#why is the skarmory so round?

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Pokemon Emerald Ralts Only Part 8: And There Were Birds

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7

With the addition of Surf, a lot of Hoenn has officially opened up to us. Unfortunately for Ralts, there's not a lot to actually get. It doesn't learn Ice Beam, which is a bit of a shame, so it mostly is delegated to cleaning up the various Rare Candies lying around the region for later use. We also clear out New Mauville to gain access to:!

The TM for Thunderbolt. I'm not going to teach this now however, since Shock Wave's ability to ignore accuracy drops I think is going to be really important for Sidney specifically. Calm Mind and Psychic should allow us to get past Juan easily enough as well.

My plan from this point is to avoid as much as the optional training as I can while taking the EXP that you can miss out on. This means clearing out, for now, the Weather Institute and Winona's gym trainers.

There's a fight against Shelley in the Institute, but it's not really worth talking about. Ralts is strong enough at this point that neither Pokemon is really all that threatening, and we can freely use our powerful moves on the rest of the trainers here.

This is thanks to the handy dealing bed available here :)

You might be wondering about the Rival battle, and while I did take screenshots, the rival in Emerald is really quite bad, even more so than in the previous two generations of Pokemon. Pelipper loves to use Protect on the first turn, giving me the ability to set-up with Calm Mind, and then just start blasting. Perhaps the only unique thing with this fight is Brendan deciding to send out Combusken versus Ralts over Lombre. I'm not really sure why that is.

Let's skip ahead to Winona, because there's actually not a lot to talk about between the two fights. Ralts is Level 45, above another damage rounding threshold, and most importantly, Winona's fastest Pokemon is actually slower than Norman's fastest Pokemon. This means by making sure we outsped the Slaking, we naturally outspeed everything on Winona's team. Neat!

Well that is going to be an issue. Not OHKOing the Swablu here opens us up to a potential loss condition: Swablu going for Perish Song. If the Swablu does that, it's a quick reset since there's nothing we can do about it. We'll faint before we can beat Winona. Thankfully here it just goes for Mirror Move, which is a hilariously bad call, and hits up with a frankly pathetic Psychic.

That doesn't stop the AI from seeing any opportunity it can to royally screw us over. This is a 10% chance! Surely this won't fuck us up later in the fight.

Next up is Tropius, and while its quite bad, it's not the Pokemon I'm intended on setting up on. I'm a little worried about how much a STAB Aerial Ace will do to use, and just KO it with two uses of Psychic. The thing I noticed here though is that it doesn't go for Aerial Ace, and instead goes for Solarbeam. If it does that consistently, that's actually going to be a free turn of set-up for us, although we won't OHKO at +1.

Next up is Pelipper and I hate this Pokemon. So many of you probably remember all the annoying Pelipper in-game that caused you issues. I intended to use Calm Mind turn 1, predicting the Protect it was going to use, because Pelipper loves using Protect on turn 1.

Of course, I don't get it. It goes instead for Supersonic, and wins the coin flip and confuses me. That's just dandy. Shock Wave from there KOes it very easily, but I'm still quite annoyed about the whole situation. Life the AI finds a way.

I have already taken some confusion damage by the time the Skarmory comes out, and Shock Wave isn't a OHKO here either. It barely misses on the KO, so that tells me I'm probably going to want +2 for this fight. It hits me with a Sand-Attack, further increasing my luck-based woes, before going down.

Next-up is Altaria, and Altaria is extremely specially bulky. I'm not expecting to OHKO this Pokemon, but it's also not particularly strong in any way so I think I'll be fine.

Unfortunately, we don't even get to see the damage ranges. Confusion damage along with Earthquake and Dragonbreath do enough to knock Ralts out. If we hadn't had our Sp.Def lowered we probably wouldn't have bit it to the Dragonbreath, but it really didn't matter.

Reset Counter: 30

This leaves us with a bit of a conundrum. The Swablu is pretty dangerous, but there's a clear path to victory in setting up to +2 and sweeping from there. But, finding that time is going to be a little difficult: my best options are the Tropius and the Pelipper, but the Pelipper comes with some risk attached to it as well.

I could level up to Level 48 and see if I get the KO range with Psychic, but I'm really not sure I need to do that. The fight seems very winnable at Level 45, and Ralts is a Slow growth rate Pokemon. Thunderbolt would also guarantee the KO, but as previously discussed, I think learning the move now would be short-sighted.

The plan I eventually decided on was to Calm Mind turn 1 on the Swablu, KO it, Calm Mind on the Tropius when it went to use Solarbeam, KO it, and then KO the next three Pokemon. This isn't a risk free strategy, but Swablu isn't guaranteed to use Perish Song and it can't do anything else to reasonably threaten me.

It works pretty much on the first try. Altaria's Earthquake doesn't even do that much damage, but you might have noticed that a +2 Psychic doesn't OHKO it. Yeah, it's really THAT bulky.

With that we have another Gym Leader down. Compared to Wattson, the last three Gym Leaders have all been fairly straightforward. I'm sure that will continue-

oh no

OH GOD

[alphakuriboh]

Well I’m awake early. Grudgingly. Stupid door bell.

Anyway, Johto is less of an offender than Kanto overall on the “kinda boring” scale, and has some real hits. It’s not really the Pokémon that has me so overall eh on the gen.

@crystalelemental I will fight you for Snubbull

S Tier - Chikorita is baby. One of my top 3 favorite starters as a starter itself. Furret is one of the best rat lines, agreed. I love the Togepi line. Mega Amphy - look at that FABULOUS hair, you go funky dragon mega. Only good gen 2 mega. Espeon was my favorite Pokémon for the first three gens I played, and is still second overall. Dunsparce is great, it’s so dopey. I have a build a bear Snubbull cause I got attached leading up to the Detective Pikachu movie. Skarmory is in my bird bias. Blissey, my girl. I like stall tactics in the regular game (throwback to scaring the hell out of Pixelmon players with a team of six fully EV trained Blisseys). I like Entei most of the beasts. Lugia is great (I’m gonna be generous to a lot of legendaries oops). Onion fairy my beloved.

A Tier - The rest of the Chiko line and the Cynda line are really good. Sentret is good just not evolved. Noctowl line is cool. Pichu and Cleffa are some of the most successful pre-evo additions to me. The non-Mega Ampharos set is great. Umbreon isn’t Espeon but it’s still an Eeveelution. I love pufferfish so Qwilfish gets a pass despite I know it was considered much more forgettable prior to Hisui. Don’t fuckle with Shuckle. Corsola is a little demon. Delibird is funny. Porygon2 is so round. Miltank has REALLY grown on me the last couple years for various reasons. The other two beasts in the trio.

B Rank - Okay Crobat I could have put you higher, but here you are. You have absolved Golbat’s sins but you’re still not cute. Rest of tier is mainly “yeah I like you”. Ho-oh is. Fine. I don’t have the nostalgia for it that a lot of people do.

C Tier - Meh. Stuff that’s fine but I don’t really care that much? The one mistake is I should’ve put Sunkern higher cause I have a soft spot for it, but I auto-piloted it. Whoops. Also T-Tar isn’t really that great sorry thems the breaks.

D Tier - Why? Either boring design or weird evolutions.

E Tier - I never liked Quagsire line or Heracross. Tyrogue is an awful design, Smoochum is an unnecessary addition to a line that should’ve been forgotten. Why are so many of the Gen 2 Megas so ugly?

Fuck You - Aipom is a little bitch. Haunted me in early games, absolute nightmare fuel in Detective Pikachu. Probably my least favorite Pokémon period.

Overall feels a lot like a step up from Kanto, if still a lot in the average range. Maybe not as bad because there’s 51 less filler ‘mons, lol.

#pokemon #pokemon regional tier list #kuri babbles #overall Johto does have a lot of strong contenders! the Pokémon aren’t where my kind of pseudo-apathy stems from I suppose

[kokorowoutsu-a]

-- Sinnoh Arc II: Journeying (IX)

The journey to Canalave City clear across the region and how to get there, plus meeting one of the Elite Four was on Leon’s mind. He knew Bahamut would be happy to fly him as far as the Corviknight flew... but he didn’t want to tire out his partner like that, and a Taxi Service hadn’t been brought to Sinnoh quite yet. That left either walking and taking days or weeks to get there, or... be smart and take the ship from Sunyshore Port that would make a trip around the southern tip of the region and make it as far as he could before flying. It was unorthodox and sounded crazy in his head, but really, he was known for such things on the battlefield... so why not this?

Booking a ticket and catching the ship, the trip was fairly smooth over the next few days, giving Leon and his ‘mons a chance to have some time and rest. At about the midway trip when they had called and announced they were near an obscure Park that had been built within the last few years, Leon only had to put away his pokemon, pull out Bahamut, and let his old friend do the rest. While some people yelled and called after him, Bahamut took to the skies and headed straight for the land mass appearing into view -- it was blanketed by a forest and upon touchdown, was home to a large building and a muddy path that led to it and then back the way it came.

Leon returned Bahamut then and with Lancelot leading the way, the two were heading back down the routes at hand over the next few days, trainer battles and seeing wild pokemon included, and soon finding themselves in Sandgem Town. After a brief respite, the next leg of the journey saw them heading to Jubilife City. Once in Jubilife City, Leon took a day to rest with his pokemon and touch base with his family and friends in Galar, and then Ashe who had just finished something he had not expected; a Elite Four run of Paldea. She had looked terrible after not being after to go through with it, but now she looked tired but triumphant.

After hearing about her Lapras and its condition some days back, that had set him back a bit, but she had pressed him to continue. She wanted him to see his journey through to the end... and so here he was, packing things up the next morning and heading out and heading this time, west, and towards a small fishing port. The waters were a saltwater inlet of sort that supposedly led to Canalave City. Calling on an old friend in his Lanturn who he had swapped in for just this, he and his pokemon crossed the waters and traveled the saltwater inlet until they came to a piece of land and touched down. They had had to stop once for camp on land and to let the Lanturn rest, but now that they had arrived, they could safely head into the city that had appeared through some trees.

Upon arrival, first thing in Canalave City, Leon left his Lanturn with the Pokemon Center for healing and then it was right over to the gym where its Steel-type Gym Leader, Byron, was waiting just after facing another opponent. In a four on four, Byron choosing Skarmory, Aggron which would be Mega Evolving, Steelix, and his ace, Bastiodon, Leon chose to go with Bedivere, Iseult, Celeste, and Bahamut to round things off with Mega Evolution. The clash would then begin.

First up was Bedivere against the Skarmory, which with despite how fragile Skarmory was known to be, gave Bedivere a run for her money. She was able to hold her own, however, and take him down, but not without taking some damage. Next was the Steelix which unfortunately took her down, but not before sustaining damage itself. Out came Iseult who after confusing the Steelix, proceeded to wittle it down to a point Leon could change out pokemon for Celeste who took it down in a fiery onslaught. The Bastiodon was the same strategy, but after taking out Iseult, Celeste was next on the list but only after it came at a tie. That left Leon with Bahamut versus the Aggron who both mega evolved upon the battle beginning. A clash of moves and Bahamut having to be face to avoid the Stone Edges and other rock-type moves. After a long fight, the Aggron finally fell and Bahamut landed, breaking a sweat but reasonably so. 

Mega Evolution was no joke and Leon needed to train more for it.

Upon receiving the badge and Bahamut exiting Mega Evolution, Leon exited the gym, heading to the pokemon center to pick up his Lanturn and turn over his pokemon that needed healing... and then to touch base with everyone yet again.

It was then, at dinner with his pokemon, he heard on the wind about a place called ‘Iron Island’ and how it was a place people went to train, and his interest was peaked...

---

Sunyshore City -> BOAT RIDE -> Route 221 -> Route 220 -> Route 219 -> Sandgem Town -> Route 202 -> Jubilife City -> Route 218 -> Canalave City !!

