More Moe Is Needed: Let's Play Moemon: LeafGreen, Thread II

[Deme]

I was just reading chapter 16, where Azula said that it was the cute costume ("raiments")that gave her her form. So... if Seed wore a magic cute costume, then she would look like a Pokemon too? That would be really cute.

Oops, I used the word "cute" four times...

Ooh, thanks for asking! (If you haven't guessed, I love answering questions)

Yes. Now, the big question is "can Seed wear a raiment?" And, sadly, she can't. She has her own physical form, and can't be taken out of it and still be a noticable presence as far as anyone knows. For the moemon, the idea of the raiment refers to both the outfit and the body, since to them the body sort of *is* an outfit, and the two come together. But assuming she could go into an energy state that would render the raiment truly 'wearable,' then it would work for her.

[Eledragon]

hmm, once they figure out how to capture humans in pokeballs...yes, that would work...

[Hawkflight]

Ooh, thanks for asking! (If you haven't guessed, I love answering questions)

Yes. Now, the big question is "can Seed wear a raiment?" And, sadly, she can't. She has her own physical form, and can't be taken out of it and still be a noticable presence as far as anyone knows. For the moemon, the idea of the raiment refers to both the outfit and the body, since to them the body sort of *is* an outfit, and the two come together. But assuming she could go into an energy state that would render the raiment truly 'wearable,' then it would work for her.

Ah, so that's how Bill ended up as a Pokemon? He turned himself into an energy state via the teleporter, and used that to combine himself with a raiment?

[Deme]

Ah, so that's how Bill ended up as a Pokemon? He turned himself into an energy state via the teleporter, and used that to combine himself with a raiment?

Basically. There was a bit of a raiment's energy (DNA, to ordinary people) in the other tube, so it was sort of jumbled, and didn't create the double-sided 'illusion' effect, like it did for real pokemon. It probably wasn't terribly good for his health. Like The Fly, but with magic... It may have, however, tipped him towards the 'figures things out' side, where before he could have gone either way.

Also, thank you guys. I've now managed to work out an end-game plot point out of this discussion. Or at least managed to mentally answer a few major questions.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Ooh, thanks for asking! (If you haven't guessed, I love answering questions)

Yes. Now, the big question is "can Seed wear a raiment?" And, sadly, she can't. She has her own physical form, and can't be taken out of it and still be a noticable presence as far as anyone knows. For the moemon, the idea of the raiment refers to both the outfit and the body, since to them the body sort of *is* an outfit, and the two come together. But assuming she could go into an energy state that would render the raiment truly 'wearable,' then it would work for her.

.....must resists urge to make you regret that..... must resist.

When do you get t he national pokedex? After this or after the next part in the number islands? Because I think Eda deserves her evolution (And jewel too, should have had the opportunity to become a Steelix )

[Deme]

.....must resists urge to make you regret that..... must resist.

When do you get t he national pokedex? After this or after the next part in the number islands? Because I think Eda deserves her evolution (And jewel too, should have had the opportunity to become a Steelix )

No, no, I will never regret this. I go around mentally interviewing myself. That is how much I love answering questions about my stories.

I get it, by the way, first thing in the next chapter. Which'll probably be short: there's a decision to make, and I'm worried about the power/internet going out.

[authority02]

Now, the big question is "can Seed wear a raiment?" And, sadly, she can't. She has her own physical form, and can't be taken out of it and still be a noticable presence as far as anyone knows. For the moemon, the idea of the raiment refers to both the outfit and the body, since to them the body sort of *is* an outfit, and the two come together. But assuming she could go into an energy state that would render the raiment truly 'wearable,' then it would work for her.

I see... so, could Sage wear a raiment? And then perhaps Seed could encounter her and have a joyful reunion. Presumably, Seed would have recognized her face if Sage was one of the Moemon she'd already caught.

[Deme]

There's a few problems with that idea:

#1: The first is that, as I think Terra's mentioned at some point (I know it's been mentioned, and Terra's the sort of person who'd say it), but no one knows what happens to humans when they die. If they have some sort of solid, still-identifiable energy form, they're not forthcoming about it. No one's found one. It's one of the core reasons a human being cannot be brought back from the dead, at least not in a straight-up way: not even legendaries can find what happens to dead humans.
Bringing, for example, Jewel back to life would be relatively easy: they'd just have to find her in the energy planes where she's presumably sitting back, telling stories, and buying energy-drinks all around, give her a new raiment, and plop her back down. She still, with certainty, exists; she just doesn't have a means of physically inter-acting with the world anymore.

