Tag!! You're It!! V3: Welcome to the Garden~

[toastghost]

@TheGoldenDuck what's your all time favorite cartoon?

 

[TheGoldenToon]

@TheGoldenDuck what's your all time favorite cartoon?

I'd have to say Hey Arnold!, it's a cool urban setting show, it had good characters, it was funny, heartwarming, and had some great music.


@Orchid Any favorite Pokemon card(s) in the TCG? If not cards, any other Pokemon merch?

 

[Blanc]

@Blanc Why do you like Emmet and Ingo so much? I've been pretty curious for a while.

LOL I love getting this question, it's understandable to ask since I'm so insane about them. I'm going to assume you want the long version rather than the short version, so I'll spoiler the below if it becomes too much of a wall.

I've loved them since I first laid eyes on them, I have a distinct memory of witnessing them in Pokemon Black and White when I tried out the Battle Subway, but things really kicked off when you get to double battle them upon entering Nimbasa in B2W2 and I remember just... drawing them after that, and then I just kept doing that and then next thing I know I'm cosplaying the fools and ... here we are! Though that isn't much of an answer, and after contemplating it sometime when I was over I think I have a more concrete one beyond "I think their designs are cute and I like them". Between just liking the designs, the dynamic of characters being something I like a lot, and some of my own similarities... It's... a combo of things! I'll separate it.

Spoiler: the blanc deep lore reason

Growing up, the word 'weird' has followed me my whole life. My parents call me weird, my teachers called me weird, other kids called me weird. Sometimes it was directed at me in a derogatory manner, sometimes they meant it with a sort of... fascination in their voices, because being a 'gifted kid burnout' I was often revered as a child prodigy by both my parents and teachers. This was amplified by the fact I had an older sister who was much more, well, 'normal' than me. She was about 3 years older than me, but to many we looked identical, even our parents would get us confused. I smile when I'm nervous, I laugh when I'm nervous... So that was another reason I was just found strange. But at any rate, I grew up in a small town, so basically everywhere we went, I was mistaken for her quite frequently, rather than the other way around, it was like... I existed in her shadow, her strange yet supposedly clever younger sister, but I never really felt that way as much as she did. Either way, the point is I've gone through life with nearly everyone I've come in contact with, including said older sister always looking at me knowing I was a little 'off' even before I said anything at all.

I hope you see what I'm getting at here, LOL.

Enter these two mysterious Pokemon characters that look identical, both strange, but one a bit more indecipherable than the other-- kind of like how I was to everyone I met. They're cute, a little abnormal, but fascinating! I shared in that experience.

Spoiler: the character dynamic reason

Following the above, I noticed I've always had a penchant for characters that either are mirrors of each other, (possibly maladjusted) siblings, or over all any characters that ultimately share a polarity, typically in a monochrome color scheme. I think a BIG reason I loved these two on release was because I am a MASSIVE fan of the Scarlet Sisters from Touhou EoSD. I've loved Touhou about as long as I've loved Pokemon (though Pokemon still wins out in the timeframe of things LOL), and Remilia and Flandre Scarlet are absolutely some of my favorite characters of all time. Once again this dynamic of an older sibling and a childish younger one who is a bit stranger than fiction... And another pair I've often enjoyed through life is Alice and The Will of the Abyss from the series Pandora Hearts. Another pair of twins who mirror each other, one of them wearing entirely white and again being quite a strange and mysterious girl... Both pairs of these characters I enjoyed much before the release of Pokemon BW... do you see a pattern with me? LOL. I think the reason I like characters like this obviously again plays into the above of my own life, but I also just really like the idea of characters that complete each other, characters that you don't really know all of unless you know both of them. (Having a cool design helps too). I also grew up on early 2000s internet where nightcore and old school denpa VNs were rampant and often played on the theme of characters who wore black vs white, so that sort of internet poisoning likely also has a hand in this.

