#New Mauville

[blueviridianoak]

you can use a bike in new mauville??????

[poqu]

new mauville power plant!! a piece for @hoennzine

[zoruascanbetrainerstoo]

I can feel the wind.

[contest-winning-pest]

"Yeah, no, there's a bunch of Joltik in New Mauville."

"-- AND a Rotom?"

"Yes, and a Rotom. Listen, Professor, I know that New Mauville is kind of Wattson's baby, but we've gotta start intervening there and in Sea Mauville. This is getting ridiculous. There's a difference between a nature preserve and a place we let die."

"-- While I appreciate your enthusiasm, Kerry, there's some things that have to be taken slowly."

"I'm certain there's more Joltik in that damned building, professor. You need a team down there that's for capturing and getting the poor things somewhere else."

[julianrahmat]

If you like what I do, please consider supporting me on Patreon

"Attention! We received word that a whorl has occurred in the skies high above the Sky Pillar with the addition of a monstrous howl within it. Perhaps the Rayquaza you've repelled last time has returned, we need to investigate before this new storm gets out of hand!"

- Steel Champion

Mega Rayquaza, the mega form of Rayquaza, has descended once again! It first debuted in Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

Pokemon

Rayquaza, upon using Dragon Ascent, evolves into this new form. In this form, its strength is greatly increased, and its long glowing tendrils grant it complete mastery over the winds, enabling it to fly at extreme speeds.

Its air sacs enables it to float through the air indefinitely, which makes it rather difficult to knock down. They also generate a wind cloak that pushes away any incoming attackers. Its scale has also evolved to be much more friction-less, allowing it to achieve high speeds more efficiently.

It is said Mega Rayquaza achieves this forms by feasting on celestial objects, and certain celestial Pokemon such as Minior.

The battle takes place abroad the SS Cactus, a ship salvaged off the coast of Mauville, outfitted with a new engine that allows it to fly. The fight begins with Rayquaza, as hunters start to wear it down, it will begin to use Dragon Ascent, zipping across the skies before rushing toward the ship, dealing damage to it. Hunters must defeat Mega Rayquaza before it destroys the ship.

As the ship is equipped with various artillery weapons, hunters should make use of them to disrupt Mega Rayquaza's offensive.

Armor

Mega Rayquaza's Armor has the ability to improve a hunter's movement speed. Which as far as I can say is an extreme game changer

Weapons

Mega Rayquaza weapons now gains the ability to deal both Dragon and Flying damage while attacking from the air.

Outro

This will be the final release of the current legendary pokemon run. Apologies if you feel that I took too long. I want to do more, I have so many ideas, but just not as much time. But going forward there will be some changes regarding to funding to the Patreon, I will communicate said changes in the coming posts. There will be a poll coming soon, and I hope all Patrons will participate.

[leggerefiore]

💍Steven Stone Gen Romance HCs💎

🪨 He knows there are times he falls obvious or winds up much too busy in either his travels to be an overly attentive boyfriend. Steven never means anything truly malicious, but he knows that he ends up lost in his own research and interests and wishes to do better by his partner. His place as next in line to take over the Devon Corporation weighs on him quite often, too. He typically tries to have you tag along with him on his travels to make up for his shortcomings.

🪨 Steven loves to shower you in gifts, as he simply just cannot think of any other way to make up for his actions most of the time. Rare, shiny pokemon and even some of his more beloved stones are offered up as things to attempt to make up for his lack of attentiveness. They are also given as his main way to show his affection. Anything you want, a simple mention of it will lead to it appearing pretty much the next day. He loves seeing you smile from his gifts.

🪨 PDA is odd with him. He is both aware and not aware of himself. Steven may find himself unconsciously holding on to you, yet he may come into a realisation of this and let go, depending on the situation. He does enjoy having an arm around your shoulders a lot of the time or grasping on to your hand. He mostly allows you to do whatever you please with him, too, barring his moments of realisation. Once more, if it makes you smile, he's more than happy to oblige.

🪨 In private, he is much more loose about everything. There are no worries about outsider looks and manners. His hugs and hand holds can turn into cuddles and soft kisses after a long day, stress finally eating away at him entirely. You will be pressed to his chest for a moment of quiet in his home in Mossdeep, only a distant sound of lapping waves breaking the silence. He may finally snap out of his momentary trance to tell you about his research and any discoveries he made, alongside any fascinating battles he encountered.

