“I CAN’T HEAR YOU PUPPET BOY—”

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Hi. Since this is going in the pressure tag, I might as well introduce myself. I’m Cotgar, the artist of the Gotchapon birthday artwork and the most recent Sebastian Solace reference sheet. I’ve been fixated on Pressure since October 2024, even committing personal things to it such as cosplay, merchandise, personal poster works, and two years of fan art.

My statements here assume you know the bare minimum of what happened: Zeal sexually assaulted the previous soundtrack musician, Ren.

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I want to approach this as a community member first and foremost.

My take? The game’s done. I personally wish to see no more support for it, as although the main focus of the document is Zeal, Ren mentions cruel involvement from the dev team and their blatant coverups of Zeals actions, painting Ren as “unstable”. I have promptly left the discords, which I encourage you to do as well.

As for what to do mentally? That’s the hard part as someone who’s been so invested in the lore, story, gameplay, and every other aspect of the game. I literally doodled gotchapon this morning all over my work papers. But as someone who doesn’t wish to support the game anymore, I really find it hard to just cut that off. I am not defending the devs in any way by saying that. I am coming purely from a hyperfixation standpoint where my blorbos are jingling around in my brain.

I would like to say: you will not be incriminated to still love the characters for who they were before this point. I will still forever adore the characters I’ve grown to love. But not the ones who wrote them. Anything with them beyond this point in time is considered Not the characters I’ve surrounded myself with. With losing your sense of humanity as a person and involving yourself in disgusting shit like that, I believe that you lose the right to keep people “doing what You want with their characters”. AKA. If I were to still draw Sebastian, let’s say, I could with no connection to the writers. I will not draw him with his wedding ring, for instance. He does not deserve to be “married” to a dev self insert. It’s not the self insert that’s the problem, mind you. It’s the dev.

I suggest now is the time to maybe review that list of shows you’ve been dying to watch. Check out those games that maybe, if you’re like me, you’ve been scared to play because of fear that it’ll take over the hyperfixation.

Move away.

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My connection and statement as *technically* an artist for the game:

I am horrified. One of the most prevalent things in Ren’s document was the use of cute animal imagery to lull Ren into a sense of security. (From my experience), Kat and Zerum do the same thing. It is unbeknownst to me if it was manipulative. That is not my point. My point is that it’s real language used in the dev team, and it does not surprise me it’s being used maliciously. I am more so scared because I began picking up this habit because people I thought were “cool” were using it as fun conversation. I am impressionable. I began picking it up. Ren’s document showed this to me and I suddenly felt my gut drop.

I will be brief. I have past experience of mental abuse and manipulation. Reading Ren’s document was familiar to me. Not to such a sexual extent, but in a manipulation extent. Seeing the bunny imagery sickened me, as it made me realize that trauma flares that I had worked years and years in therapy to get rid of were now validated: I don’t know whether to trust the devs that were smiling and being so polite to me.

I will not work with Pressure anymore. End of story.

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You are allowed to still like the characters. The lore. The story. But supporting it is different, and I am ashamed that I have for this long. Am I sad that I probably can’t post any more drawings of the silly fish being sad? Oh fuck yeah. That dude fucking rocks.

But this is not about me. To fellow people who feel sad about it too, this is not about you.

This is about being a fucking human being

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link to the doc (there are extremely detailed descriptions, read with caution): https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1VeGBz0J0UnJruSHRnj4IPyvyz5kRHuNr8nyL6U87zVg/mobilebasic

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Rei reached the summit about half an hour before sunrise.

Lord Braviary had taken him most of the way, up to the base of the Stone Portal. Even though there was now a Galaxy Team camp near Moonview Arena, at this hour, there would be no Security Corps to escort him. The peak was shrouded in fog, leaving him to fumble in the dark with the meagre light of the Arc Phone. 

But after climbing through the tunnel, he found that he'd emerged above the main layer of cloud, into a vast purple sky. Higher layers of cloud drifted overhead, both overwhelmingly near and impossibly far.

The Temple, or what was left of it, was hushed and reverent in this twilight. A sacred place, destroyed as it was. His footfalls echoed off crumbling pillars, the wind whistling through the ghosts of arches and passageways. It was starkly different from the clamour and frenzy of only a few days ago. 