Spoiler: "I just think they're neat"

What should be the simplest answer but I'm making it very not simple anyway because I'm deranged. I've always had an affinity for anime boys with white/silver hair. These two are my strangest ones for that for sure, but they just have their own little quirks. Ingo is super gap moe when you get down to it, and Emmet feeds that inherent love of denpa-esque things I have that I rarely see portrayed in media, let alone in male characters. Ingo has that ouji-sama air about him, he's polite, incredibly polite, a reserved gentleman that you can't help but want to embarrass because you know his face will be cute. Meanwhile Emmet was often nicknamed "Boku-tenshi" in the early days of the JP fandom because he just seems so... sweet. Very sweet. 'Adorable' is the best word to describe him on all accounts because of the way he carries himself (often in fanon cases, but it's those little things, like where Ingo would remain still and Emmet would be swaying side by side next to him... those little body language things).

And well. I've always liked trains. I grew up in a town that was named after a train, and I had a lot of model sets I played with when I was small. But it's the cuteness. It's definitely their cuteness and my love for B&W designs.

I could probably go on but.... there you have the short of it. Or the long of it. Or whatever this is... of it.

No I will never be normal about them, I've tried. Oh. And while I did stop drawing them for a few years of my life, you can thank PLA for returning my long forgotten curse.

@sleepwick Hi wick!! Here's where I ask a similar question to you!! What do you like Sonia so much? (Assuming she's your favorite...?)

 

[Okido]

@Orchid Any favorite Pokemon card(s) in the TCG? If not cards, any other Pokemon merch?

I think if I had to choose just one, my #1 favorite card is probably this one from EX Sandstorm, illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita:

But obviously I couldn't choose just one, so here are a few of my other favorite card illustrations!

Spoiler

(And as for anything else non-TCG, I think the G.E.M. Series anime figures are very cute and I wish they were on my shelf right now.)

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@airmail You're at the gas station — you can get one candy bar, one chip/snack, and one drink. What are you picking? Choose wisely.

 

[sleepwick]

@sleepwick Hi wick!! Here's where I ask a similar question to you!! What do you like Sonia so much? (Assuming she's your favorite...?)

hey blanc!! she's among my favs (basically tied for first place with the twins from swsh or slightly below them at a very very close second)

while i think it'd be the assumption for a lot of people that my love for sonia stems from my general enjoyment of the swsh postgame and her role in it, there's actually a lot more to it!

Spoiler: kinda rambly "shes relatable" section

when i first played swsh i liked sonia a lot, i don't think i know anyone who didn't like sonia, but it wasn't until almost 2 years later she really started to resonate with me, around the same time i got back into posting about the twins online. sonia has always been an extremely relatable character to me, with me being someone who even through the harder times just wants to have fun and get on with a smile, and much like sonia in the manga i'll avoid confronting things that bother me even if it'd be better for me in the long run to do. but even moreso than that: when i first started really identifying with sonia as a character i was 17, with my 18th birthday right around the corner, and i was and still am at a point where i'm just not sure entirely what i'm going to do in life. and i feel like i don't usually get to see many adults in fiction who still have that level of uncertainty, so it always meant a lot to me to be able to see sonia, someone who's an adult that's older than me, still being unsure at a time when people generally expect you to have it all figured out, and just kinda going along for the ride.

also i remember around this time sonia's debut in the christmas event for pokemon masters in 2021 really resonated with me as well, in the inherent sense of loneliness of drifting away from your friends due to just not being able to make things work time-wise due to work. currently i'm not working but even now i can kinda relate to this because while i'm not working mostly everyone else i know either has a job or is in some kind of education. so yeah the tldr for this section is kinda just shes relatable and i like to project onto her a lot (such as me deciding she has triple thread adhd ocd autism like me LOL)

but there's still more to it!

