#so theres less will they wont they drama more (this person is an extension of my heart and i trust them to always be beside me)

[nihiltism]

oh is feeling a looming sense of dread when you see a romantic subplot in the distance even if it's not a straight one not normal

[isaacathom]

i mean my issue is SHOULD the docs daughter get a unique design? like.... shes not a character. she exists, in the world, you can fight her in the big city and post game you can go to the little town where she and rhia live with Doc and you can interact with her about the stuff that happened (as she has returned home following the Chaos thing) but like.... shes not a haracter??? unless the ~post game~ involves her in some way, which it could, id be down for her being relevant in the post game, though idk how. esp considering i dunno what the post game would be. like... theres a couple of ideas. Hunting CEO, hunting Rhia, and finding the e4 member that fucked off. because like, the WHOLE reason you can have Rhia/Elliot as an e4 member is because someone left and on short notice they called elliot to fill in (and he could pass that duty to rhia in reconcile ending)

so like. what. docs daughter is only relevant to a Rhia hunt, which also wouldnt work in a reconcile end because Rhia’s in the e4 and shes fine. in an end where she and elliot dont make up, she COULD vanish, but i feel like itd be way more fun to have her whereabout be unknown in that case. besides, where’d she go? probably Unova to stay with the man whose legally her father but bear in mind theres fake paperwork involved. or shes out hunting CEO, which she can easily do anyway (though branching cutscenes in a Hunt CEO route based on whether shes there or not might be fun)

one idea is, Hunt CEO, and the docs daughter is in charge. why? her dear dads request. because now she knows he was in team whatsit (because of his ENTIRE FAMILY shes the only one who didnt know, poor thing) and she wants to get rid of all thats left of it so her dad can live a normal life, or something. she calls you to her home town, and she talks you through it, you go on a couple of lil trips around the region to fight team whatsit members. and you might encounter Rhia doing the same thing. like on one occasion, she saves your hide. her outfits change based on the end (which would be demonstrated in the Reconcile/Split cutscene with Elliot) so you’d have a visual signifier to tell them apart. but her purpose is different, too. sorta. in reconcile, her hunting down Team Whatsit is part of The Deal she’s made, like she’s doing this for the police. in split, shes doing it for herself. fun lil split. shed probably show up when you finally confront CEO at the end of the post game. the docs daughter would be there too. the doc is nowhere to be seen.

maybe CEO even kidnaps the docs daughter. that’d be fun. itd convince the Doc to join her in reforming team whatsit after its shattering at your hands, and it could also convince Rhia to come back. of course, it does the opposite. DOC is MIA for the postgame (in that hes in Extensive Talks with the Police) and Rhia is fucking livid at the daughters kidnapping, no matter what. she’d contact you for the final bit. you find her where you’d normally find the daughter. no matter what ‘end’ you got, shes dressed for a Fucking Fight. like, the outfits would be different to reflect the reconcile/split, but shes out for blood.

oh dude. i also wanna play up the ‘pokemon can hurt ya’ thing here. like, you and rhia approach CEO. you can see the daughter in a cell nearby. Rhia tells you to free her while she deals with CEO. heres the thing - ceo KNOWS rhia is probably better than her in a fight. she also knows you’re better than her in a fight, youve beaten her before. so what she does is she tries to take you BOTH out before you can summon pokemon. uses like, a carnivine to whack yall around. sends Rhia flying off screen to the daughters absolute wails. wraps you up and holds you high. shes not going to let you two ruin her plans. if you wont join her, you will be Removed. then. idk. legendary saves your ass. your bff appears. thatd be fun. idk i just like the idea of rhia, regardless of route, just getting fucking wasted for Drama. not something where Lance goes ‘move’ and is implied to have hyper beamed a guy whose totally fine, like you see a woman standing tall and proud and then shes vanished for like..... 5 minutes and all you can tell of her condition is the only other person in the room wailing while youre focused on the Big Bad.

then you beat Ceo with the power of your Divine Purity Of Heart and you knock her out, so that you can call the police. but they arrive very shortly after, before you can. Rhia, over in a corner, near curled into a ball, sent out a message to them while you fought CEO before she passed out. the Doc is there. you free the daughter and she and him run to Rhia’s side while the police take you aside and thank you while carrying CEO away.

no matter what end she got, you will go home and be called by the docs daughter back to her place. when you arrive, Rhia is there, with a few bandages but otherwise alright, and wearing her regular (per end) outfit. and then some gushy shit.