Leon Progress (Team In Rotation): Charizard (Bahamut), Decidueye (Alolan/Celeste), Lycanroc (Midday/Cavall), Ampharos (Gawain), Sandslash (Alolan/Poli’ahu), Armarouge (Bedivere), Lilligant (Unovan/Iseult), Luxray (Lancelot) – 7 badges

#keeping up with the latest on pokegram ;; updates #leon ;; ic #ooc; an extra long journey this time with some unorthodox methods because i wanted to build this up #ooc; iron island will show up next entry -- and yes leon's journey is ahead of ashe's so by the time he's in canalave she's done with her #ooc; elite four run and im pondering if area zero 2 happens or not for.... reasons that JUST CAME OUT... im looking at you walking wake

[furbyq]

Can I ask for 44 on the OC asks for Ravenna and Mordecai? Or Pokémon teams for everyone idc! :)

ah that’s a neat question to get! thank you for asking it :D

i’ll go ahead and do ravenna and mordecai first, but i’ll do everyone under the cut.

ravenna’s favorite type would be fire. i imagine her having a specifically shiny chandelure and then a regular ninetales, houndoom, and volcarona. the rest of her team is rounded out by a mismagius and a milotic, with the milotic being a good option against the water types that could otherwise sweep her team.

mordecai’s favorite type would probably be either fairy or dark, but his team would be a mix of different types instead of one-type heavy like ravenna’s. he would definitely have a delcatty as his signature pokemon (lol) and then also an espeon he doesn’t like as much that eventually betrays him because he’s an evil character, a grimmsnarl, a nidoking, an aegislash, and a galarian rapidash.

makenna’s team is fighting focused! she would have an incineroar, a mienshao, a breloom, and a lucario, and then she also would go for a skarmory and a glaceon, partly for type coverage. 

lavender likes ghost types. he would have a gengar, a banette, and a dusknoir, followed by a weevile, venomoth, and crobat for more type coverage.

i don’t know a lot about bowen’s team for sure, but i think he would have a raticate AND an alolan raticate, a rotom-wash, and then three alakazams to round out his team. i’m not entirely sure why.

eve’s favorite pokemon type in canon is poison, so she would have a poison-focused team! salazzle, scolipede, gliscor, nidoqueen, dragalge, and a probably a florges as a wild card. 

erick likes birds so his team would be mostly flying. i think his favorite pokemon is fletchinder, so definitely one of those and a staraptor and honchkrow. the rest of his team would consist of a lurantis, a scizor, and a solrock. 

molly’s signature pokemon would be a very powerful azumarill. the rest of her team would be a lanturn, a slowking, a froslass, a galarian ninetales, and a metagross just for aesthetic honestly.

melchior’s main types would be a mix of ground and dragon. so definitely a flygon, a golurk, a kommo-o, and then maybe like... a steelix, a tyranitar, and a parasect. i think melchior’s team would be overall more resistant to ravenna’s, so that’d be interesting if they battled. 

vincent’s team would be mainly dark. he’d have a hydreigon and an absol but i also like the concept of like... a seeing-eye umbreon? also a spiritomb, a sigilyph, and a tsareena.

lucien is honestly hard because i don’t think he’d ever pick good choices in a pokemon game or the universe if this was an au. he’d go by appearance. so definitely a luxray, xatu, maractus, noivern, starmie, and politoed. honestly it’s not the worst team, but it’s not the best.

viola would mainly use grass and fairy types. so she’d have a meganium, a shiinotic, a lilligant, a hatterene, a sylveon, and an aromatisse.

cassandra would use all snake pokemon without even considering types. so arbok, seviper, serperior, sandaconda, a dragonair holding an eviolite, and a centiskorch. that’s her entire team. 

i think that’s everyone akdjslksajdklsa

#replies #oc asks #i should tag every oc but im lazy so #oc tag #cosmeticalsims

[popatochisssp]

Watch out for Pyre (Underfell Papyrus) and his posse!

One of these things is not like the others~

Charizard: “Charizard flies around the sky in search of powerful opponents. It breathes fire of such great heat that it melts anything. However, it never turns its fiery breath on any opponent weaker than itself.” Well, Pyre just so happened to be one such powerful opponent, and when he beat it, he earned its respect! It sticks around now, Pyre under the impression that it knows if it stays with him, it’ll have plenty more tough battles to fight in the future, but actually... Charizard considers him a comrade in arms, of sorts, and at this point it would even stick around if it witnessed Pyre losing a fight.

Gliscor: This one... This one was lurking around the house, hunting wild creatures. Pyre saw it on a few occasions and observed its strength and skill: “It dances silently through the sky. When it approaches prey, it can land a critical hit in an instant.” After a few days of this, he realized... this thing’s big, dumb grinning face... it reminded him of his brother. He weirdly couldn’t shake the urge to catch it after that and well, that was that. Its adjustment period has been a little rough after being a feral Pokémon for so much of its life and Pyre almost never disciplines it like he does/did for his other Pokémon companions, which leads to it being kinda spoiled and kinda entitled. Pyre’s bro...is not best pleased with this creature being in the house and making messes of everything and he tends to be the one to lay down the law for it when it really acts up, but if he’s ‘Stern Uncle,’ that essentially makes Pyre ‘Fun Dad.’ Gliscor always knows who to go to when Uncle gives it an answer it doesn’t like, while Dad lets it climb all over him-- literally, it loves to cling onto Pyre’s back throughout the day to the point that you could almost mistake it for a lumpy cape. Manners aside, the attachment is strong and Gliscor’s not goin’ anywhere!

Houndoom: “The flames it breathes when angry contain toxins. If they cause a burn, it will hurt forever.” ...Luckily, being a skeleton, Pyre has no skin to get burned, so he’s never been shy of this Pokémon...though that might be because he’s had it since it was a little baby Houndour and knows he’s earned its absolutely loyalty in the time since. He’s always had a soft spot for vulnerable things and when he found it injured and separated from its parents or pack or trainer or whoever was meant to be watching it, he was immediately driven to protect it-- and so he did! Especially now that it’s evolved, he takes it pretty much everywhere he goes, flaunting its intimidating appearance and its obedience to him to anyone he crosses paths with. It’s a great deterrent when you’ve got a Pokémon whose very howl makes people afraid at your beck and call, but that’s just the show for the public. At home, he’s very affectionate with it, letting it up on the furniture and playing fetch and buying all sorts of chew toys for it. It’s surprisingly not spoiled in spite of all this pampering, though, and will always sit at attention the moment Pyre gives the word. He is its pack leader, after all!

Jigglypuff: He...mostly keeps this one at home. It kills his rep to be seen with something so round and soft and pink, so that’s kinda the way it has to be... He found it while it was singing, and I’m sure you know where that went. “Nothing can avoid falling asleep hearing a Jigglypuff's song. The sound waves of its singing voice match the brain waves of someone in a deep sleep.” Well, that said, Pyre held out as long as he possibly could to listen to its song-- since it looked so upset that the rest of its audience had already fallen asleep. When he eventually did wake up, he found it on top of him and it wouldn’t let him leave without it. He’s probably the only person who’s heard almost all of its song and that makes him special!!! Pyre begrudgingly accepted its presence and snaps at anyone who finds out about it and has a snarky comment, telling them that it’s useful, it helps him sleep, fuck you!!! ...But tsundere as he is, he often crouches down to its level and gives it little pep talks about its dreams of fame: “THE WORLD’S NOT READY FOR YOUR TALENT YET, BUT AS SOON AS YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO SING WITHOUT SINGING, IT’S OVER FOR ALL THESE MOTHERFUCKERS, YOU’RE GOING TO BE A STAR!” And he wonders why it sticks to him like glue... 🙄

Skarmory: Pyre went out of his way to get one of these. The second he saw it, he fell in love with it: “Skarmory is entirely encased in hard, protective armor. This Pokémon flies at close to 190 mph. It slashes foes with its wings that possess swordlike cutting edges.” It’s big, it’s fast, it’s sharp, it’s everything he could ask for in a Pokémon partner! It is a lot of maintenance, helping it preen and shed its extra-sharp feathers, keeping it from rusting in the rain, but he’s committed to keeping it fighting fit, in top condition at all times! It does make him a little reluctant to use it in battles, though-- it’s tough and can take the hits and be fine, but serious dents and scuffs make its trainer sweat and think about pulling it back early... Pyre’s...trying to get over that, because it’s clear that this one is a fighter and loves the heat of glorious battle almost as much as he does, and it’ll just shed those damaged feathers at some point and be good as new again! It wants to fight, let it fight!!!

Zoroark: This one found him, and he’s not sure why. (He never really made the connection between the pitiful looking orphan begging for scraps on the street that he gave a Cinnamon Bunny to, and the fluffy little Zorua he found sleeping on his pillow that night, bold as brass.) He didn’t try very hard to get rid of it, though, and he definitely hasn’t come to regret that since he found his new friend was capable of some damn impressive illusions. He battles with it a little, knowing it can certainly handle itself (especially after its evolution), but mostly he likes to leave it to guard the house while he’s out for whatever reason. “If it thinks humans are going to discover its den, Zoroark shows them visions that make them wander around in the woods.” which is really a perfect use of its powers, as far as Pyre’s concerned! ...Well. There might be one use he likes better, but he’s certainly not going to tell anybody else about the times Zoroark conjures up realistic sets and scenery to help Pyre keep his theatrical skills sharp without having go anywhere he might be discovered in (what he considers) his most embarrassing hobby. It makes for a pretty great co-star in these private performances now that it’s capable of mimicking speech to read lines with its trainer!

#undertale #pokemon #headcanons #papyrus #underfell #uf!papyrus #charizard #gliscor #houndoom #jigglypuff #skarmory #zoroark

[antialiasis]

May Meets Her Shadow

So, back in 2014, when I had either just recently posted chapter 64 or was still wrapping up edits on it, my friend and beta-reader @elyvorg got me to play Persona 4. This is a JRPG one of whose core concepts is that each person has a 'Shadow', the thoughts and feelings that they repress given tangible form. Your Shadow initially looks like a duplicate of you, only with glowing yellow eyes, and confronts you with all the aspects of yourself that you don't want to admit to, trying to goad you into denying them. If you do, the Shadow becomes more powerful, growing into a highly symbolic monster form that attacks you; the only way to truly get rid of them is to accept that the thoughts they represent are part of you.

Basically, in July 2014, spurred by conversations with elyvorg, I wrote a quick non-canon extra theoretically set during chapter 64, wherein May meets her Shadow. It's not great, being only vaguely edited, and obviously inherently pretty unsubtle by the nature of it, but I thought I might as well post it here anyway, now that it isn't a spoiler for future chapters anymore (as it was at the time that I wrote it).

The cave was identical to every other cave she’d slogged through, except for the strange ambient light that must have been coming off the walls even though it didn’t seem like it, dim but enough to see by fairly comfortably without Charizard’s help. The tunnel wound this way and that but the light didn’t change, and though she told herself this was convenient, saved Charizard’s energy, something about it wigged her out.

When she rounded the final corner, she noticed the end of the tunnel and the associated mixture of relief and disappointment before she noticed the human figure that stood facing the wall. She’d barely had time to register how strange that was before it turned around, two brightly glowing yellow eyes fixing on her from a face that looked uncannily like her own.

“You,” said her own voice from a mouth just like hers, twisted into a contemptuous snarl. The mere sound of it sent hair rising on the back of her neck.

“The hell is this?” The first thing that occurred to her was the New Bark Town kids trying to play a trick on her, but that was absurd – how would they even know where she was? “Who are you? A Ditto?”

“Who do you think?” the maybe-Ditto said reproachfully. “I’m you. The real you. Your Shadow.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She glanced warily around for a trainer hiding somewhere, but there was nowhere to hide.

“You’re a failure,” the Shadow hissed. “You tried so hard to be Champion, and look how that went. You tried to be a goody-two-shoes, and you haven’t changed a bit. Robin can do everything better than you can, and she’s almost two years younger than you. Why do you even bother?”

May stared, her mouth dry, standing her ground firmly – whatever the hell was going on, she would not be the one to run from it. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded again.

“You know who I am,” it said coldly. “I’m always there, in your mind. Don’t pretend you don’t know. You can hide from everyone else but you can’t hide from yourself.”

She gritted her teeth, wrapping her arms around her body against the strange chill she was feeling. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re an idiot,” the Shadow growled, taking a step towards her, and another; she almost stepped back before she forced herself not to. “The Shadow is your true self and everything else is a play you put on! How can you not get it? I guess it’s your constant denial of –”

May’s fist smashed into the Shadow’s nose before she knew what she was doing. The other her lost its balance and fell to the cave floor, blood trickling from its nostril. May’s clenched fist trembled.

