One would think pokeballs shouldn't register them as valid targets in the first place.
The day Regigigas was slain, the Ancestor was still a Ralts living in that village in [...]. At some point past then she learned what had happened up there.
The Ancestor had
plenty of time to thoroughly carve the capacity for higher thought into her village, building up momentum for a thousand years until they finally hit their stride and could continue on their own indefinitly.
The Kadabra seem to have begun that same process but it was halted early, leaving the few who did learn to try personally tutoring apprentices from a population that will never gain widespread affinity for the skill. And when you have a cabal of very powerul leaders watching out for your safety and attending your every need for a thousand years, you might find that when they
can't anymore, you are left worse off than a wild pokemon who hadn't been generationally coddled would be in the same situration.
The Abra are the
only ones laying the eggs. If a Kadabra wants an apprentice theres
quite a few available.
Personal power isn't the issue. She would just be able to do what she already is a bit faster. It's the fact that she's
alone that is holding her back.
Those are some pretty
Twisted ideas, there. I recommend keeping them well away from any Kadabra you see.
Magic Mushrooms! And hey, did you forget that Astra's village makes
Fermented Berry Juice? It's a party!
35 years is a long time to be in a box. Even if they had survived initial capturing...well, one can only hope.
We aren't quite done with Echo yet. We'll see her again...relatively soon. Say, two years ooc? Lmao.
All of you are going to absolutely
hate me. I'm not saying that something won't happen, but I can guarentee that
you will hate me.
I hope you enjoy doing so. I know I will.
To be fair, it's probably difficult to make a pokeball not activate around sapient pokemon. What sort of marker do you program into it? It's not like the pokeball is sapient either! But yeah, they absolutely should do
something about it. It being difficult to work is not an excuse for letting it remain a possibility. Given how rare they are, it's likely that pokemon don't have an exact legal status; it's probably very ad hoc. It definitely varies between region. Depending on the species, personality, and trainer, they might be inclined to not rock the boat about their status. Whether because they like fighting and they feel content. Or just because they feel powerful enough that if they really wanted to they could destroy the pokeball and hit the bricks. Astra's village is probably going to be a huge
wtf moment for a lot of reasons.
Right, I'd forgotten that the Ancestor picked up memories of that afterwards and hadn't been physically there. That makes me more curious about who uplifted this population.
I don't think you can really massage the ecosystem to deal with five hundred Abra. Because it raise the question of how many Abra were their at their height? They wouldn't have more children in poverty, they couldn't. Especially because these Abra can't take care of themselves. It doesn't ruin the chapter or anything, I just end up ignoring it.
I suspected that the care of the Kadabras left the Abras worse-off when there were no longer enough of them around. What you mention about who layed the eggs is interesting. You might have some of the more intelligent Abra laying eggs before they ascend, but not afterwards. And since these Kadabra don't lay eggs, they're not adding their intelligence back into the population. Sure, I'm sure there have been
some Kadabra who had children. And I'm sure there's been some marginal improvements, but it couldn't be a lot of improvement even over so many generations.
I'd forgotten about the Twisted spoon. That was pretty damn neat way of including them. To be fair, I think random metal spoons wouldn't necessarily be outright Twisted. Echo mentions that the spoon helps them think too. If these Abra ever get helped, giving them spoon teaching aids might help teach them language too. They might not get so attached to it if they start aware that they are just a tool, rather than an extension of themselves.... and I just noticed that the gold spoon factoid came from Pokemon Ultra Sun and not the other games damn it. Still, whether they're just metal spoons or silver spoons made by humans they wouldn't necessarily have the same implications of taking a spoon from a Kadabra (that also probably means less power). Though I don't think Astra would think to go look for a spoon. She might get one if she comes across one, but otherwise it'd be epilogue material. (I still think it's likely that pokemarts would have silver spoons for Kadabra and Alakazam who lose theirs
)
I think personal power is at least part of the issue. It wouldn't solve anything on its own, but being able to get tasks done quicker (she doesn't even have a spoon!) should at least help! Might even help her multitask too. Barrage showed Echo multitasking a lot better than Astra did. Alakazam would probably be better at it and spoon. Though there'd obviously the difficulty of relearning to do it with a spoon. But again, epilogue.
I'd forgotten that Astra's village could ferment berry juice, but I was talking specifically about the Abra village.
I agree that the odds aren't
great for there to be Kadabra still alive, but I think there's a chance. It's also not unlikely that at least
one gave in. I don't think Astra or Echo would consider it, if at all, and whether it comes true depends on you writing. Still it's something interesting to think about for readers. It'd obviously be epilogue material if it happened.
I'm glad though we're going to see more of Echo soon
TM!
I can see Astra letting it slip to Stephen. He's powerful enough to feel secure in his position and not threatened by a pokemon wanting to challenge him. He's loaded, so that but even more so. So he could definitely let it slide because he's interested in seeing how it turns out. He might give Astra the idea to tell Brendon and May. That could happen if he figures out she's a pokemon or not. If he figures it out and he's interested in seeing how it progresses, he could tell her to help with the cover story. Or he could just incidentally mention it, telling her that he knows she's psychic and mentioning how notable her telepathy is.
The funniest possibility is that Astra is ready to come completely clear to them, but Steven interrupts her and tells them that she's a perfectly normal psychic human who was raised in a cave secluded from civilization. It would be even funnier if he did it completely unintentionally and Astra is just nodding along agreeing with Stephen's explanation about her muteness and he doesn't have an idea she's a pokemon.