ZEL

Let's see... as much as parts of 10♢ would probably fit me, I can easily see the biggest hint also being fitting for another person who I know is very dear to you. (The hug IRL part. Sure, that could be me since I'm hoping to have that vacation this or next year, but I'm not the only one in huggable reach.) The first message you sent to me was sent on May 12th. So while this would mean that 11 days ago /was/ the anniversary of you messaging me for the first time, I also find it hard to believe that I would be the "first person I met here" for you. You seemed fairly active to me already by the time I joined, and what with you having been around for three months prior to our convo... But on the other hand, you know what's gonna be next: I am reluctant to guess myself because I'm bad at thinking highly enough of myself :') Honestly, right now none of the descriptions other than 10♢ seem to fit me enough, but as you know, I also have a very warped perception of my personality, so you might have described me somewhere and I didn't recognize it because I am terrible at accepting any form of validation and compliments. And, well... "I never let you go with an iron insistence" if that doesn't sound very familiar, I don't know what. You sure were determined to keep me talking, no matter how much I thought I'm not worth the time. You know me, I'm terrible at starting conversations, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it when I'm being approached :3

"Oh hey there's a new post on the pairing thread, let's see what funny thing has happened this time." Well then

I started my second uni semester this year, and am trying my best to keep up and not overburden myself as much as during the first. I never even believed I would be able to come this far in life - somehow, with all the issues of the past years, I had no confidence that I'd ever get accepted, let alone getting accepted into the uni of my choice! I went through a lot of changes last year. Besides getting into uni, I also moved into a little apartment of my own, three hours away from my old home. It makes me feel better, having this place to myself. A lot of my daily stress has evaporated now that I don't find my personal space invaded any more, and I find doing my chores to be so much easier when nobody is constantly bitching about them. I will soon have my first anniversary with my boyfriend as well. It feels almost odd to think that it has only been a year, because I feel like I've known him for so much longer. With my studies inevitably taking me abroad within the next three years, I'm hoping that I will be able to visit him at his home in the US. Speaking of those studies: I am on my way to become a teacher, just like I had hoped I could. My subjects are English and Geography, but I also have distant plans of studying German some years down the road. There is the faint idea of leaving Germany to move to the US, should my relationship stay as happy as it is. Truth be told, I would much rather stay in Germany, but I do respect that it will be much easier for me to get used to living in the US, than it would be for my partner to move to a country whose language he can't understand. I would enjoy having a family some day. My mental health is improving a lot, now that I'm in a better environment. It feels very nice not to be so hopeless any more.

DAN! Happy Birthday! Aaaaaa I completely forgot to send a birthday card, I should have thought of that but now I feel embarrassed ;A; I hope you have a good, relaxed (!!) day and idk maybe lots of cake or something like that. Do I have to send you cookies again? Because I can totally send you cookies again. Have a throwback to when you scared the hell outta me. No but seriously, you're an amazing person. Besides how dedicated you are to this site and everyone on here, no matter how much we like to test your nerves, and besides how patient you are towards people (like me) who throw their issues at you and need you as a shoulder to lean on - you're a fun person to hang out with! 10/10, I still remember that a good part of our first call was nothing more than me planting my face into a pillow because you made me laugh too damn much. So here's to a great birthday for a very supportive, friendly, humorous, patient, calm, and way too tired man. I'd gift you the ability to sleep well and enough for every day til the end of your life... well if only I could. Or a paid vacation. Or... something, damn it you deserve good things. I'm not good at appreciation posts, but you're worth the effort. Love you, frend. Here's a picture of a tiny cat.

