the skies will clear

Fuck you Juno the sky solved all of my problems I can hold on to the top of this van just fine I've never been better

<[ VIDEO ID: This is an extremely short video showing the current person setup in the van while it seems to be back on the road traveling to their destination. Both Juno and Ray are sitting in the front, the alleged psychic driving while Ray keeps looking over their shoulder worriedly.

Marny is currently laying halfway underneath Elodie as she has a tight lock around his head, pulling back occasionally once he starts audibly growling again. He seems to go through phases of his visible anger, tiring himself out before loudly growling and beginning to thrash wildly, clawing his nails at the older man sitting across the bed of the van.

The old man simply stares at her with a look of disappointment but not surprise. He sighs quietly, adjusting his hat as he leans forward a bit to try and offer a hand to the snarling scammer. ]>

??? : Marnette, please … Now, I know you’ve got more problems than a cat with a long tail in a room full of rockin’ chairs, but you know I’m a man who can talk these things out — !

<[ Instead of the response he hopefully wanted to receive, Marny doesn’t even try to give him the privilege of any sort of manipulation. Instead, she simply tries to escape again and has to be pulled back by Elodie again, who gives him a nervous smile. He sighs, sitting back down as he stares at her with an expression of exhausted worry. ]>

People have not asked specifically 'bout that, no, but that's extremely rude. Your 'mons belong to you as their trainer, and if someone thinks that they can just... ask for them and have them, they're just... Stupid?

i’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately discussing topics like why anon hate is harmful and how people need to start treating characters =/= the people writing them, which are both good but also inspired me to make my own psa of sorts.

two things.

1. if you find yourself genuinely upset over the actions people take against your fictional character, you may be emotional attaching yourself much too closely to your writing. everyone likes to feel things with their writing, but there’s unhealthy lines that can be crossed and make the entire experience not fun for others.

even if you say your character is not a self insert and is not a stand-in for yourself, genuinely taking personal attack and having breakdowns over another character being mean to yours means that you may be blurring the line hard between your fictional writing and your real feelings.

remember. this is fictional roleplay and you are not your character. if you see it like that, express that to the people you are writing with instead of swearing up and down you aren’t and you can continue to play toys just fine. you cannot expect every fictional character to be nice to yours.

2. if roleplay is taking more time than your personal well-being, you need to take a step back. if you are starting to neglect your personal relationships or potentially only focusing on roleplaying stuff, remember to take a healthy break and not completely submerge yourself in it.

your roleplay partners should not have to coax you into taking care of yourself or taking a break when you obviously need it. it’s a kind thing to do and friendly, but it should not be expected. i know it can be difficult to see when you might need it, but remember to take breaks and see how you’re feeling if you’ve been at the grind for days on end. this is honestly double for those who have specific mental illness that make them hyperfixate on certain things with little conscious regard for their own health. know your limits and know what you need best to function.

people should not have to take care of you in roleplaying spaces because you cannot take care of yourself and your emotions. if you cannot do these two things, roleplaying may not be such an innocent hobby for you and it truly is not for everyone. i’d recommend taking some time to actually reconnect with yourself and not spend so much time trying to develop what could possibly be an identity that you wish you could be, instead of simply writing silly characters with friends.

As a ranger, it is my deeply held belief, based on observation and experience, that Pokeballs are an under-estimated danger to pokemon and the environment. They can cause harm even when used properly and with good intentions. When used by someone with criminal or otherwise nefarious intent, they make causing harm ludicrously easy. Let's do a little comparison, shall we?

How do you get it? Pokeballs can be bought for money in Pokemarts, and are often handed out for free at promotional events. Capture stylers are given only to certified rangers.

What about more advanced versions? Some types of Pokeball require a certain number of League badges to purchase. Others are gated only by cost alone. Capture stylers have built-in limits that can be gradually removed by senior rangers once a ranger has proven experience and risen in rank.

Who regulates it? Pokeballs are produced by the Silph and Devon corporations. While they have some cooperation with the Pokemon League, and are regulated by government, their fundamental motivation is profit. Capture Stylers are regulared by the Ranger Union. Even if one could mass-capture using a styler, it would not benefit the Union to do so.