Spoiler: slumbering weald lore

a part of sonia's character i never see people talk about, but is arguably the most interesting to me is her history with the slumbering weald, and having gone into it when she was younger, and the mystery of it. it's always felt like the characters knew exactly what happened but the player is never fully told, we're just told she went into the slumbering weald when she was younger and came out in a state, and got in trouble for it. the lack of an explanation has always really intrigued me just because even if it's not super in your face, we can see that it did affect sonia to some extent by how she reacts and talks about the slumbering weald in general. her saying she has an uneasy feeling about the player and hop encountering a strange pokemon in the slumbering weald, how she mentions not having the best memories of it in the postgame. it really could just be something as simple as "oh she probably got attacked by wild pokemon or something", but from the way it's highlighted while still kept mysterious i've always felt like there's something more to it, and it's something i'd love to see properly given an explanation even if it's through a non-canon masters event where it gets talked about.

and last major section ofc since this is me we're talking about

Spoiler: sonia and the twins act as narrative foils to each other and yes i am 100% serious.

this section is mostly ripped from an essay i wrote on this topic in google docs but i'll try to keep it brief since there's a lot to unpack here when you take in factors from both the games and pokespe as well as some theories i have about the twins' past that furthers this idea. the royal twins as characters and their storyline are inherently linked to sonia. there is a good chance they'd still have a plotline after the events of the maingame in general, but the specific plotline we got for them is entirely dependant on sonia and her character arc. when you really look at it, she (for better or worse) changed the trajectory of their lives. it's indirectly because of sonia and her book that they're now acqainted with people who challenge their ideas rather than just blindly letting them do whatever they want. it's interesting for both parties to look at them as being direct counterparts, sonia being someone who stumbled across the truth unintentionally (obviously she is investigating galar's legends so its not really wholly "unintentionally", but stuff like the mural being destroyed was almost sorta just..convenient.) and the twins being people who's family have tried so desperately to cover up the truth. sonia who is the one who uncovered the truth alongside the protagonist and hop and welcomes it with open arms, and the twins who adamantly continue to deny that truth. it's just a very fascinating topic and take on the characters to think about and i really like talking about this because these 3 are my favourite pokemon characters of all time and a lot of that stems from their dynamic together.

however even aside from that, i like how sonia interacts with other characters, i like her dynamic with others and her affect on their lives, and in general the story of swsh. i think sonia is a seriously underrated character when it comes to actually being a character outside of just her design and shipping, and i really like getting to talk about why i like her so much. i don't think i've ever really identified with a character as much as i do with sonia, so i'm just really grateful she exists.

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@Catz i'm not very good at coming up with questions so i'll extend a similar question to you! who's your favorite pokemon character and why?

 

[Catz]

Marnie
I love her so much.

I don't know why, but she is hands down my absolute favourite, I cherish her.

sword and shield were my first games, so I suppose that aids in my liking towards her, but even then, I didn't think much of her, just the more serious, but not brash rival of the games, unlike Bede.

my love for her actually increased a ton when I got into shipping a lot more in recent years. (More specifically, Marnie x Gloria, but I've been coming around to Marnie x Peonia). Her interactions with others in games like Masters EX was also another reason (10/10 dialogue between characters in that game btw).

I don't want to try and stretch this out or anything, but what else can I say, Marnie is a very well built character with a lot of heart and personality, although she may not often show it, and I like it that way ^^

On an unrelated note, @Orchid, what's your favourite school subject?

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

@Lone_Garurumon - your user title and profile theming lend me to believe you're a fan of the sonic series; pardon if you've already answered this somewhere else, but do you happen to have a favorite entry in it?

