Counting Sheep - A Pokemon Trainer quest

Yeah, that Joy was definitely the correct choice to go for. So worth it.

I assume the Joy name is hidden by an aura accent or something. It cannot just be simple physical intonations or whatever, else the mystery wouldn't have lasted as long as it did.

Also I do still want a poke from either the Jigglypuff, Clefairy or Chansey line. They're just too fitting for our soft boi.

Nice worldbuilding. It would be nice to meet Joy or Joy another time, though not Joy, she sounds bothersome. Joy is best Joy however.

More seriously, on training, I would push to pick as many fights as we can. Marigold now has the start of a toolkit and it would be beneficial to gather a lot of experience. Marigold would have the occasion to try out all of her moves, see what works and what doesn't, and it would make more sense afterwards to get rid of issues or polishing strengths.

In short, giving us more observations to have more training options while making Marigold get used to fights. Ideally, we would seek out some strong water pokemons, and a number of pokemons she doesn't have type advantage to. It would be great if we could even find some bad match ups for her or have her taste a defeat to avoid arrogance later on.

Ando Owen said:

Nice worldbuilding. It would be nice to meet Joy or Joy another time, though not Joy, she sounds bothersome. Joy is best Joy however.

More seriously, on training, I would push to pick as many fights as we can. Marigold now has the start of a toolkit and it would be beneficial to gather a lot of experience. Marigold would have the occasion to try out all of her moves, see what works and what doesn't, and it would make more sense afterwards to get rid of issues or polishing strengths.

In short, giving us more observations to have more training options while making Marigold get used to fights. Ideally, we would seek out some strong water pokemons, and a number of pokemons she doesn't have type advantage to. It would be great if we could even find some bad match ups for her or have her taste a defeat to avoid arrogance later on.

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Luckily there are some Krabby that can be used as part of my plan for fighting terrestrial mon that are weak to her, and we can also look for Sentret and Ratatta for neutral matches. Might also want to take on some Pidgey, see how Marigold fares when she's "only" got a single elemental advantage instead of two.

Not too worried we missed the Emissary, Johto probably has a dozen of those shrines, so odds are good we'll see him eventually.

As for Take Down, what would she be practicing on? I worry Trees/Boulders would be too tough to start with. Would we survive as a target? Against a one week old electric sheep? Granted, we'd have to worry about paralysis…

ReverendSwing said:

Right now there's four I think ?

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There are a lot more then four posted.

Not sure how many were serious or not so I'll grab them all.

LotusPocus said:

Spoiler: Soft boy 1

Spoiler: Soft boy 2

Spoiler: Soft boy 3

Spoiler: Soft boy 4

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Edgedancer said:

Spoiler

Spoiler

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Bloodalchemy said:

Spoiler

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blaintintnoob said:

Spoiler: Soft Boy Image Nominations

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[ ][Training] Plan Basics and Cool Glasses:
-[ ]Marigoald still has trouble alterning between her defensive and evasive stances. Rectify it by practicing it with Yasigi, then in combat.
-[ ]Learn to aim Thundershock better while at it.
-[ ]You got Sunglasses! Now it's time for Marigold to control her light and maybe learn Flash. Have her increase then decrease her output electric output in her tail, until she has enough control then ask Nekeh if he can help with the timing of Flash
-[ ]Don't forget to battle after a breakthrough and at the end of the day against wild first stage pokemon weak to the electrick type. First stage normal type works too.

The goal of this plan is to have reliable positioning and electric attack, and start working on our battlefield control with Flash. Marigold being an Electric pokemon, and of the Ampharos line, shouldn't have trouble learning it.

TempestK said:

[X][Training] Marigold has gotten some experience dealing with flying opponents, but you should also work with her on attacking ground-bound opponents, as well as how to dodge opponents on the ground instead of tank a blow. Use this opportunity to see how well her Takedown performs. Alternate between Takedown and working on her ability to shift between defense mode and mobility/charge-up mode. Training her out of it entirely is a waste of a valuable tactic that she can use even as a Flaffy (somewhat).

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I think we should keep the training of Takedown for when we meet Melati's friend. Right now Marigold is still acclimating herself to battling, and pain from her moves is contraindicated. Better do it with a battling pro

Okay, dramatis personae updated. Joy's sheet now has a bio and appearance section, because I realised that I forgot to write it out in the chapter ^^

Bloodalchemy said:

There are a lot more then four posted.

Not sure how many were serious or not so I'll grab them all.

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My bad, I should have worded that better - I meant that there were only about four I was willing to okay. That said, looking through these again tells me there are actually a couple more I'd be fine with, so thanks for gathering them up !

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying
-[X] Have Marigold improve the accuracy of her Thunder Shock by attempting to snipe wingull out of the air. Encourage her to use her magnetic sense to bolster her aim by track the wingull's movement.
-[X] If some of the wingull take a dive at Marigold, have her switch between dodging and hiding in her fluff until she gets accustomed with using either tactic at will.
-[X] Try to combine the times she turtles up with using Charge to increase her chance of paralyzing the wingul on contact.
-[X] The main focus is setting groundwork for long term improving Marigold's precision and use of her magnetic sense, but it won't it hurt if it'll get her thunder shock and defensive habits in better shape for the battle training.

I feel like this isn't the first time the update is massive enough that the moratorium is already up by the time I finished it, much less formulated my post. Still, at least it's a lot of good stuff, so I'm not complaining. Interacting with Joy was a real joy and now I immediately feel self-concious if my lame pun is amongst the basic pick up lines they have to deal with.

As for the actual vote, I'd rather put off testing various moves in combat until we have an actual combat trainer to give us some guidance and continue working on some fundamentals for now.

