#and how to efficiently help the pokemon use said powers ?

[theghostofwilburtheworm]

Do you gamers think if laios was in pokemon, would he be pokemon professor or would he be an aspiring pokemon professor but he cant be for a or b motive, or would marcille b a pokemon professor

[itsnightslashtime]

🪐

((Ooc: OH BOY THIS CAME AT THE PERFECT TIME!!! I've been autisming about a couple of Mega Man character backstories being applied to Akari and Arceus(Quake Woman/Tempo and Dr. Lalinde, for those that want to know)(i also haven't read too far into the comics so this will inevitably stray from that canon)

In one screenshot:

The entire story is under the cut because it got REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY LONG!!!!))

Okay so in this verse, Akari was created by Arceus to un-fuck all the stuff in Hisui that was fucked up. She didn't have a life before, she was created for this sole purpose. So Arceus makes her, gives her a mind, implants her mission, and sends her off! And after a bit, it realizes.

It kind of messed up.

Her shrieking her little lungs out when faced with Lord Kleavor shows enough of that.

She is so small, compared to Arceus. Compared to other humans, actually. It made her with a quick and limber size in mind, but that just made the stark contrast so much bigger when she couldn't get up fast enough.

It can hear her soul crying.

So it restarts. It tries again, this time throwing a piece of itself down with her at the start. It's shaped like a human. She fears even the little starter Pokemon, cowering behind it and clutching its dress, so it goes ahead and catches two of them for her, to show her how it's done, even though she should have this information already? It gave it to her when she fell. But it shows her there's not so much to be afraid of, not from these little ones. She catches the last one herself.

Is it just Arceus, or is she more skittish this time? Is it the presence of an adult "faller", someone like her to hide behind? It tries not to coddle her too much. It often separates from her in the wild, to gather mundane data on its own creations so she can have her own adventures. It leaves its own creation, despite Professor Laventon alikening them to a parent and daughter.

Akari dies again, facing Lord Kleavor.

Arceus finds her screams to be even more horrible this time.

It's been going about this all wrong. Her having such a developed mind is the exact thing stopping her from fulfilling her duty. Her fear is stunting her growth; it makes her move slower, it's making her hesitate, it's making her unsteady.

It restarts again. This time, it cuts certain things out of her mind- namely, emotions. She wakes up with dull eyes, gets off the sand in a smooth motion, making no reaction to Arceus having shaken her awake, suddenly struck with a thought that she hadn't survived the trip down despite having landed in exactly the same place as the last few times.

And no, it wasn't afraid for her. It was completely ambivalent towards its creation. She was supposed to be destroyed after her mission was over, anyway.

She catches all three starters without trouble, even stopping Arceus from moving forward to help. She takes on the initiation trial with equal skill and tenacity, astounding everyone in town, and Arceus is so proud of her.

I mean- No, it's not. It feels nothing for her. She was quite literally made for this.

This time, Akari survives Lord Kleavor, and quells him. Arceus helped, distracting the one that held too much power so its creation could do her job. She was analytic, putting together the mannerisms to counter them, and not a speck of fear flowed through her during the fight.

For some reason, Arceus is not as proud of itself for fixing the problem as it thought it would be.

The rest of everything proceeds like this. Akari does not talk, she's never said a word, and Arceus is kind of worried it never gave her the knowledge of how to. But a peek into her mind reveals that yes, she does know, she just never feels the need to make use of it. Because she cannot feel at all. She obliterates every Noble with ruthless efficiency, never once implying she might need help or that she doesn't want to do this, because of course she wouldn't. She is Arceus's perfect creation.

The Professor keeps asking if it's daughter is okay. It has a practiced response for this. The response it does not have is when he notes that it says that every time.

In human form, Arceus follows Akari throughout all of Hisui, though it does not know why. She knows when to retreat due to her injuries. She knows all the ways to treat wild Pokemon. She knows how to take care of herself. And yet, it keeps following her, making sure she's okay.

It rationalizes this by saying it doesn't want to have to start over when they've come so far. It doesn't want to sit through all this again. It doesn't want to have to tweak her mind or her abilities, because that's boring, and it already knew the perfect stats to give her. It does not want to have to explain everything to her again.

It does not want to learn she miscalculated, and is now bleeding out on the ground, alone somewhere when it could have saved her.

Then the Red Sky happens.

This is the dark spot where Arceus could never see into. It's vessel feels weak, but it struggles to its feet and forces more strength through itself, only to watch its creation get banished from Jubilife with a straight face.

She says nothing. She does what she's told, and leaves the village, with nothing but the items in her satchel and the Pokeballs on her belt.

Arceus is banished alongside her, because they are both sky-fallers.

It wants to Judge this man where he stands.

It follows her out, follows the merchant's plan, even though it knows doing such a thing would only empower him for the later betrayal.

While they go around to the lakes, it allows itself to think the thought it had been suppressing this whole time.

That maybe it should have brought her to Mesprit.

Not now, it says to itself. Not when her first feeling would be this kind of fear.

It's creation walks into Mesprit's cavern alone, and answers honestly. On the way out, it stares uncomfortably long at Arceus.

The Red Chain is made, Arceus's children are quelled, and it's creation is so, so damaged. All the calculation in the world could not have saved her from the wrath Dialga and Palkia rained upon the Temple of Sinnoh. They look down upon their disguised parent, and it's creation - their sibling - that they had nearly killed. And still, her eyes stare dully upwards, focused on nothing now that her objective has been completed for the time being. Her wounds are too great. To move would be to exacerbate them, so she doesn't.

She survives only because Arceus keeps her alive.

By the time she's discharged from the medical ward, the decision has been made. Arceus escorts her straight to Lake Verity. Mesprit is the expert, it made it to be so, and Mesprit follows its parent's wish, because Akari cannot want her emotions back.

It's a painful endeavor. It's overwhelming. It's horrible, and she feels horrible. Mesprit was not gentle. Arceus demands time be rewound, and they end up a few minutes before that all happened. Mesprit remembers, and Arceus insists it be gentle with its creation.

Akari's fourth third second first time feeling emotions is gradual, one emotion at a time. The first one isn't entirely evident, but she turns to Arceus with eyes wide, no longer in a blank way but in a glittering, overwhelmed way.

"momma...?"

It's barely audible, but Arceus knows all.

"Yes, beloved. Momma's here."

[adobe-outdesign]

Some Way Too In-depth Headcanons About How Pokeballs Work

Legends Arceus has a line about how Pokeballs function that makes no sense, so I might as well offer my headcanons as a supplementary explanation.

So basically, the game says [paraphrasing] that Pokemon “shrink themselves down” to go into Pokeballs. That’s inherently contradictory with the gameplay; not only should every Pokemon know minimize if this were the case, but it doesn’t explain why a Pokemon goes into a Pokeball only to break out of it, or how they go into a Pokeball after they’re already fainted.

So my take on it is to go at the same idea in a different way. When a Pokemon evolves, it completely changes size and shape, and this is often accompanied by some form of light.

Basically, all Pokemon have the ability to convert themselves into energy/light like this. This is how they evolve, as well as reproduce. It’s not something they can do on command, however; it’s more of a reflex that triggers under specific circumstances. While in the form of energy like this, the amount of space the energy takes up can be condensed or expanded, which is how they change size upon evolving. 

All a Pokeball does is provide an artificial trigger for this to occur. A cut and polished tumblestone’s (one of the items needed for crafting Pokeballs) presence automatically causes a Pokemon to revert to this energy form due to a chemical reaction. When the Pokemon comes into contact with a Pokeball, it transforms into energy due to the tumblestone; said energy is pulled towards the stone and condenses down to fit inside the apricorn. Once the Pokemon is in its energy form, it remains in that form in the Pokeball due to the tumblestone’s presence until it’s sent out. Older Pokeballs spit out excess energy from the catch in the form of “fireworks”; newer Pokeballs are more efficient and don’t need to do this.

All Pokemon can reduce their energy forms down to the same size, regardless of how big they are; however, the bigger the ‘mon, the more powerful the energy is when condensed, which makes it easier for them to break out during a catch. Likewise, the more powerful the Pokemon, the more energy needs to be contained. This is why different types of tumblestones are used for different types of Pokeballs, as the variations of the stone have varying degrees of strength.

Because this energy conversion normally happens during key moments in a Pokemon’s life, it gives them a rush of endorphins. This means that a Pokemon instinctively wants to go inside of a Pokeball and curl up there; they find the experience to be cozy. This behavior also helps them conserve energy and heal after a long battle (they don’t feel pain from injuries while in the ball, but they can still become weak and faint).

Modern day Pokeballs are capable of producing simulations for the Pokemon inside, giving them the illusion of being bigger on the inside. The environments vary based on the type of Pokeball used, and different types of environments can increase catch rates; for example, while regular Pokeballs use an open field, lure balls create an underwater environment that’s more appealing to aquatic species.

So Pokemon do possess the ability to shrink themselves down... after converting into energy. And Pokemon do shrink themselves down to go inside of Pokeballs...  as an automatic reflex in response to the tumblestone. So nothing the professor says is actually wrong; it’s just oversimplified, probably intentionally to make it easier for the protag to understand.

This is also why humans can’t go into Pokeballs; while descended from Pokemon, human beings lost the ability to evolve and convert into energy years ago. Because the Pokeball requires the subject to be able to do this in order to function, they have no effect on people.

[autoplaysdigimon]

Top Five Villains

HERE WE GO, THE FUN LIST.

#5 Gatomon

Controversial, maybe, to have her be on the Villains list as well, but she was a villainous character for a while.

I’m a real sucker for a good redemption storyline; failing that, at least a turncoat character. While Gatomon didn’t really commit any real atrocities onscreen to atone for later in the story, she still proved a fun villain while she was one. She was no nonsense, efficient, knew exactly what she was doing... if she’d stayed on Myotismon’s side, she could have been a real force to be reckoned with. One of the things that I’d have really liked to have seen explored more in this series was Gatomon’s time with Myotismon, and how much she’s changed since then.

Plus there’s something so weirdly entertaining about a group of creepy, ominous, obviously evil monsters and then a small white kitty cat who’s just as dangerous as them.

#4 Myotismon

This guy.

When this guy came onto the scene, the entire show changed. Devimon’s arc was fun, if a little generic; Etemon’s was very similar with a different villain, and then Demidevimon’s arc came along and we got a fun, goofy villain who can’t Evil properly. Even so, we knew he was following orders from a higher power, and Myotismon’s eventual appearance changed the dynamic from “Team Rocket Fools Children Repeatedly” to “oh shit an actual vampire is going to kill us”. And then the whole Eighth Digidestined thing happened... Plus, that #aesthetic, amirite? 

To tie into Gatomon’s thing up there, the Eighth Digidestined arc was one of the best of the season, if not the best. Taking the fight to the Real World made it more, well, real. It was fun as hell watching the parents interact with the Digimon, both good and bad, and finding out exactly what the kids had been up to lately. The kids watching their families getting dragged into the fight was TOP. NOTCH. Plus Myotismon actually knew what he was doing as a villain so.

He knew to go after the one kid without protection. He knew how to cut everything off effectively. He did take a shot at some of the kids when they were on their own, instead of thinking only of killing Kari. Death didn’t stop him the first time. Even when he pulled the classic villain “You Have Outlived Your Use” thing and killed his own minions, it was on Digimon who had already turned against him, like Wizardmon, Pumpkinmon, Gotsumon and (arguably) Darktyrannomon.

(No, wait, they’re still alive because he sent them to his Dungeon, isn’t that RIGHT DUB TEAM.)

(Even though pieces of them were left behind and dissolved on their own.)

(No, I’m still not over that.)

#3 Ogremon

Another redeemed villain! I just like them, okay

Maybe it’s just me, but just the act of Ogremon turning good at the end made me like him. He was a little bit generic in the Devimon arc, though at least he had the feud with Leomon to make him interesting. (Any logical reason to that, by the way? Was it just that we had these two Digimon who could fill in the character roles we’d set out for them? Nothing mythological about lions and ogres hating each other or anything? No? Okay then.)

All Ogremon really did in that first arc was serve as the henchman. He made some... interesting choices, and then he was absorbed into Devimon for power. And then he came out of the back of Devimon’s knee. Sure. When Devimon was defeated, he ran screaming off into the distance, shaking his fist and yelling “NEXT TIME, GADGET. NEXT TIIIIME.” The very act of bringing him back when he wasn’t employed by the Big Bad of the moment made him an interesting character, who had to atone for what he did. I’m a sucker for redemption, like I said, and the best part of it is watching them go soft.

Plus, how great is it to have multiple conflicting alliances within a group? When Leomon returned, even though Ogremon was firmly on the Digidestined side now, he had absolutely no problems with trying to immediately murder Leomon. There’s nothing wrong with that, right? They’re rivals, it’s just natural! He’s also kind of a shithead in general, even still.

Also, Ogremon is incredibly hard to draw. I’d just like to bring that up.

Okay, next!

#2 Etemon

HE’S A MONKEY WHO TALKS LIKE ELVIS, NEXT QUESTION.

But for real, Etemon is such a fucking great villain. Great character all around, I’d love a version where he was an ally or something, but how else would we get the trademark Elvis-laugh-turns-into-villainous-laugh thing that Etemon has going?! Come on, that’s great.

Devimon’s villainous style was one of corruption; he wasn’t all that powerful on his own, but by using the Black Gears he could build his own damn forces and control small areas. He only managed to control a handful of Digimon in the end. He was also taken out by a single Digimon in a single one-on-one, though you could argue that the others had weakened him by that point, they hadn’t really.

Etemon’s style was drastically different - he was far more comical, but far more dangerous. His introduction scene involved him panicking over the Digidestined already being in the area. He sang a lot, he cracked jokes, he threw childish tantrums, and again, he was a monkey who sounded like Elvis. There is nothing not awesome about this guy. And yes, he was deadlier - his main attack can undo Digivolutions and leave the Digimon vulnerable as hell. He ended up taking a couple of episodes to take out, only losing because another villain tried to sabotage him in the end.

And coming back partway through the Dark Masters arc as Metaletemon?! FUCK YEAH. Every pun he made, I laughed at and I don’t apologise for that. Even starting a series-wide tradition, he was stylish until the end.

Also he called Ikkakumon a goat that one time.

#1 Demidevimon

T H E  B A S T A R D  O R B

Nobody is surprised that he’s my #1, right? It was a close call between him and Etemon, but ultimately I just like Demidevimon’s arc more. We have Devimon and Etemon, as I discussed above. After that wave of villains who are dangerous because they’re powerful, we have one who is dangerous because he’s just a little bastard.

Demidevimon wasn’t strong. Most villains had their huge beatdown happen in the form of a Digimon Digivolving to Champion, Ultimate or Mega for the first time, Demidevimon had his when Patamon reached Rookie level again. In his debut episode. He was never a threat physically once the kids realised that he was not to be trusted. His arc came right after two arcs of the kids being stranded in this strange world together, only briefly separated - and then everyone was torn apart, and he could manipulate them individually. 

I’ve argued in the past that Demidevimon was a more effective manipulator than even Puppetmon, one of the Dark Masters, and I stand by it. Puppetmon managed to physically manipulate them with the dolls, sure, and he had Cherrymon convince Matt to attack Tai. But, uh, he didn’t exactly have to twist his arm very hard to get that to happen, and that was Cherrymon’s doing anyway. Plus you could argue that physically manipulating someone isn’t much of a social power as it is more a matter of strength. (also Puppetmon is more of a “play with them like toys” type, but still, being a literal puppetmaster, you’d think that manipulation was more of his domain than a BAT.) Demidevimon, however, managed to:

convince TK that Matt didn’t want him as a brother anymore and to ditch Tokomon

 nearly have TK, Tai and Agumon eat poisonous mind-wiping mushrooms

convince Digitamamon to keep Joe and Matt in the restaurant, simultaneously threatening Joe to help keep Matt there and sabotaged them constantly to manipulate them all further

trick Izzy and Tentomon into Vademon’s trap

tell the Gekomon and Otamamon about Mimi’s singing voice, somehow knowing that they’d end up hindering her progress somehow(???)

And, even after knowing that he’s an evil manipulating Digimon, he managed to convince Sora that she’d never manage to activate her crest, causing her to believe it in a self-fulfilling prophecy, even as she worked to sabotage his efforts otherwise.

I mean, apart from all that, I just like Demidevimon as a Digimon. He’s a tiny flying motherfucker and that’s great! He had some of my favourite lines, even his death was kind of tragically funny, and I have a clear bias when it comes to his voice acting, because I just like Derek Stephen Prince. He does it well! I don’t know how Demidevimon closes his eyes like that, though, those appear to be his pupils closing. I don’t even know.

Really, I just find great nostalgia in comical villains. They were all the rage back in the day, especially in children’s media. They’re still around sometimes - Doctor Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, the Rubies from Steven Universe, the Ice King from Adventure Time, even Team Rocket from Pokemon are thriving still. Good, menacing villains are great and all, but where’s the fun?

Honourable Mentions

Scorpiomon, who probably benefited the most from the dub’s style - his constant cried of “hey, stop it, come baaaack” while chasing Joe and Mimi are more remnicient of a kid trying to get his toy back from the bully who just took it away from him than someone trying to murder children, and that’s just fucking hilarious.

Mimi, when she was briefly an antagonist in that one episode. Just as I really like Heel-Face turns, I really like Face-Heel turns, even temporarily, and even as petty as this whole thing was. It was the perfect trap for her, who just craved the comfort of home, and who could be easily confinced to go for more. And it was the perfect trap because she was the jailor and the jailed at the same time, trapped as long as her own selfishness would allow. It was one of my favourite episodes.