🪨 He enjoys having you around in his life as it gives him another anchor in everything. Steven enjoys having someone consistently there for him during his travels as a partner to both confide in and spend time with. Of course, he still enjoys meeting new people, but having you around helps him during his slower moments in it all. A genuine person who cares for him and loves him. Steven is aware he is both a wealthy heir and a handsome man, so having at least one person he knows sees him as a person calms him during any rare moment of stress.

🪨 He does often enjoy a good battle with you if you're a trainer. You might as well be with all the pokemon he will inevitably try to gift to you (they all have amazing stats for competitive). Steven would not declare you his rival, but he would admit to wishing for a sparring partner that he could consistently battle. Beating him naturally earns his endless praise, but losing to him changes very little outside of him trying to encourage you to keep up training. He certainly wants you to grow to a point where you remain as equals, if not better than him.

🪨 His idea of a date is wandering around whatever location he's brought you both two and enjoying the popular spots alongside anywhere that may contain the stones he searches for. You will be taken to the picturesque beaches of Alola and the Haina Desert, probably within the same day. Still, Steven tries his best to keep you entertained and happy. In his native Hoenn, you will often find him taking you to fancy restaurants with Mauville or relaxing on the beach of Slateport. A special date he certainly wishes to share with you is watching a meteor shower at the Mossdeep Space Center together. Essentially, his dates vary quite a bit.

🪨 Steven does not really get jealous typically. He is confident in himself and trusts you entirely. Few people really go out of their way to flirt with the partner of Steven Stone, inheritor of the Devon Corporation, after all. If someone is especially pushy, however, he may step in simply to make sure you are comfortable and make it obvious to the other person that you are already in a relationship. If they still don't quit, he may just bring out his Metagross to “show it off.” Most people give up around that point.

🪨 Should you have been in Hoenn during the incident with the villainous team and legendary pokemon, he will request that you stay inside his home and wait for him to sort out the problem with Wallace. Steven was honestly a bit terrified to involve you, worried about your safety from both the team and the calamity that had started. It was rare to see his calm facade break with genuine, pure worry, so you likely heeded to his words.

🪨 Steven feels at ease around you, too. He knows you will not mind his eccentricities and allow him to go on about his fascinations. One moment he will tell you about why his prefers steel-types over any other type of pokemon before falling into a discussion about how Water Stones may vary between different regions. The Champion knows you see him as a person rather than an inheritor of the Devon Corporation or a pretty face. He just fails to express his contentedness in words. Wallace even approved of you for him, too.

🪨 Just by the nature of being in proximity to Steven, you learn many things about rocks. The pale haired man will eagerly show you his collection and explain how they are formed in nature, their original location, and whatever meaning they may hold. His passion for stones is simply something that you may find yourself invested in. The passion he holds is truly contagious. You find that any gift he gives you involving stones seems especially significant but him.

🪨 Pet names he tends to lean towards are stone related, naturally. “My gem” is a common among his dialogue, but there have been appearances from stones that he believes matches both your hair and eyes. He does use a rare precious, too. In a way, his fondness towards you is as strong as his fondness towards his rocks.

🪨 Overall, he has his moments of obviousness, but is a sweet and caring boyfriend. You tag along on his travels to various regions and locations, and he sees you as a beloved anchor for him. He knows you see him as a person, so he simply wishes to repay that kindness as much as he can, his love language definitely being gift giving. Steven wants to enjoy a life full of exploration and discovery with you and his massive rock collection, basically.

[torchickentacos]

Drew’s Travel Route (Part 1. Sigh.)

Ok, SO! I said I’d try to figure out the travel routes of the anime rivals, and I’m starting with Drew. First things first, starting with Hoenn, here’s the map- I’ve marked down the probable locations of places that the anime made up where relevant. LONG POST, and I’ve edited the map for clarity’s sake. Also, I am vaguely/loosely taking encounter locations from RSE, you’ll get it later, don’t worry about it for now. 

