"Krystal, what am I doing?"

text from my dad (2021) - my dad

“i’ll admit that my main problem with this is that i haven’t asked”

you’re in the pocket of Big Ball, I see

there’s no pocket for me to BE in, there’s no LOBBYING involved, there’s no SUPPRESSION campaign because you don’t need one! traditional methods suppress themselves when you make modern pokéballs available. you might as well start accusing AT&T of deliberately suppressing the noble traditional art form of the goddamn semaphore.

not to mention OP demonstrates a total lack of understanding of the market realities of the pokéball industry- Silph and Devon are not monopolies, if they weren’t in constant competition their magic monster domination spheres wouldn’t cost two bucks a pop. the ball spec is a public standard, and Bill Masaki’s storage system based on that standard is an open-source project. they’re only the two largest players because they’re able to leverage economies of scale. you still get smaller operations like the Laverre City Poké Ball Factory, with better regional supply chains and local brand recognition, making room for themselves in the market. 

That notion was, and remains, a tool to limit general access to Pokémon in the interest of maintaining class disparities. I mean, have we already forgotten the Aether Foundation’s pseudo-conservationist nonsense? Their attempt to manipulate natural resources and establish a power base in Alola, while they were modernizing and taking their place on the world stage, was founded on this exact rhetoric of “rescuing” Pokémon from local disenfranchised populations, as if taking Pokémon away from places like Po Town would improve things instead of increasing competition between trainers and decreasing safety.

The release of the $2 pokeball meant that the balance of power shifted to the common citizens. If any child can wield the power of a god, the military and the government and the wealthiest businessmen have no power over them.

More than that, instead of power being determined by the wealth to acquire pokemon, power comes exclusively from the dedication, effort, and empathy required to train them to high levels and to maintain their loyalty. If a person simply buys their pokemon, then those pokemon will either stay at low levels forever, or refuse to obey the human because there is no respect between them; the most powerful people in the world are those who caught a critter at level 2-5 and then devoted their life to raising it into a world power.

All peoples are driven to the point of eating their gods after a time: it’s the old greed for a plateful of outer space, that craving for darkness the lust to feel what it does to you when your teeth meet in divinity, in the flesh when you swallow it down and you can see with its own cold eyes, look out through murder.

these images of sandra oh in the 90's/early 00's live in my mind rent free

untitled comic!!

Written and sketched by Alex

“I’m sorry?”

“Personal assistant, not secretary.”

“Forgive me,” I said. “Still, not quite the meat of the question.”

She tilted her head at me, and there was an amused glimmer in her eye. “Nothing,” she said.

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing happens. Or rather there is generally some type of conversation and the outcome is I continue to do my job with no harassment.” She sipped at her wine, and her eyes were merry and amused.

“How does that work, exactly?” I had my theories, of course. She’s been kidnapped twice, had her life threatened a few times, and yet… she’s fine. The two times she was kidnapped, she was released unharmed without intervention.

“I don’t normally like to talk this much about work on a first date,” she said.

“Oh, well, I’m not trying to pry, I’m just curious. I thought you’d keep your job closer to your chest.”

“In general, I do. But you’re… very pretty.”

She winked, which made me actually blush, something I rarely do these days.

T'challa: refined combat lesbians who love trees and dancing under the moonlight. Excellent at talking to girls and being fashionable without trying.