The Shadow looked surprised for only a moment, raising a hand up to wipe the blood from its face, before its mouth twisted into a grin that turned into a cruel, mocking laugh. Hearing it in her own voice chilled her to the bone.

“Go on!” the Shadow said between gales of laughter. “Deny me! I dare you!”

“Shut up!” May shouted before she could stop herself. “Just – shut – up!”

“I never shut up,” the Shadow said, still grinning maniacally. “Don’t you know that? Go on! Just say –”

May’s foot flew forward, hitting the Shadow’s chin, and as its head jerked back into the rock behind it, its words abruptly cut short before it slumped limply down by the cave wall, her heart took a terrifying lurch and her entire mind froze in horror –

And then it started to chuckle again, rising up drunkenly like a poorly-controlled marionette, and the hair rose on the back of her neck. “Yes!” it said. “Hit me! Isn’t that the only way you know to solve your problems, with mindless violence?”

Everything within her twisted in revulsion and she was kicking, kicking, kicking at its ribs again, trying to get it away, get it to stop and shut up –

And still it laughed, laughed, laughed, spitting blood out of its mouth and clutching at its stomach. “You want to kill me,” it gasped, grin still plastered on its bloodied face, “don’t you, just like you wanted to kill Taylor?”

And she stiffened, her leg frozen mid-strike.

“You wanted it to happen,” it continued, its voice cracked. “You wanted him dead and it happened. Why aren’t you happy, me?”

“You’re not me!” she screamed, and the Shadow broke into a triumphant grin, cackling victoriously as it began to change.

Its skin bubbled grotesquely as its form grew into something monstrous and huge. Her hand was on her Pokéballs before she even knew it; she backed away frantically and threw three balls at once. “Attack it!”

The Shadow’s shape became humanoid, only its head was strange and misshapen. It wasn’t until Floatzel, Spirit and Skarmory had materialized between them that she realized, a cold shiver trickling down her spine, that it was wearing an executioner’s hood.

“You should all die,” the Shadow’s strange, echoing voice whispered, and circles of darkness appeared under the Pokémon’s feet. She wanted to tell them to get away, but her voice was gone; tendrils of darkness pulled at the Pokémon’s feet, but they quickly shook them off and were on the attack.

If nothing else, her Pokémon were strong. Something disheartened her about how they fought while she stood paralyzed behind them, her fists clenched so hard it hurt, but they did it. The monster succumbed to their attacks, and when it collapsed, its form deflated back into the bloodied, coughing, yellow-eyed copy of her lying by the cave wall.

Floatzel looked sharply between her and the Shadow in confusion. “What?” she piped up.

“What… is that?” Spirit asked, backing away from it. Skarmory just looked up at her, puzzled.

By the wall, the Shadow coughed again, still conscious, if only barely so.

“I’m sorry,” she managed to say, her voice hoarse, before she recalled them and was left alone with the Shadow.

She walked up to it. Her legs felt horribly weak, even though they shouldn’t.

“I guess you are, huh?” she said quietly. “I don’t know how, but…”

The Shadow’s yellow eyes stared at her; she shuddered.

“You’re right. I wanted him to die. And do you know why I’m not happy?” A wisp of a smile played around the Shadow’s lips. “Because I was wrong.”

Her voice shook, but the Shadow nodded ever so slightly, and slowly its body dissolved into a strange golden dust and disappeared.

#tqftl #persona 4 #actual writing #violence cw

[mandl27]

Before the Mystery: Chapter 1 - In the Future

Everything is normal for a Pokémon battle enthusiast in New Bark Town until he gets a dream from Palkia tasking him with saving another world's dying future. It seems simple, but of course, no journey with Pokémon ever goes as planned, much less so when he becomes a Pokémon himself...

While this fic is derived from a run of Explorers of Sky I recorded a while back (nine months!), I'm taking creative liberties with many of its events, creating a fic I'd describe as "like canon, unless noted".

“Matthew…” I hear. The voice sounds distant, yet I heard it from within, as if the voice was projected directly to my mind.

“Hello?” I call out, looking over the violet array of holes, each a different shape and size. They seemed arranged before me in a completely non-Euclidian grid.

“Matthew…” the voice says again.. This time, it sounds clearer, being a deep baritone that conveys an aura of power. “We need you… This entire world needs you.”

“Needs me?” I repeat, thoroughly confused by what this voice seems to be laying out. “For what?”

“First, allow me to introduce myself. I am Palkia, the Legendary Pokémon of space. Though I am not the Palkia of this dimension. In the dimension I am from…time has stopped,” the voice continues.

“Time stopped?” I ask Palkia. “But how? Doesn’t Dialga ensure that never happens?”

“Ordinarily, yes, Dialga governs the flow of time. But the Dialga of my dimension has lost all sense of self, causing time to grind to a halt. I fear if it is not rectified immediately, it may spread to other dimensions.”

“I see why you need me now,” I say. “What do I need to do to fix this?”

“Already there is a movement seeking to restore the flow of time. Gifted with the ability to understand Pokémon and to sense different time periods when near concentrations of chronal energy, your goal would be to work with this movement to track down the locations of Time Gears. With that knowledge, do whatever you can to restore Temporal Tower.” Palkia instructs.

“Wait a second,” I interrupt. “I already have several questions. Time Gears? Chronal energy? Temporal Tower?”

“Time Gears are artifacts created to ensure the flow of time. Functionally, they’re large masses of chronal energy,” Palkia explains. “The rest shall become clear, I am certain.”

“Alright. If this is the mission that you need me for - that this dimension needs me for - I’m ready.”

“Very well. Good luck, Matthew, and may you succeed in your mission.”

I awaken on a cold, hard surface. Where am I? I think to myself as I get up, seeing that the hard surface in question is actually stone-grey grass. Is this…is this what Palkia mentioned? I make my way over toward a wooded area in the distance when suddenly a flash of green darts between the trees. “What was that?”

I instantly regret vocalizing my confusion, as three bird-like creatures with sharp metallic feathers emerge from hiding behind a nearby string of boulders, while the string of boulders reveals itself to be a rocky-skinned serpentine being. I back away slowly, unable to defend myself from the sudden ambush when the green flash from earlier zips by, knocking all four Pokémon to the ground.

“Impossible…” the figure, who is now clearly revealed to be a leafy lizard known as a Grovyle, says as he comes to a stop next to me. “A human? There’s no way there could have been a human in this world, much less one living for so long in this dark future. And yet…”

My eyes widen upon noticing the Grovyle was somehow uttering coherent speech. I then shake my head, dismissing the shock as I remind myself that Palkia gave me the ability to understand Pokémon. “Dark future? Is that what they call this place?”

“It’s not really ‘they’ anymore. Most of the Pokémon here have given into despair and gone completely feral,” the Grovyle mutters, tilting his head down. “Er, are you alright?” he asks, offering a green scaly hand.

I gently grip his hand and shake. “I’m fine, thanks to you. Do you know where we are?”

“We’re in a clearing near the Sealed Ruin,” the Grovyle explains. “I was on my way to meet Blossom so we could begin scouring the mainland for Time Gears.”

“Weren’t those destroyed?” I ask, confused as to why this Grovyle’s assessment of the situation is conflicting with what Palkia said.

“Yes, but if we can locate where they used to be, we could take the Passage of Time to the past and recover them before Temporal Tower is destroyed.”

“Sounds complicated,” I respond with a small, confused frown. “But at the very least, it should work. Shall we go look for…Blossom, was it?”

“Yes,” the Grovyle agrees. “I’m Thorn, by the way. And you are?”

“Matthew.”

“Follow me, Matthew,” Thorn instructs. “If we find more wild Pokémon in these ruins, leave them to me. I’ve been fighting for my way in this desolate land since the day I hatched.”

“Got it,” I say, letting him lead me through the grey, barren landscape that is the dark future. We soon come across a large stone structure, which likely would look a lot more impressive if it wasn’t all grey.

“Here we are. It shouldn’t be far from here,” Thorn says. “I take it you haven’t been in a mystery dungeon before?”

“No…?” I respond, tilting my head. “What are those?”

“Y-you don’t even know what they are? Simply put, they’re ever-changing areas filled with hostile Pokémon,” Thorn explains, surprised at my unfamiliarity with them. “Stay near me, but don’t let the wild Pokémon get too close to you. I doubt you’d like what would follow.”

“If it’s anything like what those Skarmory looked like they wanted to do, you’re absolutely right,” I say as I follow Thorn into the ruins’ entrance.

If just one possible layout could be as disorienting as this, I’d hate to see what others look like. It felt like we hadn’t made much progress at all, and already we’d rounded more corners than I could possibly keep track of. “Are mystery dungeons always this confusing?” I ask Thorn.

“Usually,” he responds as he parries a swing from a fluid, violet mass with his leaves before tunneling under it and popping back up, sending it flying against a wall. “All my life, I’ve been going through these. You get used to it after a while.”

“Meanwhile, I haven’t,” I say, “so forgive me for any newcomer questions. Good job with that Muk, by the way.”

“Type advantages aren’t everything,” Thorn comments. “What really matters is training. Train yourself, and you can overcome any foe.” The Grovyle then leaps at a mass of vines in the distance, slicing into it with his leaves until it falls unconscious.

The rest of the dungeon passed without much incident. Thorn must’ve trained a lot, if he can deal with hostile Pokémon this well. Soon, we reach a large hall in the middle of the ruins. “Is this where you were going to meet Blossom?” I ask.

“Indeed,” Thorn confirms. “Usually she doesn’t take this long to show hers--”

“Hi!” a feminine voice rings out through the chamber as its source, a small pink fairy-like creature, emerges from behind a rocky pillar.

My eyes widen at this revelation. “A…a Celebi?” I stammer out in complete awe. “And you’re…pink?”

“Yep!” she responds. “My name is Blossom. And yours is?”

“I’m Matthew,” I answer. “Thorn found me out in a clearing, surrounded by Skarmory and Onix.”

“That sounds scary for a human!” Blossom comments. “But with us, you’re safe. We’ll defend you!”

Not going to question the fact that I’m a human in this world, huh? I think to myself before looking over at Thorn. “I think that much was made obvious as we went through the Sealed Ruin to get here.”

“Isn’t Thorn amazing?” Blossom says, her tone dripping with infatuation.

“I wouldn’t exactly put it that way…” Thorn grumbles, clearly not enjoying the Celebi’s implications.

“Aren’t we supposed to be going to the mainland to look for Time Gears, or at least where they used to be?” I remind the two Pokémon, hoping to get them back on track.

“Oh, right!” Blossom quickly snaps back to the more pressing matter at the moment. “Do you have a plan, Thorn?”

Thorn’s face pales as he realizes his plan was actually nonexistent. “Uh…”

“Palkia told me something before I wound up in that clearing,” I interject. “Something about being able to sense other periods of time when near a Time Gear’s location.”

“Palkia?!” Thorn echoes, stepping backward in shock. “How…how could you have even met him?”

“He contacted me in a dream,” I answer. “When I woke up from that, I was where you found me.”

“And you’re saying he gave you the power to sense the past or future just by being near Time Gears?” Thorn asks.

I nod. “Correct. That should help immensely in our hunt for Time Gears.”

“Now where on the mainland am I taking you?” Blossom asks.

“Should we start in the east?” I suggest.

“Works for me,” Thorn says with a shrug.

“You ready?” Blossom asks as she flies over to the two of us.

“Ready,” Thorn and I assert at the same time as a bright flash emanates from Blossom.

When the light fades, I find myself in a grey forest. A thick layer of fog looms overhead, severely limiting visibility. “Well this is a good start,” I say.

“We’d better start searching,” Thorn instructs, “but with this fog, it’ll be hard to keep ourselves oriented.”

“Do either of you happen to know Defog?” I ask. “It’d clear the immediate surroundings, at least.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Thorn responds. “All of my training has been focused on managing hostile situations, not anything like this.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a faint red glow. “Hey, what’s this?” I ask as I go to pick up the glowing object. “It feels kinda warm…”

“Perhaps that’s what we need to use?” Thorn guesses. “We should look for something it could be used with.”

