The Monsters in Alcha-Tera

We went to a local zine fest a month or two ago and want to get more into making zines. Our dad made zines in the 90s and he's been going back and printing a lot of his old zines, though they're more like comic books. They're actually pretty cool but he (reasonably) does not want to share any of them online and I don't think I could share any of them without risk of getting doxxed.

We have a lot scripted for now and he gave us a large infodump this morning about how to go about laying it out and printing it. We may get around to converting some of our essays into zines, though we may need to make more "new to the concept friendly" essays. There was one we came up with for Trans Day of Visibility but wasn't able to finish in time, but it's far enough along that we may be able to get started on it.


We've also been working on a few homemade TCGs on and off as we get more into Pokemon and also smaller TCGs like Altered. The gimmicks we have in mind is that they can be played side by side, which means that systems can play them without any modification. The idea that is the furthest along is based on emotions (something like Voidpet, but with more monster variety and variations). So far we just haven't been able to come up with a good win condition.

We did play with the idea of making a TCG based on our system but weren't able to figure out a decent execution. There's also the typical monster mechanics which we also had a draft of, but we need to figure out a way to make it interesting.


Then there was also a modified version of the Pokemon TCG we've drafted to be played by a system. We still need to playtest it to modify the rules and erratas, but the idea is that the bench space is cut to 3, there's an added supporter bench of 3 where one supporter in the bench can be activated per turn, and there's a visible "bag" section for item cards. So it's set up like this: 

Prize	Prize		Active		Stadium
Prize	Prize				Deck
Prize	Prize	Pokemon	Pokemon	Pokemon
		Supporter	Supporter	Supporter
Bag					Discard

Some cards had to be modified with this set up (Professor Sada's Vitality for example would be broken, so we removed the draw engine). Any unused cards at the end of a turn just get shuffled back into the deck. To keep evolution Pokemon from being useless, there's a rule where Pokemon can be evolved when they're placed down, but their abilities are neutralized if they're evolved during set up.

We just need to playtest it, and we're probably going to end up either printing out proxies or trying to find a simulator that will let us do this.


Luckily for all of this, there is a printer at work and our boss is never in, which is perfect for using to print our random neurodivergent bullshit in short amounts.

Playing the Pokemon TCG is causing a lot of identity realizations to our "Pokemon as a special interest since we were 5" system where it's had an impact on our alterhuman identity.

So Domino (the Umbreon, if you knew our system a year or two ago he fronted a lot more) and I formed together in maybe 2018 or so. We pretty much instantly knew we were an Umbreon and Espeon and knew we had some connection to each other, we just never really figured out what that connection was. We've drifted apart a bit since we formed but we know there's something with our identities that we haven't cracked yet.

So cut to now. We're building a deck that involves Girafarig and got us thinking of it a lot more because there's a Girafarig card that's been on our desk for the past several days while we try to get the cards we need for this dec.

On top of that we have another beta Pokemon who's also writing an essay unpacking how he realized he's a beta Pokemon that only just leaked after existing for a few years. A part of that was how the pieces might be together to recognize a pattern, but it can take a push to fully realize what that pattern is.
 
We had beta Pokemon and Girafarig on the brain so naturally we start thinking of beta Girafarig, which has both heads being the full "giraffe".

(Credit to TCRF)

It's like hm. That feels like it might sort of fit that Domino and I are both two halves of a beta Girafarig.

So we look a bit further and begin to think. I always drew myself with the calico pattern and at least think of myself as mostly orange and I don't even feel I'm remotely a purple Espeon. I never put the connection together, but beta Espeon just happens to be yellow, which even though it's not orange, is way closer to how I see myself.


It also has that more stout appearance I actually have! In headspace, I'm not as sleek as a normal Espeon. I never though too much about my tail placement and I don't think I have two separate tails like this beta sprite has, but if anything they might be forked closer to the base.

So for Domino that might mean he's a beta Umbreon. Beta Umbreon doesn't change much but is purple and a poison type.



This also matches Domino a lot closer, because he's known too that he might not have the yellow (or blue for the shiny) rings, and thinking of himself with purple rings seems to have him projecting easier so far.

Same with being a poison type would explain a lot of weird alterhuman things that he thought was because of being an Irken that may be closer to just being a poison type.

Going back to the beta Girafarig, it's also a Normal/Dark type, which I could see myself as a Psychic/Normal and Domino as a Poison/Dark.

I also might be Girafarig-kin at least. I've felt a connection to Girafarig for awhile and had a sona on the back of my mind for a few years that was a Girafarig. I could see myself identifying as a Girafarig easily.

Either way this might start to help us understand what exactly we are since that's been a huge mystery for us since we formed, we just never put the pieces together.

Anyway here's the card we've been staring at for the past few days that sparked this realization. I love this artist's cards so much (would try to master set it too but his alt art Giratina is like $600 aaaaaaa)