Datamon, who had his own agenda and didn’t care that he was stepping on Etemon’s toes to get what he wanted. Just like Leomon and Ogremon had conflicting alliances on the protagonist’s side, Datamon and Etemon were opposing forces on the antagonist’s side, and multiple villains fighting each other are always fun to see.

Actually, Etemon later fought Puppetmon as Metaletemon, didn’t he? Wow, dude just doesn’t get along with other villains.

Gizamon. Give them more lines, you cowards.

The Dark Masters, as a whole. Just as Myotismon changed the entire tone of the show, these guys took the entire first half of the show and murdered every safe thing about it. They immediately started playing with the Digidestined, fully intending to off them all right then and there as a team. They were competent, for the most part - only failing when they were forced to split up, and their dirty tricks could be dismantled one by one. I’ve never seen a more co-operative group of antagonists, who never tried to dethrone each other and take everything for themselves.

And okay, sure, Kokatorimon. Purely for this.

Dishonourable Mention

Apocalymon.

Look, dude, I’m sorry, you’re cool and everything, but where the fuck did you come from? We killed Piedmon, it’s over, no, wait, here’s one last guy, no wait he’s dead, nevermind. What?

The fact that Apocalymon didn’t get any fanfare before being dropped on the Digidestined without warning made him seem like an afterthought, like the writers forgot their own endgame until they got there. Even if there had been a mention of the effect that caused his existence before he showed up - a “hey, did you know that not every Digimon survives Digivolution? Their data just gets deleted or something,” really would have helped, but even then. 

Apocalymon’s existence in the show really highlights how disjointed the series as a whole is - Devimon has no relation to Etemon, who has no relation to Myotismon, who has no relation to the Dark Masters, who have no relation to Apocalymon. The kids face a constant load of “okay, so we beat this guy and we can go home, right? ...no, maybe this guy??” where every new villain is dropped on the like a hot potato, making their first appearance in less time after their existence is revealed in less time than it takes to heat up said hot potato. Myotismon is the only one who gets any decent buildup before his first appearance before the children, and he’s often said to be the best villain of the show, so see how that works?

Digimon Adventure is the story of a bunch of kids who were brought to the Digital World to take care of one guy, and hey, while you’re here, we’ve also got some sort of demon on this island causing trouble, and there’s this monkey threatening us, and also a vampire, and then these four have joined together... It was a fun adventure, and I love that it could be part of my childhood and my life, but wow it really needed a more cohesive throughline for the story.

I hate to leave this post on a negative note, because it was full of mostly nice things, so here’s another picture of the bastard orb.

Hahahaha, oh you silly little man.

[ashiversary]

Adaptability

Adaptability:

1. A pokemon ability that increases the power of moves of the same type as the user. Common species with this ability include porygon, basculin and eevee.

2. The ability to acclimatise efficiently and fast to changed circumstances

◊

The umbreon tent at the Opal City Eevee And Evolutions Event is a good place to be, Go thinks, even though it’s early. The darkness means it’s refreshingly cool compared to outside, the ‘dark night’ coffees sold by the door are both delicious and immensely caffeinated, and the newly-evolved Instinct umbreons are sleeping (for once) in relative silence. It’s so early, in fact, that there’s only one other guest in this row. They’re pretty short, with red hair, lots of piercings and wait a minute-

“Uh, Amelie?”

Her eye flicks briefly towards him.

“Hello, Go.”

Oh. Great. He turns to look at what she’s eyeing.

It’s a good specimen from a show perspective, Go can tell. The eyes are bright and cheri-red, the coat ink-black and glossy, and the thick gold bands from evolving under a full harvest moon have a soft but powerful glow. It’s a pretty attractive pokemon for a team who deal in stolen goods, so Go braces for a knee to the stomach and hopes someone will call for security before he hits the ground.

When a minute has passed with no attack he dares to crack an eye open to look at her.

“Picking good ones to steal later? They’re all tagged and chipped you know-”

“No.”

“Planning to steal the prize money?”

“Not really.”

“Then why are you here at an eevee convention?”

She fixes him with a look and- oh.

He’s suddenly very glad Spark stayed behind. Arceus only knows the carnage that would result from him, her boss and hundreds of eevee all in the same place.

Anyway, Go, focus.

There’s no members of the public admitted right now, but there’s still a handful of breeders primping their umbreons before the gates open, and although he’s got over a foot of height on her Go doesn’t think for a minute that’ll stop him from being handed his ass if things get dicey. (Amelie did focus solely on his uninjured side when they met after the last big fight though, so that was… thoughtful? Less brutal than the majority of Rocket?)

The point is, it’s early, there’s no high-level trainers anywhere nearby and a member of Team Rocket is next to him at an Eevee Exhibition. So what should he do?

Go shrugs.

“Want to get breakfast?”

“So,” Amelie asks when they’re sat near a food stand fifteen minutes later, “Why are you here?”

He shrugs, chasing the last pieces of tamato berry around the tray.

“Some of the special entrants in the main exhibition are from Instinct Hatcheries, like that flying-type eeveelution, the dual-type vaporeon and, uh… Dumpling the shiny kit? Do you know about him?”

She nods and - wait, of course she’ll know about Dumpling, given who her boss is. Go’s certain that despite the frequent recorded visits from Mystic One on file at the kit’s hatchery, Leader Blanche themself has never actually set foot in the place.

He continues, regardless. “Because of the ties Instinct have with a lot of the organizers, we- as in, high-ranking Instinct Trainers – got special passes for the event.”

Go’s not entirely sure why he got one, really. Okay, yes, his name is down on paper as Instinct Two, but he’ll be the first to admit that compared to any of Spark’s Elite Four he’s way behind. Why is he here again?

He’s always been good at rolling with the punches, though, literal or otherwise. He’s adaptable.

(In this job, with his boss, you need to be. Otherwise you just might not survive.)

◊

The theory goes:

A standard, purebred eevee with no external influences will evolve in accordance with its environment - one who lives wild by a lake and hunts for food in the water will tend towards vaporeon, habitats of warm homes as cherished pets create sylveon, those raised on spiritual sites or alongside psychics evolve into espeon (and everyone knows not to leave kits near the psychic Gym Leader of Saffron City unless, for whatever reason, you want a rambunctious feline unable to manage its considerable newfound strength back right after).

Even amongst the same species there are further physiological variations. The rare wild leafeon studied in arctic tundra environments have stubby near-black leaves with a waxy finish, slow metabolisms, and a secondary ice-typing. Amongst professional breeders and co-ordinators different leafeon with unusual foliage, such as delicate ornamental leaves or chubby cacti greenery, are a hit. The reigning Kalos Queen making an appearance even has an exquisite rose leafeon as her signature companion - far too finicky for the average trainer, too fragile for regular battling. And yet, much like a wild eevee and its evolution, it’s perfectly adapted for its current environment. 

(Go figure, Go thinks as he takes a high-speed rose to the face at the front of the crowd, Amelie looking suspiciously like she’s trying to hide a smile).

But the environment is only half the puzzle. If exposed to a standard water stone, a wild eevee will undergo rapid evolution into what most would consider a ‘classic’ vaporeon – neck frill, aqua blue colouring, finned tail - even if its habitat is a frozen plain or an electrified cave.

So, as Annie had explained to him over one of the few dinners Spark or Zapdos (is there a difference, really?) hadn’t been able to crash and burn, the leading theory is that the eevee ignores its previous adaptations and rapidly adjusts in order to cope with a sudden influx of energy the stone contains - similar to how other species can go years with no sign of pending evolution but then once exposed to the right conditions, boom, a distressed golem is now stuck in your bathroom. 

“Look,” she’d said, dragging out a tablet from her purse, “The main idea is the stone itself is a strong energy source – the eevee suddenly adapts to this exposure and the energy drives the evolution to completion in seconds, but because most of these stones are similar in chemical composition the final vaporeons are also pretty identical.”

Huh, he’d thought, so that’d been why Mystic had requested a large number of eevee kits a few months before, and why so many of their high-rank trainers had similar vaporeons on their teams now. He’d assumed it was just for the team aesthetic, really, but they must have been adopted out once the research programme had wrapped up.

Annie had continued, nearly knocking over her glass as she’d gestured at the screen.

“But then we’ve got to consider that items such as Razor Fangs and Claws are similar energy sources, or possibly catalysts. We now know certain stones and trading systems count as an energy source because of the thermodynamic profiles, but how does that link to items such as Reaper Cloths? Wild dusknoir and escavalier have to come from somewhere, Go!”

It had been interesting when he’d read over it later, after walking her home – or at least, back to Mystic HQ. Aside from cases such as nidorina and nidoqueen, Instinct typically ignore the evolution status of the pokemon used for breeding to focus mostly on IVs and moves, so browsing Annie’s notes had helped show a whole new side of the story, and they’re a lot easier for a novice to read than Leader Blanche’s, that’s for sure.

There was something similar to this topic in one of his college classes actually - a certain level of energy is required to allow a reaction to occur, catalysts open up different reaction pathways with lower energy requirements, if energy isn’t available from an external source then internal energy will be used instead, and so on. Currently known sources, according to Mystic research, include electromagnetic waves during trading, certain geological features, and – if the ongoing research on eevees is any indication - evolutionary stones as well. So now Annie’s research involves looking at possible wavelengths emitted, triggering the use certain items and further analysis of evolutionary stones. (He winces on Professor Willow’s behalf. Those items aren’t cheap, after all, and Go may no longer a completely-broke student but he won’t be casually dropping ₽10,000 on a stone that will never be anything but powder for a lab experiment.)

Annie always looks so animated when she talks about her research with Mystic One. Guess it helps to have a Team Leader who you really care for.

(Then again Spark, at least, doesn’t need constant reminders to eat or sleep.)

Speaking of which…

“Uh… Leader Blanche and Annie are supposed to be here today. Could you and your boss maybe not blow up the exhibition while we’re all here? Or start a fight? Or steal anything”

Amelie doesn’t even look up from the stall she’s examining. Out of all the locations to spend the morning at, personally Go wouldn’t have picked the shopping village – it’s not even ten in the morning now and it’s already a struggle to get through the crowds. Amelie, however, is both determined and terrifying - so here they are. 

“Mystic One is currently at their headquarters having overslept. Mystic Two is with them.”

Well that’s not at all creepy.

“How do you know that?” He demands.

“Carl told me.”

“Carl, as in-”

That stuck-up dick? is what Go wants to say, but his mouth finishes, “-Valor Two?”

“Yes. We’re acquainted.”

Typical. All said stuck-up dick apparently needs to drop the snobbish attitude, even for someone like Team Rocket, is a terrifying attitude and an above-average bra size. 

(That’s probably unfair, he reflects. There’s one key reason why the two of them will never get along and it’s five-foot-ten, host to a lightning titan and drinks Go’s milk straight from the carton.)

“It’s in everyone’s best interest for there to be no fighting today, don’t you agree? Three of each, please.” Amelie directs the last part at the hovering sales assistant, guarding the stock with the tenacity of a stoutland and the attitude of a houndoom.

Honestly, Go thinks, simultaneously watching the assistant bag all the items and trying to read the labels upside-down at the same time as they’re packed, Carl and Amelie knowing each other well isn’t a bad thing. Especially given the animosity between her boss and Leader Candela - and their combined talents at causing significant property damage.

“Limited Edition Eevee Family… are these socks?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

 “You came all the way to a massive eevee exhibition… to buy yourself socks?”

He looks back at the packaging, the front home to a model in frills sporting sylveon thigh-highs and not much else.

Don’t think about her wearing them, don’t think about her wearing them-

Too late. It’s an amazing image though.

“They’re not for me. I’m here to get them for someone who couldn’t make it.” Amelie says, like she can read minds. Or maybe it was pretty obvious what he was (completely involuntarily!) thinking of.

Hang on, given that there’s one person he knows of who can make Amelie get up at the crack of dawn and wears eevee paraphernalia obsessively…

“So… your boss isn’t here today?”

There’s an unnaturally long pause.

“No,” Amelie finally says. It’s hard to tell with someone as serious as her but for a moment, Go thinks, it looks like she wants to say something more. “No, they’re not.”

“So you did come all this way just for socks?”

She shrugs.

“Lief is also thinking about breeding an eevee-cross meowth at some point, so he’s looking at possible studs as well.”

“Lief?”

“You’ve met him. Green hair, crossbred persians, kicked you in the face last month at the pier?”

Oh yeah, he remembers now. He really needs to try and run into people who are less violent, he thinks.

Amelie takes her receipt and turns to face him. “I’ll see you around, Go.”

“Uh, is it bad if I hope that’s not any time soon?”

He gets a whole smile for that.

[exspiravited-a]

Worldbuilding: Sinnoh’s Energy and Cleanliness

Sinnoh is a beautiful region full of many breathtaking sights. From the sprawling mountain range that cleaves the region in two, to the many lakes dotting the landscape, there’s certainly a lot to look at and take in. 

Illegal Dumping & Littering

Both of these are taken very seriously in the Sinnoh region. All of the cities and landscapes are pristine, with hardly a scrap of trash to be seen even in the most lively and bustling city in the region. Fines for illegally dumping trash are huge, netting fines of up to ₽1,620,000 (keep in mind pokedollars are based on yen, and this number equates to around 15,000 USD). Illegal garbage dumping hurts the wildlife of the region, the aquatic life, and can even contaminate the soil if chemicals are present. 

Littering is a less costly fine, but a fine all the same if you’re caught doing it. Being caught littering can net a fine of ₽54,000 (500 USD). While littering is very frowned upon, there are ways people can reduce the money they owe, unlike with illegal dumping. Those who have been caught littering and have been served a fine can spend ten hours a week picking up garbage (not that there’s much to really pick up with to begin with), or volunteering to sorting recyclable material. The original fine of ₽54,000 can be reduced to as low as ₽16,000 (150 USD). Those who have been caught and choose to volunteer in order to reduce their fines are rarely repeat offenders. Not many people in Sinnoh treat their region so carelessly by tossing trash about, but it does happen in rare instances.

Recycle Program & Plastic

Recycling is huge in the Sinnoh region. There are receptacles on just about every block in any major city, allowing people to bring their paper, plastic, glass, etc. so it can be reused and repurposed into something else. Even small towns have quite a few recycling receptacles around, giving an ease of access to everyone.  

Sinnoh has begun the process of phasing out plastics entirely, along with styrofoam. Grocers have begun to use paper bags, and some even have a reusable bag incentive; they put items in reusable bags, and the customer can bring them back at any time and receive ₽10 per bag (about a dime in US currency). The reusable bags themselves are manufactured with recycled material, and are very cheap to make. The goal is to have plastic and styrofoam fully phased out of the region by early 2021.

Oreburgh Mine

Oreburg City is the only city in the region powered by coal. Admittedly, it’s something that some of the other towns do frown upon, but the mines provide a job and livelihood for a lot of the people living there. With the invention of CO2 towers in 2017, Oreburgh has made it a point to have these towers constructed in the city and around the mines. The CO2 towers pull in carbon dioxide and filters it, purifying the air and getting rid of the harmful pollutants. Oreburgh’s air quality has increased dramatically over the past two years thanks to these towers.

Wind Power

Valley Windworks is the leading producer of wind energy in the entire Sinnoh region. They’ve been an established company since the early 1900′s, using older wind turbines to provide power. As technology grew and changed, so did the turbines and the power output they could produce. The turbines around their main building can easily provide them with power, along with Floaroma Town, Eterna City, and Jubilife City. These wind turbines are placed in strategic places along the base of Mount Coronet. The sheering winds that roll off the mountains are very good for the turbines. 

Valley Windworks has expanded their turbine placements to the west side of the mountains as well, providing Celestic Town, Solaceon Town, and Hearthome City with clean, renewable energy. 

Water Power

Hydroelectric power has been a staple of Sinnoh since the early 1900′s as well, with water wheels turning and providing power along the rivers. With more modern technology, the power of the waves has been harnessed to provide the coastal cities with energy. Canalave and Snowpoint both use hydroelectric power to provide the people with electricity, and Sunyshore has set up their own hydroelectric system as well, sharing excess energy with Veilstone City. Because Twinleaf and Sandgem are such small towns, Canalave often shares this hydroelectric energy with them as well.

Solar Power

Sunyshore is the most well-known city for solar power, as they get more hours of sunlight on average than any other city in the region. The entire city underwent a remodel in the 1950′s, when solar panels began to be put into use. The remodel added the famous walkways in the city, allowing for much more space for homes and other buildings. These solar panels, of course, were changed out in more recent years for newer ones. 

The Battle Zone is also powered with solar energy, along with hydroelectric power from the ocean. 

Snow Power?

Researches in Snowpoint have recently discovered a way to harness power from snow. Thanks to snow carrying positive electrons and giving them away freely, scientists have produced a material with a negative charge. Once snow comes into contact with said material, it gathers the charge and turns it into electricity. This is still under test and trial, but snow power would be great for almost all of the region, considering how often it snows in the winter.

Misc.

All of the cities in the Sinnoh region are known as dark-sky cities. This means there’s ordinances and laws established on lighting fixtures, both for companies and citizens. That’s not to say having lights is illegal, there are just specific codes for lights. The wattage of the bulb has to be below a certain amount (60W), and the sides of the light must be shielded. This means that the top and sides of the light must be covered, with only light shining downwards. Each city stays within a range of 50,000 - 100,000 lumens per acre. Bright neon lights on skyscrapers (in applicable cities) are to be off by 9PM, while residents can have their outdoor lights on up until 11PM, provided that they’re properly shielded. Streetlights generally stay on all night until sunrise.

The crackdown on light pollution started as early as the 1960′s, with each city making an effort to reduce the light pollution they were giving off. When people got a clear look at the night sky, seeing the stars and the Milky Way that Palkia was said to weave, everyone had a great appreciation for seeing the full night sky without any harsh city lights. Not only that, but reducing the glare from light fixtures helps prevent pokemon (especially bug-types) from getting confused along with plants, and it reduces the overall energy use across the entire region. You can look up at the sky in any city and see the Milky Way.

