Well to be frank humanity can be stupid no scratch that mortal kind in general can be stupid you don't have to be human to be stupid
Now in regards to the matter to energy conversion it could be possible heck pokemon may understand the laws of the universe better than humans in this case
Fun fact did you know there is a small little flaw in the foundation of physics kinda figured it out on accident wound up terrifying my even smarter than me friend with it
this is fun as always but after the suddenness of getting caught by paul the story has been going extremely slowly since she ditched in my opinion. the fight with the bird was cool but i hope all this wandering around town stuff comes to an end soon and some actual progression happens. it felt like almost all of it could have been summed up as a few mini flashbacks after she'd finished collecting all the stuff she wants.
Standing back up and peaking around the side of the bush, I further calm as I realize that the siren isn't coming from a police car, but from an approaching fire truck — I guess there is a purpose to the roads here after all. It speeds past my hiding spot fast enough to kick up wind its wake before continuing all the way down the street, heading for what I think is the outskirts of the city.
More broadly, I'm one of the ones who feels like the story is dragging. It's fine to have sections with a low plot-per-wordcount ratio, but you should increase your words-published-per-IRL-day to compensate.
I'm fine with the slow pace as long as she keeps writing; I'd prefer she not burn-out if she tries increasing her work rate to compensate for a lack of plot progression, which while slow is still going, and I've still enjoyed it because it is showing her interactions with humans and her morality when life and death are not on the line.
It's not really bigotry, per se. Bigotry would imply intolerance of others' opinions/beliefs in some fashion. "Prejudice" is more along the lines of what you may be thinking, and it... may have more reasons behind it than just that. But more on that later.
Nope - after Bewilder Forest was an episode where Dawn attempted to teach Piplup Whirlpool, followed by the episode where Brock gets Croagunk (and Team Rocket is running a fake gym), followed by the episode where Dawn catches Buneary, followed by the group's arrival in Jubilife. No mention of a forest fire in any of them. Though you're on the right track...
I'm pretty sure that if you want to demonstrate intelligence, the easiest way is to tap out Fibonacci numbers. Even if the listener doesn't realize that's specifically what you're doing, it would be pretty obvious it's not random. They might assume a trainer taught you, but it should open the door to more communication pretty quickly.
You'd be surprised the kind of things people are willing to brush off as coincidence, or even just flat out ignore. It's not a bad idea, but something more, shall we say, attention grabbing is likely to work better. More on that later.
Oh yeah, Mawile!me running with my scarf dream behind me like a cape, into the middle of a raging fire... and immediately getting burned alive for my troubles. What a marvelous hero am I!
(Seriously, probably not a great idea for me, given my track record with fire thus far.)
Let's face it: cars would be impractical in a crowded city, where it's usually more convenient to walk/bike or take a taxi/train anyway. Plus no traffic jams, less air pollution, less noise pollution, no rented parking spots, less roadkill, etc. I do expect some vehicles out and about, but not many.
Fair enough. Though, other large cities in the Pokemon world seem to follow this same trend honestly: plenty of roads, virtually no cars. Maybe a bike or two, but that's about it – in fact, when we do see cars used, they tend be driving off-road. Seems a bit backwards to me.
Maybe try bartering? Just, like, use Trick and leave a cupcake in the bag's place. Yup, that's definitely how equivalent exchange works.
Mawile!me: *gasps and points behind Kiara* "OH MY GOD WHAT'S THAT?!"
Kiara: "Huh?" *turns around to look*
Mawile!me: *grabs the bag, dumps whatever I'm holding in its place, and hightails it*
...somehow tactics like this always work in Pokemon. XD
Yeah, I agree with Mawile here: What the heck was that supposed to mean? Does Kiara think she was just hallucinating the whole conversation or something?
And just like that, your Coolness went up. Or Cuteness, whatever. Honestly, it's a nice accessory even if it doesn't have Contest appeal. Thanks, Kiara.