Hmm, I both agree and disagree with you there. Kind of 50/50 for me. Personally I never had trouble telling the trio apart. The only one who I won't argue is not a strong character purely based on interaction, is Eve, so I'll have to agree with you that much. I also agree that if you judge based on how much you can learn about their backstory without the diary, then they're very poorly handled. As I mentioned somewhere above, Eve definitely gets hit HARD when you take out the diary scene. I remember that prior to reading the diary, what made Eve interesting to me were her interactions with Zero, as they are plenty and make up the most part of their dialogue with each other. They're hands-down my favourite character dynamic in the game. But if you take away that one little comment Lumi makes during the first PULSEgrowth scene, there's no indication whatsoever that she and Eve are any more connected than either of them are to Zero. And that's a problem, because introducing the entirety of their relationship via the diary makes it a case of something being told, but not shown. Eve doesn't have to break character to give us an impression of her caring. Maybe have her try to give a panicked Lumi a reassuring (but still calculated) comment every once in a while. Make it more obvious when she's interrupting Zero if he's being rude to her. And for the love of Arceus, I'm still bothered by the moment during their intro where Eve interrupts Lumi. Similar to how you said it's easy to establish Hardy's character in his introduction, ZEL's intro worked just as fine for me to establish Zero and Lumi. Zero immediately shows himself as impatient and bratty, whereas Lumi comes across as friendly and meek. It's one of the reasons I liked them from the first scene on. The big problem with them, IMO, is not about giving us an impression of their personalities, it's that unlike other characters whose diaries you can acess (Rini, Julia, Tania, Amy), you have no way of getting any hints about their story/past without it. I don't need to read the Onyx squad's diaries to know that something happened between them and that there was a huge conflict, and who is on whose side. But ZEL don't give that insight, so I agree with you that they're poorly handled there. I think that if you take away the diary, then Zero and Lumi are still good characters because you can easily get an idea of what kind of people they are. I mean, with Zero especially, the largest part of getting to know him relies on his dialogue, since the diary doesn't really tell us much. PULSE Muk was actually a memorable conversation to me, because I really enjoyed that brief moment of Zero and Eve not arguing against each other for once. I wouldn't call it teamwork, but having them not bickering for once was interesting. And personally, I'll disagree entirely on PULSE Abra, because to be honest, I only kept Lin at the back of my mind until she actually appeared. Was I intrigued to learn about her existence? Sure. But I was very much distracted by the actual situation at hand, and it gave me what I think is ZEL's best appearance so far.

IMO the point of Tania's rampage is mainly to humanize the Meteors and Cultists further (hell, we get Gretchen telling us that Tania killed her sister, and sobbing how she wishes she would have died in her place) and to show us that our side can be just as violent as the enemy. The whole of Reborn is full of gray morality. We have nice Meteors like Tara and Simon, we have despicable ones like Sirius. We have all kinds of backgrounds to why they joined. We have nice allies like Laura, and we have brutal ones like Tania. Some of them care about all of Reborn (like Adrienn or Florinia), others care only about what's dear to them (like Saphira or Tania). Neither our enemies nor us are unified in our goals or methods, and I think Tania and Saphira are to us what most of Meteor is to Taka - both the player character and Taka have a goal in mind and think that reaching it will be for the greater good. But both are faced with the fact that it makes them work together with people whose methods and ideas we don't agree with. PS: Little afterthought as I pondered about the ZEL thing: The weakest character of them is actually Eve. If you take away the diary scene, Eve is reduced to Miss Exposition and you couldn't tell that she cares about Lumi at all. Both Eve and Lumi interact much, much more with Zero than with each other. If you take Eve's backstory away, most people will see nothing more than a generic "emotionless evil scientist" character. (We get a hint that Lumi likes Eve early on when she says "Eve built it all by herself!",though.) I'm a huge fan of her and she is my favourite of the three, but if you take the diary away, there is little to endear her to us.

You could argue that he has no reason to exist without Eve and Lumi, but Zero's story, IMO, is about learning that he's not meant to be alone. Thus the focus is on his interactions with the girls. Who he is privately isn't the central part of his role. Beyond their work for Team Meteor, ZEL's story is about each other. It'd be like saying that Saphira is uremarkable because if you take away Laura and Charlotte, a good part of her purpose crumbles completely But personally there's a lot that I can interpret or directly conclude about him from what we've already seen. Wall of text time! (tl;dr me describing Zero as I perceive him in the game) Edit: (screw it, putting it in a spoiler because long) I don't know if any of that makes him interesting to you. That's, after all, personal preference. But I think he very much is a distinct character in his own merit who could both exist outside of ZEL and is important to make ZEL the characters they are. Certainly not someone void who could be replaced with just about anyone.