Graded on multiple aspects and categorised for your convenience!
In terms of story/writing, Sonic and the Black Knight takes the prize easy. It's melodramatic and a bit corny (affectionate), and contains what must be my favourite portrayal of Sonic and his philosophies that I've ever seen. It's also, very importantly, still in that band of time when Sonic games weren't afraid of being big and bombastic, so the climax is one of the coolest things you've ever seen.
In terms of gameplay, honestly probably Frontiers? The open-zone gameplay is fun but not my favourite, but the Cyberspace stages, especially in final Horizon, feel absolutely fantastic to blast through. Especially once you've got tools like the spindash to effectively cheat past chunks of the stage with good execution. Simply delicious.
Favourite soundtrack goes to Sonic Rush. Hideki Naganuma simply cannot miss. I dunno, I don't really have more to say on this one, I like music, but I don't know it to really explain shit, y'know?

Hey @toastghost, you got a favourite food? What about stuff you don't like?

 

[Okido]

On an unrelated note, @Orchid, what's your favourite school subject?

Fun fact, but I actually never went to school... so I've never been sure how to answer this question. ^^; I like art and biology, and I probably would have enjoyed computer science a lot if I had the chance. Maybe I'll get back to ya on that once I start college, lol.

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@InfiniteBakuphoon What are some of your favorite animals?

 

[toastghost]

Hey @toastghost, you got a favourite food? What about stuff you don't like?

giant assortment of junk food, in particular french fries and churros. I'm super picky and i don't eat a giant assortment

@beryllium what made you interested in mafia?

 

[guzmania]

i thought it would be fun

@Insanish Danish - favorite ace attorney character besides susato? (who is so good she exists on a different plane of reality and therefore does not count)

 

[Insanish Danish]

i thought it would be fun

@Insanish Danish - favorite ace attorney character besides susato? (who is so good she exists on a different plane of reality and therefore does not count)

Oof that's a hard one. I'm so bad at picking just one favorite character from things (although Susato is one of them obviously lol), I just always love so many characters in literally anything I like. I love basically all the important characters (not to mention so many of the side characters) from Great Ace Attorney and the Phoenix Wright trilogy. Phoenix, Edgeworth, Maya, Gumshoe, Ryunosuke, Kazuma, the aforementioned Susato, Sholmes, Van Zieks, Iris...yeah I have a problem lmao I just. Love characters very much

While we're on the subject, @lisianthus Favorite non-Pokemon character?

 

[airmail]

You're at the gas station — you can get one candy bar, one chip/snack, and one drink. What are you picking? Choose wisely.

hi !! Also oh, easy, I'd gettt:
A zero bar
Lemon cake
and an apple soda! Usually I have to get a coke because not every gas station has my favorite soda, though...

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@lisianthus hi!!! I've really got to know, would you ever consider growing your own tea? If you did, what kind would you grow?

 

[lisianthus]

Ah, it seems I missed a few tags for me, sorry about that!!

While we're on the subject, @lisianthus Favorite non-Pokemon character?

(omg an ace attorney chronicles fan!! i need to play much more of it LOL)

Hi there!!! I think that my favorite Pokémon character is... safe to say, pretty well-known across the garden right? And for that matter, my second-favorite character as well? (lisia pokémon and emmet!!♡)

But as for non-Pokémon stuff that gets a bit trickier... my first instinct here is actually to say Hatsune Miku, LOL. But that might be cheating, because she's honestly a bit of a blank slate to characterize by yourself! So if miss miku is a no-go, my second option that comes to mind is prooobably...

I just realized this isn't exclusive to video games.

Okay with THAT in mind, I have finally figured it out in full! Because it just popped into my head.

It's Hitoka Yachi from Haikyuu!! ta-daaah~

I'd personally like to think that I embody much of what she's about. Hitoka-chan is veeeerrry veeerrry unsure of herself and quite frankly, pretty neurotic!! (also very sure she's gay but that is not confirmed yet)

I guess the thing is like... hm, in the series itself, most notably going through the manga, she befriends a certain main character who is, down-to-the-name, a very sunny personality, who teaches her that like... she kind of shines within herself as well? And as someone who has had that pretty recently in the grand scale of things happen to herself, being told that she shines in her own way, despite thinking that she's not much special? That part of the story, looking back on it now, really touches me.