The beginning of his journey is a logical place to start but also we really don't know. He’s from LaRousse City, which is allegedly off the coast of Lilycove, according to Bulbapedia with no citation. He has three ribbons before meeting May and co., but we have no way of knowing where he got them or when or anything. We’re going to ignore those ribbons for my own sanity and just say ‘somehow he got from LaRousse to Slateport’, because otherwise I’d be factoring Solidad in here and it’s just a whole thing that we’re not worrying about. Fanon tends to agree that this isn’t his first contest circuit, so for all we know he didn’t even start from LaRousse. We just don’t know and we’re not worrying about it, and we're calling Slateport our start point because that's where he debuts. (Personal opinion? He's probably at LEAST been around Eastern Hoenn before, maybe down around the islands (Sootopolis, Mossdeep) at some point and around 121-122-123. We'll just assume he made his way from LaRousse>Lilycove>122>123>128>Mauville>110>Slateport, bringing us to our start point and gathering 3 ribbons along the way, but I'm not mapping that out because I have no real evidence).

So, that out of the way, let’s look at his starting point.

Drew first shows up in AG033 at a beach in Slateport City, where he stays until AG035 Win, Lose, or Drew!. After that, we don’t see him until AG050 Pros and Con Artists, set in Fallarbor Town. Now, Slateport and Fallarbor are far away and have a few different routes. We’re saving the desert route for later (I have my reasons to believe he only went to 111 later on), so north is out. You could also go a bit south to Oldale>Petalburg>Rustboro, OR north and then west through Mauville>Verdanturf>Rustboro. We’re assuming the former, as the latter would mean he visited Verdanturf before and didn’t enter any contests and that just makes less sense to me. Also it doesn’t matter. MAYBE he caught Masquerain as a Surskit in this stretch of traveling but it's inconclusive and largely irrelevant.

So, AG050, Fallarbor. He stays here throughout 051-Come What May!. The next time we see him is in AG061, Disaster of Disguise, set in Verdanturf. He stays here throughout 062 as well. Minor backtracking through 114, 115, and Rustboro, but nothing major.

After this, we see him in AG077, A Fan With A Plan, which takes place in, uh, Rubello Town. 

This is where it gets funky. Rubello Town is somewhere between ‘Littleroot and Fortree’ according to Bulbapedia, which is like saying that New Jersey is somewhere between Maine and Florida. So I took it into my own hands and decided that it’s PROBABLY somewhere around the intersection of Routes 118 and 119, or early 119, headed into Fortree. It’s the only place that makes sense given where May and Co. are in the surrounding episodes. We're really triangulating some shit here. Eventually I should try to figure out where all the fake towns are but that's a project for later. Anyways, Rubello Town, AG077, A Fan With A Plan. That episode deserves its own 'wtf' post tbh. Anyways. We're here.

So, from 118-119ish, Rubello Town, AG077, we then see him again in AG113, Who, What, When, Where, Wynaut (WWWWW). So, there’s a lot going on in this little stretch. It’s a big timegap from AG077-113. First things first, I’m assuming he took a detour through route 120 to catch Absol at this point. Absol debuts all the way in the Kanto Grand Festival, but it makes sense for him to have caught it this early on. So, we’re calling route 120 his next stop, maybe offscreen around AG80ish?

And now, we’re detouring back to Route 111. I agonized over this decision but it feels right to put it here.

You see, at some point Drew needs to have caught a Trapinch. Some of you guys who also trawled the bulbapedia ship pages before they got deleted probably remember that Flygon was specifically caught and trained for the theoretical situation in which he faced against May in the Hoenn Grand Festival. Because, you know, raising a pokemon up to at least level 45 is a thing you do for people you feel normally about. That’s a completely normal investment of time and energy and forethought and care. Anyways, I actually hesitated on assuming that Drew would have seen May as important enough to go out of his way to catch it this early-on, but we are three roses in with blatant flirting in 077, and WWWWW is up next (which people seem to agree is when he's like oh shit, those are emotions that I'm feeling), so it feels like a safe enough bet, and also Drew’s just Kind Of Like That™. Also, there’s no other time later in which it makes sense for him to have time to make the detour while also evolving it before the Grand Festival (and honestly even then we’re pushing it a bit). Any earlier and I doubt he’d have considered her in high enough regard to train an entire pokemon to battle her with (again, very large investment of time and energy to get a Flygon). So, with all that, we’re assuming that he goes back to 111 and catches Trapinch here. 