Well, what Hunter said is: "The next best characters - Dr. Connal, Zero, and Radomus, are characters that thrive on the theme of the unknown in various degrees" Which I'd guess means that what makes these characters interesting is the potential they have, rather than just what's already been shown of them. There's a lot of blanks for us to fill in, lots of what's currently left to our imagination. Once more I should probably not open my mouth too wide, because I've probably had one too many conversations with Ice to even be able to talk about Zero from a neutral standpoint, but what would make him intriguing could be the potential he has to grow as a character. Zero as far as the game has shown so far, is just your average grunt at first, yes. But the turning point is the moment he becomes part of ZEL, because it puts him in a situation that will inevitably force him to undergo character development for the worse or the better. Zero is unable to escape the consequences of his actions. Lumi's diary mentions that after the ZEL incident, the "voices" of Zero and Eve wouldn't stop. This implies that at least for a while, ZEL weren't able to ignore each others' thoughts and possibly to some extent emotions. (I assume they eventually learned how to blend each other out.) This is interesting because it forces Zero into the uncomfortable situation of very personally experiencing Eve and Lumi's reactions and thoughts. Until they learn to block out what the other is thinking, he has no choice but to get glimpses of their minds. And I don't think that the majority of people would be unaffected by something like this. There are so many ways how he could react to the new situation, each changing depending on the possibilities for his background story and eventual destination. Sharing a mind with Eve and Lumi has the potential to make him empathize with them on a new level and force him to feel remorse, could make him care about them (or rather, make them care about each other). Or it could foster hatred and resentment against them. But in any case, he won't be able to treat them neutrally any more. He can't run away from the situation, he can't avoid the consequences and responsibilities that come with it. And unlike characters like, say, Simon, Zero can't just go "well then I'll just leave it all behind". Meteor isn't gonna let Eve go, so ZEL are stuck there no matter how much Zero could potentially regret his actions. Zero is a character with lots of potential simply because of ZEL's character concept. My own predictions and expectations of what he will develop into aside, what makes him interesting is all the things he could be. ...That, and what made him memorable to me personally is the same as for the rest of ZEL - I just think their character dynamic is incredible, and their interactions all stand out to me as favourite parts of the game.

Ah, when you put it that way then I get what you mean. Compared to how much screen time he gets, his development seems too drawn-out and moves at a very slow pace, which I guess can be slightly jarring compared to some characters whose development happens much faster (like Cal). I didn't mind the slow pace as much with Cain as I did with Fern because Cain overall alludes to his story more often than Fern does, or at least in less ambiguous ways. But you're right in that for a character with this much screen time, more could have been used to build his story and not just his personality. Personality-wise Cain got great build-up. I guess it might me more that when I hear "strong character" in this context, I separate it a bit from "good character", because when people criticize a character for being "weak" it's often to say that they don't stand out/aren't memorable, and I think Cain does a good job at being memorable, likable and hard to replace. His writing has flaws, but he's not two-dimensional, which is what I think of when I hear "weak character".

This makes me really sad still, for the same reason that I actually smiled when I saw Hunter put Zero on the list of stronger male characters. I mean, it's no secret I love this trio dearly. ZEL's interactions are easily some of my favourite scenes in the game, as their character dynamic is amazing. But with all the potential that Zero has for backstory and development, so far he's just "that one jerk" and it's too easy to read him as a character who only exists so Eve and Lumi can have their backstory. Which is decidedly not the role he's supposed to have. I probably have a different view on him because I know a bunch of things about them as pre-game characters, but knowing what kind of character he was created to be / what his character development is intended to do, I love him because there's some of my favourite tropes in action. It's just a bit disappointing to me that rather than reading between the lines, I have to write between them myself. I'll have to hug give you a handshake for putting Zero and Sigmund there. But with Cain I have to somewhat disagree with you. Somewhat. One thing that's very notable for me is how the gym leader characters especially often end up with their "quirks" being laid on too thick, at least for my taste. Cain is an amazing character both in concept and development, hidden behind sometimes simply too many 'Bi Pan the way' jokes. I've noticed that a lot of criticism for his character is about how his tendency to make lewd jokes is overdone and that the constant references to his sexuality make him seem like that's all he is. But Cain is also an incredibly caring character who is never, ever seen hesitating to take action when someone is in need of help with the slight exception of not wanting to give you the Wasteland key. And given that this part concerns his biggest weakness -family- that's understandable. And yet he gives you the key eventually, because he knows you need it to save the kids. I also enjoyed the interactions between him and Aya, the whole part about them finally starting to talk out their issues with each other. Slowly, but they're getting there. And you can see that they actually care about each other. Cain's story of running away from a family he didn't feel accepted by is pretty important to me, and a story like this involves a lot of people having to confront themselves. Aya admitting that she should have treated Cain differently when he presumably came out, Cain coming to understand what running away did to the rest of his family, both of them having to overcome their spite/bitterness for each other. I have to agree with you on Fern, however, because while he's another character that I really like for where he came from and where he's headed, I felt that at several points his "arrogant asshat" thing was a little too much in my face. I can see his character development, but there's still scenes where it feels like Fern's appearances are pointless save for the fight and reminding you he exists, because his development is static in them. Hardy I can't agree or disagree on yet. I personally love what we've seen of him so far, maybe because I really do like characters who have this "good big brother" / "supportive friend" vibe. I adore how Hardy takes care of Aya, and when you compare how he confronts Fern about his asshattery to how he doesn't interrupt Cain and Aya's jabs at each other/arguments/bickering, he also clearly knows when it's necessary to be protective of her, and when she has to sit out an uncomfortable situation. I can''t judge his possible character development yet because the whole Tania situation still needs to be resolved better, but what I've seen of Hardy makes him a very likable and potentially admirable character.