Billboards and other similar structures are kept under strict codes as well, along with tall buildings. The mountain range provides a grand view from anywhere in the region, and tall buildings and billboards only interfere with this view. 

Public transportation is highly encouraged, with bus fares being relatively cheap compared to other regions. The buses are electric, powered with batteries. They produce zero emission, and each bus has its battery checked on every other month. The buses are kept in a giant, heated garage, so the batteries will still function even in the harsh winter.

Car manufacturers are working on figuring out ways to make electric cars more efficient in the winter time, since cold weather can reduce the range of these cars by up to 40 percent. Gas-powered cars are being phased out of the market, with manufacturers pledging to produce full electric vehicles by 2023. The discovery of snow power by Snowpoint scientists is sure to give a good push to the electric car market. Until then, many larger cities have charging stations all over. Other than that, people will bike or use their pokemon for travel.

Sinnoh is the leading region in renewable, clean energy, smashing previous clean energy goals every year. The air is very clean, along with the water, and Sinnohians take great pride in their region. Keeping it clean is a region-wide effort, and it’s something that really does bring the people together. 

[mgrgfan]

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 4. Breaking the blockade.

"Finally," said the Emperor, looking at the monumental machine, placed in the largest temporary sort-of-a-VAB built so far. "Finally! FINALLY!!!" Officers, which were standing not too far away from this genius, but a crazy one at that, exchanged looks of understanding. After all, this was his dream made real, even if forced to be remade for destruction… and protection. The ship itself - the first real, atomic explo-flyer, envisioned long ago, but built only recently - was truly a masterpiece of technology. Massing 4000 tons fully loaded, equipped with the most advanced sensors, protected by the arcanotech-enhanced composite armor, armed with railguns, howitzers, rotary cannons, space combat missiles and retro-missiles for planetary bombardment, this was the most powerful warmachine of the Soris Empire... so far. The nuclear fission reactor of this ship was built with inclusions of components from the reactor of Space Lab 2, as a way to drive the point of revenge and attract the blessing from the Red Spirit (though barely anyone believed in this one). After all, according to the mythology, this spirit gave its blessing to anyone, who was fighting to avenge the fallen comrades. Right now, the giant rocket was quietly sitting on the launchpad (built specifically for it) and receiving final checks. The first stage - the NUCLEUS booster - had simple, but pretty efficient chemfuel engines, which used liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. A titanic tank of fuel in center of rocket, a sectionalized torus-like oxidizer tank around it, a monstrous plug-cluster aerospike engine right in the middle of bottom and several blocks of control engines near the edges - all of that could lift two thousand tons to orbit just by itself and then safely come back and land. However, that was not needed - it only needed to raise the payload roughly halfway to the space... The payload - the first manned interplanetary spaceship in the history of the world, remade into first space warship - had the nuclear pulse engine. When the separation happens, the shock absorbers, collapsed for the duration of the first phase of launch to make the rocket more compact, will first extend to full length, then the shaped-blast charge will be launched from gas gun between them and fly through the trapdoor in the pusher plate, before exploding and launching a wave of superheated nuclear plasma, which will impact the plate, protected by the layer of graphite, and transfer the momentum to the ship through two stages of shock absorbers. Then the auto-sprayers will apply the new layer of graphite, the new bomb will be launched and explode, and then it will repeat again and again... "Comrades, I think those nine months of accelerated work weren't for naught!" the Emperor finally stopped laughing like maniac and got himself together. "Prepare to remove the building shell. Prepare to fuel the NUCLEUS booster. All cosmonauts - prepare to board the ship. Begin the launch countdown." "Aye-aye, Your Majesty. Countdown begins, T-72 hours and counting. Beginning the launch pad preparations. Beginning the VAB final disassembly." Most of the stuff in the giant building was already removed in the preparation for launch. Now, the only thing they've needed to do was to activate fast-disassembly mechanisms, which will safely collapse the roof and walls outwards, without damaging the launch pad and the monstrous ship on it. ---- Empress knew, that her husband was crazy. She knew, that this launch can - and, likely, will - worsen the already-far-from-good terms, on which the Soris Empire now was with the Pokemon Nation (culture clash did not help, especially with the whole thing about decent amounts of nationals worshipping Legendaries and Mythicals). She knew, that Nation can see it as an act of war. But for some strange reason, she was nearly as excited to see this launch, as her husband was. Or, actually, like the most of sorisians will be very, very soon, when the "Red Explorer" gets finally unveiled. After all, her internal political campaign about honoring the memory of 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2 really helped. The sheer growth of the metal processing and nuclear, chemical, arcanotechnological and many other industries, amongst other developments… it was wonderful. Besides, this launch, should the ship survive the upcoming battle, will majorly lift her support. Even after all those years (The Shift not included), "Bread And Shows" still worked great time - both for the Soris Empire (some parts of the space program, along with most entertainment) and Pokemon Nation (League and Contests). And if the Nation decides to try to attack them… well, that's what for the ship has several "Lightning" retro-missiles with city-buster warheads! ---- "Look at this," said one of the operators in the Mossdeep Space Center, showing the director, who was walking nearby, transmission from the kantonian research plane, which was flying near the Soris. Right now, the biggest building in the complex of Zemlino Space Center has just… fallen apart, slightly reminding them of a flower, and revealed a giant rocket inside. This rocket was roughly comparable to those, which Pokemon Nation used for the Moon missions… except much, much thicker. "Are you even sure, that this is a rocket?" wondered director. "It's so huge… How would it even take off?" "No idea," replied the operator. "I suggest we get some Cornn Berries and watch the fireworks, when the Rayquaza destroys this thing!" "Be careful with your words!" notified him superior, then quietly added, "I agree. If they didn't get yet, that as soon as it flies to strato - it dies, then we can have some good views. Though I wonder, what they are overcompensating for…" ---- "T-10 minutes and counting," announced one of the operators in Zemlino. After several very hard days of final workings and pre-flight checks, the "Red Explorer" was finally preparing to leave the ground. The nuclear reactor of the ship was now working at minimal capacity, cooling through external loop, the NUCLEUS booster was checking the thrust vectoring and aerodynamic control surfaces, the cosmonauts were getting more comfortable in their chairs… The final launch poll resulted in "go" and now there was only one way - the way up. ---- "… Seventeen, sixteen, water suppression system online, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, we have ignition, four, three, two, all engines are running!" reported the announcer. "Liftoff! We have a liftoff, thirty-two minutes past the hour, liftoff on "Red Explorer"!" With a horrifying roar, the giant rocket started to slowly, but surely rise above the launchpad and accelerate, shock diamonds visible in the exhaust flames of working plug-cluster aerospike engine, rest of the launchpad clouded in steam, created by evaporating water from the water suppression system. "Tower cleared!" happily screamed Emperor Ivan the Second, tearing the microphone from the hands of announcer, when the giant machine passed the tower - the last remain of VAB's scaffolding. "T plus ten seconds, tower cleared, speed increasing as planned! The roar is terrific! The building is shaking! Look at that beauty go!" People, who were in this room, saw the Emperor going flat-out childish, jumping around while laughing like a madman and crying tears of joy. The last time he was like that was during the launch of Imperial Moon Mission on the Water Dragon rocket. ---- "Holy crap," mumbled one of the telescope operators in the Mossdeep Space Center. "Josh - do you see what I see?" "If you're about the unreasonably giant rocket finally going up - yep, I do. Honestly, what in the name of Ray… sorry, but still, what is this thing?" "No idea." Image from kantonian observatory was quickly routed to the main screen, allowing everyone to have a nice view on the rocket. Finally, the main engine in the first stage has gone silent. "The stages separate… Wait, what? The first stage is actively decelerating, and the second… What it this? I don't even…" The second stage indeed looked weirdly. Instead of the usual great bell of the rocket engine or the cluster of smaller engines, there was a thick plate with some kind of a tube in the middle of it, installed on several shock absorbers, a cone between the shock absorbers - and that's all. On the screen, suddenly, something was launched from the cone, flew through the plate, and… "Feed from O7 is dark. No idea, what the Reverse World was that, but the telescope's matrix is dead." "Routing the SolOb6 to screen… Arceus the Original One, what the frak?" "..." entire room got speechless, as the telescope camera, designed for studying the Sun, showed ship steadily accelerating on what seemed to be huge explosions - probably, nuclear in nature. Thick plate (which, for some reason, was varying in thickness as the explosions were going - probably, serving as an another shock absorber) and long piston-based shock absorbers served well to protect the giant ship from explosions and soften the acceleration. Blast after blast, the giant ship was surely rising higher and higher... ---- "Separation commencing," reported the pilot, looking at the screen, which displayed the data of active autopilot. "Separation complete. Booster is out of the danger zone. Initiating nuclear pulse propulsion. Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing." Entire ship shook, when the drive bomb, launched from the gas gun, detonated behind the ship's aft. Wave of superhot tungsten plasma, along with aerial overpressure wave, struck the plate, but thin layer of graphite worked well, ablating, but protecting the arcane-enhanced steel alloy underneath from getting damaged. Under normal conditions, the sheer acceleration would've instantly killed the cosmonauts and collapsed the hull of the ship. However, thanks to the gas bags right behind the plate and heavy, two-staged hydropneumatic shock absorbers, the fraction of second of acceleration got elongated, proportionally lowering the loads on the machine and men inside it. Milliseconds after the plasma from the detonation of the drive bomb dispersed, auto-sprayers deployed themselves and created a new layer of graphite on the plate, then retracted back, right before the new bomb was launched and exploded. And then it repeated again, and again, and again, and again... ---- "So, if I'm understanding even remotely right, the first and, so far, only launch table for ultra-heavy rockets got destroyed by the exhaust?" Empress Svetlana asked her husband. "Yep," replied Ivan in surprisingly jolly voice. "Launch Table ST-1 has partially melted now due to insufficient power of water suppression system, but the ship is in space and there is barely any radiation trail in the atmosphere! By the way, launch stage recovered successfully." "That's good to know, but still, we've lost our only launch table for this kind of rockets and it'll take a long time to repair it." "I know. It's not like the Sea Launch Platform was an option for us at that time, though…" "On the topic of the sea launch - are you planning to use the Water Dragon rocket for building the replacement space station, since the Space Lab Two was destroyed by the Rayquaza? I've seen some suspicious increases in funding…" "Yep. The NUCLEUS rocket will remain for launching explo-flyers mostly, while the Water Dragons take lesser operations. One of them is getting prepared right now for launching the supply block to the "Red Explorer", when it gets to the orbit." "Uh-huh. And what about your spaceplane project?" "The Project BLUEBIRD? So far, so good, tests of the final version should begin in a week or so. I must admit, the hypersonic hybrid air-breathing nuclear rocket engines are still somewhat problematic, but we are very close to ironing those problems out." "Range?" "Unmanned - all the way to the Red Planet. Manned - to the Moon in a reasonable amount of time." "Docking to the "Red Explorer"?" "Possible through the expandable top adapter, but the spaceplane won't be able to fit into the docking bay." ---- "We are on the action orbit now, comrade captain," said pilot, getting himself more comfortable in the acceleration chair. "Drive bomb magazines and propellant storages for the reaction control system are at optimal level after orbital injection, we can go to the Moon and back on those reserves in just a day!" "Nuclear ordinance for anti-space engagements and planetary bombardment is nominal, awaiting codes and targets," reported weapons operator, scrolling through the lists and making some mental notes. "Point defense rotary cannons ready, main caliber railguns ready, Lance Howitzers ready." "Targeting telescopes nominal, thermal scopes nominal, radars nominal," sounded the report from the sensors operator, who was already switching through the feeds, monitoring the surroundings. "Radiators deployed, cooling system nominal, reactor nominal," said the engineer, feeling proud of his participation in creating power plant of this ship. "Shock absorbers are fine, pusher plate is fine, drive bomb launcher, graphite sprayers and plasma deflection cone are fine, RCS nominal. Oh, nearly forgot - life support is also nominal and will be in this condition for at least a year. We'll run out of food much earlier. And landers, along with space workpods, are also fine and ready." "All comm systems are ready and tuned," added the comm officer, fiddling with headset, then suddenly turning pale. "Uh-oh. Comrade captain, FCC just told us, that Rayquaza is exiting the atmo and will engage us in few minutes, arrives from the east." "Then all hands to battle stations!" ordered captain, feeling shivers. Of course, their ship was the technologies of tomorrow embodied, a state-of-art space warship, armed with the most advanced, yet reliable and efficient weaponry Empire has created, but their opponent was no less than the Sky High Pokemon itself, who was once considered by less developed humans to be god of the skies and even now, it remained a great force to be reckoned with. However, this battle was a decisive one. There can be only one winner… and all of the humans aboard the "Red Explorer" will do their best to make sure, that the Rayquaza won't be it. "Aye-aye, comrade captain! Retracting the radiators, reactor output set to combat levels," reported the engineer, trying to keep his confidence in the great machine. "Railguns and point defence are deployed, the capacitors are charging up, anti-space missiles are armed, Lance Howitzers are loaded," calmly stated the weapons officer. Among the fellow crew members, he was the calmest and most confident one - mainly because dozens of nuclear missiles and howitzer-launched shaped-blast bombs, along with electromagnetic railguns (with nuclear and canister shots) and rotary cannons, were now under his control. "RCS and bomb drive are ready," said the somewhat unnerved, but slightly cocky pilot. The drive bomb counter and RCS propellant storages indicators told him, that the battle can go on for a decent amount of time - the NUCLEUS chemfuel booster allowed them to save a lot of bombs during the ascent. "Radars located bandit retrograde-breaking the atmo west and a little south, but no definitive lock so…" began the sensor operator, suppressing his nervousness with deep focus on work. Calling the Rayquaza "bandit" helped all of the officers to distance themselves from the fact, that they were fighting an actual Legendary now. "Yeah, telescopes acquired it! Locked on!" "SCMs away, 3 "Firestorms", 4 "Firelances"!" nearly screamed weapons operator, pressing the launch trigger. On the ship's hull, several round armored hatches opened, revealing missile silos. Right after it, seven of the streamlined machines of death were ejected by small explosive charges, turned around and engaged their solid-fuel engines, accelerating at 100 g and doing their best to track and intercept the designated target. Even with remote guidance from the ship, sensors of which were far superior to those, which could be installed on space combat missiles, it was not an easy task. The Sky High Pokemon, seeing several dots leave the more massive target, started to perform the evasion maneuver, as uneasy as it was during the already-ongoing Dragon Ascent. It was a wise decision and, probably, would've helped… were it not for the missiles with Lance warheads. When four of the missiles, armed with shaped-blast charges, reached the optimal distance, the "Red Explorer" sent a very simple command to them - "detonate". Under normal circumstances, this command would have served only for performing self-destruct… but the circumstances now were anything but normal. The small stars of exploding 10kt thermonuclear warheads grew for a split-second in space. It would've been a nearly-harmless firework for the Rayquaza… but, unfortunately for it, for each of the "stars", more than 80% of the thermonuclear power got channeled and concentrated onto a small tungsten disk. Even this metal could not withstand such a magnitude of energy, so, it turned into plasma and, shaped and accelerated by the still undergoing fury of the fusion reaction into a tight stream, flew in the desired direction at the recognizable fraction of the speed of light. Four jets of very hot relativistic plasma impacted Rayquaza. Even with the energy of Dragon Ascent surrounding the Legendary, it still hurt major time… and then the rest of the missiles came. When the Sky High Pokemon was distracted with the pain from the nuclear lances, warship directed the last three small machines of destruction to come in-close and detonate the neutron warheads. Even though the effects of fireballs were negligible (as it was with most of the nuclear detonations in space), the neutron flux from explosions was pretty decent, especially with overlapping irradiation areas. Now that the Rayquaza's body was irradiated like this, the combat capability of this Legendary will be lowering and lowering as the time goes, until the radiation poisoning takes the max effect and turns it into the agonizing wreck, before the death finally comes. As a nice bonus, those explosions have also caused enough of a shock to the Rayquaza to cancel out the Dragon Ascent. "All hits scored. I think the battle has started pretty good, comrade captain," cheerfully reported the weapons operator. "Don't get too cocky," warned them all commander of this ship, silently reminding, that they were still fighting a being of incredible power, which held the atmospheric and orbital superiority undisputed for who-knows-how-many years, only occasionally leaving its position and allowing a few travels up there. "Bandit has recovered from the shock and prepares to use the Hyper Beam," grimly stated the sensors operator. "Acknowledged, stand by for rotation. RCS now firing," warned everyone the pilot, slightly smiling to himself. The relatively small attitude control jets expelled streams of superhot hydrogen, turning the massive ship around. The Hyper Beam is a powerful move. Really powerful. But it has some drawbacks - the first one being exhausting user and forcing it to spend some time recovering and the second being relatively low velocity of the energy beam itself. The space is big. Really big. Even in low Earth orbit, dozens of kilometers are still considered pretty small distances. Between Rayquaza firing the Hyper Beam and it getting to the "Red Explorer", a pretty long time has passed. Long enough for the ship to turn and take the stream of destruction not the nose- or side-first, but on the pusher plate, built to withstand close nuclear explosions and covered by ablative layer of graphite. "Attack over, no damage to drive. Graphite layer restored. Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing," reported pilot, smiling even wider. Wham. Wham. Wham. Only the crew of the ship, who got pressed into acceleration chairs upon the drive's operation, heard those sounds, as the vessel began to change its trajectory. "Railguns charged, #2 locked on, "Firecracker" loaded. Firing," said the weapons officer with a slight smirk, as he pressed the trigger. Deep inside the ship, a one of three groups of electric capacitors of tremendous, well, capacity, already charged by the energy from ship's nuclear power plant, discharged all at once, transferring the power to the two parallel rails of one of the simplest electrodynamic mass drivers. The railgun spat out a projectile with barely any fireworks (save for plasmified remains of launch assist armature). In the vacuum of space, there wasn't even a characteristic "crack" of sonic boom… and the projectile experienced no aerodynamic drag, keeping the velocity at constant level with no need for active propulsion. And since this velocity equaled more than 2503 meters per second, and the projectile carried a small nuclear warhead… ---- ""Red Explorer" is firing "Thunderlance" railgun, "Firecracker" 1kt nuclear shell"- emotionlessly said one of the operators in the Zemlino's FCC. "Hostile Rayquaza's biological armor is being damaged." "Is she always like this?" whispered Emperor to the FCC's director. "Sometimes." "Huh. You know, I'm still unpleased, that we weren't able to make guidance system being capable of directing more than seven space combat missiles and two howitzer charges at once before the ship was launched…" ---- "Bandit is temporarily inoperable, trajectory - full retrograde orbital, roughly similar to ours," reported the sensors operator. "The respite will be brief, assume re-intercept in 45 minutes." "Acknowledged," said the engineer. "Deploying the radiators, beginning cooling." Several small square hatches opened on the hull of the ship, allowing the thin metallic structures to unfold from them and start barely noticeably glowing dull-red, allowing the waste heat to leave the heat accumulators and prepare the machine for the new round of combat. Combat, which will need a lot of energy and leave a lot of waste heat. ---- The big digital timer above the main screens in the "rubber room" of the Zemlino Space Center ticked off the seconds since the launch of the "Red Explorer". When it passed half-hour, Emperor said, “Try it now.” He put on his own headset. Far outside of the armored launch bunker, across the entire Empire, both on the ground and on the sea ships, many giant parabolic antennas started turning around, trying to lock onto signature of the first space warship and establish connection. "Routing through the Grey Sea fleet… link established!" happily reported the comm operator. "Dancer, this is Pothouse, report!" said the Emperor, deciding to use codenames of both ship and flight control center for some reason. Sometimes, it was really hard to understand this man. "Pothouse, this is Dancer. No big scratches so far, re-intercepting bandit in five minutes or so. Radiators are now retracted, cooling is internal, preparing to launch SCMs." "Dancer, this is Pothouse, acknowledged. Be careful - bandit is likely to employ new tactics, don't let it hit the shock absorbers!" "Pothouse, this is Dancer, understood." "That's good. May the Red and Green Spirits bless you, guys!" "Thanks. Warning, bandit is in range, engaging!" The link cut off, as the ship resumed the combat. ---- "Go, Dragon Lord, blast this thing!" young Draconid cheered, looking at the TV screen. An hour or so ago, the live broadcast of telescope and radar surveillance of the Imperial warship started and, less than an hour ago, Rayquaza started the battle with it. So far, the battle was going… strange. The giant weaponized spaceship of the Soris Empire was constantly turning around, engaging her explosion drive from time to time and attempting to take beam and projectile attacks on the aft plate, which was more than capable of withstanding them without getting scratched, since the nuclear explosions were the primary method of propulsion for this ship. In addition to this, most weapons of this warship, as the TV commenter pointed out, were also using nuclear explosions to cause damage. Few Draconids knew about nuclear technology enough to understand full ramifications of it, but those, who did, were really worried. If the sorisians have harnessed the power of atom and truly mastered it, then even the mighty Lord Rayquaza was in danger. ---- "Bandit now re-engaging!" warned everyone sensors operator. "Ancient Power, two seconds!" "Incoming projectile attack," noted weaponry operator, who was obviously enjoying this battle. "Point defence firing… Attack neutralized. Seven "Firelances" away… Hits scored." "Warning, damage to the lander bay #2 armor!" reported engineer in somewhat worried voice, then eased up. "No penetration, no damage to contents." "Stand by for acceleration and rotation," said pilot in steel voice, while his eyes were burning with excitement of being among those, who fought the Rayquaza itself. "RCS and bomb drive now firing." Hiss. Hiss. Wham. Wham. Wham. Wham. The whole battle turned into series of reports and memorized actions, which happened a dozens of times on the ground simulator already, combined with sounds of propulsion and reaction control systems, weaponry and occasional hits to other places, than the pusher plate. Rayquaza was a formidable opponent… but the ship, originally intended for peaceful space exploration, then remade into warship, was designed to be capable to take on even the most powerful opponents and be victorious. Entire nuclear industry of Soris was recently redirected to supply the ship with enough propulsion bombs and weapons. Hundreds of millions were watching their battle right now. They've had no right to fail, lest the humanity forever become prisoners of this planet, with insanely territorial feral dragon ruling the skies and killing everyone, who dares to try to break free of gravity's hard embrace and turn their eyes towards the distant stars. Not to say anything about the Pokemon Nation, which, probably, will consider starting the war with Soris Empire, if the ship goes down, along with all the nuclear armament. "Bandit prepares Dra-Met, five seconds," noted the sensors operator, monitoring feeds from targeting telescopes, radars and thermal scopes at the same time. "Acknowledged, railguns charged, #1 locked on, "Dustbin" loaded. Firing…" half-reported, half-mumbled the weaponry operator, looking at his screens. "Draco Meteor dispersed and denied." Indeed, shooting a canister shell, loaded with tiny pellets of depleted uranium - byproduct of nuclear industry - right in the direction of Rayquaza's mouth was not a bad way to prevent the dangerous attack from being performed. As a nice bonus, several pellets hit eyes of the Legendary, causing it great pain and making it squirm. "Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing." Wham. Wham. Wham. ---- The old dragon was hurt. Really hurt. For thousands upon thousands of years, it ruled sky undisputed. It showed the inferior beings their places. Even the Eon Duos were rightfully afraid of it. A few… days? Weeks? Months? ago the Sky High Pokemon has destroyed the human constructions, which violated its territory. It thought, that this time, they'll learn, that higher skies and space are not meant for them… but they didn't. They've decided, that they can force their point. They've built a giant machine, far beyond any previous constructions. It wasn't like old ones, which were frail, sacrificing everything to save the weight - no, this one was huge and sturdy, capable of taking hits and unleashing inferno in return. More than just capable, in fact. The battle was going on for a several hours already, filled with constant flybys and intercepts, where the combatants did their best to injure the opponent as much as possible and don't get killed at the same time. The whole body of the Legendary was either in pain, like from fire (even though the dragon's body should've been resistant to it), or slowly going numb. The machine, however, was still kicking with no visible major problems and unleashing attacks like no tomorrow. In fact, for one of the combatants, there indeed will be no tomorrow. Someone will remain victorious and hold the control over skies, someone will be destroyed and burned upon re-entry. The old dragon prepared for the final, death-or-glory attack… and suddenly the entire world for it turned blinding-white for less than a split-second, before everything disappeared and the complete abyss came. ---- "All nine hits with Lances scored - seven SCMs, two Howitzers with "Matchsticks"." "Bandit… completely inoperable and will re-enter atmo in two hours," reported the shocked sensors operator. "Guys… did we just... win?" "I hope so," replied the engineer. "I really hope so, since the heat accumulators are nearing critical and if it goes on like this for another dozen minutes or so - it's either scramming the reactor, dumping a decent amount of our hydrogen for open-cycle cooling or deploying radiators mid-battle!" "Deploy the radiators," gave an order the captain. "Power down the weapon systems and retract the weapons. Set reactor output to non-combat level. Return the ship to patrol orbit. Activate the habitation centrifuge. Report to the ground… that we've secured this frontier and avenged the 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2. Red Spirit should be proud of us now." "Aye-aye, comrade captain!" replied all officers in unison, before the attitude control jets hissed again, the pulse engine thumped a few more times and commlink received happy screams from the FCC. Captain of the "Red Explorer" barely cared about all of that. He was just happy, that this battle ended with them as victors… and he also hoped, that, whatever this dragon was doing to keep the balance on this boulder, humans will be able to do just as fine. "Comrade captain, FCC congratulates us! They say, that, when we return to the ground, Emperor and Empress themselves will give us the Medal of Skies!" happily screamed the comm officer, who still could barely believe, that they've done what was considered to be next to impossible - they've successfully defeated the higher-grade Legendary! "Yeah? Okay then. And what shall we do now?" "... Emperor told me, that we should just… "Soar over space"? What does that mean?" "It means, pals, that we did fine and we can take a break. A well-deserved break. Tell the service team to start total damage evaluation and repair." Author's notes: Green Spirit - yet another mystical being in Sorisian mythology, which patrons those, who protect and help others. Launch configuration of the "Red Explorer" and the "Red Explorer" itself were based on the data about the Orion Battleship, gained from here. SCM-1 "Firestorm" - mid-range solid-chemfuel space combat missile with TD-ENF-10K-1 enhanced radiation thermonuclear warhead (a.k.a. "neutron warhead"), 10kt yield. Radio command guidance. SCM-2 "Firelance" - mid-range solid-chemfuel space combat missile with TD-SB-10K-1 shaped-blast thermonuclear warhead (a.k.a. "Lance warhead", based on the real Casaba Howitzer project), 10kt yield. Radio command guidance. PBRM-1 "Lightning" - planetary bombardment retro-missile with liquid-chemfuel engines, armed with TD-CB-25M-1 heavy "city buster" thermonuclear warhead, 25 megaton yield, or six TD-CB-1M-1 1mt yield "city buster" multiple independently targetable maneuverable reentry vehicles. Combined radio command/inertial/active terminal homing guidance. Lance Howitzer - simple auto-loading mortar for firing "Matchstick" shaped-blast thermonuclear warheads. STW-10K-1 "Matchstick" - shaped-blast 10kt thermonuclear warhead with basic radio command guidance system and some tiny attitude jets, launched from Lance Howitzer and detonated shortly after. ERMA-2-S "Thunderlance" - 127mm electromagnetic rail mass accelerator (a.k.a. "railgun"), adapted for space and capable of accelerating shells up to 2506 m/s. NRS-1K "Firecracker" - nuclear shell for the ERMA-2-S, 1kt yield. Contact/remote/timer detonation. CRS-3 "Dustbin" - canister shot for the ERMA-2-S, depleted uranium pellets. RC-6-20-S "Chestnut" - 6-barrelled 20mm rotary cannon, adapted for space and used in the PD-1-20-S "Sweeper" space-adapted point defence system.

