So, with Paradise MUSH's opening on the horizon soon, I've been thinking about what will happen with my existing characters.

At least two of them, Sam and Brunn, will just be ported over. Wormholes from other dimensions is built into the theme, and I think since most of us starting up on Paradise were once on Pokemorph MUSH, a lot of us are simply bringing our existing characters over rather than starting them from scratch; they've grown too much to be abandoned now. I'll also most likely recreate Tess, my Nickit singer, so within the first few months on Paradise, I'll already have most of the same characters I've been playing over the last few years anyhow. Their stories are yet to be written in full.

I'm going to allow myself a little flexibility, though. Even though Sam and Brunn are going to wind up in the world of Paradise through dimensional transportation, I think for my own peace of mind I'm going to assume that doppelgangers are created, and they'll still also exist in their original world. Part of it is just because when I think of Sam's poor family just waking up one day and him being completely missing without a trace, I feel an actual stab of guilt and sadness.

So, to finally put my time on PMM fully to rest, I'm going to give my five characters their endings, so I can focus on the new stories to come.


Samson, Growlithe-morph: My precious babbu has gone through way too much BS to not get a happy ending. I've seen him go through dozens of fights, have his wallet stolen three times, painted a target on his back for the diabolical head of an evil organization, nearly had him killed by a crazy Drapion and a crazy Dragonite and a... not-sure-if-crazy-but-probably Litwick. And this isn't even counting the way I put him through the wringer with Viktor. Dude's a good guy, he deserves to be happy.

I see him continuing to get stronger -- never to the point of being a truly great fighter, but enough to hold his own. He'd keep his friendships, clinging to folks like Max and Barson and Pearl with everything he's got. I also think he might end up going back to university to complete his degree in culinary arts, and take over the bakery for his dad when the Bewear's ready to retire.

And I think...

All right, so he and RJ aren't a couple. The idea behind their relationship is that Sam wants one and RJ's just not really built for that. But like, Bear Enthusiast that he is, Sam isn't going to say no to getting it on with a huge Beartic, I mean, c'mon, you gotta take what you can get.

Every month or so, Sam goes "I'm not satisfied, I want a real boyfriend, so I tragically must leave you forever, RJ! FAREWELL!" He then leaves sadly and dramatically, only to come crawling back after a miserable date a week later. He's an emotional guy, that's just the way he works, RJ pats him on the head and does redacted and then, the next day, Sam feels... somewhat better. Not emotionally satisfied, but at least he got some.

I think the happiest ending for Sam is for him to wind back up with Roy, his second boyfriend, the Rhydon-morph. Sam and Roy were together for about a year in Sam's backstory, and the truth is, they were happy together. Roy is a quiet, serious guy, a gym-rat who on the outside doesn't seem to have much personality, but he's honestly an inwardly passionate guy. His calm nature was a good foil for Sam's more exuberant, cheerful personality, keeping him grounded while, in turn, responding favorably to Sam getting him into more interests. I like to think Roy, who had never played a board game in his life, started to really enjoy playing chess and other strategy games due to Sam's influence.

This was all before Viktor (Sam's third boyfriend and a real dick of a dude) poisoned his mind against Roy, painting the Rhydon's stalwart, serious nature as boring and uninteresting. Sam was more gullible in those days, and in his nativity, he fell for it hook line and sinker. He broke up with Roy and got with Viktor, indisputably the worst decision of his life, given that Vik... well, we don't need to get into it, but it wasn't pretty.

Roy was heartbroken, but moved on, getting a twinky Minccino (now Cinccino) boyfriend.

A year or so later, after the debacle with Viktor and following Sam's subsequent breaking and recovery, the Growlithe was too ashamed to really reach out to Roy. But he knew at least that his ex had moved on and was genuinely happy for him. Sam knew he messed up bad breaking up with Roy, and was just relieved that Roy had managed to find happiness in the aftermath.

So I think think the Cinccino (Pat) was kind of a haughty, arrogant sort of guy, maybe a little too flirty for Roy's serious personality. They would have made it three or four years as a couple before breaking up.

And I think, after the dust cleared, Sam would reach out and try again with Roy, and I think this time, it would stick. They'd be happy together, maybe adopt a couple kids, and live a good long life.

And to answer a question that some people do actually ask sometimes...

Yes, I think he'd evolve. Probably sometime in the next decade, around Sam's mid-30s.

As it stands now, Sam has several reasons for not wanting to evolve. The most dramatic and obvious one is that the inciting incident that sent Viktor to the hospital -- and finally got Sam free from his influence -- was that Viktor tried to force a Fire Stone on him, and didn't expect Sam to fight back as hard as he did. So, staying a Growlithe has some significance to him there -- Sam is deadset on it being his own choice, his own will.