Hm, the only thing that speaks against Hypno IMO is that it is said to hypnotize people using its pendulum, so I'd be inclined to believe that whatever Pokémon is stuck in the PULSE would be one that has a larger range/doesn't need the attention of the person. (Though in the anime it did use "sleep waves". But if we were to reference the anime, then we'd also have people acting like Pokémon in their hypnotized state.) I still feel like it'd be more likely to be pokémon less associated with having to directly confront the subject of the hypnosis.

Congrats, Viri! Y'know, I like listening to people's rambles about things, and yours ever so often end up being some of the most interesting. You're a pleasant person to converse with and I like seeing you around, even if we don't talk /that/ much (compared to others, at least, I guess). Here's to more of that!

Ody wanted this QB'd

Hey there, and... welcome back to Reborn? Welcome? Welcome to the forum part? Hi You seem like a nice person to talk to from what little experience I've made so far, so that's great~

I always manage to get sidetracked somehow. For example I'll be drawing, then look up something about the anatomy of whatever I'm drawing, and half an hour later I'm still sitting there, reading up on animal behavior. There's always the one or other thing that catches my eye and I just /have/ to learn more about it, even if it's completely irrelevant to my task. Also, people. It seems that whenever I actually have something to work on, suddenly I'll find myself messaged by at least five different people, see three group chats go crazy active, and am called over to a forum/showdown.

Ohshit, now there's TWO Dans! Reminds me, Dan Appreciation Week when? ...Err anyway, hi there, and welcome to Reborn c: I'd say our forum has a decent size for someone who's still trying to get into the feeling for it, so don't worry, it's not moving too fast, but also definitely not slow. Lurking for a bit can probably help, and if you're looking to just randomly chat with a bunch of us, you're welcome to join us on the showdown server. That said, you better enjoy your time here, because there's no escape from this little hellhole :')

I still cannot believe you made me say "Lin" and "hot" in the same sentence today and it had nothing to do with dropping her into an active volcano. Loving the Serra appreciation you've got going on, by the way. She really deserves it, such an underappreciated character! (Her dialogue is great ok?)

Oh I wasn't trying to make fun or anything, I hope it didn't come across that way ^^" I can believe that they're hard to draw - Zero is already androgynous enough physically (which I find pretty difficult to draw), and with ZEL's odd fashion choices it's a bit of a guessing game what they are even aiming for. I still don't understand their vest tbh (when my friend drew them I just told him that if he couldn't make sense of it either, anything black would look just as good :'D).

After what Ame said about how they have to somehow try and agree on a style that they all can tolerate, I am entirely convinced that this is what Zero sometimes thinks when he sees himself in the mirror. It's cute to see them with their team, by the way <3

I never even realized I haven't seen you on the forums so far, oml. Seen you on the server so much, though! I don't think we've ever talked much, but I've been readong along with your nuzlocke talk on more than one occasion c: You seem like a cool person is all I can say. Welcome to the forums, and don't worry, they're just as much a part of Hell as the server~