He also gets a ribbon somewhere in this time gap (his fifth). In the anime, pretty much every town seems like it holds contests. I really don’t know. I’m ASSUMING that on his way to Route 131 (we’ll get there in a second), he picks up a ribbon from some made-up location that we aren't privy to.

Now. Gonna be real. I don’t know where in the actual hell they are in the beginning of WWWWW and his next appearance. Vaguely around Pacifidlog? Two episodes ago they were in Sootopolis, one episode ago they were on some random island, and they’re just in the ocean in the next one so I don’t know. Best I can figure is somewhere around Route 131. Why is Drew out in the middle of route 131? Don’t know. He has all 5 ribbons and isn’t going to Pacifidlog to watch May (something he goes out of his way for later but I digress). I really have no earthly clue why the fresh hell he’s out in 131, but HE IS I GUESS and who am I to question it? Did he just want some ocean time??? I don't know why he's here. Usually him being in out-of-the-way places is because May's there, but no, he's not here for her this time, he doesn't watch the Pacifidlog contest to the best of our knowledge, he's just. HERE. I GUESS.

So. Fine. Whatever. We’re on 131 FOR SOME REASON, he ‘travels’ to Mirage Island if you’d call that travelling, they head back to wherever they were on 131.

It’s more straightforward from here- he heads back to Slateport for the Hoenn Grand Festival, AG121-123. We’re assuming he takes a boat, I’m not sending this dude all the way back through mainland Hoenn. Tbh he has seasick vibes, which several unrelated fics from over the last 15 years seem to agree on for whatever reason, but that’s his problem and not mine. 

SO. FINALLY. END OF HOENN (but not end of AG, there’s that part 2 at some point). We’re all the way back at Slateport- his first and last Hoenn appearance is maybe/probably on the same stretch of beach, intentional or not. And with that, we have his PROBABLE travel route throughout his appearances in the Hoenn section of AG!

Kanto gets its own post because this is over 1k words long and took 2 hours to figure out last night :)))))))

(and @silverncats , here it is!!! I hope this is interesting, and I'm planning on doing more! This was super fun, albeit tedious and full of guesswork)

[april]

POKéMON NEWS: just one insane 12-year-old girl is responsible for skyrocketing wild bagon population around mauville city and verdanturf town

[metaoflocasol]

Part 2 of Muse Mixup Madness: Nick in Locasol

[closed rp with @nick-of-mauville-fix-shop]

Stepping out of the portal and into a forest, Meta stretched as he took in the familiar scenery. That being of large mushrooms of various colors, purple moss, strange berries, and other alien-like plants

“We are actually pretty close to the Rock Type Gym, run by Mr. Kuh. But first off…”

He took the Pokèball the Korhlo-o was in and threw it into the thicket, a roar and scampering sounds were heard as the beast ran off. The ball returned to Meta and he pocketed it again.

“That one shouldn’t be causing anymore issues, it will tell the rest of the pack about the danger, and the news will spread to avoid the Ultra Wormholes.

Now then, please follow me, it is only a short hike to Zartor from here. If anything catches you eye, let me know”

The sky was dark, stars and planets glowing in the distance, yet it was still plenty bright out to clearly see their surroundings. A few small critters were scurrying around, curious to see what the sudden disturbance was.

[hereforawile]

Not sure whether the weather’s going to be good? You can count on MV385 for your local Hoenn weather, in Mauville and beyond.

I’m your trusty weatherman, Rohan Iwata, and I’ve been asked to create an account here to spread our forecasts far and wide. It’s a big task in a region with weather like ours, but we promise the most up-to-date news possible.

For those who don’t know me, I’m a Mauville native, my wife is a scientist at the Weather Institute outside of Fortree, and we have two wonderful sons—you could call them our suns, even. I’ve also got my partner Pokémon, Kachikachi, who’s been my trusty Mawile since I was ten. I decided to name my account after her, since we’ve been close for so long.

That aside, we look forward to serving you. I have also included my photo to be more personal.

//picrew by greyfeu!

//important OOC below the cut!