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #1673: Black Kyurem EX (Boundaries Crossed)

It may seem strange, but the role of really powerful attacker that used Eelektrik support alongside another type of Energy had serious competition. You could just look at Rayquaza EX to see that. Black Kyurem EX tried to nudge in there with an attack that hit for 150 damage with no discarding, though discarding wasn’t a big deal when you had Eelektrik. Was there a catch? Of course there was. Said catch made the lack of discarding look almost pointless in comparison.

Black Kyurem EX had 180 HP, which was rather bulky and expected for a Pokemon EX. The Dragon Weakness could be a pain if up against Rayquaza EX in particular, though you’d also see rarer Dragon-types such as Garchomp every once in a while as well. One annoying thing Black Kyurem EX had to deal with was that Retreat Cost. You wanted some form of help to get around paying 3 Energy even though you did have Eelektrik around. All of the standard methods, from Switch to Float Stone to Keldeo EX, worked fine here as well.

Dragon Fang was pretty average. 60 damage for a Lightning and 2 Colorless Energy didn’t stand out at all. The flip for Paralysis could be cool but couldn’t be relied on and there were ways to play around it. So many ways, in fact, that there was a Pokemon that could guarantee Paralysis at the same time and even it failed to gain a ton of traction.

Freeze Shock hit like a truck. The price was high and awkward, at a Water, 2 Lightning, and a Colorless Energy, though Energy acceleration did exist and made it more reasonable. 150 damage was very impressive to say the least. The problem here was that Black Kyurem EX couldn’t attack at all during your next turn, so you used all that Energy and still had to switch out to another attacker right away. It was hard to get a good stream of attackers going with that taken into account, though the high damage was still really nice to have.

Black Kyurem EX might have been seen more often if it could attack more than once every other turn. As it was, Rayquaza EX was the far superior choice since it worked well with how Eelektrik could recycle all of those discarded Energy while enabling those huge attacks more efficiently. This was not the Black Kyurem EX to use; if wanting to use a Black Kyurem EX, you only had to wait for one more set for a version that worked well with Blastoise.

[the-depressed-shiny-buneary]

Family Members: Amber Wataru

Amber is the daughter of Lance and Yellow Wataru. She’s Ash and Silver’s cousin and Ashley’s, Sachihiro’s, Sachi’s, Grey’s and Katri’s second cousin. She was born near Viridian forest like her parents and gained special abilities like they did. Amber inherited Yellow’s childlike nature, which is why she has her hair in pigtails. However, like her mother, she can be serious when her family or her Pokemon are in danger. From her father, she inherited his sense of justice in keeping the world at peace as well as his independence and kindness to others. Amber likes to help anyone that needs it and will heal her Pokemon, family or her friends if they need healing. Amber works with the Pokemon G-Men being in the medical wing inside the Headquarters, Yellow travels to heal wild Pokemon and Lance saves Pokemon or stop small villainous team members. Amber takes her job seriously and will often have her Pokemon help her with certain duties.

Her main colors are pink, yellow and white. With pink, she’s nurturing, caring, and has unconditional love to those around her. Pink signifies good health, which fits as she’s often healing Pokemon or people if they need it. Pink also represents her childlike nature and how she’s naive as pink represents the sweetness and innocence of a child. She has a calming aura around her that will get others to stay calm around her, it also represents her affectionate side to her family and Pokemon. With yellow, she’s uplifting, cheerful and a fun person to be around but it also represents how she’s a clear thinker and helps others find a new way of doing something, she’s also optimistic and has a lot of knowledge about a lot of things. White represents her healing abilities as white is associated with medical practices to give a sense of cleanliness and efficiency as such Amber can be a bit of a neat freak and will always have her ‘workspace’ clean at all times.

Her abilities range from telekinesis, healing Pokemon and people, reading the emotions and memories of a Pokemon, boosting her Pokemon’s level if she needs to and being able to speak with Pokemon through telepathy.

Her Pokemon:

Clefairy- Amber found Clefairy injured and poisoned by some Poison-type Pokemon. Amber wasn’t sure what to do as she didn’t have a Pecha or Lum berry, so she picked up Clefairy and cradled her in her arms while trying to search for a Pecha or Lum berry. Not long after her search leads her to nothing, she saw that the Clefairy in her arms was healed, much to Amber’s confusion. Her parents then explained her abilities to heal Pokemon by touching them. Amber was surprised but was glad she was able to help Clefairy, she soon caught Clefairy and had her as her starter Pokemon. Clefairy is a sweet and helpful Pokemon that’s always skipping around wishing to be helpful to her trainer. She soon learned various moves to assist Amber with healing other Pokemon, she also helps with calming down angry Pokemon often acting like a moderator or an ambassador.

Caught in a Friend Ball.

Ability is Cute Charm. 

Moves are Disarming Voice, Metronome, Healing Wish, Psychic, Aromatherapy, Heal Pulse, Moonlight, Moonblast, Flamethrower, and Misty Terrain.

Munchlax- Amber found Munchlax passed out from hunger and gave him some food so he can get better. Once he did he gave Amber a hug and would follow her around, she wasn’t sure if he wanted more food and soon she just caught him. Munchlax is rather lazy and a glutton, much like any Munchlax but he’s still a good Pokemon. Because of his ability Pickup, he’s able to find things off the ground and store them in his fur and at times he’ll have exactly what Amber needs should she be in the middle of something. Also because of his sense of smell, he’s able to pick up food that’s the freshest as well and because he doesn’t care about spoiled food nor can he get sick from eating spoiled food, he can simply eat the spoiled food.

Caught in a Heavy Ball.

Ability is Pickup.

Moves are Metronome, Defense Curl, Rollout, Stockpile, Swallow, Fling, Odor Sleuth, Zen Headbutt, Ice Punch and Last Resort.

Sentret- Amber found Sentret after she had been attacked by a wild Pokemon, her Clefairy scared the wild Pokemon away and Amber caught Sentret in a Heal Ball. Once she was let out, she gave a happy chirp and ran around playfully. Sentret is a playful Pokemon, as such she’s mostly in charge of drawing attention to herself or playing with young Pokemon in the healing ward to cheer them up. 

Caught in a Heal Ball.

Ability is Frisk.

Moves are Foresight, Helping Hand, Follow Me, Work Up, Assist, Baton Pass, Hyper Voice, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and Flamethrower.

Goodra- Amber saved Goodra from a Dragon-type Trainer when he was a Goomy, said Dragon-type trainer was picking on Goomy for being a weak little runt and was trying to battle him. Amber picked up Goomy, ignoring how slimy he was and healed him. Goomy liked Amber and got caught by her. He wanted to get stronger so he can protect his new trainer, so he would go out and train with other Pokemon until he evolved into Sliggoo. Then he would train while it was raining so he could evolve into Goodra. He didn’t evolve until he saw Amber in a battle with the same Dragon-type trainer that was attacking him after she lost the trainer’s Hydreigon was going to attack Amber but Sliggoo protected her and evolved in the process due to the fact it was raining. After he won the battle he gave Amber a hug, she hugged him back once again ignoring how slimy he is. Goodra is a friendly and protective Pokemon, he’ll always be there to give someone a hug or nuzzle them though he saves a lot of his hugs for Amber who doesn’t mind getting covered in slime afterward. Should Amber be in danger he will be the first to protect her from harm due to how she saved him back when he was a weak Goomy. Goodra assists with training Pokemon once they get better.

Caught in an Ultra Ball.

Ability is Sap Sipper.

Moves are Aqua Tail, Outrage, Dragon Pulse, Flamethrower, Sludge Wave, Focus Punch, Draco Meteor, Acid Armor, Rain Dance, and Thunder.

