the region is locked till the postgame for some reason, and when you need to backtrack to Nacrene and then to the Relic Castle, with no natural connecting points forcing you to walk all the way back from Iccirus city on a linear path, or use Fly. Instead of world design that allows for backtracking to be natural, instead it chooses painfully dull linearity that makes backtracking a chore and more or less necessitates you use Fly, which isn’t great for Nuzlocke players who might not have any Pokemon left who can use it, or players in general who didn’t build their team with it in mind. And then once you’ve finished backtracking, walk all the way back to Iccirus to go to Opelucid. Black 2 and White 2 tried to fix this by having you warp and go around different areas, but still proceeded linearly from there and cut off other areas till the postgame and just made the map disjointed and even less connected somehow.
Gen 6 isn’t much better, the positive is Lumiose city connects the two halves of the map, but outside of that one location, Coastal Kalos is one big oval, and Mountain Kalos, while a bit more connected, is still largely linear. The story of the game doesn’t necessitate as much backtracking, mostly focusing on Lumiose itself which is conveniently the only really interconnected location in the game, but nowhere really interconnects to Geosenge making that trek annoying, as well as going back to where you left off all the way in Couriway on the road to Snowbelle. It’s mostly linear and still not exploration and backtrack friendly.
Gen 7 is effectively this design spread out. The first island is one big loop, which is nice, but really only makes Route 1 the only interconnected point on the island, with the rest of it accessed by looping around the same path. It’s stronger design that Gen 5 and 6, but still not grand. The second island has the much better Heahea city, which connects to a wider variety of points on the map, and is a wonderful example of convenient interconnected world design. Sadly, the third island at most has it that Malie connects to two points on the map, but the rest is just a linear path to the end at Po town. The fourth island isn’t much better, and is effectively the same as the third island, you go one way till you reach the Battle Tree. The game even gives you the Charizard Poke Rider which is Fly but permanently available, which is only really used when you need to go back to the third island once Mount Lanikila is unlocked after the fourth island is sorted. In fact the game’s so linear as to force you off the third island and onto the Aether paradise once you’re done with Po town, and then once that’s done it takes you off to the fourth island. Each island is mostly a one and done affair that rarely utilises good map design.
The overall point is that after Gen4, the world design of the regions in Pokemon has greatly suffered, the world is no longer interconnected and feels less like a real, tangible place compared to the previous four generations, and the backtracking that the story usually forces isn’t organic anymore, but instead mostly a chore and necessitates the use of Fly, due to the world not offering its own proper paths that link back to these locations from others more relevant to where you are. Unova undoubtedly did it the worst and it’s effect on the series has ultimately had a lasting effect of poorer game design.
(not to mention that triple battles weren’t as fleshed out or complex or interesting or well executed as double battles were, didn’t have as many moves made for the mode, had no game based around it like colosseum, and rotation battles were gimmicky, poorly executed, and did not catch on. it absolutely shows that since these battle modes werent in gen 7 that they were a failure and considering gen 5 made no actual mechanical changes it was ultimately a generation that didn’t do any good for the series in the long term and only provided a good story, which is still just a reusing of the ruby and sapphire basic core plot) of bad team needs the legendary pokemon for their plan)
big brother ! hanzo x little sibling ! reader, where the reader is trying to summon a dragon and hanzo is teaching them
So first off, this is called “Our Distance” cause I like that title and it goes with the story and thanks for the ask! Also there is some background Tracer/Reader at the end.
There were soft footsteps and giggling as the youngest childof the Shimada clan, moved down the hallway towards her big brothers room. Theday before Hanzo, the eldest of the three children, had promised his sisterthat he would teach her how to summon the Shimada clan dragon/s.
So having woken up at around six am that morning, the littlegirl went to wake up her brother to start with their training. Getting to the room where her brother slept, she moved inside and crawled overto the futon in the middle of the room and gently began to shake the darkhaired boy.“Han-o…! Han-o!” (Y/N) whined at her brother before he began to stir.Hanzo had always been a light sleeper so waking him was never an extreme issue,which was more than she could say for Genji her other brother. He hated gettingup and was an extremely deep sleeper.
“(Y/N)…?” The young male’s voice was groggy and he sat up,moving a hand to rub one of his eyes. “What is the time…?”“About six.” The little girl hummed, before Hanzo began to get up with a sigh. “Brotheryou promised to teach me how to summon my dwagon today…!”“That’s why you woke me…?” Hanzo moved a hand over his face, grabbing theribbon for his hair and began to put his hair up. “That could have waited untilafter we eat.”“But but…” there was a whimper. “I-I wanna be grown up like you and Gen-Gen! Iwanna summon my dwagon too.”“I know.” Hanzo looked back, giving her a small smile. “How about I get dressedand we meet in the dojo young sister?”There was an enthusiastic look on the girls face as she nodded and scamperedoff to the dojo, moving past people as they worked and giggled as she wavedhello to a few of the people she knew.