//Very important note up front: this blog is going to be focused on Rohan and Kachikachi’s experiences of suddenly being fused into a hybrid form. While not the focus, elements of body horror may be present from time to time. I tag all triggering topics with #tw thing but if that is a particular trigger for you I recommend blocking this blog!

Otherwise, this blog is moderately story focused, open to interactions from anyone in any universe, and generally low-medium stakes. Pelipper Mail is open, and I may situationally open magic anons, though they cannot undo/stop the blog’s premise.

Mod is Ace, 22, she/him pronouns!

Rohan (he/him) will type like this. (Posts tagged with #rohan rambles.)

And Kachikachi (she/her) will type like this. (Posts tagged with #kachikaki proclaims.)

Messages they co-author (they/them) will look like this. (Posts tagged with #as one.)

[jadeazora]

Here are my favorite Gym Leaders (and Nanu) to counterbalance my least favorite Gym Leaders!

Kinda debating whether I should have gone with Koga or Sabrina since he does become an E4 member a generation later, but decided to go with him since that came later. Genuinely tough call between those two, but Koga's design and personality just always appealed to me a little more. (Sabrina did scare the crap out of me as a little kid tho in her anime debut.)

Morty has probably had one of my favorite glow-ups in the series. I always wanted to cosplay him, but our only con is in August and I would probably die of heat stroke. 😅

Probably a weird pick, but I always liked how jovial Wattson was. (Tho there is a bit of a facade there, from what I recall he had a bit of a shady past in ORAS with the New Mauville project. That makes him pretty interesting imo.)

Volkner is such a goddamn menace that Lear probably wants to literally strangle half the time, but I love seeing more of that side of him on Pasio! (There's also him being friends with Flint, and having a fun dynamic with him.)

I will forever remember Brycen just throwing hands with Team Plasma in Generations, completely forgoing having an actual Pokemon battle with them. Instant favorite. Kick their asses!

I really always loved Valerie's elegant design, but her personality and wanting to actually be a Pokemon is a lot of fun too.

I would consider the Kahunas a Gym Leader equivalent too, probably just not counting Hala since he's an E4 member too within that Generation, but Nanu is just cool from looking after Acerola, to being a UB hunter within the International Police alongside Looker in his backstory, to getting one of the most morbidly funny lines in a Pokémon game when he meets the protagonist, to kinda being the first dark-type Gym Leader, I just love the dude and he's my favorite Alolan character! I was so happy when they gave him a supporting role in the postgame of SM.

Our first true Dark-type Gym Leader, Piers is definitely my favorite Galar character overall alongside Raihan, and it was a tough call between them, but I really liked how they gave Piers an extended role in the postgame where he was more actively helping the player deal with the Royal Pain in the Ass brothers, so he was who I went with. It's also adorable how he dotes on/frets over Marnie.

Larry is also an E4 member, so I'll probably do one of these and feature him for my favorite of the Paldea E4 (tough call between him, Rika, and Hassel tho), so Ryme is runner-up. Her battle was just a lot of fun with the crowd hyping you up. She had a cool personality too, I really enjoyed her a lot as a character. They never miss with Ghost users.

[coiledqueen]

Since the fall of the Mauville Game Corner, Lucy co-owns a (not-so) secret GAMBLING DEN in the large lower floors of Lilycove City's defunct motel space. She shares ownership with the Game Corner's previous owner (who spends all his time in Mauville Heights) and the Trick Master (who is in serious debt and mostly stays at home.)

Many of the Game Corner's slots and tables were moved down here following Mauville's new gambling restrictions. There's also an expansive bar and lounge area, designed for idle chit-chat and privacy. (The Trick Master redesigned a majority of the space--and it looks pretty good, actually. He just needed Lucy to help rein in that wild imagination.)

The gambling den is extremely exclusive, and runs on a tight-lipped password system for entry. Lucy runs a tight ship down here--it doesn't matter what your past or present affiliations are, just don't cause any trouble once you're inside. No battling. No being obnoxious. No promotions. Ex-grunts, delinquents, even some League members and off-duty law enforcement have been spotted in the den. (Anybody who can't play by the rules or pass ID check will be unceremoniously kicked out and barred from entering again.)

As its most involved patron/visitor when she's not atop the Pike, Lucy rules this space--what she says, goes. She can usually be found bartending, gaming at a table, or helping to vet new arrivals.

