Eh, the only one I'd call similar to Estelle would be Nemona.
Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)
- Thread starter ArvisPresley
- Start date
Eh, the only one I'd call similar to Estelle would be Nemona.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
I'm glad we managed this, well, Theodora and the rest along for the ride (Although they all tried their best), we get the big reward instead of only 50%! I believe this day will put us up to a cool 48,000 Pokedollars, TM's anyone? I have a good feeling about a Protect TM.
Hex
A Lingering Curse
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/They
Maybe, but something that could give Roland or the Drilbur more coverage could be great too. Especially if it could lead to even more stuff.
- Location
- Spain
Since held items are not allowed Acrobatics (Power doubles when user holds nothing from 55 to 110) is gonna be OP for quite a while so I'd like that tm for Roland
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
I just feel like a move that can be slapped on 99% of all pokemon that ensures at least one moment of absolute protection for them and anyone that barrier can protect could be useful for a variety of situations and strategies. Everything about to explode? Everyone cuddle pile and Protect. About to get sniped by someone not using Feint? Use Protect. Need a moment to think on the battlefield or need to break the tempo? Time for Protect.
It just seems very useful and something to pick up as early as possible.
It just seems very useful and something to pick up as early as possible.
Rest could also be very useful, assuming it can be used out of combat.
Otherwise it might be good to hang on to the money and use it to boost our pokemons nutritition for a while. Drillbur needs a special diet for evolution and if we can afford vitamins (don't remember if we have already seen the price tag on those), a base stat boost is always useful.
Otherwise it might be good to hang on to the money and use it to boost our pokemons nutritition for a while. Drillbur needs a special diet for evolution and if we can afford vitamins (don't remember if we have already seen the price tag on those), a base stat boost is always useful.
- Pronouns
- She/They
If we do do another shopping trip on this excursion I think it should either be TR Incinerate to give Roland some Fire-type coverage or TM Protect because, as stated, that's pretty universally useful.
That said, it's gonna depend on AP and we're not required to spend all our cash, either.
That said, it's gonna depend on AP and we're not required to spend all our cash, either.
Hex
A Lingering Curse
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- He/They
Rest could also be useful for Drilbur in general, if used carefully. Use Dig to get underground, Rest in safety, then Dig back out again to attack. We don't fully need to follow game mechanics.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
Man, TM's and TR's are expensive. I wonder when we can start getting a paycheque? I imagine unless you have connections and/or rich parents any big group won't pay attention to any new trainer on their first month of training, but when do they start looking? Badges are probably a good mark and since we know the first badge is a "do you have a heartbeat" check I'm thinking once we get a second or third badge we might start getting offers, assuming Mariana knows how to operate her Smail (Silph Mail). For sponsorships from companies at least.
For groups like the Rangers or the Knight's I imagine it's just more test of skill and if you're in you're in. Joining the Paldean League apparently requires you to have a minimum of 6 badges before they let you in, also as a bonus it wipes half of our million dollar debt.
For groups like the Rangers or the Knight's I imagine it's just more test of skill and if you're in you're in. Joining the Paldean League apparently requires you to have a minimum of 6 badges before they let you in, also as a bonus it wipes half of our million dollar debt.
- Location
- Australia
Espurr already knows Reflect, Light Screen and Barrier, it will be fine.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
I'm glad Mariana can't see through future right now because I think she'd have a panic attack thinking about who she's going to be rivals with for the next two years. This year it's Nemona so I think most of the thread has somewhat resigned themselves to not getting to Champion rank for this run, but next year we'll have the pokemon protagonists running around, people capable of beating an experienced Nemona in their first year. We're going to have to train real hard to prepare or our second year will end like the first. I don't even want to imagine what poketwitter (Chatter?) or the battle fan forums will be like if Mariana is second place for two years in a row. At least our third year looks clear... unless Kieran decides to do a foreign exchange year in Paldea...
EDIT: I forgot I was going somewhere with this. Yeah once we're Champion ranked we'll have to clear 100,000 pokedollars of debt, easy stuff tbh. Just get a job or sell out for a bit. We'll have that money soon enough. Might even be able to do it before we graduate, ignoring the valourous service clearing out the entire thing.
Renne won't be around 100% of the time, nor will she be able to interfere with official battles with rules like "No psychics interrupting the one on one battle". If Drilbur is fighting a ground gym battle and faces an Earthquake underground that she can't stop, she might like having Protect as a universal saftey button at least once per battle.