Togepi- Amber found Togepi as an egg and ended up caring for the egg until it hatched. Togepi soon hatched and imprinted on Amber, thinking she was her mom. Togepi is a young Pokemon that often doesn’t know what’s going on, but she’s smart enough to know when her ‘mommy’ is working and normally stays quiet when Amber is busy. She’ll try to help by handing Amber anything she might need, she soon got a ‘job’ playing with other young Pokemon to help them feel better in case they got scared by something.

Caught in a Friend Ball.

Ability is Serene Grace.

Moves are Metronome, Charm, Sweet Kiss, Wish, Ancient Power, Return, Extrasensory, Dazzling Gleam, Hyper Voice and Safeguard.

Altaria- Amber was given Altaria when she was a Swablu by her father as a way to thank her for all of her hard work at the Pokemon G-Men. Amber did everything she could with Swablu with training her so she could evolve. She soon evolved in the middle of training with her Goodra, much to everyone’s happiness. Altaria is a sweet and gentle Pokemon that enjoys singing for anyone should they ask her to. She’s also very motherly to Togepi and any other young Pokemon that has been saved by the Pokemon G-Men. She uses her singing voice to lull them to sleep if they’re feeling restless or scared, she does the same for Amber if she’s working too hard.

Caught in an Ultra Ball.

Ability is Natural Cure.

Moves are Dragon Pulse, Dragon Dance, Sing, Perish Song, Moonblast, Steel Wing, Sky Attack, Aerial Ace, Safeguard and Hyper Voice.

[1358456]

Review Response, June 16-22, 2019

Got a lot of stuff! ... Thanks to one person, mostly!

... Really missing those single line breaks...

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Wings #004

1) Heyo, I saw your responses to my reviews. I forgot my password when I read Wings and I didn't want to go through the whole resetting password thing, so I went in as a guest. I didn't really intend to come back to FanFiction, hence the random keyboard smashing username, yet here I am again to read your stories! Haha. I suppose I'll just keep my original username here.

Anyways, back onto the review! I really found this chapter to be amusing and engaging!

I should have realized Black was there! Rereading the last chapter, I missed the "loud" voice. Oops! And as much as I would love to see familiar faces meeting our lovely protagonist Y here, I like how you're going at a steady pace so the introductions won't be rushed. It makes the eventual meetings better, and I'd look forward to them more that way. (Highkey looking forward to Diamond to appear!)

Crystal as the soccer coach is so, so fitting. And the more I read about Y's struggles to do well, the funnier it gets when she fails due to her own recklessness or other people's mistakes. And when she had enough, she reminded me of a Rhyhorn stampeding through the field, bashing away any poor soccer players that were in her way. She's definitely going to join the soccer team now. ...the team is filled with hotheads.

Oh, hi Gold! Fancy seeing you here! I wonder if he's a teacher as well? Maybe another coach? ...is he and Crystal a thing yet? Asking for a friend.

Hey, you’re back to the old familiar ID! Hehehe.

Ah yes. Black’s inclusion was a subtle hint in the last chapter. The only hint being the italicized “loud”, indicating that he was in the soccer team somewhere. And yes. Y is going to be meeting the other familiar faces slowly over time. I mean, my favorite Dex Holder Platinum hasn’t even been mentioned yet, and it’s been 4 chapters. I’m taking things quite slowly in that regard, because it makes sense. A 1st year student is not going to be meeting all sorts of 2nd and 3rd year students right off the bat, you know? And oh yes. Diamond is definitely going to be in Wings. I think he’ll be the first Sinnoh Dex Holder that Y will meet.

Yep! Crystal as soccer coach! Definitely! And oh, Y. She’s like a rampaging Dragon when frustrated and pissed off, plowing through everything in her way, whether it’s her teammates or the opponent. Hehe. A soccer team filled with hotheads. Oh dear. Hahaha.

Nah. Gold is no teacher. What could he possibly be teaching in Wings? No, no. He’s there for a different reason that’ll be covered later. And yes, Gold and Crystal are in a relationship. They are “a thing”. Obviously it’s not going to be getting a whole ton of focus, but it’ll be there.

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Destiny #007

1) Its confirmed, eh? This entire thing was orchestrated by Peter. Not that I'm surprised, it's just nice to have clarity on that part. Anyways, I can definitely see Blue doing something she'll regret later. I mean if it says that Blue will probably help, then she just might. But I don't think she would help knowing it'd hurt the other dexholders. If she helps Peter it'd be because he somehow tricks her into doing it. But hmm, there's only one way to find out. And that's to read more chapters. Also, that small little tidbit about Black's feelings on the whole light stone matter I thought was really nice. I'm not exactly sure how, but it tied that entire part together. And it definitely made everything seem more real. I feel like I'm just being dramatic, but that's how I feel on the matter. And just wanted tp congratulate you on that part 'cause it was wonderful written. Well, the entire chapter was wonderfully written, but I can only hope you know what I mean. Speaking of Unova dexholders. That particular scene with Ruby, Sapphire, and White; I thought although great to read, was not how I imagined it going down. I think I explained this in one of my previous reviews, or at least predicted it. But now that I think about it, it's completely plausible. And one last thing before I end this review. I just realized that it's been quite some time since we've seen Green. Haven't read anything in his point of view since he found out that Blue left and set out to look for her. Which makes me wonder. Will you write his perspective while he's searching hopelessly for her? Or right before he spots her somehow? Cannot wait to see things from his perspective again! Makes my urge to smack him lessen. Fucking asshole, I know he didn't mean to do that especially in that way. But god was that a jerky move. Low-key wanna punch him senseless, but oh well. I'll just have to read his P.O.V. in order to be satisfied. Again, thank you!

The continuation!

Yes. Blue, despite wandering off on her own and thus being led astray, is still a good girl at heart. She wouldn’t willingly help in hurting her former friends. She would more likely simply walk away and not interfere than actively hurting them. But... there really is only one way to find out, eh?

I guess Black escaping the Light Stone in that fashion is kind of amusing in hindsight, now that he’s actually free. Hehe. ... And is partly plot relevant later on :) And yes. A part of my “headcanon” with Black & White is that Black is forever fated to be indebted to her. Nothing serious, but enough that he’d be more compelled to care for her. Something stupidly sweet like that. Hehe.

The meeting of Ruby and Sapphire with White? This is basically the easiest way for me to drag Black and White, who are completely unrelated to the whole Mega Hunter shenanigans, into the plot! It’s a natural conversation that leads to White tagging along for the sake of meeting the others. Hehe.

Heh. Green ain’t going to find Blue. He doesn’t even know that she’s not in Kanto anymore. He said it himself too. If Blue doesn’t want to be found, she’s going to just disappear. And it’s his fault. Unintentional, perhaps, but his fault anyways. Because compared to Red, he’s a dick. Hehe.

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Destiny #008

1) WHAT. THE. FUCK. HE JUST TOOK OUT A FUCKING ULTRA BALL AND THEN BRAINWASHED THIS POOR, UNSUSPECTING CHILD? HOW TF DID HE DO THAT? WHY CAN'T THIS MOTHERFUCKER JUST KEEL OVER AND DIE? I am legitimately raging right now. He's too goddamn powerful. How are the dexholders going to defeat this dude? I mean it was 27 vs 6. That's insane. How the hell did this dude even get his hands on such powerful pokémon anyway? You don't actually need to answer these questions, they're just rhetorical. And I know I'll get my answer later on. Also, speaking of that battle. When Green and red joined in, I swear to god I started clapping. The relief was immense. And reading that scene the only things going through my mind was that this was where Y and Ruby are going to die. Thank god that they didn't. But with those wounds? They can't battle him at his full power, not when they only have three days to recover. And they're not going to spend their days completely recovering. They'll have to pull themselves together and practice. That is, unless Yellow could use her healing power on humans. But I don't think that's the case. And how tf are they going to get that strong in three days? I know somehow they'll pull it of—as that is the way of stories—but as to how exactly they might go about doing that? I'm clueless. Speaking of which... it would be nice to have a story that doesn't go the same path as so many others. Where, somehow, the hero always prevails! Why? Because they're the hero. And, I mean, I guess it makes sense. They're the hero for a reason, but isn't it unrealistic for the hero to always win? To err is human after all. That is, if the hero was human. Don't get me wrong, I love stories with happy endings. It's just sometimes I ponder whether that was the realistic outcome. But anyways, I'm getting off-topic. I'm sure that in your story if the dexholders win, it would be for a very good reason. And it excites me to think of the ways of how you'll surprise me! This has been a long-ass review. I spent forever writing it, and I'm terribly sorry. But I thank you for writing this. Anyways, on to the next chapter!

Assimilation successful. ... It’s a phrase that you would’ve seen immediately in Destiny. I think the first chapter pretty much begins with that.

Hehe. How is he so strong? GAME MECHANICS!! The power of RNG abuse to get shiny IV 31 all things with the desired natures, and then EV raising them for max efficiency! And to make things worse, TEAM SYNERGY! ... And level 100! Because the Mega Hunter and his Pokemon are all based on a real life friend and his HUGE pile of RNGed Pokemon. ... I also have a similar sized pile of level 100 RNGed Pokemon, but I didn’t want to put myself in. That’d be weird! ... Heh. So. How are the Dex Holders going to win? ... I don’t know.

... “As that is the way of stories”... OTHER people’s stories, perhaps. Heh. The “power of bullsh*t” doesn’t work in my stories, you know. None of that “I have the willpower, I will succeed!” nonsense, or “the power of friendship!!”. Heh. “I am the main character, so I can do everything!” ... Nope. Not in here, bud. Hahaha.

2) Oh fuck I got so into writing that review that I forgot to put my name. Yeah the last long-ass review is Mel's.

Don’t worry, I figured! :)

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Destiny #009

1) Oh god oh fuck. So soon! The scouts are coming... which brings me to another topic. How tf did this dude get so many scouts? How is he seeing what they're seeing? And who exactly are these scouts? 'Cause if they're just little children as the scout who got caught, then the dexholders will have no problem. But this dude isn't that stupid, or he is and he's planning on winning because of numbers. Which, I guess, isn't a bad idea. Numbers certainly help, but I mean come on. What a horrible thing to do to brainwash children. This dude is such an asshole and my ahem for him grows with every chapter. What even is the point in causing so much chaos? How will this benefit him? (And coming from a lazy person) Why tf would he go to such lengths? It sounds like too much work tbh. Fuck that, I'd rather stay at home relaxing. But I guess each to their own. Also, the writing in this chapter was sooo well done. It is envy chapter, but this one I loved the uncertainty it exuded, because of the uncertainty in the dexholders. What I guess I'm trying to say is, is that your writing reflects the emotions and thoughts of the dexholders in a way. This might just be me, I felt it was like that. It wasn't too overtly noticeable, but it left me with that feeling. Oh, and also some things I forgot to mention in the last review. I think I might've mentioned this before, but it just made me really happy to see that you kept the characters in... well... character. Incorporating things such as Pearl shouting the moves that the pokémon were going to execute really excite me. That's because so many times writers forget these things. And in the end product, you read something that resembles a character, but isn't quite actually like them. Actually, now I'm sure. I did say this another review. I'm sorry for the repetition them, it just amazes me. Another thing that amazes me, the strategies! You did really well in planning out the strategies in the battles. They were intricate, but easily understandable. And they sounded really effective. Really nice job on coming up with those. Oh, and before I end this. I just wanted to say that the interaction between Gold and Crystal at the beginning of this chapter was great. Still staying on the matter at hand, but also delving a bit into their history. Their relationship... they've broken up... made me sad ngl. But oh well, It's to be expected of that certain relationship. It can either be a really good one... or one that ends in heartbreak. It's definitely complicated for them. But one thing that made me chuckle was when Crystal retorted with "You were the one begging for me to come back to you." or something like that. Like it's so true. That's exactly what would happen, and of course Gold would try to play it so that he was the cool one. But we all know that he was the one begging lmaoooo. Also, the way you wrote in Green's concern for Blue in the chapter made me cry because of how beautiful it was. You didn't touch on the topic, but you made it so clear by his actions and things he said. It reminds me of this one thing C. S. Lewis once said, where it was something like, "Show, don't tell.". And that was a good example of that I thought. Makes me think there's hope for their relationship. Also, I know I talk a lot abut how you're work makes me cry. But goddamn are you also good at writing fluff. And it's incorporated a lot in your stories, even your more tragic ones. It's nice, because it's always good to have a balance. I mean, having a completely tragic story without any elements of happiness isn't a good read. So while some parts are sad, there are so many others where I smile or clap or laugh and the list goes on. I never realized how expressive I am when I'm reading lmao. Anyways, thank youuuuuu again.

How did the Mega Hunter get so many scouts mind controlled? ... Well, there are a lot of fodder class trainers that’ll get stomped in like 0.5 seconds and then get taken. Given established time gap, it’s certainly plausible to have mind controlled a crapton of nameless fodder! ... Well, that’s the excuse, anyways. You always need some fodder, you know?

Heh. Imagine if the villains were lazy. “Aw man. I don’t want to plant bombs in all those places... it’s rush hour...” Why is he stirring up chaos? Hehe. You’ll see later~ ... ... Well of course, you’ll see later. It’s the PLOT. ... Real subtle there, 135. Well done...

Aha, Pearl’s Detector trait in use! It’s often hard to do given just how many Dex Holders there are, but I try to think like “in this situation, what would this group do, and how would the members react?” So in the case of a battle, Pearl would be the first to detect which attacks are incoming since that’s his whole shtick.

The... battle strategies... well, they’re mostly just recreations of what I went through in XY/ORAS battles with the guy who the Mega Hunter is based on. That freaking Eruption, man. ... More of the “asshole combos” later.

Hehe. Yep. Gold got dumped, begged, and is trying to maintain the “cool guy” outlook by pretending that she was the one begging. ... Poor dude. But hey, now’s the chance for him to show just how reliable he is! After all, there’s something about destruction and devastation that brings people together!!

Green’s concerns for Blue that has to be put under because of ensuing chaos. Hehe. This is a loose reference to something that happens in SA, and what Blue says to him: “Can’t you put me on the top of your priorities just once?” Almost a year after that story ended (Dec 2013), Destiny began (Sept 2014), and... sure enough, Green is forced to put something else on the top of his priorities, over Blue. It’s because of his personality. Task first. Personal problems come after the public ones. ... But it doesn’t mean he likes that.

Yes. BALANCE. I write a ton of cutesy, fluffy stuff, along with horrific doom hammer strikes. But the fluffy stuff don’t stand out in memory because they don’t have shock value, but doom stuff do. So the common misconception is that I always write doom. No, I do not. BALANCE! Especially much further on where a chapter is half fluff, half doom. BALANCE. ... That said, I think you will cry a lot though. Hehehe... But hey, you’ll be laughing and clapping, and even shuddering at the pure cute fluff later on as well!

2) Also I meant to each their own kek.

To each their own indeed. In a lot of ways.

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Heart #001

1) So I'm just going to say this before actually reading so I, don't forget.

So Platinum has to pick between the boys...?

OK, but *grabs a mic* WHY NOT BOTH?

*drops mic*

Seriously though, consider the ot3 as a viable outcome, please. Don't just... tease me with the ship 'tag' I guess dunno how to call it in FF

Yes, Platinum has to pick one or the other. Why not both? ... This is a PAIRING. A pair has two members. And forcing all three Sinnoh Dex Holders into a single “pair”ing does not work out for anyone.

The “tag”...

I assume you mean that? I only did that because I couldn’t add Platinum twice. My original intent was to put Platinum with Diamond and Platinum again with Pearl. But I couldn’t put up Platinum twice or have her be in two different pairings at once. And it’s not like I could isolate one of the boys either, because... well, that’s a little... on-the-nose, isn’t it? But to avoid “teasing”, I could just give one of the boys the boot and spoil the ending, which... well, I’m sure everyone who reads my stuff will know anyways.

All three of them together is not a viable outcome. As friends? Certainly. I’m not breaking the Morning Sound trio. In a love relationship? Nope. Not happening. One is going to be accepted and experience pure bliss. The other is going to be rejected and experience bitter heartbreak. It’s inevitable and meant to be. ... Just delayed for as long as Platinum doesn’t realize the situation.

[not-so-innocent-bi-sander]

The Power That’s In(Side) - Ch 2

Sanders Sides Pokemon AU

Chapter 1

Masterlist

--

The four of them entered the large building, the doors shutting behind them and the sound of them closing really driving home that this was the start of their journey. Virgil was, of course, apprehensive but he didn’t say anything. He still held his Mimikyu in his arms for comfort but his Eevee, along with all of his brother’s Pokemon, was safely in a pokeball.

They all surveyed the area around them, Logan noticing a large directory of the mall and walking up to it, his brothers following along behind him. They took a moment to look it over, each noting the location of different shops that they wanted to go check out. Logan turned around and looked up at them, thinking over the most efficient way for them to go about making sure everyone was able to accomplish what they wanted. He glanced back at the large directory and pointed to the exit on the opposite side of the mall.

“There is a Malasada shop near the north exit of the mall, perhaps we can split up for now and meet there when we have each finished our individual shopping?” He suggested to his brothers, hearing sounds of agreement from the twins who both took off in opposite directions before he felt a soft hand on his shoulder.

“Good plan, Logan. Be safe alright? I’ll see you soon.” Patton smiled and softly ruffled his youngest brother’s hair before walking away in yet another direction. Logan pushed his shoulders back slightly, nodding at his older brother’s back before he also walked away, head held high.

Roman had strolled off with purpose, it not taking long at all with his grand strides before he arrived at his destination. He looked up at the shop he was standing in front of, smiling and reaching to his belt to grab his Eevee’s golden pokeball and summon his spunky Pokemon, happily looking down at him as he appeared. The regal teenager sat down on the floor and leaned against the wall of the storefront, opening his arms to invite his Pokemon into his lap. Eevee seemed slightly confused, but he happily bounded forward, looking up at his trainer.