Sam also grew up with body confidence issues. Having a Bewear dad, and two parents who had no issues making sure he always had a full belly, made sure it so that he's always been a chubby guy. I think he got teased, especially in his youth, and since he's kind of a geek, that lead to some confidence issues as a teenager.

These are things he's mostly overcome now in his adulthood, and he's proud of his body now -- and that includes being a Growlithe. To Sam, it doesn't make sense to spend 25 years getting accustomed to his body, only to change it in a sudden and dramatic way.

But, that having been said, I think once he and Roy have stayed together for a long time, Sam would start to look at that as his next big step. Evolving Sam has always been something on my radar, but I want it to be an event that holds significance. It's a step he could never go back from, and also something I only planned on ever having him do when in a committed relationship. Now that I'm planning out his ending, he's there.

So that's his ending. Naturally, the Sam I will continue to play has his whole life ahead of him. Who knows what awaits him in this new world? Combat? Evolution? Love? It's going to be an interesting future for sure!


Brunn, Ursaring-morph: Like Sam, Brunn's also moving over to Paradise as himself, not being recreated from scratch. This is mostly because his relationship with Barson is something we've grown organically for months -- years now -- and neither Barson's player nor I wanted to let that go. After all, they had plans, and now these plans for Brunn are ones I can describe here. (It's possible that the ending I write here will reflect what happens on Paradise, truth be told.)

I think Brunn will mostly retire from fighting, after having made a pretty good show at the last tournament PMM ran. (Well, okay, the one Max and I ran because the staff didn't. >.> ) He would continue to box just to keep in shape, or at least just try to avoid getting too fat, and he'd also help train Barson. I do see the possibility of them doing a 'tag team' fight tournament, so that would be the one thing that would keep Brunn out of retiring. Despite his age, he's actually more spirited these days than he has been in decades, so even though his everything hurts all the time, he could at least continue to put up a good fight for a few years yet.

And...

He and Barson have dreamed of opening up a tea-and-book shop for a long time now. We were planning on doing so eventually on PMM before it went down, it was part of our 2023 plans, but it didn't pan out. But that would be their eventual destination, I think. A cute, quaint little shop, with books available for purchase or renting, tea and coffee and some simple sweet snacks. Brunn is good at accounting, so he wouldn't have a problem balancing the books.

Dealing with customers would be something he'd have a hard time with... but I think he could at least get to the point of not actively scaring people away. He'll probably never be a friendly barista (bearista?), but the more Barson gets him to read, the more chances he'd have of actually connecting with guests. Brunn isn't so big an introvert that he wouldn't willingly talk with people who share his interests, after all.

He and Barson would move into the upper floor of the tea shop and just be happy normal types until... well, I guess until Brunn passed away, which I don't think would be very soon. Brunn's somewhere between 45 and 50 years old, and Prism Island has a pretty good health system, so while he's an old bear he's still got a few decades left.

This is unrelated to his ending, but on Paradise, everybody (even those who can't terastilize, which is most folks actually) has a Tera type. Most folks just have their primary type, and that's what I'll be doing for most of my characters, but I decided to give Brunn an Earth Tera type. Barson, independently, decided on an Electric tera type, so I think that's just nifty of them both being normal but having such opposite tera types to reflect their personalities... it's neato.


Tess, Nicket-morph: Tess, my Stevie Nicks/Florence Welsh-inspired songstress, is my third and final character who I'll be bringing to Paradise. I'll most likely be recreating her as an AU version rather than portalling her over, as there are a handful of small changes I'd like to make to her. I'd also like to have a character born in Ultra City (the main RP hub of Paradise) rather than just moving them all over, so this would be a good chance.

I had a bit of a hard time balancing Tess's feminine "witchy" ways with the punky and more aggressive origin, but she's still a lot of fun to play. I think toning down the tomboyishness and amping up the femininity, while keeping the confidence and the wry sarcasm, would be the best way to go with her in the future.

That said, PMM Tess will I think continue to live a rocking life, and I imagine the Kro Roza (the bar-slash-fighting-arena-slash-concert-hall that she and her band, Stolen Moonlight, run) will continue to be wildly successful.

The band Stolen Moonlight itself will probably waver, as many great bands do. I imagine a sort of Fleetwood Mac scenario, where they break up for a few years, then come back together and make some great music for a while. Sometimes members leave and others join.

But all through it, even when the band isn't together, the people within it have a tight bond. I think even during the times of Tess's solo career, she, Helena, and Zhokora would remain fast friends.

Romantically, I think she's going to be hard to pin down for a few years. She's bisexual, and would probably bounce between partners every few months -- committing and staying faithful while within those relationships, but yearning for freedom while she's in one. She'd usually be the one to break it off, and sometimes it would go amicably, and sometimes not. That's just the way it goes.