I nod and once again follow Thorn through the forest. “Why do I get the feeling this’ll be another mystery dungeon?”

“That’s extremely likely,” Thorn says. “I would expect Time Gears to have been hidden in high-mysteriosity areas like this.”

Once again, the forest appears laid out specifically to befuddle all who enter. I end up relying mostly on Thorn for navigation; an easy task, considering he’s already been dealing with any hostile Pokémon we run across. “So, Thorn, can you explain what led up to time stopping?”

“Dialga has regressed into a barely sentient state,” Thorn explains, leaping after a small brown and beige raccoon before it could attack me. “I’ve begun calling this state Primal Dialga. Without Dialga to govern the flow of time, time ceased to flow, which destroyed the Time Gears.”

“Palkia mentioned that much,” I say, referring specifically to Dialga’s regression. “But what could have caused Dialga to go primal like this?”

“The only possible cause that I know of is the collapse of Temporal Tower.”

“Temporal Tower? Isn’t that where Dialga resides?”

“Even after its collapse, yes,” Thorn confirms, leaping up onto a tree branch to scout for hostile Pokémon. “At this point, though, it’s more where rebel Pokémon are sent if Dialga finds out they’re planning to change time.”

“So we’re fugitives,” I conclude with a sigh. “Great. Back on the topic of the tower crumbling, though, I’m guessing you have no idea what led up to that.”

“Not at this point,” Thorn answers, swinging his leaves at a kangaroo-looking mushroom ‘mon. “I once found the remains of a settlement near the west coast of the continent, but none of the records there even discussed the tower.”

“I guess whatever Pokémon lived there before the tower went boom were as clueless as we are now,” I dryly joke as I climb over a knocked-over tree.

After what felt like several hours, but was in reality no time at all, we arrive in a clearing with a statue depicting a vaguely reptilian beast roaring toward its grey surroundings.

“Matthew, look,” Thorn instructs. “There’s a hole in the statue.”

I glance at the stone I had picked up earlier. “Might this go in it?” To test my theory, I try fitting the stone in the hole.

It fits perfectly, and the statue begins to glow brightly. All three of us shield our eyes at the light, having been so acclimated to the dull lack of brightness this whole world is enveloped in. Once it fades, we find the fog suddenly cleared. “Of course,” Thorn mumbles. “Groudon is the legendary Pokémon of the land, but he’s better known for the clear, hot weather his presence brings. That must be why that statue dispelled the fog.”

“I’m getting a feeling we’re onto something big,” I tell Thorn. “Let’s keep going.” We head toward a cliff in the distance, and I begin to make out a cave entrance framed by some ornate-looking stone structures. “Might there have been a Time Gear here?”

“It’s very likely,” Thorn replies as he looks over a pattern on the ruins. “These patterns line up with everything I’ve found on them. There’s no doubt about it - a Time Gear existed here in Fiery Vent.”

“One down…uh, how many to go?” I rub the back of my head in slight embarrassment.

“Four,” Thorn answers. “There are only five holes atop Temporal Spire, so we only need five Time Gears to fill them. Let’s look for others now.”

We then begin trekking elsewhere on the continent. “I’m guessing you know your way around the place, Thorn?”

“I’ve been around this place my entire life,” Thorn says, easily scaling a cliff with his reptilian claws. “Honestly, I’m more concerned about you keeping up.”

I look for footholds to climb up the cliff with, soon getting to the top a bit after Thorn did. “I’ll try; that’s about all I can say.”

“Trying is important. Without an attempt, nothing can happen.”

“So, how will finding these Time Gears, or at least where they used to be, help us restore time?” I ask.

Thorn ducks into a cave mouth and motions for me to step in. Shortly after I do so, a purple imp-like ghost walks by where we just were, seemingly searching for something. Not finding whatever they were after, they continue onward. “Phew,” Thorn exhales once the Sableye was out of earshot. “Anyway, knowing where the Time Gears are is useless to us now. But once we go back to the past, we can use this information to find the Time Gears and take them to Temporal Tower before it crumbles.”

“How are we going to go back in time, though?” I ask, clearly not understanding a crucial part of Thorn’s plan.

“I’m in charge of that,” Blossom says in an uncharacteristically subdued tone. “I can open the Passage of Time, letting you and Thorn go to the past.”

“And once we’re there, it’s simply a matter of returning to the locations we’re scouting out now,” Thorn adds, digging into a bag slung over his shoulder. “Need an apple?” he offers me, taking out another one for himself.

“Sure,” I say, taking the apple from his clawed hand and biting into it. “I have to say, that’s a much simpler plan than I was expecting.”

“Based on the records I found in that ruined town, taking a Time Gear will stop time in the surrounding area,” Thorn informs between bites, “but Dialga needs several Time Gears at Temporal Tower to restore the tower should it get damaged. With the Time Gears spread about the continent like these ruins suggest they were, Dialga can’t amplify his power enough to save the tower. This is the only way, I’m afraid.”

“I hope the Pokémon of the past understand that we’re doing what’s necessary,” I say, glancing outside the cave as I finish my apple. “And if they don’t, well, I guess they’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Our snack break over, the three of us resume scouring the mainland for where Time Gears used to be, so we could get them in the past and restore Temporal Tower. We find similar ruins in a desert and in a cave filled with crystals, which Thorn refers to as Sandstone Pit and Crystal Hollow. Our last stop, Forgotten Copse, gives me my first glimpse at the structure meant to contain a Time Gear: a simple stone pedestal arcing up on both sides, which the Time Gear would presumably fit inside.

With our search for Time Gears finished, Blossom teleports us back to where I woke up. “So what’s the plan now, Thorn?” I ask.

“Now, we go back to the past and secure the Time Gears. Once we have enough, we take them to Temporal Tower and prevent this future from ever happening.”

“And how do you plan to do that?”

“That’s where I come in!” Blossom interjects. “I open the Passage of Time for you to go through.”

Oh, right, Celebi can time travel, I mentally remind myself. “I’m guessing we need to go somewhere for this.”

“The Passage of Time is located deep in Dusk Forest. Follow me,” Thorn says as he dashes off into the foliage, me and Blossom not far behind.

Much hacking, slashing, and jumping between trees later, we arrive at a cliff face with a glowing tunnel-like thing leading into it. “Is that the Passage of Time?” I ask.

A deep, reverberating laugh from atop the cliff interrupts my conversation with Thorn. “Hoohoohahahaha!”

“Of course!” Thorn grumbles. “I should’ve known Yoru would show up. Hurry into the tunnel!”

I scramble toward the Passage of Time at Thorn’s behest. “Who’s Yoru?!” I panickedly ask him.

“I’ll explain later! There’s no time now!” We leap into the Passage, ready to be sent back to the past.

I grip his claws with my hands, not wanting us to get separated. But then…something happens. A bright flash, followed by what felt like the entire world shaking, both of which result in me losing my grip on Thorn.

“Matthew!” Thorn calls out as I tumble away from him, barely even able to recognize his voice. I feel my body shifting, a tail growing in as my face stretches forward a bit. As these changes continue, I fall unconscious, the earlier attack’s impact finally getting to me.

#pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd #explorers of sky #pmd explorers #pmd eos #writing #fanfic #grovyle #palkia #before the mystery #btm

[the-apocryphal-one]

DR x Pokemon: Super Dangan Ronpa 2

And here’s the second part of my DR x Pokemon crossover AU, this time with the cast of the second game! These guys were even more fun to design teams for than the first cast. As in the first post, let me know if you strongly disagree or agree with any of them--it is just for fun, but discussion can be fun too!

You can find Part One here!

Lots of super common ‘mons here. Sorry Hajime, but it fits with your normalcy, complex about said normalcy, and inability to pay the Reserve Course fees (you can’t afford to catch anything good). The two exceptions are Eevee, which is also Normal but has lots of potential, like he does; and Larvesta, which is weak but will become a god-like entity if you can evolve it. Hmm, does that sound familiar to anyone...?

...also sun imagery goes really well with Hajime’s full name meaning “to face a new day”. I just couldn’t pass that by.

All his Pokemon are shiny. Because of course they are.

Ultimate Lucky student = Unfezant. Granbull is a reference to the dog he used to own. Garbodor is because he thinks of himself as trash. Delibird and Clefable both have luck-based moves (Present and Metronome). M-Ampharos is because he wants to help hope shine brightly...and it has fluffy white hair. 

Additionally, some of his Pokemon have accuracy problems and so need his luck to help land hits—Delibird has the ability Hustle, Clefable has Sing, M-Ampharos has Zap Cannon, etc.

Search your feelings. You know it to be true.

Real talk, the reason he only has Dittos instead of Mimikyu or Zoroark is because those two pretend with disguises and illusions; Ditto pretends by actually turning into whoever it’s copying. 

On a happy note, he can tell his Dittos all apart, always.

His three dragon types are references to his family name (nine-headed dragon). I did consider giving him three Hydreigons to make the pun complete, but it doesn’t really fit him. As for why these specifically, Haxorus is awesome, Dralage’s ambushes and ship attacks have criminal vibes, and Goodra represents his inner soft side. Honchkrow is based off a mafia boss, which I know isn’t yakuza but still carries the same connotations. Krookodile and Mightyena are more underworld type ‘mons.

I find it abhorrent that we have like 800 Pokemon and not a single one is hamster-based. Togedemaru comes closest, having four of them is obviously meant to reflect the Four Dark Devas. Greninja looks like him, just look at the scarf. M-Houndoom is a literal hellhound, nothing fits his ‘ruler of hell’ shtick better.

The three monkeys help him with cooking. Miltank provides milk (and jokes, I’m sure), Tropius fruit, and Lickilicky is because of his perverse nature.

Hitmontop and Emboar are both Fighting types, with Emboar in particular referencing his BURNING SPIRIT. Passimian is based off football, which as a team manager he surely has experience with. He’s got Zebstrika because lightning flies out of his eyes, and Bastiodon because Mechamaru. Skuntank farts when sent out, referencing his toilet humor.

Wimpod is a coward, like him. M-Sharpedo is there because of his shark teeth. Klinklang is literally a bunch of gears and he’s a mechanic. Machoke, Ambipom, and Donphan all help him in the workshop—Machoke isn’t fully evolved because he just wants help with heavy labor, and doesn’t have anything near Sakura’s martial arts training.

She shares Porygon-Z with Chihiro because she’s an AI. Komala is because of her sleepyhead nature. Crobat and Delcatty reference her hoodie and backpack. Sylveon is a major ‘power of friendship/love/hope’ Pokemon. Azumarill references her relation with Usami--though I admit, I went back and forth between it and a shiny (pink) Lopunny for ages. Ultimately, Azumarill’s Fairy type and matching Usami’s round body won out.

I had only three things in mind: fighting types because she loves to battle strong opponents, fire types because she’s a hothead, and Acrobatics because she’s a Gymnast even if she doesn’t care for it. In fact, her entire team except Hitmonlee can learn Acrobatics, and Hitmonlee is apparently partially based off acrobats anyway.

Half her team are dance-based to help with her performances, like Sayaka. The other half references her bullying and general nature. Liepard is called the ‘Cruel’ Pokemon, Toxapex looks cute but is highly poisonous, and Heatmor represents her ant-squishing. Froslass gets special mention for representing both halves--it’s a dancer (and it even wears a kimono!) and is known to be pretty cruel too.

Hoooo boy Mahiru gave me a hard time. We have no photography Pokemon and she doesn’t have any screaming standout quirks. So I went off her desire to make people smile. Sunflora, Ribombee, Jumpluff, and Ludicolo all seem like they’d help in that field. Drampa is pretty gentle with kids, so I think it’d be good for entertaining them and setting up shots. M-Kanghaskan likes taking care of others, referencing how Mahiru is the ‘team mom’.

Like Leon, she has an Exploud for sound amplification; in fact, all her first three are very much noise-based Pokémon, a lot louder than Sayaka’s gentle singers. Shiftry is a reference to her long nose sprite. Magmortar can make a dramatic entrance with smoke and create pyrotechnics, like in DR3. Finally, she has M-Manectric to help with light shows and because she finds it electrifying.