Roman gave his Eevee a small scratch atop the head, looking down before glancing back at the store they were leaning against. “Eevee, do you know much about how Pokemon evolve? Eevees in particular?” Roman asked softly, looking down at him. The Eevee seemed confused, looking back at him and tilting his head to the side.

“Eevees can involve into all sorts of different Pokemon. But.. It’s up to the trainer and what the trainer does that determines which it will be. I was looking into how it all works… And I don’t really like it.” Roman explained, causing the Eevee’s expression to look a bit concerned. “No, no. It’s not anything to do with you. What i’m saying is… You are your own being, Eevee. It isn’t right that I determine your destiny. You should get to decide what it is you want to be. My dad sent my brothers and me on this quest to decide who we will become… What our destinies are. But.. It’s not fair that you don’t get to do the same. I want you to decide what you want to become and when you want to become it.” He explained, reaching into his backpack and pulling out some pictures and information he had gathered.

Roman laid out the information on the floor, showing the Eevee all of what he had researched. “There are more evolutions than these… But these we can get you an Evolution Stone for, and you can pick exactly what you want to become.” He laid out the pictures of the three Pokemon that the Eevee could become by choosing a stone. Eevee looked over the three images, listening as Roman described the different types they were. Thinking back to his battle with Litleo, Eevee immediately pushed away the image of the fire-type and focused on the other two. It took a moment of looking over the two pictures before jumping on top of one of the pages, patting on the picture of the electric-type with his feet. Roman smiled, nodding down at him and starting to gather up the pages he had placed around them. “I think that would suit you perfectly. Come on, let’s get you that stone.” He smiled, moving to pull Eevee into his arms before standing up and taking him inside the shop the were infront of, the one that specialized in Evolution Stones.

The stones were all in cases, more than likely so no Pokemon could accidentally touch one and evolve. The shopkeeper looked up at Roman, smiling warmly at him and his Eevee.

“Well hello there, young man! Are you looking for an Evolution Stone for your adorable little Eevee there?” The older woman asked, her eyes warm.

“Yes, Ma’am! I’m looking for a Thunder Stone please! But I also need an Everstone.” He nodded, looking down into the case.

“That’s no problem at all, young man. Is the Everstone also for your Eevee?” She asked, looking at the Pokemon in his arms.

“Yes, Ma’am. I’m getting the Thunder Stone for later.” He nodded.

“Alright, let me see if I have a small one, easier for your little friend there to hold on to.” She nodded, moving to look through the case and finding a relatively small stone and holding it out to show them. It was round, gray, and slightly shiny.

“That is perfect, thank you!” He smiled, reaching out to take the Everstone.

“I’ll put your Thunder Stone in a box, that way you shouldn’t have any accidents.” She smiled, reaching into the case and pulling out what looked more like a yellow crystal than a stone. She turned and grabbed a nice box, nestling the stone in safely before also placing it on the countertop. Roman reached into his pocket and pulled out the money his father had given him, paying the kind woman and leaving the shop.

He slid the box containing the Thunder Stone into his backpack and turned to look down at Eevee. “As soon as you want it, just let me know. It’s up to you.” He smiled, squeezing Eevee in closer for a moment before looking down at the Everstone he still held in his hand. “I got this so you don’t accidentally evolve before you are ready. But how are you supposed to hold it?” He cocked his head to the side and began walking toward another directory, looking over the map once more. He scanned a few moments before his eyes lit up and he took off once again, deciding to put Eevee back in his pokeball for the time being.

He walked off toward his new destination, seeing a small crowd gathered around something as he went. Out of natural curiousity, he wandered over to see that someone had placed a large cardboard box full of all sorts of Pokemon near a corner in the mall. Written across the front was a simple scrawled message “Free to Good Home.” This was a bit unorthodox, he had never heard of anyone doing anything like this before.

Upon further inspection he realized that the several Pokemon before him, and the crowd of onlookers, were all dog Pokemon. Within the box he spotted a gorgeous poodle looking Pokemon, one he had only ever seen on television in grooming competitions and fashion shows. He couldn’t help himself.

“Furfrou! Would you like to come with me?” He asked, his smile wide. The dog looked over at Roman, quickly deciding to leap from the box toward him, sniffing him slightly before letting out a small happy-sounding bark that seemed to say yes. Roman pulled out another pokeball, using it to catch the poodle Pokemon before smiling and adding the ball to his belt. He made a mental note to stop by the grooming supply once he finished at the jeweler he was walking toward, and continued on his way.

Patton had headed straight to the camping supply, grabbing extra necessities and things he thought they could use on their journey. He had been sure to stock up on extra food and snacks, shiny and colorful canteens for himself and each of his brothers, a drying frying pan, extra fire starter, and anything else he came across that he thought they could use. Patton spent a good amount of time and a fair amount of his money, but he was definitely happy with his purchases. His backpack was undoubtedly a good bit heavier, but it was manageable.

He made his way out of the shop, planning on just heading to the meet up point when he heard a small commotion and turned to see a few people crowded around something on the ground. He walked up to discover someone had left a fair few Pokemon that were being given away, and it seemed that there were still a good amount left! Patton walked up and looked over all the adorable puppy Pokemon, one in particular catching his eye.

Patton knelt down, smiling softly at the tiny dog Pokemon and holding out a hand toward it. “Lillipup? Would you like to come with me and be one of my friends?” He said gently. The puppy-looking Pokemon only took a moment to look up at the adorable teen before he made a small yip sound and jumped right at him, Patton catching him in both hands and held him happily to his chest for a gentle hug, giggling all the while. They stayed there for several moments before he pulled out a Pokeball and caught the small Yorkie lookalike, happily adding his ball to his belt. He stood back up, deciding to go make sure they had enough Pokemon supplies before he met up with his brothers and headed off toward another shop.

Logan had every confidence that his brothers would prepare for their journey in the best way they could, and would more than likely prepare for the most probable situations. Patton had been basically like a second Dad to them since Logan could remember, always making sure they were eating and taking care of themselves, as well as doing anything he could to support them emotionally. So he knew his eldest brother would have thought to ensure they’d have plenty to eat and probably prepare multiple comforting items. While his anxious second eldest brother was often over cautious, he knew Virgil looked at things nearly as objectively as he, himself, did a good majority of the time. Virgil was the type that prepared more for the absolute worst case scenario, so Logan was sure he would have those situations handled. And while it wasn’t exactly correct to say Logan had the least faith in the brother closest to him in age, he and Roman had a tendency not to see eye to eye. But Logan knew there was no one else you wanted to have watching your back when you were in a tight spot than Roman. His methods seemed unorthodox, and occasionally downright strange and silly, but they somehow tended to be exactly what was needed when he was called upon. Knowing all of this, Logan took it upon himself to focus his concerns differently, to try and prepare for things his brothers wouldn’t likely imagine.

Logan had spotted an information center on the directory, heading off that way to try and see what he could learn about the area they were going to be traveling through. When he arrived, the attendant seemed to be away, but there were plenty of guide books left out for travelers to use for research in the absence of said attendant. Which was a situation that suited Logan just fine. He grabbed one of the hearty tomes and opened it up, skimming through information about the area they were in and what they should expect to encounter once they left the mall.

After reading for a while, he had learned about the terrain, weather patterns, and the most commonly encountered wild Pokemon along the route they’d be heading down. As it turned out, they would be walking along a large dense forest which was known to house numerous ghost and dark type Pokemon. These types of Pokemon had a tendency to jump out and frighten trainers, as well as having a reputation for being very mischievous. Logan researched a bit more into these types and what could be done to prevent them being caught off guard, eventually deciding to head to a general shop to pick up a few more specific things and a detailed map of the area.

Once he had picked up his items, he ended up right by the Malasada shop and saw that none of his brothers had arrived there yet. He decided to do a lap around the perimeter of the mall to see if he would run into any of them before he settled at the eatery to await them. Along his path, he also discovered the box of Pokemon, nearly deserted of people and very few creatures left in the box. He pulled out his Pokedex, looking over the remaining dog Pokemon and learning more about each before leaning down to look at them more closely.

“…Riolu. I have not encountered any Pokemon like you before, would you like to join me? I’d enjoy learning more about you, and your typing is unlike any I have thus far.” Logan said, looking at the small black and blue dog before him. The fighting type seemed confused by the small bespectacled one, but essentially shrugged and hopped out of the box, standing before Logan and giving him a nod before Logan reached for a pokeball and captured him before simply continuing on his way.

Virgil, still holding his Mimikyu securely in his arms, had walked off to a slightly far shop, his slow walking pace causing him to take a bit of time to actually arrive there. As he entered, he looked all around him to survey the shop and its contents. Slightly timidly, he approached the counter, making almost no sound, and accidentally startling the shopkeeper who definitely hadn’t been expecting there to suddenly be a darkly dressed teen holding a relatively frightening Pokemon standing at his countertop.

“Oh! Uh.. Sorry! I didn’t hear you come in. Umm.. Welcome to the Specialty Pokeball Shop, are you looking for anything in particular?” He asked, trying not to seem too startled.

Virgil glanced down at the Mimikyu in his arms a moment before he looked back up at the shop owner. “I’d like to buy some Luxury Balls please.” He said softly.

The shopkeeper smiled, moving to the case which contained the black pokeballs, adorned with a stripe of red and gold. “Excellent choice. These are supposed to be the most comfortable pokeball for your Pokemon. I’m sure they will all appreciate it.” He passed a few over to the teen after seeing how many he could afford, giving him a slight discount so he could get a couple extra and not leave the shop with no money left over. Virgil gave him a small appreciative smile and took them before turning and leaving the shop as quickly and quietly as he had arrived.

Virgil walked to a quiet corner of the mall before placing Mimikyu down on the floor and kneeling down to talk to him softly. “I’m sorry about not catching you before… But I wanted to get you something I thought you’d like better. I’d like to do it now, if you’re ready.” He explained, holding out one of the Luxury Balls.

Mimikyu looked up at Virgil, happily crinkling his eyes under his disguise and just scooting forward and bumping himself against the ball, letting it pull him within it. As the ball stilled in Virgil’s hand he added it to his belt and stood back up, smiling to himself and walking off toward another shop he wanted to visit.

As the darkly dressed teen walked along, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Off on the side, in a completely deserted corner, was a cardboard box with a message scrawled across it that he couldn’t quite read. Seeing as no one was around, he carefully made his way to the box, seeing the message and understanding what must have been in the large box. He turned to walk away when he heard a very quiet sound, causing him to spin back toward the box instead of moving away from it. Virgil slowly made his way over, peering into the box with the intention of confirming his assumption that it was, in fact, empty.

He was wrong. Huddled in a corner of the box was a single Pokemon, a black dog with two large white bone-looking stripes across it’s back. It seemed this one had been left when all the other’s had been chosen. One final Pokemon that hadn’t been selected by any of the people who had been through. Virgil crouched down, his expression soft.

“…Houndour?” He said softly, causing the Pokemon to turn and look up at him with slightly sad eyes. She perked up a bit, seeing the more darkly dressed boy before her. She rose to her feet and cautiously walked forward, getting closer to Virgil and sniffing him a bit. “…Would you like to come with me? We can keep each other company.” He smiled softly, watching her approach. The dark Pokemon perked up even more, popping up onto her hind legs and giving Virgil a soft lick on the cheek before jumping up to stand beside him, leaning her body into him a bit.

Virgil reached down to softly scratch her behind the ear before pulling out one of his new Luxury Balls and softly tapping it to her. She immediately was pulled within, Virgil adding the pokeball to his belt once it stopped shaking and moving back along his path, happy to have made another friend.

- The four of them did eventually each find their way to the Malasada shop, the brothers all sitting down and going over what they had done when they went off on their own.

“I got a bunch of stuff for all the fun camping we’re going to do! Oh! And…” Patton smiled wide, grabbing his noticeably stuffed backpack and pulling out the canteens he had purchased for them, handing the red, purple, and dark blue bottles over to them. Roman was eyeing his oldest brother’s bag and immediately reached for it, pulling into this lap and starting to load some of Patton’s purchases into his own bag. “…Ro, what are you doing?”

“Pat, you are not going to carry /everything./ I’m helping take some of the load off.” He shrugged. Virgil silently removed his bag from his back and passed it to Roman as well. Roman packed some of the blankets into Virgil’s bag and handed it back to him. Patton was going to interject, but he thought back to what their dad had told him just before he sent them off. He had to let his brothers protect him too.

“..Thanks, guys.” He smiled, looking back at them. As he took his bag back from Roman, he looked down at his belt and grabbed the pokeball containing his new Lillipup, holding it up and showing them all. “Oh! Did you all find the box of puppies?!” He asked excitedly.

“I did! What kind of Pokemon did you get? I got Furfrou! He’s gorgeous!” Roman said excitedly, holding up his pokeball.

“Lillipup! The absolute cuuuutest!” Patton squealed.

“I did as well, I selected Riolu. I thought the typing would be a welcome addition to my team.” Logan said, holding up his pokeball. They all slowly turned to Virgil who held up his Luxury ball.

“I picked Houndour.” He said simply. While Patton smiled fondly at his brother, Roman was transfixed on the pokeball itself.

“Whoa whoa whoa there, Hex Maniac. What kind of pokeball is that?” Roman asked, looking at the black ball.

“I went to a special pokeball shop and picked these up. They are Luxury Balls.. Supposed to be more comfortable for the Pokemon.” He explained with a small shrug.

“Awwww…. Virge that’s so sweet!” Patton cooed, looking at his now blushing brother. Roman just popped up out of his seat and walked over to his twin, grabbing him by his hoodie sleeve. Virgil looked up at him, a bit incredulously.

“Come on, I want to go get some cool Pokeballs too! You have to take me!” He said bouncing up on his toes slightly. Virgil just gave him a small smirk and began to stand, glancing back at Patton and Logan who also started getting up to come along.

Virgil led them all along to the shop, and with his boisterous brother right next to him, he definitely didn’t startle the shopkeeper this time. The shopkeeper looked up, smiling as he recognized Virgil and looking around at the others.

“Welcome back! Bring some friends with you?”

“We’re his brothers actually! And those pokeballs he bought are positively stunning! Do you have any others? Maybe in a… /Brighter/ color scheme?” Roman spoke excitedly, looking around the shop a bit. The shopkeeper looked over Roman for a moment before he turned and pulled out a drawer of pokeballs and held one up. It was pristine white, with a red stripe across the center.

“How about for you, the Premiere Ball? I also have pokeball seals, which can be placed on pokeballs for decoration.” He gestured to another case, full of what appeared to be stickers. Roman just nodded happily and moved to the case, viewing all of the seals. Patton stepped up, smiling wide and looking around the shop displays.

“Oh! What kind of pokeballs are those?” Patton asked, gesturing toward a display.

“Ah! These are Heal Balls!” He pulled down the pink and white pokeballs and showed them to Patton, who happily looked over them. Logan was surveying all of the options around him before he turned to look at the shopkeeper.

“Do pokeballs have different uses? Or are they predominantly about the way they look?” He asked, looking up at him curiously.

“They all have slightly different purposes actually, but a lot of trainers do just enjoy the look. But if I was going to recommend one to you, I’d suggest Ultra Balls. They have a higher catch rate than normal pokeballs.” He explained. Logan just nodded in response.

Eventually they managed to tear Roman away from the seals case, and the three of them all made purchases. Roman ended up with the Premiere balls, adorning each of them with a small golden star seal as well as getting seals for the pokeballs he already had. Patton chose the cute Heal Balls, and Logan the practical Ultra Balls. Virgil just watched quietly, waiting until all of his brothers had finished up and then giving another appreciative smile to the shopkeeper before leaving with them.

They made their way back to the Malasada shop, only pausing a moment at a table so Logan could lay out the large map he had purchased, showing them where they were and what road they’d be traveling on.

“So, we’re going to be heading up this route here. Heading away from the mall and up north, we should make it to the next big town after a few days of travel. I also took notes on the vegetation we should encounter and what berries we may find which are safe for either humans or Pokemon. In case the need arises.” He explained.

“We should be good on food for at least that long, but it is important to know what is and isn’t safe to eat! Good job, Lo.” Patton smiled, looking over Logan’s information.

“Yes! Most excellent work, Nerdoran! Now, if we have everything we need… Shall we actually get this journey on the road?” Roman exclaimed, looking over his brothers.

His question was met with a small chorus of agreement, the three of them looking back at him and nodding. Roman just spun on his heel with a smile and started to head toward the exit.

“Then let’s do this!”

[thetakenpokemon]

Act 2 - More Wardens

//RETRIEVING FILES// … //FILES RETRIEVED//

FOLDER IDENTIFICATION: Night Warden Team - Sundown Elite

[TEAM INFORMATION BELOW]

Warden Team Identification: Sundown Elite

Team Members: 6

Specialization: Taking down powerful threats - UBs to Super-Natural

[INDIVIDUAL INFORMATION BELOW]

Name: Rorke Stonemaul

Alias: Craghammer

Gender: Male

Species: Conkeldurr

Bio Below

A seasoned warrior. His skills specialize in either taking on large numbers of opponents at once to fighting one individual whose size is equal to or greater than his own. Although capable of taking down powerful foes with only his fists, his favored weapon is large club made of Diamond-Grade Obsidian. The club not only grants him greater reach, but allows him to strike harder as well as block powerful attacks without risking injury to himself.

His personality is down to earth, he is very practical and analytical during the situation at hand. He utilizes the strengths of all around him to the greatest efficiency, making him a great tactician. His behavior has a tendency to give off a cold personality, however this is due to him not being very expressive. Although a humble individual, he won’t turn down a challenge if offered.