No, this is simple. You've inverted the bag, so it becomes a bag of unholding, ie. a bag that is both impossible to hold and cannot hold anything itself.
...in other words, you've essentially just trashed the item. Good job.
Sadly, this isn't Final Fantasy or SMT. We can't just summon the Pokemon we need from across space and time by use of a one-use item, no matter how convenient that would be.
(Though, the fireworks that would likely erupt from summoning Palkia into the middle of Jubilife, completely without warning, would be... well let's just say interesting and leave it at that. ^^; )
There is also some chance that poke-mans are different from hu-mans. They might just be really really terrible at noticing some things(like disguises, for example). I mean, trading in their ability to figure out that the thing clearly and coherently talking to them is actually capable of speech, in exchange for the ability to casually invent lossless and reliably reversible matter-to-energy conversion in their bronze-age equivalent might be worth it, especailly if they also get to buff their compassion to the point that having such a fialing doesn't prevent them from being decent to the people which they can't recognise as people.
That's possible, certainly. A little cludgy in how you basically have to say humans aren't the same species as Pokemon!humans, but I won't deny there's an idea there.
you're still overestimating humanity a fair bit here - there are people who don't except even that apes can be taught sign and typing. people have a bad habit of underestimating the intelligence of other creatures. and of not listening to scientists, for that matter. in addition, in order for people to find out, that requires it to be communicated to the masses, who often remain ignorant out of apathy.
I'd agree with this, the last bit especially. Remember that this is a world where schooling past the age of ten doesn't actually seem to be a requirement, and even when we do see people in a classroom, they're usually not learning about Pokemon. Even the trainers schools (in contrast to the perhaps single normal one we see), only seem to teach people how to fight with Pokemon, or type effectiveness, or what shape a Jigglypuff looks like from above – the only people who seem to actually teach/impart knowledge about Pokemon in general are the various Professors, who tend to only really speak with the occasional aspiring trainer. Certainly someone would care if we suddenly found out all animals are sapient, but whether or not such information would be effectively communicated in a world like that of Pokemon is up for debate. Keep in this in mind as this fic progresses.
Convincing humans to anthropomorphize things is super easy, which is why animism is so common. It takes active training to convince people not to do that.
True. I mean, there is a reason you commonly see art of anthropomorphized animals, anthropomorphized flora, anthropomorphized countries, anthropomorphized ships, anthropomorphized planets, anthropomorphized stars... the list goes on.
this is fun as always but after the suddenness of getting caught by paul the story has been going extremely slowly since she ditched in my opinion. the fight with the bird was cool but i hope all this wandering around town stuff comes to an end soon and some actual progression happens. it felt like almost all of it could have been summed up as a few mini flashbacks after she'd finished collecting all the stuff she wants.
I figured at least some people would be feeling this way – as I already noted over on SB, I was extremely nervous about releasing this chapter for exactly that reason. However, I feel very confident that flashbacks in the manner you are suggesting would absolutely not function for what I have in mind, and as for the wandering around town going on too long... well, I think I'm just going to outright state the issue with that. Semi-spoilers for upcoming chapters below:
The timeline of the show is quite vague, but some things at least can be inferred. For example, Ash and company come across Bewilder Forest during episode 6 of the DP saga, and encounter Paul in the same episode. However, they only arrive in Jubilife in episode 10... and given that Team Rocket attempted a new grandiose scheme in each of the intervening episodes (one of which involved setting up an entire fake gym, and another of which involved stealing from a factory and building one of their signature giant robots), all of them presumably took place on different days. If the night that Mawile!me escaped from Paul was the night of Episode 6, then it is currently the morning of episode 7 – meaning, Ash and co likely have several days before they make it to Jubilife, at minimum. Something may or may not potentially cause them to speed up a bit or skip an episode in the interim, but they are still walking between cities (which is slow even without having Mawile-sized legs), and besides the upcoming contest, which is at least a week away according to in-universe dialogue, they're in no real hurry.