Having Protect is never a downside. Plus the earlier we give our pokemon Protect the more they'll be able to train it for emergencies. It's not like MXP only upgrades some moves and not all when we get some.
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- Location
- Australia
Espurr will be around for every battle where danger is actually present and Mary needs to rely on barriers for defence.
For everything else, it is fine to have a weakness. It is actually substantially more interesting to read and write combat scenes in which characters are capable of taking big hits than when characters can just no-sell things on a whim several times per battle. It is good if Drilbur is capable of being Earthquaked when using Dig; new strategies might have to be thought up around Pokémon capable of using it! Awesome!
- Location
- Earth
I'm happy to wait until we're back in Mesagoza before we go shopping again tbh. We can wait one week to get vitamins/metals, and if we do see a Move that looks interesting (which is more likely with a larger variety) I'd rather save some money when it's convenient; those Advanced battles won't pay for themselves!
- Location
- United Kingdom
With us finishing the gym up on Thursday I could see us having free time on Friday, but realistically we'll probably have more interesting things to spend actions on then than shopping. Plus Mesagoza should have more varied stock.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
If we want to go shopping we absolutely should do so back at Mesagoza. the local shops were called out as both being more expensive and having less selection, so unless there's something here we absolutely need, we can just do it back at the school and benefit from the better infrastructure.
- Location
- Wisconsin
Different areas may have local specialties, but we did already visit the shop once, so I don't think there's a need to do it a second time.
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"Mew, use Imprison."
"Motherf-"
"And this is why if you want to be a Champion, you need to come up with custom signature moves for your pokemon".
- Pronouns
- She/They
Is this the first time since the quest started we've gone more than 24 hours without a comment? Time for more deep dive then.
I don't know who Mr. Gorgonzola is, yet. I don't think Thors's cooking club had an on-screen advisor (unless it was Mary? She might have done double duty with the wind orchestra), and the obvious culprit from Scarlet/Violet would be Home Ec Instructor Saguaro, who is at this very moment doing his Elite Four challenge because we're in the past. Presumably this is the person he would end up replacing in the normal timeline, but other than that I have no information. Other than Gorgonzola being a well-known variety of blue cheese named after its town of origin in northern Italy.
And of course, it's also another small callback to the Great War history, with Jenkins and his war stories. People ate weirder shit than ice cream budded off a fae to survive in historical wars, and I'm sure the Great War was no different.
Anyway Arven continues to have his one track mind for his injured buddy. Not a whole lot else to say about club this week (other than Ostia please remember your damn mittens, you don't have telekinesis), so let's move on to the Ranger tasks.
(The game version opted for a leotard and stockings which......you do you, Game Freak).
And this is the "mechanical" gimmick of the Pokémon Ranger games compared to the mainline series - instead of catching and semi-permanently binding a new buddy with a Pokéball, you calm and form a temporary partnership with a wild Pokémon using a Capture Styler, aka drawing circles around the thing on your DS touchscreen. The name was a reference to the DS stylus to begin with so I guess Arvis chose to be as honest as possible when naming his version. In any case, it's an ideal tool to get wild Pokémon to listen to you without going through the immense hassle of kicking their ass and shoving them in a complex electronic capsule which you then have to deal with.
Also this is why proper maintenance on your plumbing is important. Sewer backwash is terrible even when it's not a sentient being.
Yes ToCS 1 turns an accidental boob touch gag retroactively into an important demonstration of a dramatic character flaw and yes it is as jarring to realize it did this in the moment as it is to read about in a review.
We also see some other personality traits that Elise shares with both Rean and Mariana, not that Mariana is self-aware enough to notice it - a tendency to beat herself up over things that aren't her fault, and a tendency to be really, really bad at playing off her negative emotions. All our protags here have extremely high expectations of themselves and extremely low self-esteem. Rean, in his idiom, has a deeply ingrained habit of seeing himself as a monster and a burden thanks to our old friend childhood trauma, as well as growing up in an extremely awkward position in a class-stratified society. Elise has been hinted at having similar trauma, and at the very least has the same resulting affect of harsh self-critique she can barely brush off. I'm sure we'll get more details later, but for now I recommend group therapy with Mariana.
Neither of them is getting therapy.
Grookey is a starter Pokémon from Galar, not normally available in Paldea (although you can get it waaaaaaay into the S/V DLC arc...that isn't set in Paldea). The reference to it maybe existing in Cabo Poco is likely a reference to Cabo Poco being geographically equivalent to Gibraltar, a British possession in far south Iberia, or possibly the possibly-related hints that the S/V player character's family moved to Cabo Poco from Galar.