Additional Notes

His weapon is supposedly a tradition of his home-clan, where upon reaching adult-hood they are to forge a weapon made of a unique Obsidian within the depths of a volcano. His chosen weapon is the club. Its hardness surpasses that of diamond, unlike normal obsidian which is brittle and easily scratchable.

Name: Aurelia Orthona

Alias: Crystalis

Gender: Female

Species: Jynx

Bio Below

An extremely proficient Cryomancer. Her control over her ice powers grant her a great amount of versatility, ranging from conjuring sharp icicles to be used as projectiles to creating large structures of frozen vapor to impede movement. One of her favored methods of defense is entombing herself in ice, creating a protective shell that she can also shatter at-will - sending shards of frozen shrapnel towards those that would be surrounding her. Her powers have shown to be capable of conjuring objects of ice with great detail - such as various weapons like blades and spears.

Her personality is extremely vain, it’s incredibly often to see her flaunting her power and looks at others all the while demeaning them. Due to her superiority complex she believes herself to be a prime example of Pokemon, that all others compared to her are her lessers and could never compare to her. Occasionally she has shown that she’s capable of some form compassion, however these instances are very rare and only towards those she has some form of respect towards - how little it may be.

Additional Notes

She has displayed quite a prowess with a variety of weapons in close-quarter combat. Although rarely, there has been times she would conjure said weapons out of ice and use them against her opponents.

She speaks little of her origins, although it’s believed that she may have come from a powerful and wealthy family.

Name: Oxott Mal’Du

Alias: Apex

Gender: Male

Species: Scrafty/Heliolisk Hybrid (Natural)

Bio Below

One of the greatest ‘Feral Hunters’ known. Hailing from a tribe in a land untouched by technology, he gained his skills in hunting dangerous Feral Pokemon due to his lifestyle. His greatest skills lie in his mobility and strength, where he outpaces his foes - usually those far larger than he - and disables them. His weapons consist of a large serrated blade, his bolas, and a small hunting knife. Wrapped around the hilt of his serrated blade and his arm is a rope made from Luxray-tendon, granting him greater reach by releasing the weapon and swinging his arm, and the elasticity of the tendon brings the weapon back to his hand after the swing. He can also channel massive amounts of electricity into all of his weapons for even deadlier effects.

His personality is quite laid-back, he is known to be a rather honest individual yet also very considerate. Due to the mindset of his tribe he believes strongly in power, how one can always strengthen themselves to improve further. Because of this he won’t hesitate to assist others in either training or providing advice if asked, although this mindset has also made him rather prideful. 

Additional Notes

The skulls and pelts he wears on his body are trophies, taken from powerful Feral Pokemon that he himself has slain. His serrated blade is his greatest trophy of all, for it is the leg-bone of a Feral Tyrantrum that he and several others killed. He claims that the bones of these Tyrantrum are as strong as metal, thus one of the reasons why hunting the Pokemon is so dangerous. He says that to slay one is to be considered one of the greatest accomplishments of a Feral Hunter, and no other weapon compares to those carved from its bones.

Due to his origins, he has very little knowledge when it comes to advanced technology. Although his time working the GoT has expanded this knowledge, there are still some things that he’s unaware of.

Name: Sofia Deluca

Alias: Sylph

Gender: Female

Species: Audino/Whimsicott Hybrid (Natural)

Bio Below

A masterful healer of physical afflictions. Although her skills in combat are acceptable at best, her greatest strength lies in her healing energy and her power over the wind. She is capable of conjuring strong gusts that can briefly enhance the movement of her allies by massive margins, or manipulate the air around her to grant her flight. She can also release pollen that contain powerful healing properties when inhaled, mending wounds in mere moments - although at the cost of the injured individual’s stamina. Although it would normally affect those within close proximity to her when she releases said pollen, she can also manipulate the air to guide the healing particles to those she wishes to heal. She can also release pollen that contain a powerful sedative that cause unconsciousness after a few minutes once inhaled. She refrains from physical combat as much as possible, using either her sedative pollen or her wind skills to avoid foes.

Her personality is that of high spirits and energy, she is known to be an incredibly bubbly individual who is almost never unfriendly towards others. She is often very vocal, getting into other people’s business for the sake of befriending them. Rarely has she ever shown any sort of contempt for people, and she is extremely forgiving and understanding - to the point that many consider to be a double-edged sword of hers.

Additional Notes

She has constantly shown several traits of pacifistic behavior, one of many being that she never desires to be the one to directly harm another individual. It’s believed that this may be tied to some sort of traumatic event in her past, however she seems to show no trouble being in fights as long as she’s not the one hurting them.

She is apparently capable of producing a toxic pollen that paralyzes the lungs, causing those who breathe it in to suffocate. The mere thought of using it appalls her however, and she desires to never use it if she can help it. It’s believed that this may be linked to her pacifism and the possible traumatic event.

Name/Alias: Venus (Self-Given)

Gender: Female

Species: Roserade/Mawile Hybrid (Artificial)

Bio Below

A deadly hybrid with an arsenal of organic weapons. She fights with a variety of tactics in battle, from sticking close to her targets to keeping her distance. What would normally be normal flowers on her arms are instead closed buds, opening them would reveal maws lined with teeth. These maws alone can be weapons, but she is also capable of firing large needles from these buds to strike down foes from afar. Attached to the back of her head is an even larger maw that’s capable of spitting out streams of extremely corrosive nectar, the acid-like substance seems to break down most organic and inorganic matter. She is also capable of unleashing numerous whip-like vines from under her arms that can be used either for striking or restraining her foes. These variety of weapons make her very adaptive, adjusting to the scenario at a moment’s notice.

Her personality is very forward, perhaps rather excessively forward. Although friendly, she often tends to miss social queues and has difficultly comprehending on what is and isn’t best left unsaid. She has a strong desire to include herself in scenarios and conversations to offer her thoughts, even if they’re completely unrelated to her. Although she’s oblivious to some of this behavior, she still means well in the end.

Additional Notes

Even with the efforts of the Hybrid Rehabilitation, she still deals with PTSD from the trauma inflicted by the HWDP. Unlike most of the Hybrids, her case was far more extreme due to the success of her being an optimized weapon. Although the frequency of flashbacks have decreased majorly, she still experiences strong bouts of anxiety in certain situations.

The HWDP Identification Code on her body reads FL-07

Name: Sabra Bomani

Alias: Scourge

Gender: Male

Species: Cofagrigus (Venharan Incineroar)

Bio Below

An experienced fighter that still retains his skills even after death. He knows the traditional fighting style of Venharan Incineroars (or Tsubeten, what they refer themselves as), which is to use mobility and relentless attacks to overwhelm their opponents. He combines the skills from his past life with his Cofagrigus abilities, which is to manipulate and solidify darkness into extra appendages. The hands that form from this darkness end in sharp claws that are capable of slashing and rending, although he can have these claws overlap over his own hands to enhance his strikes. He is also capable of making his body intangible by converting his entire form into darkness, allowing him to become resistant to nearly all physical attacks. This form also allows him to hide in people’s shadows.

His personality is very youthful, the liveliness of his behavior being rather surprising despite his ancient age. He is very respectful to those he interacts with, never making fun of an individual even if jesting. It’s very common of him to comment on the traits that he likes of those he’s conversing with, be it their appearance to the way they hold themselves. He has a strong fondness towards combat, something that’s common among Tsubeten warriors. Although he himself tends to shrug off insults and aggressive behavior, he has no toleration when it’s targeted towards other individuals - especially those he has grown fond of. In response he would attempt to intimidate the aggressor to stand down, or challenge them to combat if the former was unsuccessful.

Additional Notes

The Tsubeten have far leaner bodies compared to the normal Incineroar. Although they are weaker in terms of overall strength, they make up by possessing far more agility and stamina than their more muscle-bound cousins.

Due to him never having left the Tomb of Warriors until recently, he is very oblivious to a lot of things that would be common knowledge in the modern world. The world has changed massively since when he was alive, so there’s still a great amount of things that he needs to learn.

//CLOSING FOLDER//

[phantompsychic]

((So, having realized I never really have discussed much about Will’s whole secret thing as a phantom thief, I figured I’d make a headcanon post about it here. This hc post will probs be pretty long, as most of my hc posts tend to be, and I will use it to cover his phantom thief MO, how his methods/career evolved, etc. So, without further ado...))

((So, as I discuss in his bio, Will first intended the whole phantom thief thing as a one time event. Initially, he only meant to expose the corruption in his circus group to ensure his coworkers got what was rightfully theirs and to stop the slander on his own name that the higher-ups were trying to push on him.

For a while afterwards, as he began traveling, Will did not use his alter ego. He never even thought to revive it--until he arrived in Kalos. Lumiose City’s corruption was particularly bad when Will visited, and the more he traveled and acquainted himself with people in the region, the more disgusted he felt with the level of corruption going on. It was, naturally, on a much higher level than what his little circus group was involved in, which gave him pause. Could he could do something? Should he do something?

A part of him still insisted that, unlike the circus, this was not his business, so he should stay away, and he agreed with it for a bit. Despite this, though, it didn’t stop Will’s curiosity from getting the better of him, and he did a large amount of research to understand the level of corruption he was seeing hints of sprouting up around him from below. Xatu, with her selective omniscience and illusionary skills, was extremely helpful. One could say, though, he dug too much, that his curiosity dragged him too far down, for he eventually stumbled upon an active plot that some of the corrupt elements of the people he’d been looking into were planning. It was a white collar level scheme, and some parts of the plan seemed like the same kind of stuff he encountered with his corrupt managers in the circus, but a fair deal larger in scale. Still, as disturbing as this information he stumbled upon was, he still didn’t want to get involved himself, so he turned over what info he had to the Lumiose police as an anonymous tipster...

...and then they promptly disposed of it.

In hindsight, it was obvious that there was a good chance part of the police force was compromised, but it had honestly slipped his mind, one that was already so wrapped up in just gathering the information of the scheme itself. But now all of that information was gone. He could regather it with Xatu’s help, but to what end? The police had rats in it, and he didn’t have the time to sort them out to find a safe person to give the info to so that they could properly investigate and stop the crime before it went full steam ahead. And what about himself? With all this investigating he had been doing, he was bound to start looking familiar to people. He also certainly couldn’t count on his identity staying ‘anonymous’ for long now, either.

So, again he took up his alter ego and planned a theft of the evidence himself. He sent a note to the corrupt police, his first calling card, really, urging them to reconsider and properly investigate the corrupt heads of this scheme. Then, when there was no response, Will went and exposed it himself by stealing the appropriate evidence.

The evidence reveal itself was not quite enough to completely stir action, given the depth of the corruption, but it did give several surviving witnesses the strength to come forward, setting a snowball of events that halted the scheme and led to the corrupt group scattering.

Given the larger scale of this whole thing, Will’s ‘name’ as Itsuki became cemented, partially because of the corrupt police who were still hanging onto power in the city at the time. They wanted this guy’s head, so they blasted him on the news and so on, trying to paint him as a dangerous anarchist so that normal people would be on the lookout too. Eventually, the manhunt did fade somewhat, but his reputation lingered. Thanks to the bad press by the police, he had his fair share of detractors, but it also gave him a small group of fans. People were grateful for his exposure of this corruption, though his methods as a phantom thief were questionable.

Will, however, chose to focus on the positives his alter ego brought out of this, and they were enough that it convinced him to continue to be a phantom thief.

Out of these two incidents, moreso the second than the first, Will began to create his MO and assemble a team.

For his behavior, he tends to not actively seek out criminals to expose, believe it or not. Usually, with his curiosity and constant traveling, they come to him. He tends to pick up all sorts of interesting stories and leads to pursue. Xatu and Delphox always help fill in the details and point him in the right direction when he shows interest in a lead. When he has a lead, he feverishly investigates it, again abusing Xatu and Delphox’s powers to help him search efficiently. He will sneak into places, listen in on people, disguise himself with illusions, and so on to get the information he seeks. Oftentimes this is done at night just for ease, but he will adjust if need be. Then, when he’s gathered enough and settled on his target, he will send a calling card. Originally, in another hc, I said his cards just say ‘Look forward to my arrival on xxx’, but now I think his card would say just a bit more than that. In addition to that bit, he would also probably first preface with asking the target to voluntarily give themselves up to law enforcement and publicly admit their crimes.

And just to be clear, yes I mean CRIMES. He does not go after people for petty shit--nothing short of egregious violations of law. For Will, his only targets are those ‘whose corrupt power has transcended that of the law’. Admittedly, these targets are rare and hard to find, and when he does find one, they take quite a bit of research and planning for Will to infiltrate. Now that he is an Elite, it’s even harder to find the time to do this stuff, but he still makes do. The rarity of his targets helps for sure.

Back to his behavior, Will tries not to wound people severely or use brute force when doing his heists. He practiced with his powers to specifically learn how to use them in nonlethal ways to assist his thievery. Eg using his Psyshock attack, which is meant to be a wild flurry of defense-piercing psychic shrapnel, as simple, single dagger-like attacks. Now, while he may not rely on brute force or anything, that doesn’t exclude other forms of attack, such as illusion, trickery, hypnosis, etc. He’s also quite fine with using other people’s attacks against them, too, like using his illusions to trick some bad guys into attacking each other and cause mass confusion for a time. Pokemon, also, are completely fair game.

And that is why he assembled a specific, small team of Pokemon to assist with his heists. He’d already encountered his Delphox and Reuniclus before he made his second heist in Lumiose, but now he mad them proper parts of his team. Eventually, he would add Malamar before his travels in Kalos were done. I’ve covered in a previous hc how all their powers help Will, what they can do, etc., so I won’t get into that here. In total, though, the most he ever uses in a heist is 5 Pokemon: Delphox, Malamar, Reuniclus, Xatu, and Gardevoir. Will dislikes using more than the first 3 for the sake of easy management and fear of associating his League team with his thief team, but if things get down to the wire he will.

Lastly, I’ll talk briefly about his outfit as a phantom thief. Unfortunately, I suck at costume and clothing design, so Will’s thief outfit has never been concrete. The most I can say with certainty is that his outfit would use dark colors, a different kind of mask, and gloves. Adding to that, his outfit would be symbolic in its design. That is, this all started because of that one incident at the circus. Now, I don’t think I mentioned it before, but another part of the circus incident was that Will was very possibly going to be made the new ringleader soon. His performances were one of the few that consistently attracted a large crowd, and plenty of his coworkers supported the choice. So, when all that mess with the circus cheating him and his coworkers out of money and slandering him, he felt a little more than miffed. So, he reflected his spite in his costume he chose: one that looked similar to a ringleader, though perhaps a little more exaggerated or ‘elegant’. So if I had to sum up his thief outfit, it would be ‘dark, masked ringleader’.

And for now, that’s about all I got. I think I covered a fair bit of my hc’s relating to his phantom thief behavior and origins/career evolution, anyways. I hope I made it clear enough. I’m always open for questions on anything relating to this ofc. And, honestly? Given the nature of his phantom thief MO, how secretive he is about it, etc., none of this phantom thief stuff ever has to come up in a thread if you don’t want to.))

[bublp0pr]

OKAY I AM DAMN ANNOYED RIGHT NOW. So I’ve been re-doing genoicde lately because why the hell not. And i was doing the up-down alt-tab trick to save a bit of time. I figured it does a lot more to boost the role-playing ego of Frisk to enjoy the sensation of knowing the ins and outs of everything within world and taking the most efficient step at every turn. So while Frisk is strolling around meticulously hunting the halls of the Underground in search for any monster stupid enough to get in their way, i was looking around trying to find some recommendations on rooms with the highest encounter rates. Makes sense right? RIGHT? 

WEelllllll, all i could find is stuff saying ‘oh yeah, this room’s got a higher encounter rate than this one’, with all the good tips scattered across multiple sites and i was flabbergasted. WHERE’S THE NUMERICAL VALUES??? Where’s the obsessive data mining to discover the encounter rates of every room in the game as well as a list of conditional encounters that require presence in certain rooms??? I NEED THIS LIST. I WANT THIS LIST. WHY DOES THIS LIST NOT EXIST? Threads that claim to be ‘genocide walkthroughs’ don’t provide a player with detailed explanation and assurance towards the best rooms for encounter farming O_O 

Someone needs to waste a week or two of their life searching through the code, or atleast timing/counting the steps of their genocide run and recording the data as a non-specific general reference point towards how long someone is expected to wait between encounters. They should include a reference list of all save points that occur within each stage (e.g. ruins, snowdin, waterfall etc.) describing how far a player can explore without accidentally triggering the boss fight. It needs to include all the shortcutting you can do in the game like rooms you shouldn’t even bother entering, ways to solve ruin puzzles quickly and detailed navigation of the large maze-like rooms like the lantern and mushroom ones. Could i also get a description of all the weapons, how their mechanics can be used most effectively and the comparative results of hitting different points on that weird FIGHT metric? OH! And while i’m at it, how about a short list of the different food items categorised by stage and ordered by HP so that people can be 100% confident that they’re stocking up on the best possible food items going into boss battles!

If people want a genoicde walkthrough, THIS is what i expect. ESPECIALLY from a community that’s been fanning over this game for ALMOST TWO YEARS. Pfft, i mean, look what people put out for Pokemon games only like 6 months after every game’s release. 

This being said, i know this is a game where the satisfaction is figuring most of this out for yourself. BUT STILL. If people are already going to the internet for help about it ANYWAY, atleast do it right!