There's also the matters of me loving her design LOL... mostly because of the star motif she has going on. If you know me really well, you've undoubtedly noticed that I tend to associate myself with stars. There are... a few reasons for that, none of which I feel are super pertinent for sharing here but!! I just feel as though she embodies me in more ways than one.

...And for some reason, the Japanese fanbase seems to not like her very much. Why that is, I'm not very sure?????? ﾄﾞｳｼﾃﾅﾉﾖﾆﾎﾝﾆｷﾀﾁ

I hope that was a good answer ahaha!!

hi !! Also oh, easy, I'd gettt:
A zero bar
Lemon cake
and an apple soda! Usually I have to get a coke because not every gas station has my favorite soda, though...

(what is airgalethorn's favorite soda??? curious...)

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@lisianthus hi!!! I've really got to know, would you ever consider growing your own tea? If you did, what kind would you grow?

It's airgalethorn....! hello there!!! throws you a frisbee

First of all, I do not know if I'm the correct climate for that?? My area is not always full of downpours, but in fall, winter, and spring, it usually rains more than half the days in any given month, ranging from storms to just drizzly weather. I think that your area, as well as my very own subway master of an older sister's, would be much more viable for growing tea plants??? based on what I am looking at online right now! But I know for a fact that Japan is a way better area for doing so, so maaaybe if I place my roots down there....?

BUT!! ...I also forgot that that was a thing actually . LOL (growing your own tea) (what do you mean they don't just come in teabags!?ʕº̫͡ºʔ)

I am currently enjoying a cup of orange pekoe black tea by the way, it is pretty okay? Lately I've been putting in cinnamon into my teas to get a flavor that's fitting for fall...

To answer your question, now that you've said it, my curiosity has been peaked. You've seen the crab tea infuser I use for stringless tea bags, but it can also easily be used for loose-leaf tea as well (which I have not tried yet). I've been wanting to experiment with my own tea combos for one, with different flavors and etc? So I need to properly use it for that too!

And I absolutely would want to grow my own tea someday, yes! I've always wanted to grow peppers too, because I also enjoy those? Strangely enough, I actually feel like I have more of a taste for black tea rather than green tea — I haven't had the chance to try oolong or white tea yet! So I think I'd have to say that I'd probably want to try to grow black tea the most, although I certainly want to find some of the other kinds for me to make sure! Yay for tea questions ehehe...

Hmm, who to ask... (having trouble figuring out who LOL)

Let's do this: @Sheep hello there!! (^.^)/~~~ You and I are both big tea/boba fans as well, so I'll ask... I know you like matcha, but is there any other specific flavor you enjoy? (I like red bean/anko myself!!) What would your ideal drink be? (the place near me has sweet avocado smoothies, it may sound really strange but... it works very well LOL)

Oh god, my tea went completely cold by the time it took me to write this post. shame... LOL

 

[Sheep]

Let's do this: @Sheep hello there!! (^.^)/~~~ You and I are both big tea/boba fans as well, so I'll ask... I know you like matcha, but is there any other specific flavor you enjoy? (I like red bean/anko myself!!) What would your ideal drink be? (the place near me has sweet avocado smoothies, it may sound really strange but... it works very well LOL)

Purple rice milk tea is also really good even if I don't get it as often as matcha! I also looove the more plain jasmine milk tea (and overall all green tea milk teas), they go together very well for me. Plus the more classic brown sugar drinks. Bonus points if any are made with fresh milk instead of the creamer, and plus many more points for cheese foam on top lol. I'd love to try that sweet avocado smoothie sometime tbh :0 And just to go the other end, least favorite would probably be any milk tea with chocolate.. I'd prefer to keep my chocolate to smoothies. It tastes weird when it's more watery/less thick like most milk teas tend to be.

@Ghost Diplocaulus If you could rewatch one generation of the anime, which would you pick?

 

[BigDocFan]

@Maniacal Engineer

Based on the video I've posted below, what do you think of my camera skills?