Now, mind, I won't rule out something perhaps forcing Mawile!me to take action in some fashion before then, or that I won't perhaps end up forced out of the city for some reason before that point. However, if you're looking for the "plot" to immediately progress, then I'm sorry, but 1) there are other things I (Author!me, not Mawile!me) want to accomplish in Jubilife before moving on, and 2) Mawile!me is still waiting for the show's plot to catch up to me. So I'm afraid I'm just going to have to ask you to stick with it for the time being – unless of course your patience has already run out, in which case I thank you for at least being willing to read this far.
If you don't want to read all that or don't want to be spoiled, then I'll instead say that I'm afraid I just write the passing of time rather slowly. My longest fic currently on this site, Subsumption, is up to almost 140k words now – all of which encompasses barely two and a half days in-story. I consider almost every thought and action of my characters to be important, so I'm not going to just flash forward to get to the "good stuff" without showcasing the other important things that occur in the interim – and make no mistake, they are important for the story I intend to tell. I'm sorry if you find that frustrating, but it's just how I write. Hopefully the slower bits are at least still enjoyable for you to some extent.
More broadly, I'm one of the ones who feels like the story is dragging. It's fine to have sections with a low plot-per-wordcount ratio, but you should increase your words-published-per-IRL-day to compensate.
While I understand why you might express such a sentiment, please do realize that I can't actually force myself to write any faster. It's not like I'm not trying; I have a billion things backed up on my to-do list that I commonly put off in an attempt to make myself write instead. If I could be one of those people that can write a full novel in the span of a week, I would be, but I'm not – trust me, I've tried.
Also, bare in mind that this is not my only story. I have other projects I need to focus on besides this one, which obviously contributes to slowdown, not to mention my real-life priorities, which supercede any of those projects, this one included. This story has seen significant drop off in readership as of late, likely due the combination of both slower chapters and slower uploads, and I'd love to try and alleviate that by speeding up my writing – but sadly, I'm only one person. I cannot do more with the time and motivation available to me than I am actually capable of.
No, this is simple. You've inverted the bag, so it becomes a bag of unholding, ie. a bag that is both impossible to hold and cannot hold anything itself.
...in other words, you've essentially just trashed the item. Good job.
If you turn a normal bag inside out, the outside becomes the inside (i know, obvious.) which means it's just likely that a bag of holding turned inside out might end up just being some mess of non-euclidian geometry that takes up the same space as the outside of the bag whilst being "more" or likely just turn into a hole in reality that holds a volume equivalent to the outer geometry of the bag until turned outside-out again.
If you turn a normal bag inside out, the outside becomes the inside (i know, obvious.) which means it's just likely that a bag of holding turned inside out might end up just being some mess of non-euclidian geometry that takes up the same space as the outside of the bag whilst being "more" or likely just turn into a hole in reality that holds a volume equivalent to the outer geometry of the bag until turned outside-out again.
I always figured it would simply invert the ratio of inside-to-outside. It now looks as big as its insides were (because they are now the outsides), but only holds as much as what used to be its outside suggested.
A reverse TARDIS, it's smaller on the inside.
I always figured it would simply invert the ratio of inside-to-outside. It now looks as big as its insides were (because they are now the outsides), but only holds as much as what used to be its outside suggested.
A reverse TARDIS, it's smaller on the inside.
makes sense. It would also would make them quite hard to invert, as you would need to displace quite a lot of air to move the inside walls and would also need to get said big-on-the-inside backpack frame past the backpacks mouth.
I'm just pretty sure they have a rigid frame that makes it impossible to invert the bag without breaking them. The tech is in the rigid bits, not the soft, invertable bits.