Sawsbuck is a deer-like Grass-type Pokémon and, like deer, they apparently have antlers that break off and regrow anually (and are often lost in fights). Notably, the gimmick of Sawsbuck and their younger evolution Deerling is that they change appearance based on season (actual mechanical implementation may vary) and Sawsbuck "antlers" are flowering, leafy branches.
Incidentally, the far other end of this same forest is one of the locales for Field Exercise 1, and it did in fact have Deerling on the capture chart. It's a distance of hundreds of kilometers though. We're almost definitely not going to find this thing or its herd out for revenge next update when we do an optional task in the woods. That would just be silly.
Badajoz is a city and province in real life southwestern Spain, and is more or less standing in for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet's South Province Area Two, which loosely lines up with said province geographically. Presumably, it was a historical town lying between Mesagoza and Cortondo, and also presumably, we're going to be getting more details on it as we explore it. We're also likely going to be seeing a lot of pre-Collapse ruins with varying levels of relevance, since inexplicable ruins are a big part of Trails, Scarlet/Violet, and real life Europe thanks to the tendency of Classical Europeans, especially Romans, to build everything out of stone.
Anyway, it looks like rather than assisting as a wild Pokémon, Murkrow consented to being "caught"...and is still demanding payment in order to do jack or shit. I went over his relationship to Crow Armbrust in an earlier post so I'm not gonna rehash it, but ABT - always be trolling - seems like a good summary of both of them.
Also I just realized it's funny that Murkrow is the only Pokémon in this quest doing the anime thing of saying its name...because it's doing mimicry, not because that's a normal thing in this quest's universe. Murkrow's sense of humor is obscure and I'm into it.
That said I think we should forfeit all mortal possessions to Roland. He'd look good on top of a pile of gold.
(Side note I've been calling Rin a katana despite the narration being consistent in referring to her as a tachi. While "katana" is used to just mean "single-edged sword" in modern Japanese, it's worth noting that the tachi was a predecessor to what's properly known as a katana or uchigatana, namely the somewhat shorter curved blades that gained popularity in the Sengoku period. While tachi have a similar blade, they're longer and slightly more curved, and were originally meant for fighting from horseback, as opposed to the katana's status as a dismounted arming sword and status symbol. Just want to stay on top of my own weebery here.)
Anyway props to Elise figuring out she could chop off an antler harmlessly and painlessly with a rapid katana strike. I really don't understand what her plan was after this, though, considering that even if you didn't hurt the Pokémon, you still assaulted it, and also did the equivalent of fighting a mating challenge with it unannounced. Of course it's gonna be mad.
Anyway, just a Zoroark passing by. I recall there being some speculation about a Hisuian Zoroark, but the black and red description and Mariana not otherwise commenting on the coloration would seem to indicate it's the non-Hisuian variety. It's also powerful enough to instantly intimidate the enraged Sawsbuck, which was outside of our rough power band, into a full retreat. Also, Zoroark's whole shtick is illusions, so jumping out as its own self to directly engage is definitely smething of a power move, and the Sawsbuck probably saw that.
It's also definitely either Theodora's maid Virgilia, or a Pokémon belonging to her. The OP maid hanging out to make sure Thea got what she wanted and her love interest didn't accidentally get herself gored to death.
And second, I have been ragging on Elise in my commentary here for making poor choices, but she's doing what Mariana frequently does and getting lost in self-recrimination when she could be learning. This ties back in to what I observed above, self-assessing as a "monster and a burden", despite being objectively quite capable. She has no patience with herself, in the same way Rean doesn't, and is her own harshest critic. But like Mariana, "be less hard on yourself" is actual useful advice, not just coddling. She's missing so much by self-recriminating.
First of all, it establishes a parallel with the initial relationship-defining meet-cute of Crow and Rean, with the former hustling the latter out of a 50 mira coin with a magic trick, which confirms to my conspiracy-addled mind an entire world of speculation on Theodora's character that I'll get into later, perhaps after Arvis narrates her saving our ass in the woods. Again.
Elise looking at Theodora's teasing with frustration and some degree of cynicism is another Crow/Rean parallel, as well as getting into the territory of the Battler/Beatrice relationship from Umineko, where the former finds it quite impossible to tell when the latter is doing anything other than lying to make him suffer (although the dynamic is rather higher-stakes there. Usually. Sometimes. Okay it's higher-stakes to start with but the troll-off gets amazingly petty amazingly quickly.) Then again, there's a degree of competitiveness from Theodora's end too that's definitely contributing to the mixed signals Elise is getting here. Probably not as much as Elise's negligible self-esteem though.