The den is unnamed at the moment. Helps with the secrecy.

[findingyourrootscomic]

Gameplay Retrospective #3 (Chapters 8-10)

Hello all, and welcome back to Finding Your Roots: Gameplay Retrospectives! FYR is based on a type-restrictive nuzlocke run of Pokemon Omega Ruby. This series is where I describe the events of this nuzlocke run, so you all can get an understanding of how I transform the gameplay into a story! Today, we’ll be covering Chapters 8-10 which ranges from leaving Slateport City to the Team Magma encounter at Meteor Falls. Sorry it’s been so long since the last one, thank you for your patience!

The Current Team

Cedar- Marshtomp

Gender: Female

Met: Route 101, lv 5

Ability: Torrent

Personality: Brave, Good endurance

Shelly- Nincada

Gender: Female

Met: Route 116, lv 6

Ability: Compound Eyes

Personality: Rash, Proud of her power

Brawler- Geodude

Gender: Male

Met: Granite Cave, lv 10

Ability: Sturdy

Personality: Careful, Quick to flee

Nauki- Trapinch

Gender: Male

Met: Granite Cave, lv 1

Ability: Arena Trap

Personality: Jolly, Strong willed

Ember- Numel

Gender: Female

Met: Route 112, lv 14

Ability: Oblivious

Personality: Brave, Somewhat vain

Copper- Slugma

Gender: Male

Met: Fiery Pass, lv 15

Ability: Magma Armor

Personality: Rash, Impetuous and silly

Lockheed- Skarmory

Gender: Male

Met: Route 113, lv 16

Ability: Sturdy

Personality: Modest, Likes to run

Eclipse- Solrock

Gender: Neutral

Met: Meteor Falls, lv 17

Ability: Levitate

Personality: Jolly, Takes plenty of siestas

Tuffy- Numel

Gender: Female

Met: Jagged Pass, lv 21

Ability: Simple

Personality: Hasty, Quick to flee

Gyms Completed

Mauville Gym: Leader Wattson

New Catches

Fiery Pass: Copper (Slugma)

Route 112: Ember (Numel)

Route 113: Lockheed (Skarmory)

Meteor Falls: Eclipse (Solrock)

Jagged Pass: Tuffy (Numel)

Evolutions

None

Deaths

None

Chapter Eight’s gameplay was especially fun to translate into story, since it contained a rival battle AND a gym battle! The chapter picks up at the Pokemon Center visit that I made after winning the prior rival battle against Brendan, who fainted one of my pokemon and reduced the rest to low health. I used repels to make sure we didn’t get jumped by wild pokemon and rushed my poor earth-type babies to the Slateport Pokemon Center to heal them up. Since I had three revives to use on any fainted pokemon I wanted throughout the run, I used the first on Cedar and rezzed her at the Pokemon Center. I stocked up on potions and other heal items, now paranoid that this run may not be as easy as I was hoping. After that, we set off for Mauville.

In the comic, Team Hearth never visits the comic’s stand-in city Mawhill, the lightning elemental capital. This is different from the gameplay, where you are of course unable to skip visiting Mauville since it has the third gym. I made this change since it wouldn’t really make sense for Team Hearth to visit an elemental capital so soon after what happened with Briar. I also just didn’t want to introduce and design a new city, and I figured I could connect the needed gym battle to Mauville by having the gym leaders be Mawhill citizens. It made sense anyway since lightning elementals live there, and the gym is an electric gym! So that fell together pretty nicely.

But before the battle begins, Cedar and Nauki run into Wesen the ralts, the comic stand-in for Wally! I was pretty excited to get to bring Wesen back for this chapter, since he left Cedar so abruptly ages ago in Chapter Two. It was fun to get to pick at the unresolved drama between these two, because Wesen is avoidant to a fault but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel bad about the things he does. Cedar is a fun character to throw at Wesen because her very nature is antithetical to what Wesen expects from the world. These two shake each other up and I love their chemistry.

Cedar and Nauki bring Wesen back to meet their new team, and some aggression from a recently retraumatized Shelly helps to lead both into the upcoming rival battle AND the gym battle. The conflict causes Nauki to run off on his own, which separates him from his older protectors and frees him up to get kidnapped by the lightning elemental gym leaders. This event thus gets Shelly even MORE pissed, and once she identifies Wesen as at fault for Nauki’s kidnapping, all bets are off. Shelly attacks Wesen, violence ensues, and the rival battle commences. Check that one off the list!

