Me: Neither Twig Nor Ark Know How To Dance.

Hey everyone, I have a question for you all!! I’m currently in the process of designing a floragato sona/oc. I want to base them around a specific type of flower, but I’m not completely sold on anything yet. Right now I’m thinking lotus or some other tropical flower, but I’m open to suggestions!! If you know of any flowers or plants you think could make for a cool design, feel free to let me know here or in my asks!! Thank you!! :3

In Which Twig Speaks to an Old Friend

“I’m sorry.”

Twig’s brows furrowed and she glanced about, but she couldn’t find anything unusual in the warm light of day. Sitting in her garden, feeling the warm sun upon her scales, she closed her eyes and listened a moment longer, but the voice didn’t return.

“Twig?”

Her eyes jolted open, and Twig’s wide-eyed gaze turned upon her friend. Celebi shook her head, a knowing smile on her face, and continued running a long fine brush over Twig’s claws.

“I was asking,” Celebi said slowly, “what you think of this colour?”

Twig huffed a quiet laugh. “It’s a bit late, isn’t it?”

“Not for me,” Celebi answered with a wink.

Celebi drifted backwards, her arms crossed proudly, and chin tilted in a smirk. Twig raised her claws and couldn’t help but smile. She’d been sceptical when Celebi suggested they paint her claws, but it had come out rather nicely. They had debated over it for some time, quickly deciding red would be unsettling, and that a shade of black which matched Ark wasn’t quite right, either. Instead, they’d settled on an opalescent sort of nail polish, one that shimmered in the light, making her claws nearly sparkle like a gemstone. Twig couldn’t help but think it was a bit much, but seeing Celebi’s eagerness and promises of how good it would look, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse.

“Thanks, Celebi.”

“It’s my pleasure, dear! As soon as it’s dry, get started.”

“On what?” Twig asked, her head tilting.

Celebi dramatically flicked her head and settled on the ground in front of Twig, facing away from her.

“On painting my wings, of course!”

Twig recoiled, a snort escaping her. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Twig, darling, all my ideas are good ideas.”

“What about when you-”

“Don’t!” Celebi screamed, jumping away, and whipping around. “Don’t you dare say it!”

Twig doubled over in laughter, clenching at her gut. “You turned Grovyle back into a Treecko because you were startled! I didn’t think that was possible.”

Celebi rolled her eyes, arms crossed. “Turning time back on someone like that does take an inordinate amount of energy, but it’s not impossible! Though, it was a while before I had enough energy to change him back again.”

Finally bringing her laughter under control, Twig carefully wiped a stray tear from her eye, her nostrils burning with the scent of the nail polish. “No, I meant, I didn’t think you could be surprised.”

“Oh, well, a little surprise is nice sometimes.”

Twig nodded and the two fell into a comfortable silence, watching the clouds drift by, though Twig shivered when a breeze flowed through the garden, and the long shadows cast by the clouds were a little chilly.

There was something else odd too, but she couldn’t quite place it. In the shadows at the edge of her vision, something danced, just out of reach. It wasn’t the comforting noise that Ark’s shadow carried; it was quiet, practically whispering in ear, and though familiar, it felt completely different than Ark’s presence.

“It’s been nice,” Celebi said, shattering the silence like glass. “Spending more time together. Twig, I love you. Don’t you forget it.”

Smiling, Twig swallowed past the lump in her throat and allowed herself a moment to let the weight of it sink in, like a ball of warmth in her chest, and suddenly the day didn’t seem as cold. “I love you, too.”

“Enough to paint my wings?”

Laughter burst forth and Twig shook her head. “I’m still not sure this is a-”

“Oh, it’ll be fine, just a light coating to make me extra sparkly!”

The day dragged on, peaceful and slow. Celebi left and eventually, Ark returned from whatever he’d been doing, a new blanket for Twig bundled in his arms. After sharing a meal, Ark had tied the blanket around her neck like a cape and pronounced her his ‘super wife!’