2. I like getting outside perspectives on Mariana because when you don't see all the inner panicking she actually comes off as a pretty serious and vaguely intimidating person when she wants to be.
3. Even Elise is shocked at the amount of money Thea isshaking Daddy down for willing to splash around. This one payment was literally five times as much money as Mariana had ever seen in one place in her life (and her share was twice such) but 50 grand for a stick is crazy even by normal noble person standards.
Also I don't understand why Braixen, a Fire/Psychic-type, needs a wand that's specifically Grass-aligned. I suppose it uses it as a torch, and Grass means it's both flammable and resilient?
As I said: a Zoroark's shtick is illusions, and generally, the only tell with Pokémon appearing as something else is the eyes. It is exceptionally possible that Virgilia, the perpetually eyes-closed terrifying maid, is a Zoroark casting an illusion to look and sound human. At the very least, I want this to be true.
Okay wait that's kind of the premise of a military academy and a JRPG, so. Mary yes?
Virgilia can speak by creating an auditory illusion of her speaking no I'm not letting this go she's a chicken, I tell you, a chicken!
Anyway Leaf is heading out to Rime City as foreshadowed in this sidestory post to go meddle in the Detective Pikachu/Trails from Zero plot and try to pick a fight with Lieutenant Surge (fashy manga edition). Without quoting a bunch of disparate sentences in amongst the instructions and trust-showing to Mariana, suffice to say, Leaf's pretty haunted by her own past with Team Rocket here and is trying to take responsibility for them metastatizing in Atlantea and whatever the hell Silver's doing about it. With any luck she'll share some details about it with her Duckletts by Trails of Tera Steel 2 or so.
And that's...interesting. No idea why. Names are important, I suppose.
Lightning round of cherry-picked Bond options I find interesting.
Also the point where we got the notice of Thea's Bond 2 bonus. The gift of gab, it seems, is contagious.
And this was an opportunity to learn more about the weeboo fightan magic I went over earlier. Her Bond 2 bonus is interesting since it seems tied directly into swordswomanship, or at least dueling in general.
Do we qualify for giving advice on not getting killed anymore?
And I definitely remember doing the Nemona option so I'll cover that next time. Or I already did. I'm gonna make an index post eventually...
I really want to know the answer to this too. Like, okay, fairy magic. But also like...why.
I don't know who Mr. Gorgonzola is, yet. I don't think Thors's cooking club had an on-screen advisor (unless it was Mary? She might have done double duty with the wind orchestra), and the obvious culprit from Scarlet/Violet would be Home Ec Instructor Saguaro, who is at this very moment doing his Elite Four challenge because we're in the past. Presumably this is the person he would end up replacing in the normal timeline, but other than that I have no information. Other than Gorgonzola being a well-known variety of blue cheese named after its town of origin in northern Italy.
And a couple points of worldbuilding. First of all, again going into the use of Pokémon products that aren't just eating their meat or eggs that's vital to the Andosins and accepted enough but not quite as ubiquitous for Paldea proper. This is of course pretty common even if you just limit it to foodstuffs - we talked about Nacli and Fidough during the Pokémon catching discussion as producers of salt and yeast respectively, there's several Fairy types that are food and shed parts of themselves like Alcremie, numerous Grass-types have edible fruits (most famously Tropius), Miltank and Gogoat produce milk healthy enough to serve as a healing potion (and alcohol substitute in games made for ten year olds), Chansey produces nonviable, edible eggs, etc.
And of course, it's also another small callback to the Great War history, with Jenkins and his war stories. People ate weirder shit than ice cream budded off a fae to survive in historical wars, and I'm sure the Great War was no different.
Boy yeah having a healer for the team would be really handy wouldn't it.
Anyway Arven continues to have his one track mind for his injured buddy. Not a whole lot else to say about club this week (other than Ostia please remember your damn mittens, you don't have telekinesis), so let's move on to the Ranger tasks.
There's a few different takes on Pokémon Ranger designs in the franchise (like with everything else), but here's the anime version of the first Ranger game's female protag, which seems the closest to what's going on here
(The game version opted for a leotard and stockings which......you do you, Game Freak).