Samurott is a samurai, Farfetch’d uses a sword-like weapon, Seviper uses its tail as a sword, and Aegislash is literally a blade. Skarmory’s feathers were used as swords in the past. Whimsicott satisfies her love for fluffy things, and was a present from Fuyuhiko against his family’s orders (they wanted her team to only reflect her being a ‘tool’).

Blissey and Audino are the two Pokemon that immediately leap to mind when you think ‘healer’. Alomomola and Florges also make good ‘clerics’; Almomola has Healer and learns ‘Wish’, while Florges gets both ‘Wish’ and Aromatherapy. Wishiwashi and M-Banette represent her yandere side; Wishiwashi is a crying, timid thing, but becomes so terrifying in School Mode that Gyarados run from it. Meanwhile, Banette wants to inflict pain on the person who threw it away, and Mikan has lot of pent-up anger towards her bullies.

Persian and Serperior for the same reasons as Byakuya. Her ghost-type represents her liking for the occult. She has a Scizor (not Mega, though) because her admiration for serial killers translates to borrowing the signature ‘mon of the most notable one. Escavalier is her knight. And finally, as the princess of a military nation, I think she’d easily have some powerful dragon-type, and Charizard-X’s aesthetic looks like something she’d like.

AKA ‘stop having fun guys’. Tangrowth matches his hair :P The next four are all hard to raise pseudo-legendaries, befitting his Ultimate Everything. Volcarona is the same one Hajime had, and has multiple meanings for Izuru too: it was also considered a ‘savior’ (aka a hope) in ancient Pokemon times, and while he only kept it because he didn’t care to switch it, he still has it, representing how there’s a little bit of Hajime left in him. Speaking of, Volcarona was mind-wiped too, and the rest of Hajime’s team were disposed of by the Steering Committee :(

Finally, over half his team is capable of Mega Evolution; they just can’t, because that requires a strong bond between trainer and Pokemon, and Izuru lacks that. I also came pretty close to giving him Nihilego (for their shared apathy), but it’s an Ultra Beast, so it doesn’t really count.

Credit to @oceanairwonderland​ for Izuru’s sprite!

#sdr2 #pokemon #crossover #pokemon au #hajime hinata #nagito komaeda #ultimate imposter #fuyuhiko kuzuryu #gundham tanaka #teruteru hanamura #nekomaru nidai #kazuichi soda #chiaki nanami #akane owari #hiyoko saionji #mahiru koizumi #ibuki mioda #peko pekoyama #mikan tsumiki #sonia nevermind #izuru kamukura

[pokefreakguide]

Master Dex Challenge Week 10:

We’re back in full swing! This week added 21 pokémon to the roster for a total of 116/173 I worked this week to get a lot of progress in Crystal, so I can start catching again! Still got some work to do, cause I haven’t gotten to Kanto yet, and there’re a lot of Johto pokémon that I’ll catch in Kanto. I’m actually really proud of this progress, cause I’m also studying hard on other things while I do this, and it’s hard to do it all at once!

You’ll notice the Gold colored font for the hall of fame and that’s because I forgot to include my Gold Hall of Famers in week 7? I think. Basically, it’s not Crystal’s hall

Highlights:

Caught version exclusives like Ledyba, Skarmory, Phanpy, Donphan, and Delibird.

Caught Ho-Oh in Gold, on my way to catch Lugia next.

Ledyba, Delibird, Skarmory, Phanpy, and Sneasel are all time sensitive appearances, which is why it took my so long to round them up.

Traded Scythers to make them Scizors! 

Next week I’m hoping to add Lugia to this roster and beat the League in Crystal. It’s gonna be a tougher ride than Gold, for sure, but I’m up for it! 

Links to weeks: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 11 / 12 / 14 / 15 / 16/ 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40 / 41 / 42 / 43 / 44 / 45

Generation Overviews: I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII

#master dex challenge #pokemon #nintendo #masterdex #Pokédex #Pokédex challenge #rby #gsc #rse #hgss #dppt #bw #b2w2 #xy #sm #usum #lgpe #week 10 #week10 #mdc #master dex

[jacksgreysays]

in the interest of rounding out the Pokémon headcanons... team gai Pokémon teams?? (aside from the tyrogue trio you mentioned before which is a great idea btw)

I think all of them have mostly Fighting types–given their jounin sensei is the master of taijutsu, and they themselves specialize in taijutsu–but each of them differ in their second types.

So Lee is mostly Fighting with some Normal (HARD WORK BEATS TYPE SPECIALIZING), Neji has Fighting and Psychic (which explains why he consistently beats Lee even though Lee is faster than god), and TenTen has Fighting and Steel.

As previously mentioned, all of them did get a Tyrogue from Gai (and each of them have a different evolved form). So while I’m not entirely sure what order each of them get these Pokemon, these are what I have in mind.

LEE

Hitmonlee

Eevee

Aipom

Spinda

Mienshao

Passimian

NEJI

Hitmontop

Gallade

Medicham

Xatu

Claydol

Oranguru

TENTEN

Hitmonchan

Lucario

Skarmory

Mawile

Excadrill

Aggron

Thanks for the prompt, anon, this was fun!

Happy New Year, everyone! :D

#jacksgreyson #prompt response #anonymous #pokemon #dreaming of sunshine #naruto #ask box advent calendar #brainstorm #fanfiction #arm in arm (no better team than you and me) #rock lee #neji hyuuga #tenten

[clefartist]

Platinum AU

Steelfedora drabble inspired by @light-of-aether​, who reminded me that Steven was possibly at the villa during the event of DPPt. It got very out of hand

Trainers arrived on the winds, and with them, rumors. Rumors of Team Galactic gaining speed; a threat made in Pastoria. Byron arrived a few days later confirming it: he heard from Crasher Wake that a bomb could be planted at Lake Valor and it needed investigation. Riley was brought back with him to Canalave, where they went their separate ways. Byron had two challengers to prepare for; Riley needed to make way east. It was then that the earth shook and the Aura screamed. He heard Azelf cry out, followed by Mesprit and Uxie. Lucario quickly made a forcefield around the two of them, enough to quiet the aura around them. Riley called out Salamence and quickly boarded. He wished he could make it in time. It was too late for Azelf. Riley couldn't clear the mountains before their scream vanished. He turned back for Mesprit, since their scream only grew louder from the loss of willpower. Salamence landed with a thud by the lakebed. Grunt members moved away from Riley quickly, continuing their work away from the ferocious dragon. Lucario and Metagross joined in as all three began attacking, moving their way to the center of the lake. "So you're the famous land guardian Riley." She smiled as one hand pet her Purugly. Behind her Mesprit was still in the air as energy bound its form. "You might be hiding yourself from the public eye, but we knew to expect you." "Release Mesprit." "If you're here then Azelf must be captured already~ You were too late, hmm?" Riley's aura thundered, arcs of energy burning the ground and steadily radiating outward. "Very well Aura reader, try THIS!" Her hand, gloved and cloaked in red light, shot out at him.

He can't remember what happened once he hit Verity. His body was heavy. His skin was cold. The room was dark. He... he couldn't feel. Impossible..! There was no way he couldn't feel! Aura is always there! It was in everything, even inorganic material! So why? Why couldn’t he sense any Aura?

-

Even Steven felt the tremor from his villa. When he confirmed his suspicions his heart sank. The explosion at Lake Valor could only mean another Sootopolis incident was inevitable. His bad feeling only got worse when he heard the crash landing outside. A Salamence lay in a crater of dirt with a Lucario, both injured and exhausted. They were Riley’s pokemon! Steven was able to stabilize Salamence, but Lucario was erratic. He was struck with spasms, refusing Steven to touch him. Metagross had to pull Lucario unconscious in order to bring him to Nurse Joy. “Lucario is showing signs to aura deprivation, but I’ve never even heard of a case this fatal. What happened?!” “Please, take care of Lucario!” “Wait, Steven!” He crashed out the door. “Skarmory, we’re flying!” What he saw in the sky was horrifying. Smoke billowed from Lake Valor. The fallen trees surrounding the lake defined the blast radius. From what he could tell Verity seemed untouched, but unmarked aircraft were around the lake. He probably couldn’t do much at any of the lakes now, but he could stop them at the source… He quietly landed outside of Veilstone City, sneaking into the warehouse held by Galactic. He would’ve preferred blowing the place down, but he didn’t have proof that Galactic was behind any of it. He only heard of the small incidents they caused on Iron Island and at the Valley Windworks. At sight of the entrance he noticed a sturdy leg behind an opposite shipping crate. “Alexius?!” he choked out when he reached Riley’s Metagross. It was in bad a shape as Salamence was. “Where’s Riley?” He could understand Metagross at least, keeping his hand on the smooth body as it trid to explain what happened. The lake explosion, fighting Team Galactic with Riley at the lake, and then, “Red, binding, pain? I don’t understand.” Metagross got more and more restless. <Red bindings, hurt Riley, hurt Lucario, took Riley, followed Riley. Red bindings, pain.> “Riley is here, correct?”   <Yes, red binding, pain> “Get to the Pokemon Center. I’m going to get Riley.” As he got up, Metagross stopped him short. <Careful, red bindings, spirit loss> “Spirit? Do you mean Aura?” <Yes. Spirit loss, Sight dark. > Metagross seemed… sad. <Lucario hurt. Riley hurt. Spirit loss> Steven couldn’t help but hug the steel type, for both of them. “I’ll save Riley, I promise. Lucario’s safe. Salamence is safe, they both found me. That’s why I’m here. I’ll get him back.” One last squeeze. “I’ll get him back.”

Steven couldn’t destroy the outward appearance of the building. But inside? He had Metagross tear down walls and destroy teleports. Grunts were pushed to the wall with psychic energy as floors bloomed open, Steven quietly walked through his paved destruction. None of these grunts knew where Riley was being held; he needed to find an admin. “Team Galactic will change this world! With the power over space and time, Cyrus will control this world, and that’s when it becomes interesting!” This Charon scientist was insane…! “I’m sure his world wouldn’t let people such as you to exist, Champion.” He sneered as Steven dropped him to the floor, stolen keycard in hand. “Barging in here like you own the place, destroying it like an old toy!” The door slid open in response to the keycard, good. “We won’t be whims to your power once Cyrus returns!” The lab was already dark, with sick green liquid held in containers. There wasn’t any sign of Riley even as he made toward the back room. Three round machines stood in the far room. Extraction machines, from what Steven could tell from the monitors. They were used until recently, containing the lake guardians. Security footage showed a young boy defeating an admin before releasing them. I wasn’t the only one who caught on then. He smiled a bit as he saw the three fly away, free. Going through more security footage revealed Riley’s location. He was in a solitary cell, but it didn’t look like he was largely injured. But the exhaustion Steven saw, he never saw in Riley before. Thankfully the keycard worked on the door lock as Steven ran into the room. Riley was in the same corner the footage showed, but he was worse. He wasn’t there, not mentally. “Riley! Riley, Ri, I’m here. It’s me.” He was only going to touch his shoulder; he knew Aura could be weird when he was exhausted, but his hands were rubbing his arms, cradling his face, holding him close. Riley’s breathing was shallow, ragged. His eyes weren’t focusing. “Riley, can you hear me?” He heard Metagross set itself in front of the door, ready for Steven to hop on and leave. He only shuddered under Steven’s touch. His skin was freezing. Riley was trying to talk, but no sound was coming out. “Ri, babe, I need to know if it’s okay to move you. We gotta get out of here.” Ri slowly reached a hand out. Steven responded by holding it with his own. He weakly grasped it as he stared back at Steven. Cradily helped move Riley to the back of Metagross, and Steven had Metagross carry them both back out. The building had been abandoned, seemed all of Galactic left the building. Citizens and grunts alike stared up, as the sky was a dull orange. Clouds swirled above Mount Coronet, an ominous purple as energy gathered. Fear settled into Steven’s gut as from the cloud, an inky black form spread its wings, red talons scraping into the mountain, as the creature cried out a bone chilling shrill. Steven was useless again. The power of a Champion Trainer, and he wouldn’t dare protect anyone from that monster of a legendary pokemon. He couldn’t do a thing when the skies above Hoenn poured down torrential rain and the sun evaporated life. He didn’t do anything when Galactic first showed signs of activity. He couldn’t even protect his best friend, his boyfriend, from being tortured to near exhaustion. “Meta!” Steven snapped out of it as he saw Riley’s Metagross rumble toward them. He squeezed Riley’s hand to get his attention. “Look, your Metagross is here too. They showed me where you were. I gotta get Nurse Joy to look at both of you, you look like you were eaten by a Steelix, you know that?” Riley weakly groaned. Steven was sure he was trying to laugh. <Riley spirit. Riley spirit lost.> “Ri, can you feel aura right now?” He only curled up under Steven, eyes falling closed as his brows furrowed. His quick breath and newfound terror in his eyes confirmed Steven’s worst fears: Riley was as normal as anyone else right now. An Aura guardian who couldn’t use Aura.