How many pokemon can you catch? While league battles allow only a fighting team of six, a person can buy and own as many pokeballs as they can carry. Even for the highest-ranked rangers, the maximum number of friend Pokemon is 7.

Can you take pokemon somewhere unsafe for them/the environment? Capture stylers prevent taking a pokemon out of it's native habitat, a limitation removed only for Top Rangers. A brand-new trainer could catch a magikarp and then immediately release it into the desert if they wanted.

What happens if you capture a wild pokemon? With a pokeball, the pokemon is now permanently registered as captured by the trainer. It can be released. Depending on the training experience, it may or may not be safe/appropriate to release back into the wild, even in its native habitat. With a capture styler, the pokemon remains wild. It can temporarily assist a ranger, and then return immediately to its natural environment and behaviors.

What if you try to catch someone else's pokemon? A pokeball prevents re-capture of an already registered pokemon. A capture styler can be used to capture an owned pokemon (this is often done to return lost pokemon, or soothe agitated or injured ones) but it does not change the ownership of the Pokemon.

Is there skill involved? There is strategy in Pokeball capturing, especially via battle. But theoretically, one could still bombard even a legendary pokemon with enough pokeballs and capture it by sheer statistical chance. Proper use of a capture styler requires education and training. Even if someone stole a capture styler, they would not automatically be able to use it.

What if someone "bad" tries to catch a pokemon? Anyone can buy and use a pokeball regardless of intentions. A capture styler conveys the intentions of the ranger. No matter how skilled/experienced, a person could not capture a pokemon they wished to harm in an unmodified/unhacked styler.

What about evil teams? Criminal organizations where pokeballs are readily available (Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, etc.) have simply used regular pokeballs for purposes of robbery, poaching, etc. Evil teams in regions where capture stylers are popular (Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia) have either heavily modified an experimental styler (Super Stylers) or needed to invent and produce an entirely new capture system (Gigaremo, Capture Gauntlet). This vastly limited available supply to team members, and speed of plans. I'm going to repeat that bit. Without access to pokeballs, evil teams found it easier to make, manufacture and distribute their own inventions than to use capture stylers for crime.

What happens if you defeat a criminal using a pokemon? Defeating a criminal (such as an evil team member) in a trainer battle may lead to an arrest, but they may also run away and keep the pokemon they own. When using a styler to capture pokemon controlled by other means (e.g. gigaremo units) the pokemon return to the wild.

In regions without dominant Ranger unions, pokeballs serve as something of an equalizer between all walks of life. A child with an allowance could buy at least one. This means that while evil teams with plenty of resources could buy them up by the dozens, they all also inevitably are thwarted by vigilantes with balled pokemon who tend to be far less motivated by hush money than the average cop. Disasters are brought about by evil people who misuse them, and righted by the ones who don't. Without this equilibrium, we would have to rely on organizations that may fall to corruption rather than the citizens of a region fixing what they know to be wrong.

There also seems to a few things that a pokeball can do better than a styler. Like you said, it's easy for trainers with too much money and time (competitive breeders mostly) to mass-release pokemon. Conversely, it's only slightly more difficult for another trainer affiliated with an invasive research and removal project, a good Samaritan, or even just a disgruntled farmer to go out and mass-capture the misplaced pokemon.

Also, pokeballs have something of a one-time use. I don't just mean breaking either, if you catch a pokemon, that pokeball cannot be reused. There are some people who are able to reactivate used pokeballs, but it requires direct modification. I have opinions on this beyond the scope of this argument, but in terms of comparison to the capture styler, this means that one stolen or misused capture styler could theoretically be used to round up more pokemon than the average trainer could manage with their budget's worth of pokeballs, accounting for break-outs and misses. It would take a lot of resources to mass-capture using just a styler, but the people misusing pokeballs on such a scale already tend to have plenty of resources at their disposal.

There's also the Orre situation. Team Cipher developed Snag tech, and even though things have been relatively quiet on that front since the latest Snagem incident, there's still the fact that it wasn't the pokeballs themselves that allowed the two teams of that region to build their ranks, but the snag machines that modified the balls. The situation essentially became thieves vs. thieves as people were stealing pokemon back and forth from each other in order to reestablish some form of peace. Like you said, as pokeballs are currently regulated, this is impossible to do. However, just like people will illegally obtain and modify stylers, people will do the same to pokeballs. And when both of these options fail, they will always simply build their own machines. Most evil teams are well-funded, and if a rich bastard wants to do something, they will find a way regardless of regulations.