In-game, I used Shelly against Wally in Mauville. She was still weak af but was getting a little stronger now that she was getting to higher levels, and bug is good against psychic. Wally only has one ralts here, so it was a pretty easy fight even for Shelly. It went by quickly, and does as well in the comic, though in-comic Shelly is so overcome with raging emotion over the kidnapping that when Cedar intervenes, the explosion targets her instead. Wesen is spared, rival battle is cut off, and Shelly runs away. After the Talk happens, we cut to Nauki with his lightning elemental captors, and the third gym battle is imminent.

Gameplay notes for the Wally battle (Yeah it was literally two turns lol):

Shelly vs ralts- Cut, half yellow.

Teleport, no effect.

Cut KO.

Originally, I was actually going to show the third gym battle in-comic. It would have been Nauki beating the everloving shit out of these lightning elementals to protect his sisters from potential harm, and it was gonna be cathartic and awesome and glorious. I ended up cutting it for time. Chapter Eight was long as fuck even without this battle, so it unfortunately just couldn’t happen. The camera cuts away as Nauki charges in, and by the next time we see him, the cave is reduced to rubble and Watts, Gadget, and Mango are beaten to a pulp. In-game, you’ll never guess what happened…

I swept the gym with Nauki. Wow, how’d you guess? :V

Yeah, it was super easy. Even the battle against Roxanne was harder and I was fighting with a frigging water-type. Once the gym battle was done, we moved onwards towards Hoenn’s arid region! Finally, I had gotten to the good part of the game… THIS NEXT PART OF HOENN IS EARTH-TYPE CENTRAL! I was gonna be getting catches on almost every route, instead of every few levels like the early game! I was so excited to finally fill out the rest of the team, and I caught lots of new pokemon!

My first new catch was on Route 112, where I encountered and caught a female numel that I named Ember. I was so fucking excited because numel is one of my favorite earth-types to raise, and what better place to do so than Hoenn! She was the fifth pokemon to join the team, and then we went to Fiery Pass where I caught a male slugma named Copper. I’d never raised slugma before, so I was pretty interested to see how he would do. Full team!!!

The next step in the game was to head to Fallarbor, and I knew from my research that Route 113 would have a possible skarmory encounter. I really, really wanted skarmory on the team (steel-type, flying-type, cute design, nostalgia for my skarmory from my first Emerald playthrough, GOOD). So once we got there and I encountered and caught the male skarmory Lockheed, I suddenly had choices to make. 7 pokemon, but only 6 slots on the team. It was time to send someone to the PC!

This was the point in the run where I made pretty liberal use of the PC boxes to switch the team around. It was a kinda chaotic time for the team, pokemon would regularly get boxed and come back and get boxed again as more new catches were made. I was trying to balance the team type-wise as well, so that we weren’t leaning too heavily on ground-types versus rock and steel. Cedar and Nauki were the only real permanent fixtures on the team at this point. Lots of switching up!

In Fallarbor, you get a quest to save a kidnapped professor from Team Magma, who dragged him off to Meteor Falls for whatever reason. You also encounter Brendan here, who doesn’t battle you but rather accompanies you to Meteor Falls. I decided to skip this rival encounter because honestly I forgot it even happened. Brendan just leaves very little impression on me as a character lol. I skipped the professor thing, too, because it was just kinda boring and would’ve taken an annoying amount of time to set up, just needlessly extending the comic further. Once Team Hearth made it to the desert, I wanted to send them to Meteor Falls without spending a ton of pages on it. I definitely wanted to include the Team Magma encounter there, since I was taking this opportunity to introduce the comic stand-in for Maxie. I used Team Molten’s strong desire to fight Team Magma as the bridge to get us from one story point to the next as quickly as possible.

I don’t exactly remember how I got the idea to connect Team Molten and Team Magma. The numel catches were definitely part of the inspiration, since Maxie also uses a camerupt as his ace. Bridging different elements of the story also helps to streamline things; Team Molten wanting to fight Team Magma can serve to drag Team Hearth into the conflict as well, even though our main characters don’t yet have a personal stake in the conflict. They will have a personal stake eventually. But for now, their major motivation is to help their new friends out. Thankfully, with Cedar and Nauki’s personalities, it was easy to justify this.