ReverendSwing said:

Your reading is only interrupted by the occasional need to rein in your sheep and her brand new rider, Nyssa the Cutiefly having elected that the tuft of wool between Marigold's conical ears was to be her new throne as she leads her noble steed to glory in a glorious crusade involving triumphs over such enemies as That One Chair, The Magazine Stand and The Broken Vending Machine (Joy cheered them on at that one). You're kind of surprised the small Fairy is managing to sit there without getting herself electrocuted, until you remember that like quite a few other winged Bug-types, the dust covering her wings she can coat herself with provides some measure of defence against weaker status effects.

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This is adorable and I can only hope the continued exposure to Marigold's escapades melts Joan's heart towards being too soft himself.

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

[X] Plan Versatility & Mobility
-[X] Focus on preparing for the battle training by rounding out Marigold's practice a little and becoming ready for anything.
-[X] (Half-)Day ONE: Carefully try Take Down. We've just had lunch and been resting most of the day, so it seems like a good time to try out a potentially exhausting and difficult move. Let's go into the forest and see if we can find some slow-moving or at least ground-based pokemon to use it on: maybe low-hanging Pineco, Hoppip (sounds like they're staying on the ground because of strong winds), or that Normal-type that ran off earlier. If any of them start a proper fight, we can throw in a little dodge practice as well, but focus should be on offense. If it seems like too much for Marigold, we can ease off and practice Tackle instead – it's not as powerful, but it could be a good way to get started with physical-type moves. And when you only have one pokemon, those are good to have in case of type disadvantages.
-[X] Day TWO: Test out those wool-brushing techniques we read about by giving Marigold a thorough brushing in the morning and then going to practice defense against some water-type pokemon. Avoid the Staryu cliff. Set up Electric Terrain, start a battle with Thundershock, then focus on improving the mobility issue we had last time. Dodge special attacks (Water Gun or Bubble Beam, probably), turtle against physical attacks, and occasionally pop out of turtle as quickly as possible to fire back a Thundershock; this should help her get practice rapidly switching between modes.
-[X] Day THREE: Marigold has been working pretty hard and deserves a break. Let's ask Melati and Yasigi for advice on a fun and low-effort training activity. What's the Trainer/Pokemon equivalent of a father/son game of catch? Then after lunch, we can give Marigold a brushing and go challenge a Staryu! We can ask Yasigi for help finding an isolated one, or chasing off any that try to interrupt. In the actual battle, we can use the strategy we practiced yesterday, but less focus on defense. Maybe even throw in a couple Tackles or a Take Down, depending on how Day One went. Afterwards, plenty of rest for Marigold before Melati's mystery guest arrives for battle training.

So happy we got to befriend Joy🍺. I want so badly to know what's up with the names and with the Joy/Jenny compounds in general, but I have faith that in time it'll all come up eventually.

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

[X][Training] Plan Basics and Cool Glasses

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

Is practicing on her turtling up in her floof a good idea? Every evolution she has is gonna give her less and less wool to hide behind.

Edit: though I guess this is a more roundabout way to teach her to tank hits.

TimEd said:

Is practicing on her turtling up in her floof a good idea? Every evolution she has is gonna give her less and less wool to hide behind.

Edit: though I guess this is a more roundabout way to teach her to tank hits.

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She should be able to manifest Cotton Spore even as Ampharos, and may be able to use that as substitute wool.

TempestK said:

She should be able to manifest Cotton Spore even as Ampharos, and may be able to use that as substitute wool.

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Ok, that could be cool.

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

Noting Hoppip should be neutral, Grass and Flying cancels out defensively while lacking super effective moves

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

Great update, and I loved the interaction with Joy. Hopefully that is a fruitful contact. Otherwise, I wish we were getting Marigold more practice against things she doesn't have as strong of an advantage with, but it's a solid plan otherwise. She does need to learn how to fight without the advantage eventually, though.

I wonder if we could (or should) teach Marigold the move Bounce. It's a flying type move that conveniently makes her invulnerable (mostly) for a turn, giving her a way to last longer against those pesky ground types.

Thinking about it, a theme we could go for is "natural armor." Even an ampharos still has the rubbery skin to count as armor...


Also I really want an Aron, the little dudes are too cute.

[X] Plan Continued Wingull Bullying

I'd include some moving on to bullying Pidgey aswell on day 2 though, just so Marigold doesn't get too stuck in only fighting with double type advantage.

Just finished chapter 1, I can see the amount of thought and effort put into the lore behind it. Some rub me a wrong way a little, not because it's bad, on the contrary I find it fascinating, just different. But I definitely like it. I love thought out world building and lore.

Really captures the semi-dystopic, crapsaccharine world where one clan can monopolize an entire kind of pokemon and murder anyone they like and want and get of scot free, the authorities aren't actually worth anything with civilization and scientific advancement not mattering except for the weaklings too cowardly to make the cut. It's certainly darker than the anime. But not overly grim dark. At least from the MC's perspective since he's leaving that behind.

But the world of pokemon Training the MC has entered has allowed him to see on the other side of the line as it were and reminds me of Hunter x Hunter. Hunters and nen users get access to the wonders of the world by passing the trials, and even then, most of those that try are just mooks and only the elites are actually worthwhile, while the rest of humanity are completely unimportant NPCs at best.

It's a world that's fully embraced Might makes Right, where society and civilization are shackles and burdens on both humans and anyone that wants a half decent pokemon, but has gotten at least a semi stable society working from that ideal. At least from the early pages I've seen. Might be missing context in later posts.

It's reminding me of Traveler a bit, but is distinctly different enough that I'm not sure what to expect which boths thrills and makes me cautious. Over all, even if I've only seen the prologue and first chapter I'm hooked.