The most important distinction between Rangers and Trainers is that Trainers form partnerships with Pokémon to train them and make themselves and the Pokémon mutually stronger for whatever their end goal happens to be, whereas Rangers deal with wild Pokémon as a whole, and the relationship between them and human civilization as a whole. A Trainer can be many different things, but Rangers are half park ranger, half emergency services, and half ambassador for dealing with nonhuman beings of great power and varying levels of self-awareness and social organization. It's a necessary job with no real one-to-one analogue in the real world for exactly what they do, because it's a job that can only exist in a world with Pokémon. Politics limiting their usage in Paldea for the last decade is......deeply unfortunate, because the other option to deal with Wild Pokémon on a mass scale is basically the military. And I'm sure we're going to see the consequences of that in-thread shortly.
And this is the "mechanical" gimmick of the Pokémon Ranger games compared to the mainline series - instead of catching and semi-permanently binding a new buddy with a Pokéball, you calm and form a temporary partnership with a wild Pokémon using a Capture Styler, aka drawing circles around the thing on your DS touchscreen. The name was a reference to the DS stylus to begin with so I guess Arvis chose to be as honest as possible when naming his version. In any case, it's an ideal tool to get wild Pokémon to listen to you without going through the immense hassle of kicking their ass and shoving them in a complex electronic capsule which you then have to deal with.
Jenkins...okay no you know what shooting cans or whatever is a perfectly respectable pasttime when you live on the literal open range. Mariana's just got a surprisingly eclectic number of weapon and fighting skills for a walking anxiety attack.
For all that I just said about Rangers, though, there's a reason even besides academic favoritism they just let people walk in off the street and start doing odd jobs, though.
Also this is why proper maintenance on your plumbing is important. Sewer backwash is terrible even when it's not a sentient being.
Elise has the worst luck with wild Pokémon though. Honestly I feel like this is a situation where a humane, non-Pokéball trap actually would have been helpful, if my limited experience with field mice holds true for much larger and more intelligent things. Maybe we should tell Leaf to stock some.
I have several questions about the move Self Destruct.
And here's where we start to get some insight into Elise's character. The first thing is that she shares a deep-rooted character quirk with her Trails counterpart, Rean Schwarzer. We've memed on it a lot in the thread, but it's actually quite dramatically important that Rean never hesitates for a moment before putting himself at risk to defend someone else - not even if a moment's second thought about it would let him realize that risking himself would be pointless. Elise shows the same proclivity here, thankfully with a comedy explosion instead of a comedy awkward trap door pratfall into someone's cleavage.
Yes ToCS 1 turns an accidental boob touch gag retroactively into an important demonstration of a dramatic character flaw and yes it is as jarring to realize it did this in the moment as it is to read about in a review.
We also see some other personality traits that Elise shares with both Rean and Mariana, not that Mariana is self-aware enough to notice it - a tendency to beat herself up over things that aren't her fault, and a tendency to be really, really bad at playing off her negative emotions. All our protags here have extremely high expectations of themselves and extremely low self-esteem. Rean, in his idiom, has a deeply ingrained habit of seeing himself as a monster and a burden thanks to our old friend childhood trauma, as well as growing up in an extremely awkward position in a class-stratified society. Elise has been hinted at having similar trauma, and at the very least has the same resulting affect of harsh self-critique she can barely brush off. I'm sure we'll get more details later, but for now I recommend group therapy with Mariana.
Neither of them is getting therapy.
But nevermind all that, it's time for STICKQUEST 2022. The request details and massive paycheck make it obvious that the request comes from Theodora, but I guess Mariana didn't pick up on that.
Grookey is a starter Pokémon from Galar, not normally available in Paldea (although you can get it waaaaaaay into the S/V DLC arc...that isn't set in Paldea). The reference to it maybe existing in Cabo Poco is likely a reference to Cabo Poco being geographically equivalent to Gibraltar, a British possession in far south Iberia, or possibly the possibly-related hints that the S/V player character's family moved to Cabo Poco from Galar.
The greatest plan, clearly.
Sawsbuck is a deer-like Grass-type Pokémon and, like deer, they apparently have antlers that break off and regrow anually (and are often lost in fights). Notably, the gimmick of Sawsbuck and their younger evolution Deerling is that they change appearance based on season (actual mechanical implementation may vary) and Sawsbuck "antlers" are flowering, leafy branches.
Incidentally, the far other end of this same forest is one of the locales for Field Exercise 1, and it did in fact have Deerling on the capture chart. It's a distance of hundreds of kilometers though. We're almost definitely not going to find this thing or its herd out for revenge next update when we do an optional task in the woods. That would just be silly.