“Thanks for the fill-in Steven. They leave a lot out from the news reports.” Riley was moved to Canalave for recovery, thankfully the only physical problem was exhaustion from stress. As for what happened on Coronet, Cynthia was there and was able to fill in Steven. Apparently a portal to the Distortion World opened? The lake guardians helped seal it up, with Cyrus inside. Team Galactic was disbanded. Riley hadn’t recovered his aura abilities, and neither Lucario. They were both physically healthy at least and were both discharged. Cynthia mentioned that Cyrus used a substance called red chain to summon legendary pokemon that Riley and Lucario could’ve been exposed to. If it was made from the jewels of the lake guardians, it was possible the chain could affect aura abilities. “…I have to go Steven. I have to at least TRY.” “But, these pokemon are finicky, who knows what will happen, what if you, what if…” His breath hitched as he let his head had against Riley’s chest, accepting the warm arms moving to embrace him. “I’m not much of a guardian to them if I can’t use Aura, Steven. I have to ask.” “I don’t want to lose you.” Riley couldn’t retort to that immediately, only keep his arms wrapped around him. “I can only feel you when I’m touching you Steven. I can’t tell where anyone else is, how they’re feeling, how trees outside are flourishing… I’m so blind to everything.” He let his finger run through the short hair. “If there’s some way I can get it back, you bet your ass I’m going to try.” Steven snorted up whatever was falling from his nose as he pushed away a bit. “I know. You have to do this. At least, let me follow you. ” Riley took the opportunity to plant a kiss, short but firm.   “Of course, my gem.”

Steven watched in amazement as Mesprit, the being of Emotion, danced around Riley and Lucario on that damp night. The moon reflected large and bright on the lake surface as stardust glittered and fell from the being. He watched as a blue glow beat weak; strengthening with each turn from Mesprit, begin to envelop the two of them. Lucario howled with glee, trying its best to stay in place. Riley seemed to be invigorated, a smile playing on his face as he stared into his hands. With a flick of its tails Mesprit shimmered out of sight, presumably retreating to its home below the lake. Riley murmured a few words, as did Lucario. Slowly, Steven walked toward the pair. “Ri, how do you feel?” “They gave it back Gem. They gave it back!” He went to turn around but stopped short, clutching his forehead. “Are you okay?” “Yeah, the Aura just feels stronger than normal. Just need to get used to it again.” After a few breaths he released it, accepting the other into his arms. “How does it feel?” Steven mumbled. He felt Riley hold him closer, clutch him tighter, bury his face in his shoulder. “It’s so warm.”

[Recovery after that was slow. Riley and Lucario often had headaches, occasionally nausea if the place was rich in Aura, but otherwise the two recovered with stronger Aura powers than they had originally. Steven couldn’t stay long to Devon matters, but he kept in contact with Riley and visited whenever he could.]

#bad formatting gomen #clefstarwriting #steelfedorashipping

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon Black 2 Randomized Nuzlocke Run [Part 6]

With a great deal of things not going well, we reach the sixth part of this adventure. Who do we still have to work with?

Nessy (Milotic)

Caspet (Gengar)

Vertex (Luxray)

Diego (Gardevoir)

See, we’re fine.

Absolutely fine.

Why is this gen so enthusiastic about interrupting my post-gym walk to the Pokemon Center? Clay talks to Russell about the World Tournament, which I don’t think I have any reason to participate in. I might check it out in case people are dropping items places, but I don’t think there’s anything in it for me. I don’t think I even played it when I wasn’t doing Nuzlocke stuff.

Dang it, I was going to be excited about a new route, but this is the other end of Relic Passage, where we picked up Nessy.

Um no.

Clay, I know you mean well, or at least not badly, but. no? I don’t need to be locked into a tournament thing where the AI hates me. Come on. Just let me gallivant off into the sunset. Don’t make me fight. ;-;

(Also hi Cheren.)

Hm. It looks like I might be allowed to get out of this.

The question is if that’s an illusion or not.

Oh what the heck, let’s be stupid.

The sad thing is that even if I lose, I still have my designated survivors left.

It’s going to be fine.

Oh his Dewott is level 25.

This might actually be fine.

It was! Yay! Yay for overleveled pokemon saving me! Yay for Caspet!

I assume this ends with me facing Colress?

Good, Cheren’s stuck with level 25s too. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with that. If they’re all stuck at that, this should be okay.

Then again, his second pokemon is a Watchdog.

Hiss.

But it works out, and now I suppose it’s time for Colress. Whose role in the plot I can’t remember for the life of me, even after he showed up in Ultra Sun.

Still 25s, but the first thing out is a Magneton. Steel is a pain. And now Caspet is paralyzed. And confused. Yet still winning, because Caspet is our eternal hero.

Okay, tournament over, and before we can be relieved about that, a Pirate Plasma grunt runs by our little squad of main characters, and Russell and Cheren speed away as Colress expresses confusion at their recklessness.

Cool. I guess I’ll be following them, then.

In a sec.

We’re on a boat.

We’re fighting pirates on a boat.

They poisoned Diego.

Because Diego’s in front and his only attacking move is Magical Leaf.

One Pokemon Center visit later, we handle the rest of the Plasma Pirates, and then the Shadow Triad teleports us off the ship and Russell is all “why I oughta.”

I guess the plot section is done for now, so I’m going to explore the other side of Relic Passage. Where Skarmory lurks. Oooh, and Wartortle in the dust clouds. Wingull is also here. Hi Kakuna.

I don’t have Strength and don’t remember if I’m supposed to at this point. Given my pokemon, if I could use it, I wouldn’t want to replace a slot on anyone, but it would be nice to know. This is why taking months off in the middle of a run doesn’t work out well.

Aww, hi Charmander. And Shelmet.

Yeah, there’s a door I can’t get to without Strength, so I guess the Relic Passage adventure will be cut slightly short.

Can NPCs be banned from having Watchdog?

I guess I’ll start marching back to Chargestone. Diego up front in the hopes that he’ll soon learn something besides Magical Leaf.

This is why the games have you catching pokemon at the levels they do. If you catch them in the wrong spot of their development, it can be really, really awkward.

The plot is never over in this gen.

Oh, he gives us Surf so we can investigate radical temperature drops around the region. Because he doesn’t like the cold. Cheren, you big baby.

But Surf! Nessy, you’ve got yourself a new move!

Aw dang it. One of the scientists offers me a Deerling. Sorry my friend, I only play with the randomized options.

Ah, and I do have Strength. Oh well, not using it.

Gesundheit.

Oh hi Suicune 2.0. I have no interest in catching you. Scoot.

Dang it, the water has Dewott.

For the manyeth time, I regret that I should only ever use the Randomizer in Nuzlockes. I would not have the self-control to ever focus on my team if I had the freedom to catch whatever I wanted. The squad would change up every single badge. It would be ridiculous and takes two hundred hours.

But Dewott.

But new route! What do you have for me, cave of darkness that I don’t care to explore because I really can’t stand it being this dark?

BITCHING.

Heck, how do I catch this.

I don’t have Quick Balls yet.

Ummm.

Well. I think it’s safe to say that Magical Leaf won’t kill it. Right? Right.

Magical Leaf does as close to nothing as it can without being Splash.

And it knows Crunch, so Diego, let’s. get you out. Vertex, buddy, you’re up.

!

Spark paralyzed Rayquaza! Good boy, Vertex.

Now I pretty much have to risk a Bite.

Vertex.

Please do not get a crit. Crits are for fighting, not catching.

Good boy!

Now comes the endless catching. I have one Ultra Ball, and more than twenty Poke Balls and Great Balls each. Rayquaza’s in the red and paralyzed. This should be okay. Unless it knows something horrific that isn’t Crunch.

Ultra Ball fail. Twister. Twister is fine.

Luxury Ball doesn’t even get a roll. Same for round two. Last one gets a roll, but only one. So. Poke Ball and Great Ball spam it is.

Several turns later, no one’s dead and nothing’s caught.

Several turns later, same.

Down to single digit Great Balls.

HA. GUESS WHO WINS THIS ROUND.

...

Does.

Does its pokedex entry really say Sky High Pokemon?

That is perfect.

Names, though. It needs a name. The only character name I can remember from Sky High is Warren’s, and I don’t want to name Rayquaza Warren. Sooo. Names.

Superhero has to be the theme, but what heroes do I actually like that can fly... and aren’t too obvious, sorry Clark. Hmmmm. Oh, got it. This isn’t one I’m familiar with, but after seeing Captain Marvel, gotta go with topical and fun.

Welcome to the team, Photon!

I hope I don’t kill you like I’ve killed all my legendaries before!

And now the journey of getting Diego a useful move continues.

Oh, wait, I’m sorry Photon. I forgot to introduce you properly.

Photon is Timid and very finicky. Cute. Your Speed shall be appreciate for hours to come, hopefully.

Neat, there’s Lampent the next level down. ...Less neat, it burned Vertex. I really need to get into the habit of buying recovery items when I’m in a Center. I’m going to put on a Max Repel and wait to find someone down here who hopefully likes healing wayfaring trainers.

Yay, a doctor to battle!

More games should have you fight a doctor into giving you free medical care.

Pansear is also in the lower levels.

Duuuude, and Fraxure! Hello favorite Dragon line! Hello!

The Ace Trainers in this cave think Triple Battles are cool. I guess this is technically a Rotation Battle that I’m doing now, but in any case, I don’t care for the added stress of two more pokemon to deal with in a Nuzlocke. Scary.

NESSY NO.

I should maybe leave the cave.

...What’s a Ferrothorn doing down here? That isn’t a randomized happening. :(

There, Armaldo and Aipom. Way better.

Trainers are currently averaging one critical hit per fight. This is too many and I do not care for it.

But I have made it out of the cave, so now I can buy pertinent stuff and maybe wander into a new route. Maybe even find a better place to train Diego? Who still only has Magical Leaf? Maybe?

Such a useful tool. Sadly, I think I want to hold on to it until the plot forces me into a legendary battle. I would love to just use it on the next thing I see. Heck, maybe I will anyway.

New route time! Is it time to have a full party of six again?

Hello there. Are we friends?

...No, Amnesia + Ingrain plus a bunch of Poke Balls lost is too much of an investment. Dead route. ...Probably influenced by me catching a Lileep last time. Oh well. Still five.

Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. I fucked up. I thought. Oh fuck. Oh no.

-whimpering noises-

I screwed up. I screwed up. I’m so used to just clicking through the attacks and I saw that Surf would affect everything because it’s a proper Triple instead of a Rotation, and the second that registered, I was already clicking through, and Nessy is last in the lineup and.

If the Ducklett does anything to Caspet, Caspet dies.

I don’t want to hit the play button.

I’m surprised Caspet even survived the hit.

I don’t want to see what happens next.

-hits play-

THE DUCK ATTACKED VERTEX WE’RE SAVED.

Oh my gosh Caspet. Oh my gosh you’re alive. I am so sorry. So, so sorry. That never should have happened. That was entirely my bad. All on me.

Geez I need to start paying more attention.

Oh hi Azelf. What are you doing in here. Why couldn’t I find you first this route.

Photon learns Air Slash before Diego learns a Psychic attack, news at 11.

Apparently this one spot on whatever this route is (-scrolls up- 7) some kind of magnet for calls. Hi mother figure of the game, why is it you are paying me attention? I am an adult ten-year-old.