I agree with you about the Snagem situation, which I feel parallels the super styler situation. No matter the exact tool or form of capture, there's always a way for it to be modified and misused. Though I still feel it worth noting that plenty of criminal organizations (like Team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Aqua) have gotten by without needing to modify anything and just using regular pokeballs. Though you are right, if a team is well-funded enough, it can do anything- whether that means mass-buying pokeballs or making their own inventions.

To be perfectly transparent, I don't have a solution to this situation. There's no un-doing the existence of Pokeballs. Fiore gets on well without them, but it would be absurd to try to remove them (both physically and societally/culturally) from other regions. And I ultimately don't believe only rangers should have the ability to capture pokemon. Regulating pokeballs would definitely not stop all crime or pokemon abuse. But some regulations might prevent the ease of current mass poaching and trafficking.

The reason is twofold. First of all, expediting the process of boosting new trainers into the Gym Circuit keeps the sport fresh and brings in revenue faster. Second, League members love spectacle. I know that Galar in particular gets a lot of flack for being over the top, but most gyms, especially the higher-level ones, have some sort of elaborate floor plan or puzzle to solve. Maintaining all of that costs money, and while some gym leaders pay entirely out of pocket for that maintenance, many of them dip into the funds allocated by the League as a whole. Putting money into the trainer schools so they could physically accommodate more students and more classes would drain the amount of money they could put into their ice puzzles.

As a ranger, it is my deeply held belief, based on observation and experience, that Pokeballs are an under-estimated danger to pokemon and the environment. They can cause harm even when used properly and with good intentions. When used by someone with criminal or otherwise nefarious intent, they make causing harm ludicrously easy. Let's do a little comparison, shall we?

How do you get it? Pokeballs can be bought for money in Pokemarts, and are often handed out for free at promotional events. Capture stylers are given only to certified rangers.

What about more advanced versions? Some types of Pokeball require a certain number of League badges to purchase. Others are gated only by cost alone. Capture stylers have built-in limits that can be gradually removed by senior rangers once a ranger has proven experience and risen in rank.

Who regulates it? Pokeballs are produced by the Silph and Devon corporations. While they have some cooperation with the Pokemon League, and are regulated by government, their fundamental motivation is profit. Capture Stylers are regulared by the Ranger Union. Even if one could mass-capture using a styler, it would not benefit the Union to do so.

How many pokemon can you catch? While league battles allow only a fighting team of six, a person can buy and own as many pokeballs as they can carry. Even for the highest-ranked rangers, the maximum number of friend Pokemon is 7.

Can you take pokemon somewhere unsafe for them/the environment? Capture stylers prevent taking a pokemon out of it's native habitat, a limitation removed only for Top Rangers. A brand-new trainer could catch a magikarp and then immediately release it into the desert if they wanted.

What happens if you capture a wild pokemon? With a pokeball, the pokemon is now permanently registered as captured by the trainer. It can be released. Depending on the training experience, it may or may not be safe/appropriate to release back into the wild, even in its native habitat. With a capture styler, the pokemon remains wild. It can temporarily assist a ranger, and then return immediately to its natural environment and behaviors.

What if you try to catch someone else's pokemon? A pokeball prevents re-capture of an already registered pokemon. A capture styler can be used to capture an owned pokemon (this is often done to return lost pokemon, or soothe agitated or injured ones) but it does not change the ownership of the Pokemon.

Is there skill involved? There is strategy in Pokeball capturing, especially via battle. But theoretically, one could still bombard even a legendary pokemon with enough pokeballs and capture it by sheer statistical chance. Proper use of a capture styler requires education and training. Even if someone stole a capture styler, they would not automatically be able to use it.

What if someone "bad" tries to catch a pokemon? Anyone can buy and use a pokeball regardless of intentions. A capture styler conveys the intentions of the ranger. No matter how skilled/experienced, a person could not capture a pokemon they wished to harm in an unmodified/unhacked styler.