#2: Is that it would require some pretty complex steps for this to happen (it would need a free raiment, Sage's soul, and some sort of spell or method to combine the two)

#3: Humans don't know any attack-style magic techniques, and couldn't learn them even with a raiment. So she'd be a really useless pokemon.

In other words, it's the sort of thought experiment that makes Terra happy: at once totally possible and totally impossible.

[Water_and_Wind]

#3: Humans don't know any attack-style magic techniques, and couldn't learn them even with a raiment. So she'd be a really useless pokemon.

A Magikarp?

[Deme]

A Magikarp?

Wouldn't even have splash. ... Sooo...Yeah, about the same level of utility.

[Forum Explorer]

By the way are you going to fight that Lugia and Hoho in those through those weird doors earlier?

[Deme]

By the way are you going to fight that Lugia and Hoho in those through those weird doors earlier?

Lugia's in the next chapter.

[Dusk Eclipse]

No, no, I will never regret this. I go around mentally interviewing myself. That is how much I love answering questions about my stories.

I get it, by the way, first thing in the next chapter. Which'll probably be short: there's a decision to make, and I'm worried about the power/internet going out.

My point was that you said you loved answering questions, you didn't specify questions about your stories.

One of the questions was "Why are you in my brain @_@?

[Mando Knight]

By the way are you going to fight that Lugia and Hoho in those through those weird doors earlier?

It's Ho-Oh. I doubt Seed is going to fight these.

[Cieyrin]

It's Ho-Oh. I doubt Seed is going to fight these.

Not unless she gets a nightmare sequence for some reason about a previously unknown obsession with sweets.

[Forum Explorer]

It's Ho-Oh. I doubt Seed is going to fight these.

True but that would be very amusing. Perhaps someone can draw that picture of Seed fighting a Hoho

[Duneyrr]

[Feriority]

Seed used diet! But, it failed.

[Deme]

XD Ow, my sides.
Ok, this is getting added to my fanart stack.

And, in return for such a great gag, I present the next chapter. Sorry for the brevity, but I decided that I wanted this choice to come up, and folding the stuff after it into the chapter felt...wierd.

Chapter 73: It's a load-bearing legendary!

Spoiler

Show

It's been about a week when I arrive home from a small radio station wanting to interview me. I kind of said what I've been saying: respect the pokemon. Take care of them...And do your best to connect.
Well, there's the rub. There's a side of everyone you don't see... But the relationships are one-way if you don't understand even what sort of heart is at play. That's what broke Terra's heart, from what I understand. Trying to build connections without clear communication...

Just doesn't work. Maybe that's why Beau and I won't work, in the end. I'm too chicken to say how I feel.

I'm thinking about that when Oak stops me at the door.

"Yeah."
Oak: "So how are your studies coming? And the pokedex?"

"Of course!"
He looks it over, mumbles about my having scuffed it a good deal (I've been having adventures, ok?) and then nods.

"Yeah, it's getting a little much for me, though..."
I think I'm going to take a break from catching pokemon for a while.
"I think there's still a lot more you can learn from pokemon, though; don't give up seeking them out, Seed!... To make people think more about the natures of pokemon... That is the true purpose of the pokedex."
He stares down at it tenderly.
"When you understand what is best for pokemon... You also come to understand what is best for humans."
He straightens and looks at me very seriously.

"Ask away, Professor."

As we walk, he keeps talking in that soft, somewhat wistful tone he was using before. I guess with Beau and I going out and seeing the world... It's made him, what? regretful? nostalgic?
It's creepy in that profound 'my parents are talking to an attorney about their will' way: like you'd want to bolt the heck outta this conversation so fast... But you can't.
"When I was young, I had a chance -- a real chance -- to make the world a better place."
"You've done great work, Professor. Don't undersell it."
With a little smile, he waves me off.
"I was young, and selfish -- I didn't see the chance I had until it was too late... You have a chance right now to do many things, Seed. I hope you'll rememeber everything you've learned, from me and from your journeys and from your pokemon, when the moment comes."
I...I really don't know what to say. It's a creepy feeling -- did I win the chocolate factory or something, Willy Wonka?
Eventually, we arrive back at the lab. I used to be in here every day, going to 'school' or doing part-time work or just watching things... I haven't been here for a while now. It's wierd -- so that's the feeling of a 'repetition,' huh? Or is that a 'rotation'?
...Oh, heck with it. I don't need fancy Walker Percy words.
"Anyway, I actually did want to talk to you about some things."


"Really? So there's a big migration starting? That's... a little wierd."
Then again, didn't pokemon move to Seafoam after Articuno moved in?...Oh, dear. Well, maybe I can ask them. I need to talk to them.