If i’m ranting about things i want, then I’d also be curious to see a detailed list of all the unique encounters, organised by when you can encounter them. I just really want the satisfaction of having a list, it’s so much more personal than just a kill count. Just imagine it... a table with all their shocked little faces immortalised to in that point just before they turn to dust. So thrilling! = ) 

I also know there’s some hidden strategies for fights like group encounters when you’re still starting off and weak. Like killing dogaressa first instead of dogamy. (Ahhh the look on his face when you kill her... it makes him so depressed he won’t even fight you. His dog literally just spits out a lonely heart that falls to the floor every turn after it. And he refuses to even follow along with the ACT options. It’s SO SATISFYING to watch hehe.) But some tips on who to take down first on group encounters like the Aaron+Woshua duo and stuff would also be interesting.

It’s not so much i’m incapable. Believe me, i’ve finished this route before. It’s just a matter of wanting the efficiency in it. 

I can just imagine Sans watching from the distance and knowing that the sadistic human freak has done this game so many times, seen every room, every path, every secret, every encounter so many times that nothing surprises them. I can imagine his horror looking on as the human does everything perfectly. Flawlessly. Like every step was planned out a long long time ago in advance. That feeling of helplessness knowing that whatever they’re up against, it is an all-powerful creature that knows perfectly how exploit whatever is thrown against it. I want to imagine Sans truly being too scared, too intimidated, that he honestly holds no hope - not even a trace of revenge - in his eyes watching us murder all his friends. That when he faces us in the judgement hall he already knows he’s about to die. I want to imagine every word and action he takes in that room to be the ones of someone who believes that they’ve already lost. 

= )

[classpects-for-dummies]

Hello I was wondering if you guys aren't to busy if you can tell me how a Fansession with a Heir of Time, Sylph of Space, Page of Life, Prince of Heart, Maid of Hope(Leader) and a Rogue of Blood(2nd in Command) would work out together and maybe (if you want to) what kinda stuff they'd get up 2. Thanks in Advance

Two canon classpects? Nice.

Maid of Hope: creates and restores Hope, and through Hope.If you say this is the leader, then so they are. To me, it seems like they don’t really like being the leader though.

Maids tend to start off rather submissive in their aspect, letting it walk over them while relying on others to use their aspect for them. This Maid is no different, and as a result, they are likely to start their journey in a dark place. They may suffer from depression, but they certainly need other people to give them Hope. However, as they develop, they grow into their aspect, and learn to find it in themselves more than others, which is just what this Maid will do; they will switch from needing to be inspired all the time, to being the beacon of optimism, faith, and joy in their session.

This player, despite their own difficulties with themselves, is kindhearted and genuine. It is against their nature to lie or be deceptive, and they find it hard to hurt people. One of their greatest joys in life is helping people - however, this leads to their greatest weakness: being overly optimistic and gullible.

Despite this, the Maid is great both as a big hitter and a support class, and with the session you have, I see them more as the latter: going around and creating Hope in their teammates where there may be none.

Rogue of Blood: one who steals and redistributes Blood.I hope your players like each other, because either way, they’re going to very soon.

The Rogue of Blood is an incredible player at bringing together teammates and helping to defeat an insurmountable enemy. Thanks to their ability as the passive relocation class, the more the enemy bands together, the stronger their powers will be. They can steal the bonds tying enemies together and redistribute them to teammates, making them stronger together, and helping them to fight as a unit.

This player being the second-in-command is a fantastic idea, as not only this player but Blood players, in general, are great at pulling people together to a common cause. The challenge for them will be devoting themselves to the cause and not pursuing their own agenda at the cost of the goal. (see: Kankri.)

They give good relationship advice, as well as general emotional advice, making them a good moral support player, even if most of this job will be performed by another player.

Though their powers seem support-y, they are likely to be one of the sessions real offensive players, alongside the Prince.

Prince of Heart: one who destroys Heart, and destroys through Heart.We have a canon Prince of Heart, meaning we have a lot of information to go on here.

The Prince, as with both destructive classes, begins by rejecting their aspect and leaning on the opposite as a crutch: in this case, Mind. They will be cold, calculating, and blindingly efficient. They do their best to be completely rational and purge themselves of all feeling, for whatever reason. However, as long as they maintain this facade, they will not be in tune with their aspect, and therefore, their powers.

Unlike the Bard, who will have a sudden trigger pulled to unleash their powers, the Prince’s journey to accepting their aspect is slow and gradual. The more they progress, the more they unlock, and boy, do they have some serious power to release.

The destructive classes are notoriously powerful by themselves, and the Prince of Heart does not change this at all; they can literally destroy the souls of the enemy: their existence, their image, their feelings and emotions, all gone. This player is your main offensive player: when powered by support players (your Maid, Rogue, and Page) there is very little they can’t do.

With the strength of their powers comes the difficulty of their challenge; they must learn to accept their aspect in a safe and natural way while maintaining the common goal of the session. Princes do have a tendency to pursue their own personal plans, valuing them more than the session. The aforementioned support players will help keep them on track.

Page of Life: one who invites exploitation of Life, and through Life.You feel like you need support, but you can make it on your own.

Both exploitation classes are about development. But while Knights take rapid evolution, Pages are about slow, subtle improvements over a long period of time to unleash awesome power. They will start their journey, even before the game, with a deficit of their aspect: in this case, a lack of ability to grow due to circumstances beyond their control. As they keep moving through the game, they understand how to take back their aspect and use it for good, instead of the way it was used to taunt or otherwise hurt them or others.

This is another support class, and their biggest strength is arguably their ability to inspire. Life is about energy, force, movement, and above all else, screwing the rules. The Page can supply all of this in excess to their teammates, as well as general healing. Although, as a passive class, their healing specifically will not be as potent as it could be, they can keep a steady flow of Life dripping into other Players, topping up their health and keeping them fighting at maximum strength. They are also going to be the team’s counsellor: giving the energy back particularly to the Maid and the Prince.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: keep the Page away from the Sylph. A Sylph’s natural tendency to fix things and meddle in matters beyond them will mean that the Page doesn’t develop naturally and will never realise. Their challenge is to make it on their own, without being guided every step of the way.

Sylph of Space: one who invites creation and restoration of and through Space.Another canon classpect. Off to Kanaya this time.

The Sylph of Space naturally begins as a creative in one way or another - be it art, music, fashion, fiction - and as quite intelligent.Sylphs are naturally quite focused on their aspect: they can talk about it at great length and will tend to see any lack of their aspect as a fault and fix it. This makes them efficient, but also tends to make them nosey. They use their aspect in their free time, a hobby of sorts that pertains to their aspect.

They will find the task of breeding surprisingly easy, if not long and menial. The Heir will be their companion in this, and they are likely to get along very well. Thanks to their affinity with healing and creation, they will be able to easily create frogs with the genetic code they need and breed the Genesis Frog with little to no difficulty. However, while their powers will help them with breeding itself, it will not help with actually collecting the frogs, which is what will make the task long. Again, the Heir helps here. So overall, their challenge is to focus: to focus on their own task instead of coddling, and to focus on their task no matter how long it takes.

Combat-wise, this player is a support/healer: they are great at creating tools and items to help support their players such as medicine and stat boosting items (think Pokemon vitamins) although they can also heal innately. This healing is much more powerful on inanimate objects than people, but it is useful regardless.

Heir of Time: one who invites manipulation of and through Time.Heirs have two distinct features alongside their designated verb: they are protected by their aspect, and will eventually embody and become their aspect.

Heirs instinctively use their powers without even noticing, so even before they realised - even before the game - this Player is protected by Time. They always end up where trouble is… just a little before or a little after everything goes pear-shaped. Or you can see this from the point of view of destruction: they are saved by things being destroyed around them - but I think personally this is more a Bard of Time’s behaviour and am leaning toward the former.

As they develop, they will begin to realise that Time has always been on their side, and will begin to influence it, subtly at first, but constantly growing in magnitude until the Heir *becomes* the timeline. At this point, doomed timelines and broken loops are no longer a problem: the Heir can simply shape the timeline around issues, effectively eliminating them from causing trouble.

Once they reach this level, assisting the Sylph in breeding will not be an issue at all, and will complete it with relative ease.

The Heir’s problem lies in being consumed by Time: as they become the timeline more and more, they also become Time, and all that comes with it, including destruction. Given the chance, they may completely snap and turn murderous, becoming the embodiment of death and destruction. Page and Maid, if you don’t help them it will spell the end of your session.

In conclusion, I really like this session, a lot. You have some really complementary classpects and everything seems to work together well! You have a 2/4 active/passive class imbalance which could be a problem, and a 4/2 +/- aspect imbalance which could also be a problem. However, given that your active classes include a Prince, I don’t think this session will have a problem with getting shit done, nor do I think they will be overly optimistic, with the Prince and the Heir keeping everyone grounded. Every single player has a vital role in this session, and it would probably fail without any one of them, which I think is the best way to show you have a successful session.

Good luck and have fun!

- mod Aaron :B

(p.s. You may have noticed that while the other mods keep session asks nice and concise, I tend to ramble a little and write sometimes upwards of 2000 words. If you specifically want a nice concise session ask, please stick “short ass session” on the bottom of your asks! If you want a long rambly infodump, please stick “long ass session” on the bottom! Or don’t write either if you don’t mind. Thanks!)

[doublenuzlocke]

Entry #2: Fallout Double Nuzlocke

Year- 2274 CE

After the world was destroyed by nuclear weapons where all vaults such as New Bark Town and Pallet Towns had people living underground all their lives. However, at age of 10 years old where the young venture into harsh environment that everything will kill him. Most did not make it, but there’s few became living legends.

Not all life was killed, there was many pokemon were saved during the vaults and often raised as companions for those to venture into the unknown wasteland. Some make it and others did not. In Kanto, Vault Pallet Town has three legendary kids who venture into the unknown where they had faced dreaded Team Rocket, evil Mercenaries who exploited the local populace.

Red is more a melee fighter while Green is a weapon specialist. Blue, however is more thief with a heart of gold. After meeting the Brotherhood of Steel Kanto Chapter, they have defeated Team Rocket who under payroll of Enclave. The three decided to become merchants and venture into the wildness and helping out others despite both Red and Green wonder why Blue is ripping other merchants off.

Year- 2277 CE

Three years after the Kanto event, Johto is about to receive its own heroes. Vault New Bark town has three kids who lived in the vault except for one who want to leave the vault. Gold, Crystal, and Lyra were those heroes who were about to enter the dreaded wasteland.

It all happen when Crystal’s mother went out of the vault and Crystal decides to go after her only for Gold and Lyra to enter the wasteland with their companions. They saw Johto is now scarred wasteland where they must face various mutated creatures especially mutated fusion Pokemon, raiders, slavers, and Team Rocket Remnant. The trio strumble upon a certain red hair individual wearing power armor named Silver. He was looking for his teacher, Lance who founded Brotherhood of Steel Johto chapter.

They continue their adventure into the ruins of Goldenrod city to Blackthorn settlement. In this AU, all gymleaders are mayors of what’s left of civilizations. The Team Rocket remnants are hunting the trio as they discover that Silver is no other than son of Giovanni, leader who was defeated by Kanto heroes. Silver swore to bring them down.

During their time in Maghoney town, they stopped Team Rocket’s plans to continue mutate magikarp and save Lance from the clutches of Team Rocket. He offers them intel of their operations during the past three years since their supposed disband. Lance leaves with Silver, but Lyra wants to tag along as well. Lance takes Lyra as a new recuit. Gold makes a comment that Lyra has a thing for Silver.

After strumble upon Olivine City, Gold and Crystal found Crystal’s mother was working a project to restore environment from nuclear fallout been around for 200 years. However, enclave with support of Team Rocket arrived to take the project and claimed it for their own. Brotherhood of Steel appear and saved the heroes and Crystal’s mother as they fled away from them.

They went to their headquarters in Blackthorn that they have set up operations. Crystal’s mother has told them about the information, but need supplies and equipment to make it happen. All items that was needed was from Professor Oak in Vault Pallet Town. Crystal’s mothers beg Crystal to go there and retrieve the items. Crystal accepts the mission, but Gold volunteers to help her out.

Lyra helps out the project as she becomes a scribe for Brotherhood of Steel Johto. Crystal worries that she might messed up, but confident that she will do fine on her own. Both Gold and Crystal go into the Kanto region as yet the unknown danger awaits for them. Along the way, they have met both Green and Blue who tells the duo that Red had disappeared three years ago and nobody has ever seen him.

They reach to Vault Pallet Town as Professor Oak told them about the project that Crystal’s mother was working on, but his machine was taken to Mt. Silver, where it used to be a military installation by United States during time of Sino-American War. Then he said about Red was taken over by a mysterious being which both Blue and Green mention something that during their adventures that Enclave given a task to Team Rocket to create a Pokemon bioweapon under their control.

Then radio was heard that Team Rocket is trying to reach Giovanni as they stated that enclave is coming to give Team Rockets weapons and power armor. No time to lose, they heard to Radio Tower in Goldenrod city ruins where they fought Team Rocket and their enclave allies. After defeating Archer and Silver found Giovanni.

Gold and Crystal told Brotherhood about Mt. Silver was once a military base and the machine build by Oak is there. As they venture into the mountain only to find more mutated pokemon, they entered the heart of the fortress where it was holding massive treasure of weapons, power armor, medical supplies, and vast food stockpile reserves to feed army of 10,000 for ten years. Gold collected good weapons and got his hands on older, but efficient power armor. Crystal was looking into computer files only to find that Oak and her parents were researchers for project Ho-Oh.

They wanted to use Ho-Oh’s ability sacred Ash to recover the lands was destroyed by Nuclear weapons. However, things went wrong as the recording is showing figure destroying the lab with its pokemon. The video ends with a startling with fear and horror. There was a slight chill in other side of the lab as it reveals way to the top of the mountain. What’s way ahead of them was that figure is no other than Red who is taken over by Bioweapon, Mewtwo.

They both managed to defeated Mewtwo and saved Red on time. They found the machine within the lab as they managed to take it back to Blackthorn as they managed to help the machine to produce little of Sacred Ash. Next step was to use the ash on Ho-Oh who died during the Great War. Ho-Oh was recovered and fly all over the lands to help recover the lands was scarred by nuclear war. 

Bonus side- Enclave prank

During their time in Kanto, Gold and Crystal are looking into the research complex where Crystal is using the computer into the files. Gold comes in as he trying to look for more stuff.

“This sucks. This place has barely any stuff for valuable.” Gold whined.

“Well, all science books are more worth than caps. I need to go another room. Don’t touch anything. I will be back.” Crystal said as she heads to the next room. Gold being Gold decides to type into the PC as he turns on to find various codes until suddenly…

“Enclave here. Why isn’t your video feed working?” Enclave soldier wondered as the video appear before him. This gives Gold an idea since his face not appear before him.

“We’re working on the visual link right now. I just wanted to test it.” Gold replied which Enclave is curious to know why.

“Well, your unit still doesn’t appear to be operational,, Pal. Who is this?”  Enclave soldier is wondering why this doesn’t make any sense. This gives Gold an idea to give a response.

“I’m Chosen One.” Gold smiled as he looks away.

“Chosen One, huh? Well, uh, pardon me for not blowing shushine up your ass, but I’m little too busy for this your highness.” Enclave got annoyed by that remark.

“Uh, I meant I was the one *chosen* to fix the comm-unit. Seems like nothing works anymore.” Gold responded as it was true that he has to deal with electronics on daily basis.

“Huh, ain’t it the truth. Just don’t let anyone who’s got the President’s ear hear that. You’ll making cattle-runs to New Reno ‘til the end of time, pal.” Enclave soldier doesn’t want to deal with his boss.

“president?” Gold wondered.

“Yea, you know how unhappy he gets when people complain. He takes it personal, like it’s loyalty thing. Maybe that just goes with being President of the United States. Or what’s left of ‘em.” Enclave soldier remembered as how President complains and bitches about everything.

“The President of the United States?” Gold asked again which it might be a good response.

The President of the United-Fucking-States of-America. Who’d you think I was talking about? Who the fu - who is- What - I should kick your fucking ass, who is this?“ Enclave soldier is confused of the question which he’s enraged about this.

“You’re not important enough got that information.” Gold said as he’s just trolling with him.

“Oh? A wise guy, huh? Look, I’m tracing you right now, pal. We’ll see how smart you feel with internal security all over fucking ass, dickhead.” Enclave soldier is not lying on that part as it made Gold pissed off about it.

“I’ve got your trace for you, and I can show you just where to shove it.” Gold remarked which Enclave soldier least surprise by it.

“Ah, a few more moments and I’ll have your sorry ass in a sling. Hey, wait a minute. This can’t be right.. I’ve got you somewhere on Japan.”

“That can’t be right. I’m at the comm desk right across the hall from you…” Gold said as Enclave soldier suddenly realized what he meant.

“Made you look. What a rube.” Gold laughed his ass off which only enraged him except something hit him in the screen.

“I’ve got you, at Kanto region, Bill’s lab. Ah, well, why don’t you just sit tight and I” order up a little celebration for ya. Including fireworks.“ Enclave soldier got the trace on him which Gold gulped.

“Oh, goodie. I just lo-ove fireworks. Send me a lot.” Gold remarked that he hopes to grab more stuff.

“Yeah well, whoever you are, I just dispatched a verti-assault team to your location. Have a nice day.”  Enclave mentions it which Gold begs to wonder.

“And what are they going to do?” Gold begs the question.

“Usually they just go in shooting. They let someone else sit though the ashes to figure out what was going on.” Enclave soldier described on what they do.

“Oh, now you’ve got me all scared, I need to change my undies.” Gold sarcastic responded which nothing guffs the soldier.

 "Goodbye. Next news on you will  be when I read the after-action report.“ Enclave hopes they kill him.

"Hey, you just went on my list.” Gold swore he’s next on his list to kill for his pokemon to do. 

Several minutes later

Both Gold and Crystal are trapped by Enclave soldiers who ambushed the duo. Crystal looks at him wondering what caused this to happen.

“What did you do!?!” Crystal shouted as they fight back against Enclave soldiers.