What about evil teams? Criminal organizations where pokeballs are readily available (Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, etc.) have simply used regular pokeballs for purposes of robbery, poaching, etc. Evil teams in regions where capture stylers are popular (Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia) have either heavily modified an experimental styler (Super Stylers) or needed to invent and produce an entirely new capture system (Gigaremo, Capture Gauntlet). This vastly limited available supply to team members, and speed of plans. I'm going to repeat that bit. Without access to pokeballs, evil teams found it easier to make, manufacture and distribute their own inventions than to use capture stylers for crime.

What happens if you defeat a criminal using a pokemon? Defeating a criminal (such as an evil team member) in a trainer battle may lead to an arrest, but they may also run away and keep the pokemon they own. When using a styler to capture pokemon controlled by other means (e.g. gigaremo units) the pokemon return to the wild.

In regions without dominant Ranger unions, pokeballs serve as something of an equalizer between all walks of life. A child with an allowance could buy at least one. This means that while evil teams with plenty of resources could buy them up by the dozens, they all also inevitably are thwarted by vigilantes with balled pokemon who tend to be far less motivated by hush money than the average cop. Disasters are brought about by evil people who misuse them, and righted by the ones who don't. Without this equilibrium, we would have to rely on organizations that may fall to corruption rather than the citizens of a region fixing what they know to be wrong.

There also seems to a few things that a pokeball can do better than a styler. Like you said, it's easy for trainers with too much money and time (competitive breeders mostly) to mass-release pokemon. Conversely, it's only slightly more difficult for another trainer affiliated with an invasive research and removal project, a good Samaritan, or even just a disgruntled farmer to go out and mass-capture the misplaced pokemon.

Also, pokeballs have something of a one-time use. I don't just mean breaking either, if you catch a pokemon, that pokeball cannot be reused. There are some people who are able to reactivate used pokeballs, but it requires direct modification. I have opinions on this beyond the scope of this argument, but in terms of comparison to the capture styler, this means that one stolen or misused capture styler could theoretically be used to round up more pokemon than the average trainer could manage with their budget's worth of pokeballs, accounting for break-outs and misses. It would take a lot of resources to mass-capture using just a styler, but the people misusing pokeballs on such a scale already tend to have plenty of resources at their disposal.

There's also the Orre situation. Team Cipher developed Snag tech, and even though things have been relatively quiet on that front since the latest Snagem incident, there's still the fact that it wasn't the pokeballs themselves that allowed the two teams of that region to build their ranks, but the snag machines that modified the balls. The situation essentially became thieves vs. thieves as people were stealing pokemon back and forth from each other in order to reestablish some form of peace. Like you said, as pokeballs are currently regulated, this is impossible to do. However, just like people will illegally obtain and modify stylers, people will do the same to pokeballs. And when both of these options fail, they will always simply build their own machines. Most evil teams are well-funded, and if a rich bastard wants to do something, they will find a way regardless of regulations.

I agree with you about the Snagem situation, which I feel parallels the super styler situation. No matter the exact tool or form of capture, there's always a way for it to be modified and misused. Though I still feel it worth noting that plenty of criminal organizations (like Team Rocket, Team Magma, Team Aqua) have gotten by without needing to modify anything and just using regular pokeballs. Though you are right, if a team is well-funded enough, it can do anything- whether that means mass-buying pokeballs or making their own inventions.

To be perfectly transparent, I don't have a solution to this situation. There's no un-doing the existence of Pokeballs. Fiore gets on well without them, but it would be absurd to try to remove them (both physically and societally/culturally) from other regions. And I ultimately don't believe only rangers should have the ability to capture pokemon. Regulating pokeballs would definitely not stop all crime or pokemon abuse. But some regulations might prevent the ease of current mass poaching and trafficking.

The reason is twofold. First of all, expediting the process of boosting new trainers into the Gym Circuit keeps the sport fresh and brings in revenue faster. Second, League members love spectacle. I know that Galar in particular gets a lot of flack for being over the top, but most gyms, especially the higher-level ones, have some sort of elaborate floor plan or puzzle to solve. Maintaining all of that costs money, and while some gym leaders pay entirely out of pocket for that maintenance, many of them dip into the funds allocated by the League as a whole. Putting money into the trainer schools so they could physically accommodate more students and more classes would drain the amount of money they could put into their ice puzzles.