I think I see where all of this is going.
Is it another fetch quest?

"It's your time to go and see and explore, after all."
Yes. Yeah, it kinda is a fetch quest.

This is the first time in a week I've been in a room with him. I look away before I see if he's refusing to look at me or not: I don't want to see.
It was all so much easier when I thought I didn't love him, or even like him.


Beau: "I mean, I get it! She's champion and all the guys like her and nobody's good enough to even get close to the unparalleled magnificence that is Seed...But I'm nothing to sneeze at!" His voice is dripping with sarcasm... Is that really how he sees me? Well, maybe if he didn't insult me, I -- Oh, why bother?
I should really just apologize. He's probably just feeling hurt.


The professor’s kind of used to this, though.

"You just had it earlier. You could have just kept it from then!"



...
...
...


Thank goodness. We've been sitting here in awkward silence for, like, ever.

"And I'd like you to do some research, even if it's just via observation. The more data we can find, the better!"



What, no ‘smell you later’? …He must really be upset.
One island, huh? I guess I should follow him. Try and...I don't know. Say something.


And because I feel like there's something in what he says that, because no one really thinks to, you know, tell me stuff... All I can say is:
"...I'll try to make you proud, sir."
Oak: "You already have, my girl. And don't take too long with Beau -- I'm not out the door yet, but I'd like great-grandkids at some point!"
I laugh.
"I'll do my best."

I leave and begin to head on outside.
"I've put so much hope into this project...I've put so much... It's only a little farther now, you two. Before we see if my last wish was enough to undo it all..."

***
I'm leaving -- no, really, I am -- when I hear something calling me.
Something thin and pale, a sort of whistle in the wind.

"Seed..."
Eventually, I realize that it's coming on the door.

That dang secret magic door.
"I suppose it is time to face that foe I once told you to flee."
"More legendaries. Great."


I hate white hallways.


Freaking hallways.

What is this, the lost woods?
"So what you once feared..."
"Just really annoys me."


Lugia: "No backing away now, Seed..."
"Oh, hey. You again. 'Sup?"
"I do not appreciate your flippant tone, human...But...That, officially, said... Nothing but the ceiling, baby."
"You're my style of legendary, aren't you, Mr. Spirit of The Under-Current?"
"Well, I'm not as worried about this. Yeah, you're a tough human, and have defeated my Kanto relatives... But what will be will be."
"So you called me down here because...?"
"Oh, that. Well, regardless of my personal feelings... I'm still obligated to kill all your pokemon. And, if possible, you."
He spreads his wings and the cavern shakes. Rocks begin to fall around the edges.

"I suppose we could say we're both to blame for this. And...That one...Too."
"That one?"
Those rumbling noises are still going. I suddenly realize, like a rock in the pit of my stomach, that the cave's going to collapse on top of all of us.
"Is now really the time to ask questions? "
"Ok then! Shut up and fight!"
"Of course."


"Hey! What's with all this recovering health business? I thought you wanted to fight?"
"...If you haven't guessed, my desires are irrelevant. That was nice though."

I need to jump out of the way to avoid a falling rock, white as the moon. This really isn't good. This isn't magic or a technique, like a rock slide attack... It's just pure power causing a very real cave-in.
"Listen, buddy -- I'm not afraid of you; I'm not afraid of anything! You just grab life by the short hairs and yank!"
"Actually, we want to play his game: no damage. Thunder wave."
"Aye-aye!"

And for this turn, he is bound by the paralysis.
"Tch. Why obey her? I mean, she's killing herself, wasting time."
There's no malice there. There's something a little spookier. It's... curiosity.
"You're killing her."
Not that I have time to think about the psychology of people trying to murder me. I'm watching the ceiling. For that moment, when he sounds confused... It's stopped.
"I'm trusting her, idiot! I mean, if I disobey her just because I don't think she's good enough to beat you...Then haven't we kinda already lost?"

He's distracted enough that he focuses on returning her attacks, instead of his elaborate recover-based plan.


But that doesn't last. And the cave-in starts again. Over half of the cave is nothing but rubble. Only the part that feeds into the current is still totally clear -- it's his escape.
"I hope taking that extra turn was worth it to you, then. Still... Maybe this one's the easiest. I've got no pretense of kindness -- but a fast crush is better than burning alive, or having your mind turned to liquid, right?"
"I have no intention of dying -- I still want to know who's putting you up to this!"
"You seem a decent trainer. I hate to kill you."
"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to make Princess Bride references at you."
"Hey, but seriously...Can we stop the chatter? I'm not big on psycology. Me? Not deep. She trusts me, so I try and do right without her making me. It's simple. Liiike...Frying you!"


