New Fixation

New fixation

Pool rooms. Below are some renders of a liminal-adjacent set I made today.

I saw this post while I was working on my dewott model, and I immediately latched onto the idea. The poolroom idea is an interesting one—strange architecture with traces of brutalism with a mysterious and never ending spread of ceramic tile and water.

The idea of a water pokemon trapped in the poolrooms is fun to think about and adds a kind of cognitive dissonance to the normal ideas regarding existence in the poolrooms. I feel like the poolrooms can be a kind of apotheosis for a water pokemon. To bask for basking's sake, to swim for swimming's sake.

On the other hand, to a water pokemon, the poolrooms can be a perversion of the greatest magnitude. Water is the life-bringer. In rivers, ponds, estuaries, and oceans, there is life. Pokemon, plants, and humans all gravitate towards it, and many live in it and need to be in it. The poolrooms are devoid of life.

The pool rooms are a heaven and hell, and it is up to those who experience it to determine which.

There are a lot of great poolroom art out there. A lot of it is 3D renders, which makes sense given the simplistic nature of the idea. A particularly inspirational one to me was the poolroom section of myhouse.wad. It strikes a nice balance between functional and bizarre, and it was the primary architectural exigence to my own backrooms project.

At some point in the future I would like to make an animation exploring this concept. When this occurs is unknown. At minimum I need to finish the character model, and I need to convert the lighting scene to eevee render.

I had to drop what I was doing so I could think about this post immediately. I am a colossal sucker for PLA AUs, especially ones that lean into preternatural aspects.

Text below the cut ↓

“Who are you?” Dawn asked, her raspy voice echoed against nothing as she circled her prey. Dead eyes followed her around and around.

For months she had wandered the island that was so familiar yet not. Pokemon she had and had never met before called it their home. People she never heard of made it their domain.

No matter where she went, she was reviled. Rejected from the Pearl and Diamond clans as a bad omen. Chased off from the Galaxy Team as a beast. Driven away from the lush river valleys of the West, the vibrant woods of the South, and the verdant shores of the East.

The dreary North is where she stopped running and made her claim on the world.

“This one is called Akari,” the imposter droned. Her voice was as flat as a windless lake. Dawn recognized her voice, despite the even tone.

Dawn first noticed the imposter from afar. People who wander the Icelands are brave or foolhardy. And yet the imposter waded through its mountainous snow drifts as if they were mere diglett mounds. The imposter captured pokemon with nary any effort, throwing balls at the wild pokemon without sending any out to fight. The imposter had an efficiency that hinted of something... extraordinary.

Dawn had some skills in sneaking around. In the earlier months, she was not strong enough to overpower her enemies, so she had to learn to slink around unnoticed. The imposter was not fooled in the slightest. Any time she watched the imposter, the imposter watched her, empty eyes locked with hers. Uncaring. Unnerving.

Unnatural.

The imposter was the only one on the entire island who didn't react to her with revulsion.

It was miraculous how one could adapt to circumstance. When Dawn first awoke after meeting with Arceus, she expected... she didn't know what she expected. Waking up as a ghost was not what she expected. A free spirit in the truest sense, not tied to anyone or anywhere. Untethered, and yet, incapable of anything.

When she awoke, she saw herself as she was. A Research Partner of five years to Professor Rowan, assisting him in the research of Pokémon evolution, living in Sandgem town, going to Jubilife on the weekends. Pale skin, dark hair, and fair voice. As she moved across the island, this self-image had changed. Changed to something she had never seen before. On her head was a long tuft of white fur, flapping gently in an unfelt breeze. Behind her, a poofy tail tipped in red. In her mouth, many sharp teeth. A Zorua. A perverse one of ghostly constitution.

She lost her midnight blue hair. She lost her dainty nose and small lips. She lost her height. She lost her clothes. She hardly noticed the change until it was over.

The imposter, though. The imposter had her face. The imposter had her voice. The imposter had her body.

“Tell me who you are, Akari,” she asked again, spitting out the imposter's name like a curse.

“This one is a six star surveyor in the Galaxy Team,” the imposter answered. It didn't tell Dawn anything she didn't know. She had seen enough of their clan to know how their uniforms worked.

It was in the Coronet Highlands that Dawn stood upright for the first time in months. She knew that Spear Pillar was associated with Arceus. It was a faint hope that she would find Him there. For all the anguish of being rejected by human and pokémon alike, nothing hurt as much as the barrier surrounding Mt. Coronet's summit.

The betrayal of it all was far sharper than the sting of touching the barrier. Of all the misery she had endured, the rejection by Arceus was the most heartbreaking. She agreed to his quest, and He spurned her. It was there, on the top of the mountain, throwing herself against the barrier over and over, that she changed again.

“When did you join?” She prodded.

“This one joined the Galaxy Team in spring,” was the imposter's dull response.

Dawn narrowed her eyes. That's when she awoke, separated from her physical form. She stood up straight. Her large mane of hair twisted and coiled as if suspended in water, and wrapped itself around the imposter. She leaned in and put her paws on the imposters shoulders, claws digging in slightly. “You took my body,” she whispered, her teeth snapping centimeters from the imposters face. “Why?”

The imposter was not cowed.

Dawn pushed in closer to the imposter, their eyes millimeters apart. “I will have it back. That is a promise.”

“Promises are for the gods and the dead.” The imposter said. Oh the irony.

Ok,I raise you this.

Pla Zoroark au but a little bit…different.

Protag is Rowan’s assistant from dppt,not the protagonist.

In the process of sending them to hisui,Arceus made an oopsie and accidentally erases the assistant’s conscience.

So they make some kind of ai like being to inhabit their body-which is intact-and complete the quest without issue.

Except Arceus made another oopsie,because the assistant’s conscience isn’t erased,it’s misplaced.

Due to this,the assistants conscience basically put them in a limbo,where they never actually died but don’t have a body to call their own.in which case,they turn into a zorua like wanderer,looking for the one that has their body.

Meanwhile,the pla protag starts reaching the alabaster icelands…where they meet a zoroark like figure that is intent on getting their body back.

With the easy avenues explored, you search for more.

Maybe there is an exit this way?

The main poolrooms project I'm working on has managed to escape the liminal feeling I wanted and is now sitting halfway between poolrooms and mallcore. I made this scene to try and return to the bizarre architecture that poolrooms are known for.

I did not originally intend to include my work-in-progress dewott model. I did a number of test renders of various compositions of the set (there is an area above the water as well) but the camera angles I chose didn't feel right without anyone to set the scene. I rigged the model enough to make this pose.

If you liked it and want to see more, please say so.

Saw this meme, and it felt so fitting for them (might need to click for better quality)

something something turntables

happy zisu zunday!

zisu and her dog, and Werewolf Zoroark Zisu again because. werewolf. you know