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

@Maniacal Engineer

Based on the video I've posted below, what do you think of my camera skills?

My goodness. Those planes must be hitting a lot of turbulence to be wobbling around like that.


@DawningWinds have you eaten dinner yet?

 

[DawningWinds]

@DawningWinds have you eaten dinner yet?

It's one in the afternoon! I would be concerned if I had.

@Orchid - What are some things you'd like a to see a future fossil Pokemon based on?

 

[Okido]

@Orchid - What are some things you'd like a to see a future fossil Pokemon based on?

To go a more traditional fossil Pokémon route, I think I would want more fossils based on Cambrian period animals. Off the top of my head, there's a lot of potential in a Pokémon based off of Marrella, Opabinia, or Hallucigenia:

Spoiler

But for a weirder choice more in line with the Gen 8 fossils, I kinda wanna see a poorly reconstructed version of a Pokémon that already exists. Like, someone uncovered a fossilized Heatmor, but revived it as an awkward quadrupedal with its head on backwards and declared it a new species, because nobody knows what the hell a Heatmor is outside of Unova. :p

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@Dreary_Rowlet maybe you've answered this elsewhere before, but I'm curious, how did you first get into Pokémon?

 

[Dreary_Rowlet]

@Dreary_Rowlet maybe you've answered this elsewhere before, but I'm curious, how did you first get into Pokémon?

AHHH IM LATE SORRY. but here's the story of how I got here!
It was 2016, I really didn't know any Pokemon besides Pikachu, that is until I watched the Sun and Moon Trailers. When I first saw that round potato owl appear, I instantly fell in love with it! And then I started researching, watching Let's Plays, reading the lore and theories, keeping with the leaks.

And that's how I got into Pokemon. I guess you could say Pokemon also brought me my love of the macabre and my art so far!

@toastghost What's your favorite Kirby theory?

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

@InfiniteBakuphoon What are some of your favorite animals?

Thanks for tagging me, Orchid, and sorry for taking so long to respond, haha!

Starting with the easy ones, I think that dogs and cats are definitely near the top of my list of favorite animals, if not at the very top. I had one dog for over sixteen years and while they were particularly crazy to deal with, I always enjoyed their company too, and they were quite loving alongside the madness, haha. That said, with another, younger dog that I’ve been spending time with lately, I’m beginning to figure out that perhaps I like simply being around dogs more than I do actually taking care of them, because it’s actually an extremely difficult job to have (being young back then spared me from a lot of that responsibility, I think). Meanwhile, I’ve never had a cat before — always wanted one! — but what I’ve heard about them gives me the impression that they’re somewhat less high-maintenance than most dogs are, or at least that it’s a different experience from taking care of a dog that might fit better with certain people. In any case, I like their sense of independence along with the loving side that they still have, even if they may not show it all of the time the way we humans would like to see it, haha, especially compared to dogs who seem to be appreciated more (at least here in the States, anyway; maybe it’s different elsewhere?).

It took me a while to figure out exactly what some of my other favorite animals are, since I haven’t really thought about it that deeply, but I think that I found a decent amount to share here. Speaking of my fondness for cats, I really like big cats as well, such as lions, leopards, panthers, and all of that (from a distance, of course!). Maybe my exposure to a certain company’s operating systems have helped to cultivate that like, haha, as well as the attention and respect that society at large seems to give them as well. Meanwhile, I’ve also always had a slight fascination with eagles — especially domesticated ones — given their reputation for their eyesight and hunting abilities. Finally, I also have something of a soft spot for rodents like squirrels and the like, as I find them to be adorable even as many others find them to be revolting (ignoring the less pleasant qualities of certain rodents like mice and worse).

For @lisianthus, a simple but perhaps not so simple question, but hopefully a happy one above all: what do you think your ideal day would be like? That is to say, what would you do, if there was absolutely nothing in life to bother you or stress you out and you had complete freedom over everything?