But I imagine her in the end, once she's ready to settle down, some stalwart dark-type winning her over for good. A Liepard-morph, maybe, or a Crawdaunt. I think they'd probably break up a few times, but unlike the others, they'd keep winding back up together. Sort of a Stevie Nicks-Lindsay Buckingham sort of thing, except they'd make it in the end.

Evolution... Well, I think she might evolve, but she also might not. She keeps an Everstone in her back pocket. I actually don't know if she would want to be a Thievul. Her voice would change, and since her voice is a huge, huge part of who she is, it's a risk. And she'd have to shave that moustache every day.

Still, it's on the table. I don't think she's much of a fighter anymore; she grew up on the streets of Spikemuth and used to get into scraps a lot, but I think she considers that behind her now. But if Zhokora and Helena ever had motivation to fight as a team, she might take the plunge.

Anyway, that's Tess. Good exciting life ahead on Prism, and still possibilities to come on Paradise. We always did want a fourth dark-type to serve as drummer, to replace the NPC Rillaboom we have, and that's one thing I really hope we can get on Paradise to make a full band.


Dekar, Zebstrika-morph: Dekar! Dekar's personality has always been difficult for me to land. I have a hard time striking that right balance between "extremely casual" and "lazy". He's supposed to have this sort of easy, stoner-esque confidence that I'm not sure I pulled off 100%.

At this time, I don't plan on playing him on Paradise, but if there's a need for LAW ENFORCEMENT then he's definitely a possibility. I'd recreate him some, adding an important aspect that the current character is missing.

Dekar as he stands now is a very intelligent but very unambitious dude. He does the bare minimum, but he does it fairly well, mostly because A) he's actually pretty competent, and B) doing so means he'll have less work to do in the future. So he's a "lazy good worker", which I think was at least an interesting concept, but hard to pull off in practice.

I think when I change him, I'll switch things up in that the reason he's so lazy and so casual is because he wants a challenge. He does good work with like, keeping the peace, handling petty crime, the "easy" stuff, but it bores him, so he has a kind of sluggish, lazy attitude. But when something serious happens, like a big crime, he gets a spike of excitement, because it's something BIG to do.

Anyway, I think since the plot of PMM is winding down in general, he'll have less to do there, and he'd be all for that. He'd mostly just handle petty crime and live an altogether pretty easy life, continuing to take care of his mom.

He'd probably eventually settle down. Dekar is my Token Straight Guy, and he, as a skinny beanpole man, likes BIG women, so he'd probably get with like some buff female Poliwrath or Primeape or something, somebody who could carry him one handed.

And one thing's clear beyond a shadow of a doubt... he ain't quitting as Roksana's partner.


RJ, Beartic-morph: Ah, poor Rory, I created you in a monthlong cloud of hornybrain after those Nell-Chan commissions and then had no idea what to do with you from there.

RJ is the second character I don't at this time plan on bringing over to Prism. Maybe when we release the mountain zones and he has a cold place to live, but for now, I think I'll have my hands full.

And anyway, RJ's real "purpose" was mostly for somebody to keep Sam company during his romantic dry spell. And yes okay possibly to have him hit on any new characters who came to PMM who would go "bear? 👀" But then people just stopped coming to PMM for a variety of reasons, and he ended up kind of dead in the water.

Honestly, "ice-type trucker on a tropical island where nobody drives" was a hard concept anyway. But I like drawing him, I liked having another bear character, and I liked knowing that even if Sam wasn't getting romance and love out of him, at least he was getting plowed on the regular.

Once Sam finally splits off from RJ once and for all (amicably -- RJ knew from day one that it would be best for Sam to move on anyway), I think the Beartic would find his way off the island. It's too hot, and too Kantoian. He's an Unovan, through and through, he's very much an American country boy.

With the world of PMM becoming more open to morphs, I think he'd take his chances as a truck driver back in Unova, the place where he and his original trainer are from. Some people wouldn't hire him on account of his morphness, but he'd make do.

I don't see him ever settling down. He's the sort of guy who's a loner, but he's never really lonely. You know how it is. The open road is the only lover I'll ever need.

--

Well, that's that. I wanted happy endings for all of them, they deserved it. And since most of them (and heck, depending on how Paradise goes, eventually all of them) still have other stories to be written, I don't even really feel melancholy. Just knowing that there's a future for the Sam and Brunn and Tess that I'll continue to play, while also knowing that their original inceptions have their lives set out before them, is very comforting.

In any case, Paradise is set to open pretty soon. If you're interested in anthro Pokemon RP, check us out or message me!!