Wait, I’m sorry, what? Our mother had a canon job?

She was a Pokemon Center receptionist.

...

She had a job?

What sort of fictional mother is this???

Hi death memorial tower, I’m here to complete my party.

And get the Lucky Egg from Professor Juniper.

Thanks for always giving me stuff.

Heeeeeey. Hi you. Wanna be best friends?

Hey I have a question. Why do Net Balls not have a note about working well against Flying pokemon? I feel like some part of that is in error.

Please get in the Poke Ball.

Or the Great Ball, if you insist.

Your health is red. Why are you like this.

There we go!

I dub you Cerberus.

The wiggly grass outside is Cranidos. Neat. And hi random Volbeat.

Howdy Cerberus. You are Adamant and thoroughly cunning. A solid addition to the team. Dodrio is one of those pokemon I never had a reason to add to my team by the time I found a Doduo in the games it’s available. But Dodrio and Tri Attack and Drill Peck is just so cool. I hope Cerberus gets to stay.

Aw, Marshal took his mentor’s place stopping us from going into the mountain before we’re supposed to.

Geez, the dark grass out here has Volcarona and Exploud. I think this might be where I want to grind. Because I still want Diego to have a move besides Magical Leaf. Axew is also here.

lol I found the TM for X-Scissor. Pour one out for Boruto.

Back to the death tower we go. Where a trainer has a level 36 Musharna whose Hypnosis doesn’t have the decency to miss.

Diego is level 39.

Magical Leaf is still his strongest attack.

Hey, Lumineon is on this level. Diego, you have a use!

There’s also Elekid. I wish I had an Elekid. Elekid is amazing.

HALLELUJAH.

This next floor has Treecko.

The floor after that is the roof, not a floor, and first up is Croagunk. Followed by Glailie, nice. But I’m not going to hang around and find out if there’s anything else. I rang the bell, mild feelings were had, and now I get to figure out if I am going straight to the gym or training some more.

Lumineon does make for very easy training.

It’s on the floor right next to the nurse.

I’ll do a little of that. Let Vertex muscle up before his moment in the sun.

Huh, Granbull’s on this floor too. I almost thought Daffy, then my brain caught up with what was going on.

Vertex is at 40, so Photon you help out Cerberus.

Or not, this is boring. I’m just going to try out the Gym.

Extra much, Skyla?

Random Gym Mook has a level 37 Swoobat.

Had.

Vertex ate it.

This is closer in level than I really like for Nuzlockes, but it is a Flying Gym. It should be okay, even with the cursed Unfezant awaiting us.

I really don’t care for this Gym redesign. I don’t mind Gyms giving you a puzzle to work on, but this is just gusts of wind that make you hide behind things periodically. It’s not difficult or thought provoking. Just mandated slowness.

It also doesn’t involve cannons. Major, major downgrade.

If I win you have to change your Gym. That’s the rule.

Level 37 Swoobat. It seduces Vertex. Vertex elects to not attack his new love. Twice. Then Heart Stamp makes him flinch. Twice. Then Vertex is still in love. Again.

...

Vertex.

She is going to kill you.

I have to send Nessy out now. Oh look, one Surf finished it.

Unfortunately, the next thing up is a level 39 Swanna. The 4x effectiveness is worth using a turn up on healing. That’s settled, and Vertex is down to 67 HP to face... a Skarmory? Huh. Okay. Level 37. I think I’ll let Vertex have a shot for a turn, but if it goes as badly as it might, Nessy will probably be called in.

Hm. Agility, Steel Wing, and Vertex can win with one more hit of Spark.

Skyla’s probably going to heal, but oh well, give it a try bud.

Cue Hyper Potion, yeah. But Skarmory is paralyzed, and potions don’t cure that, so I’ll take it.

Coolio, that’s a victory.

Badge number six, a full team, and no deaths.

Phew.

#Pokemon #Nuzlocke Challenge #Nuzlocke

[pyrodragon3993-blog]

Hoenn Saga Team Maqubi's Journal Day 33: BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Winona's in my room!

Hello everyone, Ivan Ooze aka Melvin Tooz here to continue recording Maqubi's adventure. Today Maqubi will challenge the Fortree City gym. The puzzle in this gym was a bunch of rotating doors. I'm pretty sure Maqubi is smart enough to know what to do. There were a lot of Flying-type Pokemon, no surprise from a city that lives in trees. It was clear to see that the Most Valuable Pokemon for this gym are Kenorith and Skrunchh, they were beating full teams of six on their lonesome. 

Finally, Maqubi made her way to Gym Leader Winona. She looks like a really strong trainer, she's not to be underestimated... though I wonder how she gets her hair like that underneath her headgear? Her first Pokemon was Swablu who Skrunchh easily took down with a few Sparks. Skrunchh even made Winona use one of her Hyper Potions, so that was a bonus. Winona's second Pokemon was Altaria which is also part Dragon... this could prove as a challenge. Skrunchh knew this was his/her/its time... before Maqubi could give an order, Skrunchh rushed the Altaria and used Selfdestruct. Even I though the Altaria couldn't survive that, but it only did a little over half of its health... Skrunchh... your death won't be in vain! You only just joined us! We were just starting to get to know you... why did you rush in like that? It was not your time... we'll finish what you started.... 

Kenorith was sent out next, and despite how he looked, he was very fast, and with a few Rock Tombs, the Altaria that forced Skrunchh to do a suicide attack was taken down. Rest in peace my round friend.... Winona's third Pokemon was Pelipper that easily went down with two of MyEX's Shock Waves. Winona's second to last Pokemon was a Skarmory. MyEX did a combo of Yawn and Shock Wave to take the metallic bird down. Winona's final Pokemon was a Tropius. MyEX started things up with Yawn and put it to sleep. Now... it's my turn! Winona's Tropius used Sunny Day the previous turn, so my Overheat would do massive damage. Unfortunately, my first attack missed and the Tropius woke up. It used Arial Ace, but I would not go down! This time my Overheat hit and took down the Tropius. Your death was not in vain Skrunchh... we won! 

Winona presented Maqubi the Feather Badge and TM40 Arial Ace. Maqubi left the gym with a heavy heart... then Scott called and her emotions made a 180 degree turn. He called her halfway up a ladder! This guy, I swear to Arceus! Maqubi went to the PokeCenter where she took out Skrunchh's ball. She released Skruncch's charred body to who knows where... and then the PokeBall exploded. We may have won a gym battle today... but at a cost.... Skrunchh will forever be in our hearts as the Pokemon that went out with a bang instead of a whimper.

#TFS #TFS Gaming #TFS Pokemon #TFS Pokemon Emerald #TFS Nuzlocke #TFS Ivan Ooze #TFS Melvin Tooz #TFS Maqubi #TFS Skrunchh #TFS Journal

[rhnuzlocke]

Episode 15

Scene 2:

[Finally Ren and her pokemon head up to face Winona. Māia perches on her shoulder as a large open elevator whisks them up to the leader arena. Wally and Kai are sitting together in the small stands with their pokemon, grinning from ear to ear. They give her the thumbs up as she and her team step out of the elevator. Winona stands opposite her on a platform with what are clearly some of her top tier pokemon sitting in the branches behind her. Ren looks over an alteria, honchkrow, braviary, skarmory, pidgeot, pelipper, decidueye, talonflame and three swellows, one of which is a shiny.]

Ren: [muttering to Māia] I don’t know how I let you talk me into this.

Māia: This is perfect!

Winona: Greetings, challenger. You have quite a well-rounded team. Do you think they are ready to earn their sixth badge?

Ren: Yes, but I don’t intend to fight with them today. My taillow has requested to face you and your pokemon without the aid of her teammates.

Winona: [eyes narrowing] You may challenge me as you choose. When your taillow is unable to battle, you may send out your next pokemon or forfeit at your own discretion. I will be limited to four pokemon for this battle.

[Winona whistles and her striped swellow swoops down onto the field. Māia glides down to face her.]

Winona: Aerial ace!

Ren: Air slash!

[Māia slashes her wing, sending a blade of wind at the swellow as she launches into the air. The swellow takes the hit and lands one of her own as she shoots past, bowling Māia over. Māia pops back to her feet as the swellow whirls around.]

Ren: Fly!

[Māia crouches before rocketing upwards just ahead of the swellow's talons. The swellow banks the turn and starts climbing, but Māia is already well above her. She arrows down and strikes the swellow across the back. She wobbles but keeps flying as Māia angles away.]

Winona: You have the weight on her, Slipstream. Bring her down!

Ren: Not for long! Steel wing, Māia!

[Māia's wings gleam silver as she banks to face her oncoming opponent. They meet each other in the air and it is the swellow who is knocked aside and goes tumbling.]

Ren: Got her! Great job, Māia!

[Winona withdraws her swellow and her pelipper swoops into the ring. Meanwhile, the rest of Ren’s team watches from the sidelines.]

Naihi: Though it is happening right in front of me, I still find it difficult to comprehend that she would face the gym leader with nothing but a taillow. And after what she said to Tāraki… [She trails off, shaking her head.] I guess I still have much to learn about our trainer.

Kata: She's one hell of a strong human. You all didn't see her after Wheta died. She's come so far.

Ao: She battles for us as much as she does for herself, maybe more so. In this instance, she let Māia's wishes take precedence.

[Māia nails the pelipper with an air slash, but it is larger and more resilient than the swellow and counters with brine.]

Kata: So, my good Lady Disaster, may I ask why you want to be in a gym battle so badly? [She shoots a cautious glance at Akahata who just rolls her eyes.] I mean, you're a wild right? What do you care about gyms and badges?

Naihi: My mentor told me of them.

Kata: You mean your gallade sensei who lived on a mountaintop, right?

Naihi: Yes.

Kata: [trying not to laugh] Just checking. Continue.

Naihi: He told me about the badges he and his trainer won and what they signify. Gyms are a proving ground for pokemon and their trainers. A true way to test their strength and compatibility. I want our trainer to know that she can rely on me. See how strong I am in a real battle. Not just practice.

Ao: You don't have to worry. Ren knows that.

Pohaku: Yeah, I'm the only one you lose to when we spar and that's cuz of my armor and stuff. Everyone has one type they can't beat.

Naihi: You all have been with her much longer than I. And anyway, isn't that why our teammate is up there now? To prove her strength?

Ao: I suppose that's true.

Naihi: You all have earned you place on this team, but I've yet to earn mine.

[They are all quiet for a moment as they watch Māia narrowly avoids another brine attack with a barrel roll.]

Naihi: Akahata, you have been with Ren the longest. You must have taken part in many gym battles.

Akahata: Only one. It was against Flannery, a fire-type trainer.

Naihi: Oh, that surprises me. Still, it must have been some battle. Would you mind telling me what it was like?

Akahata: I went up against a torkoal. The gym is famous for them. They all possess a very powerful fire move that few can withstand. Our strategy was for me to use dig to avoid this attack and the type advantage to take it down. But their shells are thick and their defense is high. I got in two attacks but couldn't take it down before it was able to use overheat on me. I was overwhelmed by the attack and Ao had to take my place. She was fast enough to avoid it and her special attacks were more effective against it's defenses. She won us the battle.

Naihi: Well, what's important is that you played your part in the team and weakened it. Congratulations on your victory, Ao. Was that your first gym battle?

Ao: First and last so far. I was pretty new to the team at the time.

Naihi: My then, I must admit to being even more impressed.

Ao: Thank you.

Kata: WHOO! Nice one Māia!

Pohaku: Yeah! Knock ‘em dead!

Ao: You've got her on the ropes now!

[The others don't seem to notice Akahata looking down, face tight and shoulders slumped, but Naihi shoots her a glance and smiles to herself. Meanwhile Māia lands the finishing blow on the pelipper and it falls. Winona withdraws it and nods to her skarmory. He takes to the air after Māia in a metallic flutter of wings. The two combatants circle clockwise around the ring.]

Winona: Steel wing, Halberd!

Ren: Parry with steel wing!

[The two birds charge each other, wings gleaming. Māia hits him near the shoulder and is knocked aside by his superior size and weight. She tumbles through the air but rights herself before he can bank the turn. However he now has the momentum while she is fluttering. He goes straight for her, a predatory glint in his eyes.]