And now, we have a choice. Now all that trust comes to bear. She doesn't have a lot health left, and she doesn't have a lot of charges for thunderbolt. Do I pause and heal, or do I charge forward?
The rocks --
No, don't think about the dang rocks! Think about ChuChu. If it's against swift...
Trust.
"We do this. Thunderbolt."
ChuChu smiles, big and energetic, and charges up. Lugia crouches, readying to continue the game -- or maybe he simply can't move?

We'll never know. ChuChu fires and blasts him away, out of the cave.


The cave...Which is now rapidly collapsing.
"Chu-Chu! Out! On the triple!"
I scoop her up and run for my life.


I'd just like to say one thing:
I. Hate.
Load.
Bearing.
Bosses.
So much hate.

"...Thanks, ChuChu."
"You sure you're OK? Nothing hit you?"
"I'm fine."

I arrive at last to the surface of the island...and I see something coming towards me across the sea. It's Lugia, battered and beaten. He dips and skims the surface of the water, too broken to stay aloft.

"...I decided... That I... wanted to finish the match..."
"We did. Just then."
"No. That's not 'finished.' It's enough for humans, but for a great spirit like myself...There's only one way to finish this. In this, my feelings are relevant."
He drops to one knee on the dock in front of me. ChuChu stands in front and guards.
"I think...If you had disobeyed, miss Pikachu, I'd have willed the rocks to drop all the faster. I think I prefer this result..."
He sighed.
"What do you want?"
"Kill me. Or allow me to serve you. I cannot be free in this life -- but they're willing to trust you. That's more than I can say for my current master.... So I leave my fate in your hands, my conquerer."
...Dude. This guy tried to kill me. But he doesn't seem like a bad murderer.
What should I do?

Well, you heard the girl. Should we accept his fealty or let the guy rot? You can also say if you think this applies to Ho-Oh or not (This does not apply to Ho Hos. Seed'll eat them.)

[Toric]

I say keep Lugia. He's said it himself, he really didn't want to kill Seed or her pokemon. He had no choice over whether to take lives; Seed does.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I am not sure, my first instinct is to say capture the Lugia; but I am not really sure... I think it would be interesting to see how he develops his relationship with Seed and the Bird trio... on the other hand, how Seed copes with more blood on her hands sounds interesting.

And this current master business promises some amusement if he/she/it finds Lugia on Seed's size... guess I vote for Capture the bird.

[Mystic Muse]

I vote "Capture him" but I'm biased since I think Lugia is my favorite pokemon.

[Penguinator]

Gotta Catch 'Em All! Lugia, Get!

[Eledragon]

"Luke, use the Pokeball."

yeah, catch 'im.

[Cieyrin]

Wait, why'd Lugia call ChuChu a Pikachu? Didn't she evolve into a Raichu a good long time ago?

Also, I couldn't see Seed letting any living thing die like that, plus a team of Legendaries would be awesome (Moltre, Zaptos, Articuno, Lugia, Ho-oh, Mewtwo) :3.

[Deme]

Wait, why'd Lugia call ChuChu a Pikachu? Didn't she evolve into a Raichu a good long time ago?

Also, I couldn't see Seed letting any living thing die like that, plus a team of Legendaries would be awesome (Moltre, Zaptos, Articuno, Lugia, Ho-oh, Mewtwo) :3.

Lugia doesn't see the difference as being relevant. She was a pikachu once, and really hasn't changed that much, and I suspect he still sees that in her heart.

[Qwertystop]

Lugia doesn't see the difference as being relevant. She was a pikachu once, and really hasn't changed that much, and I suspect he still sees that in her heart.

You sure it wasn't just a forgetting/typo?

[Deme]

You sure it wasn't just a forgetting/typo?

...
...
... Ummm...
Well...
The 'truth' of a story is a varied and complicated thing. In fiction, one 'truth' is able to change things that have come before it.
...In other words, I've found a story so I'm sticking to it.


Also, I've been listening to "Namida Ga Afureta" all night. It's a song that fits Seed really well, which may be useful to me in coming weeks. If anyone else has songs that may work for various characters, do let me know.
I can think of a few more off-hand:
I've actually used bits of "Both Sides Now" for Terra's dialogue.
And I've mentioned how well "Time in a Bottle" speaks for Azula's feelings about Seed, more-or-less. There's a little fear of time in Azula's heart, and I may want to touch on that one more time before the story's over.

[Mando Knight]

I go with catch.

[Water_and_Wind]

Its an endangered gender, catch! (Why is lugia male though?)