It didn’t take long for the older warrior to get dressed andmake his way to the dojo, bow and arrow on his back and as he moved he noddedrespectfully to certain members of his father’s clan. The door opened quietly and slowly and he noticed his sister by herself in thecentre training with her blade. Hanzo could recall that blade as well, he had been there when their father hadfirst given it to her. It was a Samurai’s sword a lot like Genji’s, howeverthere was one difference. It was made for her, the blade was different andacross the handle under her hands there was a drawing made for her.It was a dragon, not green nor blue but yellow and it was drawn all the way upand around the blade’s handle. The young master can remember how excited (Y/N) had been about it, but now wasn’ttime for memories.“(Y/N).” He called out, voice sharp and the young girl turned and for a momentit was his young sister standing there.It was a taller woman. A warrior, sword in hand and (e/c) eyes blazing at him.It startled him enough to refocus his attention until she disappeared. “Han-o?” He heard the small chirp after a moment, shook his head and lookedback at her with a smile. “You alright big bwother?”
“Yes (Y/N) I am fine.” He moved towards her, taking thesharp blade from her hands. “We will not need this. Not yet. A dragon’s first instinct,should not be of war.”Moving to the rack where the three children kept their weapons normally, heplaced it down before bowing. He stayed like that for a moment and turned,pulling his bow off his back and placing it on the rack as well.“Now, you must remember, A dragon is a being that differs from us.” Hanzo toldher, guiding her over to the edge of the dojo were he sat down. “However, theseare part of us.”“Part of us…?” The girl asked him, moving to sit as well and looked at him. “I-Ifthey are different from us h-how can they be part of us?”“Our clan. Has the ability to ask these dragons to help us as they were bornwith us (Y/N).” He told her, focusing and after a moment two dragons appearedfrom his body and began to fly around the young girl. One moved off to hang around his master while the other curled up on her armwhich made the girl giggle.“For this to work (Y/N), you must look inside yourself for the dragon.”
Even after all these years the girl recalls his words andsmiled before opening her (e/c) eyes. “You were right brother.” She looked out when she heard a name, a girl withbrown hair in a pilot outfit waving at her. “I wish however you knew aboutyourself.”With that final word she took off, towards the girl who embraced her, while herwords carried on the wind, the girl hoping it would reach her brother.
I had a dream where I was in a mansion. The lights were off and I had to choose a course of action. The dream asked me if I wanted to go down this sort of secret passageway that was essentially a ladder leading down somewhere. I chose yes.
The ladder led to a room made of stone. There was water on the ground and strangely... playing cards. Then, looking to my right I saw a girl. She was playing a card game... with the rust covered grate on the floor.
The girl looks at me and asks if I would like to join them, and I agree. I pick up some of the playing cards off the ground, noticing that there are some mixed in from another card game. Cards that have complex math on them. I sort the math cards out and take the other cards with me over to the girl and the grate.
Before we can start playing, another person climbs down the ladder to enter the room. It's a boy, around our age. He was a little tall, with fair skin and short dark hair. He wore a light blue cardigan and had black oval glasses. It seemed as if he was of some sort of nobility, much like the girl, and it was obvious that he had a crush on her.
He asked if he could play cards too, and the girl happily agreed. Not even half of minute into playing, the atmosphere of the air changed. The grate didn't like him, and it wasn't afraid to be violent in order to get rid of him.
Before any serious damage could be done, he ran up the ladder and out of the room in fear. Me and the girl were left sitting in silence for a few seconds.
"Wait, let me show you something," She said, beckoning me to come closer to the grate.
It was then I could see what I could not before. A snapping turtle perfectly sat on top of the grate, and there was a moment of acknowledgement that washed over the two of us.
"Hi, I'm Zaz," I began to introduce myself.
"Ah yes, Azazel," the turtle said, using my full name that I hadn't even told him, "the name of the angel turned demon. I must say, I adore your choice."
I froze a little. Of course I knew this was no ordinary turtle, but it became perfectly clear to me who this turtle was. It was the devil.
"But of course, it goes a little further than just your name," the turtle added, "Your current aura is that of a snapping turtle too. One that I know very well."
The turtle then began to describe the snapping turtle it knew. A feared and violent one, snapping at any who dared get near. I knew that this wasn't actually a turtle that he was talking about. Moreso something similar if not the same thing that was.
I sat there for a moment in the room, looking at the snapping turtle. I felt this moment of acceptance. I felt the affection the turtle felt for me radiating out of him and it honestly felt really nice.
But I had to think about what the turtle was trying to tell me. Was I the devil incarnate? Or some other demon? That felt like the truth in the moment, so I accepted it.
