With her power, her teleportation, and not to forget her Pokemon, Astra was having a hard time imagining what she would even need to use the orb for in the first place.
In front of her, a massive gouge in the earth tunneled into the horizon. She couldn't see the end of it, as a giant pileup of felled trees blocked the path. All around her, the formerly serene clearing was now littered with branches and leaves.
On the other end of a forest, a young pokemon saw how a Dark Lord's power wiped out his village in front of his own eyes, and set out on a quest to defeat evil and generally be a hero. But that's a different story entirely.
I greatly enjoyed this chapter and look forward to what happens next, also I think it's rather obvious that the big cost of using the Orb is that it seems to amplify the user's negative aspects while basically suppressing their self control.
Unfortunetly invisitext is a hassle on Ao3 and totally nonviable on FF.net, so anything fancier than what I did here, IE right aligning all the text, is a no-go. Even then, FF.net only allows middle, which is irritating.
Hell, I have to tell everyone on FF.net to go to my profile to find broken links to all the images Dex makes.
oh you fixed the typo in the time it took me to read the chapter.
this is fun, but I really hope May catches on soon. Astra needs a friend she can trust with that sort of thing, who can cover for her when shit hits the fan.
EDIT: I also love how Astra's vocabulary is slowly becoming more and more full of swearing.
No move in particular. Imagine a psychic variant of Shadow ball or Aura sphere. Oddly enough there doesn't seem to be a psychic move that just straights up throws a ball of hurt at your opponent.
... actually, psycho boost looks just like what I said. Huh, guess I missed it. Sure, but less powerful.
Isn't that how it always is? They disguise themselves to fit in, looking all normal and cute or whatever, and then BAM! They've melted a mountain when you weren't looking. Watch out for Astra, is what I'm saying.
Pretty nervous about this one. It's pretty much (barring one notable exception) all Slice of Life type stuff, which I hadn't intended for. Entire thing bloated out of control so I had to save what would have been the other half for next chapter. Had to rename it from 'cacophony' (which will instead be next chapter) 'cause the relevant event isn't happening here, too.
Sorry if some of the 'battle' bits make your eyes glaze over, tends to happen to me as well. Some people find those sections fun enough, I suppose. I could spend a day or two re-writing it, or maybe cut it altogether, but on the whole the entire bit isn't important enough for much more attention and I just want to ship this damn thing out so I stop stressing over it during the holidays.
In any case, some exciting stuff happens next chapter that should feel much less 'filler' and if you recall the games you should have a decent guess as to what.
When your "filler" involves carving a gash into the land and creating a pillar of pure hate that burns the very sky itself, I shudder to imagine what the actual content will bring.
No move in particular. Imagine a psychic variant of Shadow ball or Aura sphere. Oddly enough there doesn't seem to be a psychic move that just straights up throws a ball of hurt at your opponent.
... actually, psycho boost looks just like what I said. Huh, guess I missed it. Sure, but less powerful.
Yeah Psycho Boost (Deoxys' signature move) is Psychic Overheat and is basically a ball of Fuck You (and by Fuck You I mean gravity.) After that there isn't any orb-based attacks.
The Ancestor has seen some shit. Teleportation is all fun and games until you catch a glimpse of just what sort of cogs are powering this particular machine.
But hey, it's not like such revelations drove her mad or anything, right?
I wonder if May is ever going to stop being surprised at how much of a bumpkin Astra is. Every time she thinks she's hit rock bottom, Astra comes out not knowing what a toothbrush is or having never seen shoes before.
Poor Tentacool, though. Doesn't get to snuggle up, watch movies, and eat popcorn with the rest of the gang, all because he's sopping wet at all times.
I love this story because the author blends so many different styles of writing very well, turning it into a believable fantasmle that reality, please keep going your doing great! However, I am a bloodthirsty monster at heart, and I would love a believable and competent team Aqua. Give us blood please.
I love this story because the author blends so many different styles of writing very well, turning it into a believable fantasmle that reality, please keep going your doing great! However, I am a bloodthirsty monster at heart, and I would love a believable and competent team Aqua. Give us blood please.
Aqua is much harder to have be 'competent' than Magma. Well, I mean, they're good at accomplishing their goals (Sans PC interference), it's just that their goals are really stupid.
See, cause I can sort of understand how Magma came to the conclusions they got to, cause clearly if we're running out of land we just need more land. (The flaw is that, aside from the inherent logistical, moral, etc issues, having more land doesn't mean we'll use that land any better than what we already have done.)
But Aqua, these motherfuckers, their whole goal is to do the same thing, except for the water, because... there isn't enough ocean in the world? Humanity only uses sparse portions of the surface. What, are the water pokemon running out of space? Clearly all this empty water is being used to near 100% capacity, or something. Clearly. In the Omega timeline, they apparently do this because they're straight up hostile to humanity, which well, okay, I get it, I've had a brief stint with retail, but that's a bit far, man.
Hell in sapphire, their volcano plot is to... make it stop erupting, which will let rainwater fill the volcanic basin, which will lead to a new era of water pokemon evolution? (My dude that is not how evolution works in either reality. Did any of you go to high school?) At least Magma's volcano plot makes a pass at 'making sense'. Even though, you know, making the volcano erupt would probably doom the surrounding towns due to OHGODFUCK LAVA / PYROCLASTIC ASH IN MY FACE / LUNGS.