She had called him a dork, helped with the dishes, and they’d settled on the couch, Twig leaning into Ark’s embrace and talking excitedly about her day. Ark listened with rapt attention, offering the occasional comment or groan at Celebi’s antics, and when Twig had nothing left to say, Ark shared his adventures from the day, and it was simple, and cozy, and perfect.

So, the days passed, Twig’s garden flourished, and her sketchbook was filled to bursting; she would have to get a new one soon. Still, every now and then, Twig would hear things on the wind, mumbled apologies, and earnest declarations. Yet, whenever she looked, no one was there.

Though, was it possibly she simply wasn’t looking hard enough? Perhaps, she already knew what she might find. Maybe the idea scared her, and honestly, who could blame her? Well, she could blame herself. After all, hearing voices, jumping at shadows, being afraid of nothing at all, was just silly. It was ridiculous, completely illogical, something she might’ve done in the past, but no more.

Yet, that thought made Twig freeze.

Immediately her mind began to race, telling her she was being absurd, that she was worrying over nothing, how if she kept up like this, she would only make herself a burden upon those she loved.

Like trains gone off the rails, her thoughts raced wildly, unable to stop and just barely avoiding crashing into each other. Any longer and there would be a collision and everything would go wrong and she-

Her eyes widened, and looking down, Twig found herself running a gentle claw over the proposal band Ark had given her. Taking a deep breath, she felt the band beneath her hand, and everything seemed to slow, just a little bit.

 Moving into her room, Twig pulled her journal from where she’d left it, settled on the edge of her bed, and flicked to an old entry. The paper was crinkled, and somewhat water stained. In the weeks after she had fallen apart, Twig had often flicked back to this entry, detailing the few memories she had retained from those days. The entry spoke of her friends’ warmth, and how loved she’d felt. It spoke of something, sharp and bloodied, being dislodged from her chest, the remaining hole filled with something gentler.

Looking back on it all, she almost couldn’t believe it had really happened. It felt so distant, almost as if it had happened to another person.

“I’m sorry.”

Stiffening at the voice, Twig turned slowly, and standing by the edge of the shadows was a small human girl, with frizzy hair, patchy clothes, and toes that stuck through the holes worn in her shoes.

Something in her chest lurched, but Twig’s mind had finally gone quiet.

The girl clutched at the hem of her shirt; her knuckles turned white. “I’m sorry. I didn’t do a good job of keeping us safe.”

Her eyes going wide, Twig slipped off the bedside. “You’re… me?”

“I’m sorry.”

After a moment, Twig took a deep breath, feeling her heart rattle in her chest. “Hey, can, can you look at me?”

Another sniffle, and the girl shook her head.

Twig scooted closer, and, slowly reaching out, took the girl’s hands in her own.

“Y-you don’t have to be afraid,” Twig whispered, her voice on the verge of breaking. “We’re okay now.”

Slowly, the girl looked up, her mouth hanging open and eyes wide, as if she couldn’t believe Twig’s words.

Twig nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah, we’re safe. We’ve got people who love us.”

The girl looked away and took a hesitant step back into the shadows. “But what if we’re just being a pain? Aren’t, aren’t we a burden?”

A broken cry slipped past Twig’s lips, and she shook her head. “Thank you, for trying so hard to look after us, but you don’t need to anymore.”

“But, what if-”

Twig clenched her eyes shut and pulled the girl in tight, wrapping her in a hug. “Would you hold a burden like this?”

For a moment, the girl was still, then her arms wrapped around Twig’s torso and her hands scrabbled at Twig’s shoulders. The girl wept loudly, snot dribbling from her nose, and amidst her tears, Twig heard three words.

“You’re so warm.”

When Twig finally opened her eyes, the girl was gone, and Ark was practically breaking down the door. He’d only been gone a few hours, what could’ve happened to reduce Twig to a snivelling mess on the floor during that time? He couldn’t guess, and he didn’t need to.

Wrapping her in a blanket, Ark carried her to the bed, fetched her a glass of water, and then crawled in beside her. Instantly, she latched onto him, tears still flowing, and told him all about it. He rubbed gently at her back, whispering quiet reassurances.