In Meteor Falls, I caught a solrock named Eclipse. I was kinda miffed about this catch I’ll be honest lol, because solrock is a psychic-type but also a physical attacker??? And I don’t even think they learn zen headbutt. So at the time I was just kinda like… Eclipse you’re just a less good Brawler… But I kept them on the team for far longer than I anticipated at the time of capture. So its kinda funny how that all turned out!

Once Eclipse was caught (and introduced in-comic as a character with OCD, as I had promised a friend I would write one), we move on to the Team Magma encounter and introduce Mantle and Tabs (stand-in for Admin Tabitha). In-game, there are three Magma Admins that you regularly fight (or two?? Was it two or three??? I remember Tabitha and Courtney uhh), but in the comic, only one of these admins is still currently with the team. This is to just streamline things more so I don’t have a billion cast members to keep track of. The other Magma admins can be seen in Ember and Tuffy’s flashback, so they are at least referenced. In-comic, Team Magma is here for the same reason as in-game: To steal the meteorite. Team Molten find them first, chaos ensues as the numels three reunite, and then Team Hearth arrives. Molten has outed themselves as being connected to Team Magma. Team Magma successfully steals the meteorite (same as in-game p sure) and leave. I literally don’t remember what they do with it after the fact lol, but I at least remember that much.

Sometime after Meteor Falls, I went to Jagged Pass and caught the second female numel, Tuffy. This was fucking awesome because I love numels and now I had two of them fuck yeah. And thus, we had nine team members in total: Cedar, Nauki, Shelly, Brawler, Ember, Copper, Lockheed, Eclipse, and Tuffy! Earthen party, earthen party! Things were going strong at this point, with lots of fighters to choose from and all sorts of new type coverage. As you can see, in-game Tuffy was the last of these five pokemon to be caught, but she’s introduced as one of the first new catches in-comic. I streamlined all the new catches by introducing three of them (slugma and the two numels) as a unit. I wrote in reasons for why all these new pokemon would start hanging with Team Hearth, though all have yet to officially join the team. I try not to rush new catches onto the team, since it can come off really unnatural. I want to give time for the characters to meet and get used to each other and have them join up when the moment feels right. But for now, all these new pokemon are traveling with Team Hearth!

Aaaand that’s about it! Thanks for reading this gameplay retrospective. Next one will come at the end of Chapter 13. Laters!

[zoruascanbetrainerstoo]

I think New Mauville is a mystery dungeon.

[contest-winning-pest]

"... Wattson." Kerry restarted the computer and sat down against the wall as she talked.

"-- Kerry? It's been nearly two days, what's going on?"

"So. As a member of the Hoenn Perpetual Biological and Ecological Survey Youth Team it's my duty to inform you that New Mauville is infested with Joltik and desperately needs human intervention to remain a viable habitat for Hoenn-native species."

"... okay, that's bad, but not unfixable."

"As the person you sent to assess the damage, everything below the fifth floor is absolutely flooded with brackish groundwater. I don't know how this place hasn't sinkholed already, but you need to intervene for that, too."

"not... unexpected."

"And your electrical faults were caused by a Rotom. Now, I'll admit I don't know much about Rotom, but considering Greater Mauville Holdings' track record I'm going to assume something died in the machines down here."

Wattson was silent on the other end of the line for a long time, and then, in a tone that held a lilt of incredible sadness, "I understand. Could you meet me in my apartment for the handoff? Bring the Rotom."

[lorekeeper-backset]

Okay, so, doing a Bulbapedia binge, as I am wont to do, and come across info on Mauville City in Pokespe...

So, the city was suffering from an overpopulation of children, and the solution was to send them all to New Mauville, which had been built by the Trick Master's grandfather as an underground amusement park, and this is seen as a perfectly valid solution with no problems. Did the kids not have parents? Are they supposed to just stay there forever? Like, if they come back you just go back to the overpopulation problem so they've gotta stay there, right? Also, this is how Sapphire wins the Dynamo Badge.

What the fuck is Pokespe guys.