He'd never gotten the chance to properly appreciate the Temple, though he'd always seen it from afar, perched atop the mountain, silhouetted by the storm of the rift. By the time he'd had clearance to reach it, he'd had far more on his mind. There were glimpses of the grandeur it had carried, in the gilding of the pillar bases, the polished gleam of marble, the monumental scale of it all. Even in ruins, that gravitas remained.

Rei turned towards the lightening orange glow of the horizon, and found it perfectly aligned with the main thoroughfare of the Temple. He exhaled, the breath coming out as white puffs in the mountain air, and sent out Togetic.

The little Pokemon chirped as he was released, doing a little loop in the air. Then a cold gust blew, which blew him backwards just a bit, making him shiver and huddle up next to Rei. Despite the chill, the sight made the small tension Rei had felt from being up here dissolve into warmth.

“Look who's excited,” he said, holding out a hand for Togetic to perch on. Togetic landed, wings flapping softly. Together, they turned to look down the entrance of the Temple, past the stairs and the ridge of the mountain. They were alone, above the rest of the world, suspended in a sea of clouds beginning to glow golden from within.

With his free hand, Rei dug through his satchel, and found the object he’d carefully wrapped in cloth. Togetic took to the air once more, letting him uncover what lay within: a gleaming green-and-yellow stone, which sparkled as it caught the first rays of light piercing through the clouds.

Togetic had previously shown some interest in this stone, when Rei had brought it back from a space-time distortion. Based on the other stone-based evolutions they’d studied, Professor Laventon hypothesised that it would catalyse evolution into a rare Pokemon hardly ever seen in the wild, Togekiss. But beyond mild curiosity, Togetic had never shown any desire to evolve, and Rei had let his Pokemon be.

That was, until a few days ago, the morning after calming Palkia’s frenzy. Togetic had led him to his storage box, chirping, insistent, until Rei had found the stone once more.

But Rei hadn’t wanted to use the stone right at that moment. Evolution was something special, a once-or-twice in a lifetime moment for any Pokemon. He hadn’t wanted to do it in the mundane surroundings of his home. Nor had he wanted to do it under observation, as exciting that would’ve been for the Professor. This was just for the two of them, back at the place where everything had ended, and begun anew. 

Togetic drifted towards the stone in Rei’s hands, and looked up at him with those same wide eyes that he’d had as a baby Togepi. Rei was struck, then, by love and fondness so overwhelming that he felt it would burst from his chest. Though Togetic had changed—had grown—he was still the same, at heart. And, he would continue to be.

“Go on, then,” Rei managed, the words coming out with a faint wobble. Togetic floated up, nuzzling at Rei’s face one last time, then dropped down to touch the stone with two small hands, joined, for a moment, with Rei’s.

The glow of it was like the sun. Rei never looked away.

Blinking away the afterimages, the changes came into focus. His Pokemon was much larger, far too large to perch lightly on Rei as he had before. His wings had elongated, golden light shining through the outstretched feathers. Togetic—Togekiss looked back at him, and let out a musical trill. 

The sound was more melodic, and resonant, warmer in tone than it had been before, but he could hear his Pokemon, all the same. 

Rei found himself with his hands buried in Togekiss’ soft down, choking back a wave of emotion. He was beautiful. He was all grown up, now.

With the sky brilliantly aflame, and the Temple now bathed in the rays of the rising sun, it was as if Togekiss’ evolution had brought light to the whole world. 

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“Not so long ago, scant few had ever sighted this Pokémon. But times have been changing. I am certain that Togekiss finally chose to reveal itself, because peace now once more reigns over the land.”

- Professor Laventon’s Hisuian Pokédex

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Yes, I did in fact evolve Togetic to Togekiss atop the Temple of Sinnoh on my playthrough, after the end credits rolled. I had already planned to make Togetic’s evolution thematic, and it all came together beautifully in-game.

It was a joy to finally come back to this scene with this prompt and do it justice. Rei and his most special beloved bird… 

And some of the original screenshots from that occasion <3