As a ranger, it is my deeply held belief, based on observation and experience, that Pokeballs are an under-estimated danger to pokemon and the environment. They can cause harm even when used properly and with good intentions. When used by someone with criminal or otherwise nefarious intent, they make causing harm ludicrously easy. Let's do a little comparison, shall we?

How do you get it? Pokeballs can be bought for money in Pokemarts, and are often handed out for free at promotional events. Capture stylers are given only to certified rangers.

What about more advanced versions? Some types of Pokeball require a certain number of League badges to purchase. Others are gated only by cost alone. Capture stylers have built-in limits that can be gradually removed by senior rangers once a ranger has proven experience and risen in rank.

Who regulates it? Pokeballs are produced by the Silph and Devon corporations. While they have some cooperation with the Pokemon League, and are regulated by government, their fundamental motivation is profit. Capture Stylers are regulared by the Ranger Union. Even if one could mass-capture using a styler, it would not benefit the Union to do so.

How many pokemon can you catch? While league battles allow only a fighting team of six, a person can buy and own as many pokeballs as they can carry. Even for the highest-ranked rangers, the maximum number of friend Pokemon is 7.

Can you take pokemon somewhere unsafe for them/the environment? Capture stylers prevent taking a pokemon out of it's native habitat, a limitation removed only for Top Rangers. A brand-new trainer could catch a magikarp and then immediately release it into the desert if they wanted.

What happens if you capture a wild pokemon? With a pokeball, the pokemon is now permanently registered as captured by the trainer. It can be released. Depending on the training experience, it may or may not be safe/appropriate to release back into the wild, even in its native habitat. With a capture styler, the pokemon remains wild. It can temporarily assist a ranger, and then return immediately to its natural environment and behaviors.

What if you try to catch someone else's pokemon? A pokeball prevents re-capture of an already registered pokemon. A capture styler can be used to capture an owned pokemon (this is often done to return lost pokemon, or soothe agitated or injured ones) but it does not change the ownership of the Pokemon.

Is there skill involved? There is strategy in Pokeball capturing, especially via battle. But theoretically, one could still bombard even a legendary pokemon with enough pokeballs and capture it by sheer statistical chance. Proper use of a capture styler requires education and training. Even if someone stole a capture styler, they would not automatically be able to use it.

What if someone "bad" tries to catch a pokemon? Anyone can buy and use a pokeball regardless of intentions. A capture styler conveys the intentions of the ranger. No matter how skilled/experienced, a person could not capture a pokemon they wished to harm in an unmodified/unhacked styler.

What about evil teams? Criminal organizations where pokeballs are readily available (Johto, Kanto, Hoenn, etc.) have simply used regular pokeballs for purposes of robbery, poaching, etc. Evil teams in regions where capture stylers are popular (Fiore, Almia, and Oblivia) have either heavily modified an experimental styler (Super Stylers) or needed to invent and produce an entirely new capture system (Gigaremo, Capture Gauntlet). This vastly limited available supply to team members, and speed of plans. I'm going to repeat that bit. Without access to pokeballs, evil teams found it easier to make, manufacture and distribute their own inventions than to use capture stylers for crime.

What happens if you defeat a criminal using a pokemon? Defeating a criminal (such as an evil team member) in a trainer battle may lead to an arrest, but they may also run away and keep the pokemon they own. When using a styler to capture pokemon controlled by other means (e.g. gigaremo units) the pokemon return to the wild.

In regions without dominant Ranger unions, pokeballs serve as something of an equalizer between all walks of life. A child with an allowance could buy at least one. This means that while evil teams with plenty of resources could buy them up by the dozens, they all also inevitably are thwarted by vigilantes with balled pokemon who tend to be far less motivated by hush money than the average cop. Disasters are brought about by evil people who misuse them, and righted by the ones who don't. Without this equilibrium, we would have to rely on organizations that may fall to corruption rather than the citizens of a region fixing what they know to be wrong.