Ren: Boomburst!

[Māia fires off a boomburst right at the skarmory's head. He makes no attempt to evade and the sound wave hits him dead on. He powers through the blow with smug confidence and keeps coming. Māia has never seen her move do so little damage before and only just manages to dive beneath him as he aims a steel wing at her. Māia glances nervously at Ren as both birds sweep around the turn.]

Ren: Just keep hammering him, Māia! You've got more boombursts in you than he can take!

[He banks into the next turn and she climbs, trying to gain some altitude.]

Winona: Metal claw!

[He comes at her, claws raised and glowing and she swoops forward to meet him in response.]

Ren: Roll!

[Just as they are about to meet in the air, Māia rolls to the side and let's out a boomburst. She hits him in the wing and he rolls in the air as the wing is flung over his back by the impact.]

Winona: Pin her down! Aerial ace!

[The skarmory rights himself and pumps his wings, climbing rapidly. Māia climbs too but he is quickly gaining on her.]

Ren: Drop turn!

Winona: Got her!

[Māia swoops sharply upward, folds her wings and plummets straight at the waiting skarmory. He is about to nail her with his glowing beak.]

Ren: Now!

[Māia lets out another boomburst at point blank range. The skarmory is knocked aside, but she cannot evade his wing and takes a glancing blow as they pass. She recovers quickly. But the skarmory remains disoriented, flight erratic for several seconds.]

Ren: Great job, Māia! Get some distance!

Winona: We've got the remedy for that! Air cutter!

[The skarmory launches blades of air at Māia who dodges by swooping and dipping and changing directions on a dime. Eventually the skarmory must recharge and he returns to gliding clockwise around the edge of the arena. Māia stays opposite him, waiting for the final confrontation. They are both drained and the next hit is likely to be the last. The skarmory caws out a challenge and angles for the center of the arena towards Māia. Māia flies to meet him.]

Winona: Air cutter!

[The skarmory waits until they are fairly close to unleash his attack, but Māia still dodges, tilting her wings between the strikes as she rolls.]

Ren: Now!

[Māia let's out a boomburst just as she passes him. The force pushes them apart and while she sweeps cleanly away, he rolls, crumples, and plummets towards the ground. Winona withdraws him just before he hits. Māia alights on the ground in front of her trainer.]

Winona: Impressive. Your taillow is looking drained. Will you withdraw her?

[Māia is panting, but she looks back at Ren half pleading, half daring. Ren wavers for a second, then nods to her pokemon.]

Ren: No.

Winona: Very well.

[She nods to her altaria and it glides to the ground in front of her. The giant bird beats its dragon-like wings, clouds shifting to cover them. Māia half furls her wings, wrists pointed forward like arrows, ready for any command. Ren can see her heaving, controlling the trembling in her tired muscles while the fresh altaria looks a little bored if anything. The only way to end this is quickly.]

Winona: Dragon breath!

[Māia looks back at her trainer and their eyes lock once more.]

Ren: Brave bird!

[The altaria flaps it's wings to take off while Māia glows brightly, bracing herself. The altaria swoops across the ring towards her and Māia goes off like a shot to meet her, a shining streak in the air. The altaria pulls her neck back in preparation and opens her beak. Blue flames shoot out at Māia, but the taillow plows through them and right into the altaria's gut. The altaria crumples comically around the tiny missile, flames guttering out with a wheeze as it is fired back across the ring at its trainer. The two birds crash to the ground and skid to a stop in front of Winona. The altaria lands on it's back with Māia sprawled on it's chest. The altaria's wing twitches, but it makes no attempt to rise. Māia opens her eyes and picks herself up. She wobbles for a moment before taking a deep breath and standing tall and proud on her fallen foe. She spreads her wings and calls out a challenge. The branches around the arena erupt with sound as all of the flying-types call out in answer. Winona looks around in wonder. Māia cries once more and the chorus answers, quickly building to a crescendo before tapering off slowly. Māia folds her wings and looks up at Winona. Winona bows her head. Māia nods and takes off, flying back to Ren's waiting arm.]

Ren: You did it, Māia! You really are the strongest bird in Hoenn!

Māia: I don't know about that. Maybe it's time I admitted I'm not. Those weren't her strongest after all. That was a sixth badge team.

Ren: Yeah, that you beat all by yourself!

Māia: I'm not saying I'm not awesome, just that I'm not the best yet. But now I know I can be.

Ren: [smiling] Alright.

[Winona makes her way over to them, her shiny swellow on her shoulder.]

Winona: That was an incredible battle. I've never had another quite like it. I'm sorry that I doubted your intentions. She's a remarkable battler and you are a wonderful trainer. Please, Māia the taillow, accept my humblest apologies.

[She and her swellow bow their heads. Māia dips hers back.]

Māia: Thank you for letting me battle anyway. I learned a lot.

[Ren conveys this message to Winona.]

Winona: A decision that benefited me more than her, I think. I profess to believe in the potential of all bird pokemon, and yet I doubted her. I am grateful to be so humbled. It's been an honor.

[She hands over the Feather Badge with a wistful smile and turns away. Ren looks down at her badge, then clenches her fist around it.]

Ren: Hey Māia, would you like to stay here and train with Winona?

[Māia looks up at her in confusion.]

Ren: Well, you're right. You can get stronger. You can be the best there is. And Winona is a flying-type specialist, the best in the region, maybe even the world. Maybe staying here is the best way to reach your goal. With me there are going to be a lot of detours and down time. You won't even have a flying-type training partner after Panahi leaves. Here you could train with other flying-types all the time.

Māia: But I owe you so much. You could be facing Magma again any day now. I don’t want to leave you. It wouldn’t be right after all you’ve done for me.

Ren: Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea how many times you’ve saved my ass? Saved all of our asses? You don’t owe me a thing, Māia. And that can’t be the reason you make this decision. We should all be working towards our own goals, whether that's together or apart. I’ll miss you too, but I’ll still have everyone else. I’ll be okay. And besides, it wouldn't be goodbye forever. I could call you on the nav. I'll come and visit you just like the others. And if you decided that you wanted to challenge the Elite Four with me, I'd come and get you. You'll always be my pokemon no matter what you choose.

[They look into each other's eyes for a few moments. Māia takes a deep breath and puffs out her chest.]

Māia: Okay. I'll do it.

[Ren raises her arm and Māia nuzzles Ren's nose with her beak and hugs Ren's cheeks with her wings. They break apart and Ren takes a deep breath.]

Ren: Winona. [She turns.] Māia would like to train with you.

#pokemon #nuzlocke #oras #running hot nuzlocke #story #episode 15 #Ren #Maia #Akahata #Naihi #Ao #Kata #Pohaku #Winona #gym battle #in the playthrough I was overleveled and legit defeated every pokemon in that gym with my taillow #it was bananas #Maia is the best #she is my only pokemon with a completely undefeated record

[kromze]

Tagged by @jenicoon (the old one you sent me is still lost in my drafts somewhere OTL)

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 20 blogs you want to get to know better

Nicknames: Hi-Rez by a class I TA’d (who started this again?), punko by my brother (among others that go back and forth btwn us)

Star Sign: Cancer

Height: 5′2″ 

Time right now: 10:59 pm

Last thing you googled: Rage of Bahamut (because of a Yuri on Ice post)

Favourite music artist: (including groups) Audiomachine, Two Steps From Hell, Pentatonix, Lindsey Stirling, Halestorm, Stromae, Alessia Cara, Adele

Song stuck in my head: “The other day, I met a bear” (don’t ask how)

Last Movie I Watched: Moana (again)

Last TV show I watched: just caught up on Steven Universe

What I’m wearing right now: some old clothes from my high school years that still fit me

When I created this blog: (why must you do this) May 2012 omg

The kind of stuff I post: tons of DC, Voltron, cartoons in general, games, random stuff, now some anime posts here and there

Do I get asks regularly: who? 

Why did I choose my URL: I chose a word from a list of things I was into that time, and scrambled the letters (@jenicoon, I still recall your reaction when I told you where my URL is from hahah)

Gender: female

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw, I think. Last time I did this was high school

Pokemon Team: Blaziken, Gardevoir, Nidoking, Gyarados, Skarmory, Kyurem (tbh it’s cuz they touch on most types so less swapping in the PC. Otherwise I’d be mostly Fire and Psychic types)

Favourite Colour: maybe purple, or soft pastel colours

Average hours of sleep: 5/6 on weekdays, 8/9 weekends

Lucky number: 13, because no one else sees it as lucky

Favourite characters: oh god. um, let’s just say everyone in the DCU batfam. Anime-wise, Kaneki Ken, Makishima Shougo, Katsuki Yuuri, and Hibari Kyouya (off the top of my head)

Dream job: to retire jk, I want to be part of making a feature film!

Number of blankets I sleep with: 2 most of the year

Tagging: @jubefactory, @oniusagimaru, @holdvirag, @toriitorii, @ladyknightofhollyrose, @tetsumine and you reading this (it’d be cool to learn about my followers)

#jenicoon #reply #I got sidetracked and now it's 12:30am #OTL

[saigontimemd]

My Alola Champion team!

Throwdown - Incineroar Fandango - Muk Tron - Magnezone Hisako - Marowak Tamatoa - Crabominable Belle - Mismagius

I’m the kind of person who often plans out my teams in advance based on promo materials and just what I think looks cool, but I gotta say, this was not the team I was originally planning on. It is, however, the team that carried me through most of the game. Even though I don’t particularly care for several of their designs, I got too attached to them.

Throwdown was always going to have a spot; I haven’t yet played a single Pokemon game without keeping my starter in the team the entire time. He’s also the first time I’ve ever gone with a Fire-type starter - I usually go for Water-types, but lord do I love me some wrestling/lucha, and I just couldn’t help myself. Malicious Moonsault may be my favorite Z move in the whole game.

Fandango was one of the definite surprises because I haven’t been really into the Grimer/Muk line (or Poison types at all), but when I stumbled on an Alolan Grimer in one of the early levels, I just completely fell in love with that goofy smile. Poison is one of those types where it’s either insanely powerful or it just sort of tickles, so he spent a lot of time soaking XP with the Share, but he always came through in the clutch; he one-shot Kukui’s last two Pokemon in the final battle, and that alone was worth the trip.

Tron was another surprise because although I’ve always liked the Magnemite design, I never really considered it ‘for me.’ I picked Tron up pretty early in the game too, and replaced my Pichu, Shocker, on the lineup because I love Magnet Bomb and Fairy types also annoy me on principle. I was planning on getting an Alolan Geodude to fill that same Electric/whatever slot on the team, but by the time I actually got to where they were (3rd or 4th island), I’d gotten too attached to Tron. Special shoutout to Tron surviving 2 turns at ONE HP (first turn Sturdy kept him alive, second turn he straight up refused to die) against Bewear at the Elite Four and taking that fat bastard out.

Hisako was only kind of a surprise because I love the Cubone/Marowak line, but because I usually incorporate a Geodude or the like in my team, they’re often irrelevant from a balance standpoint. Alolan Marowak is Fire/Ghost, both types already on the team, but she knew Rock AND Ground moves while having one of my favorite designs in the game, so she was a keeper. I’d originally planned to switch her out for a Skarmory, but I’d gotten too attached by the time I caught one. Stomping Tantrum has a really dumb animation, but lord she’s racked up a killing spree with it.

Tamatoa was one of those Pokemon that I’d somehow missed hearing about, and when he popped out of a berry pile and tried to murder me, I fell in love, both with the design and the idea of a crab punching things to death. The Crabominable evolution is one of the ugliest things in the entire Pokemon universe, but everybody else got to evolve, so I figured why not him too. He’s not shiny, but he’s shiny to me.

Belle (as in ‘Bell Witch’) was kind of a surprise because I caught her the same time as I caught a Gastly, and although I usually have a Haunter on my team no matter what the game, I decided to try something a little different this time - and not just because Misdreavus is so adorable that it’s physically painful for me to pet her. That gamble paid off, however, because she swings like a fucking monster and spent most of the game 2-3 levels ahead of everyone else on my team.

It’s not the most well-rounded bunch (Hala’s fighting team almost ended my Elite Four run before it actually got started) but they got me through the game, and I love’em.