Turned into a drabble about Rick and Morty S/I sooo
As Rick and Morty continues to air, I’m working on the timeline of S/I and I’m think that at the end of season 4(The clone Beth two parter wrap up) is when I disappear for LONG time. Probably a couple of years tbh. The idea was for a long while before then I’ve been trying to get Rick to treat me more like an equal, or at least like someone that he can do more than put up with. It was more subtle at first. Just, you know, little things. Things like letting him know when he’s being inconsiderate of Morty or saying, “hey you could be a little nicer, ya know?”
I only really get his typical anger and petty responses. The “oh, grow up” every once and while. Next, I’m more upfront about my distaste at his treatment of others that he claims to care about.(Which he immediately denies if he’s in front of that person or any other person, really) It doesn’t take long to devolve into fighting after that. Sometimes over text, sometimes mid mission, sometimes during an already bad situation. This is around the time where I start to think that Rick isn’t good for me, while also acknowledging that as he’s been, he never was. I just hoped he would change......but he isn’t. It takes a week before I can manage to let him and Morty know that I’m leaving.
The two are just about to leave off another adventure that it looks like Morty isn’t very thrilled for when i walk until the garage with a solemn look and tired eyes. Morty immediately knows something is wrong and asks if I wanna come on they’re adventuring citing,
“At least I might have some fun with you there.” He smiles but it’s obvious there’s some worry there too. I frown in response, shaking my head.
“Sorry Morty I....” my face drops into a frown and my eyes haze over some. “I can’t do that. Not for awhile, anyways.” His smile drops pretty instantly as I hug deeper into my jacket, eyeing the floor and sighing.
“W-what do you mean?” Rick lets out a sigh from his spaceship seat as Morty approaches me.
“I’m sorry Morty but I need to go way for...” she sighs again, feeling the corners of her eyes tearing up and blinking them away. “well I don’t know how long but I can’t stay. Not with him.” She eyes rick for a moment before blinking back to face Morty. “Don’t worry though, you can still call and text me if you want.” I feel Morty pulling me into a hug before finish and press back in kind for a long moment. “And if your grandfather has put you in a life-threatening situation or leaves you alone in the multiverse,” they separate from the hug just in time for Morty to see her sad, half-smile shine through. “You can always call me.” I turn back to the car, taking a breathe in as I face the old bastard frowning at me from across the way.
“As for you, Rick” he’s already crossing his arms, DON”T contact me. AT all. I’m blocking you off of every device I own.” Rick glares daggers back at me.
“Fine be me bitch! You think I give a fuck if you leave?” Morty attempts to interject but Rick very purposely speaks over him, “I don’t need you! I don’t need anybody!” I feel tears threatening to fall out out my eyes. ““GoodBYE.” He, predictably, flips me off before gesturing to Morty. “Come on Morty, let’s go.”
Morty turns to me. “T-Take care of yourself out there, o-okay?”
“Of course, Mort. You too.” I watch as he runs over to Rick’s spaceship, gets into the leftmost seat, buckles up, and the two take off t top speed. Morty doesn’t take his eyes off me until I’m far out of sight. Rick doesn’t look back.
I weakly take my portal gun out from my backpack, finally allowing my tears to falls out of my eyes and down my cheeks. “Goodbye, Rick.....” After once last look at the garage, I step through into my sister’s house and cry.
~
I’m sure Morty would argue with Rick about the while thing. He’d be all, “Oh right, as I know what I did?” and Morty would be listing off EVERY thing he could think of off the top of his head. Rick gets pissed off ofc, they fight at the wheel, crash somewhere and a normal ol episode plays out but Morty is taking less of his shit. Rick is drinking within the next three hours.
~
(cut to the end of the episode)
Rick is sitting alone again in the garage, flask in his hand. It’s night time and it’s clear he’s been there awhile. He looks out with a sad frown into the star lit sky above him while this song plays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66SIhKcVIsg
The music keeps playing through the credits.
~
The after credits scene is Morty looking down at his phone, having received a text a few hours ago. It reads:
I’d prefer to not be called to help if your grandfather is there. He’ll make a big deal out of it or some shit neither of us are gonna wanna deal with. Take care! 💕
62, 78, 84, 85, 118, 134, 152 and 143. (sorry if I sent a lot, I'm too nervous to try and be your friend even though I want to)
62:Do I perfer talking on the phone or video chatting online?vIDEO CHATTING ONLINE78:How can you win my heart?idk man buy me pizza84:I accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow me with the super-power of my choice! What is that power?can becoming rich be a power85:What would be a question I’d be afraid to tell the truth on???? idk man thhiS ONE?118:Had a crush on someone of the same sex?ye134:What do I want for birthday?asenseofpurpose money 152:What do I like about myself?i can eat lots of food and never gain a pound. that counts right? also i have pretty hair..alsomyhipsdonotliemyfriend143:Favourite pizza topping?nnnothingwhy is everyone so nervous to be my friend im such a nerd