There also seems to a few things that a pokeball can do better than a styler. Like you said, it's easy for trainers with too much money and time (competitive breeders mostly) to mass-release pokemon. Conversely, it's only slightly more difficult for another trainer affiliated with an invasive research and removal project, a good Samaritan, or even just a disgruntled farmer to go out and mass-capture the misplaced pokemon.

Also, pokeballs have something of a one-time use. I don't just mean breaking either, if you catch a pokemon, that pokeball cannot be reused. There are some people who are able to reactivate used pokeballs, but it requires direct modification. I have opinions on this beyond the scope of this argument, but in terms of comparison to the capture styler, this means that one stolen or misused capture styler could theoretically be used to round up more pokemon than the average trainer could manage with their budget's worth of pokeballs, accounting for break-outs and misses. It would take a lot of resources to mass-capture using just a styler, but the people misusing pokeballs on such a scale already tend to have plenty of resources at their disposal.

There's also the Orre situation. Team Cipher developed Snag tech, and even though things have been relatively quiet on that front since the latest Snagem incident, there's still the fact that it wasn't the pokeballs themselves that allowed the two teams of that region to build their ranks, but the snag machines that modified the balls. The situation essentially became thieves vs. thieves as people were stealing pokemon back and forth from each other in order to reestablish some form of peace. Like you said, as pokeballs are currently regulated, this is impossible to do. However, just like people will illegally obtain and modify stylers, people will do the same to pokeballs. And when both of these options fail, they will always simply build their own machines. Most evil teams are well-funded, and if a rich bastard wants to do something, they will find a way regardless of regulations.

I thought spending more time in regions where Pokeballs are more common would help me get used to them and soften my aversion to them, maybe show me the good side. But the more familiar I get with Pokeballs the more I realize I was right all along and they are basically tailored for the worst possible effects.

The court was adjourned late yesterday evening and will reconvene later in the afternoon today. The defendant has been offered the opportunity to have all charges dropped if he relinquishes custody of his Cubone (Sora) to the Petalburg Humane Society. The defendant has yet to accept the deal. His emotional outburst in response to the deal was a primary factor in adjourning the court. We do not expect him to accept.

Like. I did promise him I could avoid getting him sent to prison and deported back to Kanto. I never said anything about his Kingdom Hearts Cubone or the fact he would be able to walk away with this one singular Pokémon in his team.

So — You’re telling me that he’s being given the deal of not going to jail, not being deported to Kanto, basically having all of these charges completely dropped and swept under the rug so that he can go home to Mommy and our issue is that he will refuse because of a Pokémon?

A Pokémon that he had for … possibly not even a month? When there’s millions of Cubones that could all have this same name out there? If you lose one Pokémon for uncontrollable reasons, you just get another one and start over. That’s the reason why we have so many Cubones.

Arc, maybe I’m just out of the loop but I thought this was the way we’ve always done it. I could greet him literally out the gate with another one of those skull-wearing fucking things — and he could name that one not after a dead friend and he can still have a little guy in his party.

Trauma is fucked up and strange, but I really don’t want to only see him in visiting hours in a completely different region because he wanted to hypothetically keep a Pokémon that he’s formed a bond with purely based on some grounds of trauma he clearly is not over. Do they even let you keep your Pokémon in prison in Kanto? So he’ll just lose her anyways?

I won't disagree with you that his bond with this Cubone is likely rooted in some unresolved trauma. However, there is no time limit on developing a bond with a pokemon. It could happen in a matter of minutes. His desperation to keep a pokemon he clearly cares very deeply about is evident and no less valid for the short duration of time he's known her.

You could technically find another friend. If Skipp gets locked up, you can track down another delinquent ex-con who would want to befriend you and replace him. But you don't want that to happen. You went through the trouble of returning to Hoenn to prevent that from happening.

I'm not asking you to understand the bonds that people have with their pokemon. But I had better not hear anything this callous from you or Anna Tourney in the coming day. Not if you still consider this man a friend.

<[ VIDEO UPLOADED — 12/7 ]>

<[ VIDEO ID: This informational video starts with both Professor Amaryllis and Marnette Mador adding little spruce touches to their outfits, obviously preparing for some sort of important outing together. The professor is wearing a purple arbok-patterned button down with some casual pants and their cleanest lab coat pulled over, currently trying to keep their hair from drooping too far into their face. They keep brushing it back repeatedly, getting more frustrated each time.