It hurt, yet in that moment, all was right with the world.

@sincerely-sofie

Thinking about the explorers of sky hero. How they were probably fighting for their life for as long as they could remember, just like Grovyle, Celebi and Dusknoir. How they thought they would never have a future. How they suddenly had a partner, a team, a family, a whole life ahead of them before learning who they were and what saving the world would mean for them - but they went ahead with it anyway. Always fighting, willing to sacrifice their own future for the future of others. And then the postgame says, you deserve to live. Even if you're being told that it's the right thing to do to sacrifice yourself, you deserve to live and you deserve to fight for your future. I might be reading too much into it, but... man i love this game.

In the dark future.

Imagine being a child, probably orphaned and alone in a post-apocalyptic world, there is no day or night, no seasons and the earth does not provide for itself, and on top of that, there are endless aggressive and wild Pokemon lurking in every corner, fortunately, you got a little friend who you can count on to have your back, yet, you are just children, forced to grow and mature in this world of perpetual darkness without knowing which day could be your last.

This is why Grovyle doesn't tend to show affection very often

Hero & Partner Week (@heropartnerweek) - Day 1: Market | First Meeting | Shiny

Shinx and Vulpix's shinies glimmer in both glitter and gold!

This is peak.

BEHOLD! ROTATING CRUNCHY MUDKIP.

I love making low polygon art so much. I've gotta do this more often.

I’m studying for finals right now and I got jumpscared by a doodle I forgot I made

This is making me want to doodle which is a problem bc I absolutely do not need to being doing that right now

This is beautiful. Almost made my cry in the middle of doing a lab report. Learning to love myself is something I’m still working on, it’s a journey I’m glad I started. This encapsulates that journey so well. Amazing work as always Sofie 🥹

I made a short comic set to a favorite quote of mine about anxiety by the author C. Joybell C. way back in 2019. If you like it, check out her Goodreads for more beautiful quotes!

(more under the cut)

This is so funny but also such a good idea that I wish was brought up more. It makes literally zero sense that the hero just instantly adapts to a completely new body and world the day they show up, I’m sorry but they just aren’t built like that. When Clay first shows up he’s falling over constantly due to being digitigrade and quadruped, can’t control his electricity at all, and cannot read or write except for some weird language no other pokemon speak. He still dives headfirst into most situations despite that, and Leo is constantly trying to dig them out of whatever Clay got them into. Everyone around treasure town things he’s a total weirdo, but they don’t have the heart to tell Leo they think that about the one friend he’s made since his parents’ disappearance.

To add on to this a little more, I also have a headcanon that heroes’ emotions are SUPER easy to read due to their body language. They’re not used to having control over their new tails, ears, elemental powers, etc, so they involuntarily show how they’re feeling based off of the movement and presentation of them. For example, my riolu hero OC Milo always gets embarrassed when he’s excited about something because he can’t stop his tail from wagging like crazy. Clay tends to spark up with electricity whenever he’s scared or upset about something.

It’s little things like this that make people’s characters and fics so awesome, it makes the heroes seem so much more down to earth and actually human like they’re supposed to be.

Imagining the PMD Partners as frustrated pet-owners trying so hard to care for their humans is hilarious to me.

Like, Hero is great and all, but they're so dumb. Partner is at their wits end and doesn't know what to do. Turns out, they're not the first person to feel that way!

The various partners throughout the years have written journals and compared notes, resulting in: How to care for your human - The struggle of Partners everywhere.

And it's just filled with nonsense like -

Humans don't have survival instincts. You are their impulse control.

Don't let your human pat every stranger they come across!

How to trick your human into going to the vet!

Teaching humans about hygiene.

How to keep your human happy (results may differ depending on the human)

Teaching your human how to control their fire/electricity/etc.

What to do if your human won't eat.

Teaching your human about their species behaviour (e.g. sunbathing, moulting, etc.)

Make sure your human gets regular exercise.

How to create an enriching environment for your human.

So, you're human is an eldritch horror?

What to do if your human is Gen Z