though i also like the idea of you directly saving her life too.  not just in the ‘oh i stopped CEO and she wouldve killed you if i hadnt’ im talking like ‘took a bullet for you babe’. though maybe Elliot should fill that role. ooh, that makes sense. means regardless of the ending they got (Reconcile/split) he comes to save her. like, rhia gets knocked away and you get a nice visceral thud off screen that sounds pretty brutal. daughter screams. youre frozen in place (or held in place, haha, there you go), and CEO taunts you and the aughter over it. the camera pans over to Rhia struggling to get up, and you see CEO prepare to deal Rhia a (probably) fatal blow. and then, BAM. its elliot. hes here. he’s in the way. he’s on the ground. Rhia screams. daughter screams. CEO screams. you scream too, probably, but less because of elliot and more because the carnivine was so surprised it just dropped you. not far, mind you, like half a metre, but you fall on your ass in surprise. Rhia freaks out immediately, like shes losing her shit, because even if this is split ending where she hates elliot, elliot just ‘took a bullet’ for her, holy shit, holy shit, oh my god, oh fuck, oh fuck, is he ok, oh my fucking god.

and then she makes eye contact with you. you nod. you charge CEO while shes distracted. a pokemon battle ensues. you cant see whats happening while youre battling, of course, because thatd be Ridiculously Unfeasible (beyond how unfeasible this shit is already). you fight CEO. she totters backward and recalls her carnivine (her last pokemon, like itd be programmed in that the pokemon that wrapped you up is the last pokemon she sends out). and shes furious. and she actually reaches for one of the doc’s daughters pokemon, which she’d comandeered when she kidnapped her. and she summons it. its the pokemon that Rhia gave to the daughter. it takes one look around. it fucks up the CEO’s day. just. whap. there she goes. seeya darl. immediate karma. it roars loud, nigh shakes the building.

you run forward and grab the cell key from CEO. you free the daughter. she sprints to Rhia and Elliots side, and you join them.

is elliot ok? probably not. not like, dead, but like, Fucked Up. in fact, itd be cool if this affected split route, because it means he cant perform e4 duties, and rhia’d take charge. meaning theres a change in the e4 in the post game if you do it. fuck. fuck imagine that. only in split ending though. him being out of action in reconcile doesnt affect the e4 because Rhia already took that role on his behalf. but like. hes fucked up. the daugher is a doctor, shes working on him, you grabbed her pokeballs while you grabbed the key and she summons like a chansey and shit.  everyones frantic. theres closure to the rhia/elliot thing, esp for split route, because now rhia has to accept that elliot has changed. on some level. hence she then takes his e4 spot like she does in reconcile. that’d be sweet. dunno how itd really impact a reconcile route though. idk thats dumb.

then the police come and they take elliot and CEO away. they came with some docs because they expected this wouldnt be pretty. maybe DOC is there. he and his daughter/s can have a brief reunion. you all leave, Rhia leaning on doc and daughter.

then the daughter calls you to somewhere else. like, the city pokemon center. you meet her there, and she takes you to the hospital. you get to go further in. elliots there. hes smiling. depending on rhia end, shes either at his side (reconcile) or standing outside the door (split)

theres not much to it after that but i do like the idea of the rhia/elliot thing progressing. involve the daughter as a supporting character. though again, it is weird to continue rhia/elliot past a reconcile route. split route is fun, because it forces rhia to acknowledge she was wrong about him on some level. but with reconcile, she already DID that, when elliot refused to run away in the skyscraper. so theres no point in having the revelation again. hmmmm. maybe it completes the thing for her. because even in reconcile, shes hesitant about elliot, shes not sure if him being ‘good’ was temporary or not. and him taking the shot for her just proves it to her that yea, elliot is a good guy, he did bad shit but hes a good guy, he’s changed, hes a better person. like, no matter what happened in the main story or back story, elliot IS a better person by the end of the game as a whole. at least by Rhia’s metric, though i imagine the player would agree that him fleeing from a person in need to saving that same persons life is a positive change, regardless of the fact that him saving rhia gets his ass so thoroughly whooped hes out of commission for the rest of the game (which is admittedly just post game sandbox but STILL you know)

idk. that stuffs complicated

so i should probably give the daughter a name and a unique design, huh. based on the other doctors (which is a trainer class, no doubt), but with a unique hairstyle and way of presenting herself. maybe she even has some similarities to Rhia. yknow. cause theyre a cute couple no matter what end you get.