This doesn’t seem to usually be an issue for them, but they are putting specific emphasis on certain aspects of themselves to seem more approachable and trustworthy to those around them. Amaryllis looks as casual as the next person, but their worried demeanor still shines through as they turn their attention to their shorter help who is preparing his own look.

Marny doesn’t seem to be putting as much care in his own look, throwing on a thrifted suit and wiping off a few layers of dust. His suit visibly has the appearance of green scales, fitted with a jacket and matching pants. He seems to be going all out on a disguise to make him less recognizable, even using some makeup to apply the remnants of a five-o’clock shadow. Picking up a nearby hairbrush, he attempts to drag it through his curled hair and it immediately gets completely stuck.

Sighing, he gestures for the professor to come over, the both of them assuming a familiar position as they rip it out of his hair with minimal wincing before he falls to the floor entirely. ]>

🔬🐍: How many times do we have to go over how different our hair types are?

💰🍸: Nnnhhghhh … I forgoooot.

<[ They sigh as they give a small smile, holding out their hand for their dramatic something and help pull him back up, putting a majority of weight on their cane as they do. As they do, Marny takes a look at his entire outfit and seems impressed, grinning and nodding as he does. ]>

💰🍸: Wow Strawberry! You really know how to pull it together for these things, huh? Looks good, looks genuine!

🔬🐍: Aaaaha, thank you … I’m trying.

💰🍸: Tried and succeeded — one second, I gotta add the finishing touch before I forget.

<[ Marny leans over and stares in the mirror for another few seconds, inspecting his face and his makeup job. He takes out a small, dusty glasses case with a price sticker on it that has been completely ripped in half, opening them and gently placing a pair of green lens glasses on his face. Grinning, he turns to face Amaryllis. ]>

💰🍸: How do I look? Smart, huh?

<[ The professor lets out a small chuckle as they finish up the last touches of their own outfit by throwing a pair of simple brown shoes on, nodding as they approach the scammer. ]>

🔬🐍: You look … cute. We’ll say that.

💰🍸: Ohhoho? Babe, I’ll take cute over smart any day — It’s practically how I’m still alive. Plus, I mean it’s coming from a knowledge source!

🔬🐍: Oh, because I’m a professor who wears glasses?

💰🍸: Of course not! It’s because —

<[ Gently, Marny wraps his arms around Amaryllis’ waist and pulls them closer to himself, grinning up at them as their face begins to slowly turn a deeper shade of red and they smile. ]>

💰🍸: — you’re cute. You must know all about it.

<[ The two stay in this position for a few more moments, even the scammer’s own face beginning to turn a bit before the professor leans down and initiates a small kiss between the two. As they do, their positions both change and they begin to hold one another much closer, even swaying softly as they get lost in this moment.

Pulling away, the professor nervously chuckles again as they look away from the scammer. It seems as if the both of them are getting used to this new affection, a slow start to whatever is currently going on. Some part of them seems somewhat nervous to the reaction that he’ll give them, as if they crossed a boundary without even thinking. As they open their mouth to mutter out an apology and an explanation, Marny gently puts his hand under their chin and moves their face to meet eyes with him once again.

His smile is soft and his eyes are only half lidded. Instead of the usual unnerving grin of someone who always seems to have one trick up his sleeve, this smile is one of pure content and rarely seen by a grand majority of people. Leaning in, he immediately initiates another kiss, which leads the professor to now melt in a similar way. After this second kiss — this is so boring — the two simply take some time to enjoy the presence of the other while wrapped in their arms. The two are quiet but happy, emanating a sort of warmth.

Marny nuzzles his head in Amaryllis’ neck, which causes the professor to chuckle a bit and lift their head up to give him more room. After what seems like an eternity of standing in silence, the scammer grins and leads the professor over to the nearby couch again, laying back and pulling themselves on top of him as they do. The video ends with the two of them continuing … that. ]>

<[ VIDEO ENDS. ]>

Awful. Terrible. 0/10.

I am not built for cold. I grew up in a Hoenn rainforest I am like a tropical plant I need heat and humidity to survive. Everyone always laughs at me because I have to bundle up so damn much just to not die in """mild""" cold. It's awful.