I'd agree with this, the last bit especially. Remember that this is a world where schooling past the age of ten doesn't actually seem to be a requirement, and even when we do see people in a classroom, they're usually not learning about Pokemon. Even the trainers schools (in contrast to the perhaps single normal one we see), only seem to teach people how to fight with Pokemon, or type effectiveness, or what shape a Jigglypuff looks like from above – the only people who seem to actually teach/impart knowledge about Pokemon in general are the various Professors, who tend to only really speak with the occasional aspiring trainer. Certainly someone would care if we suddenly found out all animals are sapient, but whether or not such information would be effectively communicated in a world like that of Pokemon is up for debate. Keep in this in mind as this fic progresses.
Hmm now that you mention it, in a world where the laws of nature are more along the lines of actual legal laws that are enforced by beings and the very rats on the street can call forth grand power, science probably never moved away from it's "a pasttime for the eccentric" stage. After all, who needs to sit around and learn how to manipulate the natural world when you can get your pet ferret to override it and who need meterology when you can just ensure that your predictions are true.
Fair enough. Though, other large cities in the Pokemon world seem to follow this same trend honestly: plenty of roads, virtually no cars. Maybe a bike or two, but that's about it – in fact, when we do see cars used, they tend be driving off-road. Seems a bit backwards to me.
There's actually a really good reason for that to be the case, although it might not have been intentional. Roads actually predate cars, so with different social development about the creation of cars, they would just never take over the roads.
Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first interaction Mawile's had in the story to buck the trend of Fake Tears being credulously believed to be genuine, and actual crying being cynically dismissed as Fake Tears.
My theory has been that people whom are aware that a Pokemon is able to learn Fake Tears will try to mentally correct for it, leading them to believe that any genuine act crying is done in malice. But meanwhile, due to the effects of the move Fake Tears itself, they are commensurately unable to think the same thing when the actual move is used.
Our friend here, the backpack gaoler, puts a wrench in my theory, but does not yet nix it. Among other possibilities, repeated exposure may have led to her learning to identify the move consistently. Alternatively her, at least believing, herself to have been repeatedly exposed may have caused her to harden her heart to the degree that neither true tears nor Fake Tears may still move her. Without seeing her response to Mawile actually crying, I don't have much way to differentiate.
Kiara suddenly kneels down in front of me again and starts wrapping the scarf around the thin tube that connects my horns to the rest of my head. The unexpected close contact startles me, but in the interest of both keeping up my current "cute" persona and not getting Pokemon control called on me, I manage to refrain from doing anything hasty.
Mawile, whom is presently in her clever disguise of being a cute animal who wants other people's food and to steel a bag (actually, every part of that disguise is literally true but anyway), is seen here needing to actively restrain herself when someone bends down to the cute animal. Implicitly, Mawile's first instinct on coming in contact with a human is to kill and eat them, not in that order.
I would scold her for this, but that would make me a hypocrite.
I dunno, Mawile's pretty sus herself. Remember when Bidoof claimed to have seen her vent? Just prior to his own mysterious death in electrical, no less!
Humans respond quite a lot to body-language and confrontation. Just give them a half-lidded glare and a single finger and you will probably be elevated to "is a person, but not one that I like" pretty quickly...
I just have the funny thought
Of Flairile going through the adventure and reaching Palkia who send you through a portal to Arceus to become human again
But in the portal this appears
And you can imagine the rest
At least you could try to look for a Super Crown to make yourself human again
In other words, the Mawile covered by a red scarf won't be recognized as the Mawile wearing a red bow.
"What? That can't possibly be the cute critter who's been begging for our food. She looks too cool!"
Fair enough. Though, other large cities in the Pokemon world seem to follow this same trend honestly: plenty of roads, virtually no cars. Maybe a bike or two, but that's about it – in fact, when we do see cars used, they tend be driving off-road. Seems a bit backwards to me.
This is true even in the Gen V games. Unova is mostly based on NYC, which has too many cars. And yet, even though trailers are common in the wilderness and cargo trucks can be seen passing on Skyarrow Bridge, there are no cars. It's weird!
There's always the option of long-distance transportation, though. Airplanes, trains, boats. Or Pokemon, if you happen to have them.