Doot doot doo FE1 foreshadowing.
Badajoz is a city and province in real life southwestern Spain, and is more or less standing in for Pokémon Scarlet/Violet's South Province Area Two, which loosely lines up with said province geographically. Presumably, it was a historical town lying between Mesagoza and Cortondo, and also presumably, we're going to be getting more details on it as we explore it. We're also likely going to be seeing a lot of pre-Collapse ruins with varying levels of relevance, since inexplicable ruins are a big part of Trails, Scarlet/Violet, and real life Europe thanks to the tendency of Classical Europeans, especially Romans, to build everything out of stone.
It's been observed in the narration, but Rin is really quiet and passive compared to our classmates' other Pokémon.
Anyway, it looks like rather than assisting as a wild Pokémon, Murkrow consented to being "caught"...and is still demanding payment in order to do jack or shit. I went over his relationship to Crow Armbrust in an earlier post so I'm not gonna rehash it, but ABT - always be trolling - seems like a good summary of both of them.
Also I just realized it's funny that Murkrow is the only Pokémon in this quest doing the anime thing of saying its name...because it's doing mimicry, not because that's a normal thing in this quest's universe. Murkrow's sense of humor is obscure and I'm into it.
That said I think we should forfeit all mortal possessions to Roland. He'd look good on top of a pile of gold.
So here's the plan: we make like anime characters and don't discuss the plan beforehand. Trusting Elise's competence is definitely worthwhile, but maybe next time we should insist on everyone knowing what the next couple of steps are at any given point. In any case, we've warmed up to the Ranger Life here and are working through things in our own idiom of generosity and empathy (although maybe we should have used the Stylus). Elise, meanwhile, is getting attached to Rin, who is probably draining her life force. Girl.
So, let's talk about Eight Leaves One Blade some more. Trails's Katana Magic From The Far East has made it into the crossover basically wholesale, it seems, except this time at least in one case it's a fusion of human and Pokémon skill, rather than the martial arts alone. The technique used by Elise here is one of Rean's starting Crafts in ToCS 1 and probably the one I spammed the hell out of the most, since it inflicts Delay as an area attack and can basically lock down a whole enemy group if they're positioned right. In particular, it's themed after the samurai movie version of an iaijutsu draw-strike, sword unsheathing, slashing, and re-sheathing in one smooth motion. A lot f 8L1B is based on iaijutsu without being a 1:1 to the real martial art, and Rean uses it for...utility work like this in the game story as well, like cutting through padlocks or gates. He never to my recollection harvested an antler off a deer, but I'm sure he could have.
(Side note I've been calling Rin a katana despite the narration being consistent in referring to her as a tachi. While "katana" is used to just mean "single-edged sword" in modern Japanese, it's worth noting that the tachi was a predecessor to what's properly known as a katana or uchigatana, namely the somewhat shorter curved blades that gained popularity in the Sengoku period. While tachi have a similar blade, they're longer and slightly more curved, and were originally meant for fighting from horseback, as opposed to the katana's status as a dismounted arming sword and status symbol. Just want to stay on top of my own weebery here.)
Anyway props to Elise figuring out she could chop off an antler harmlessly and painlessly with a rapid katana strike. I really don't understand what her plan was after this, though, considering that even if you didn't hurt the Pokémon, you still assaulted it, and also did the equivalent of fighting a mating challenge with it unannounced. Of course it's gonna be mad.
A Sawsbuck, even a freshly evolved one, is too much for two trainers at the level we and Elise are at right now. This is three I believe at the time 1-Badge level Pokémon hitting it with attacks that should be tactically effective, but between its power as an evolved Pokémon, the fact that it's focusing on the trainers, and sheer rage, it's not something the five of us could handle. It's worth noting factors like this when we're in more serious fights, even if this one is clearly running on cutscene logic.
What about the Stylus, Elise. Maybe we could have used that first and explained the antlerectomy procedure to our new friend beforehand? Teenagers.
Mariana. Come on.
Anyway, just a Zoroark passing by. I recall there being some speculation about a Hisuian Zoroark, but the black and red description and Mariana not otherwise commenting on the coloration would seem to indicate it's the non-Hisuian variety. It's also powerful enough to instantly intimidate the enraged Sawsbuck, which was outside of our rough power band, into a full retreat. Also, Zoroark's whole shtick is illusions, so jumping out as its own self to directly engage is definitely smething of a power move, and the Sawsbuck probably saw that.
It's also definitely either Theodora's maid Virgilia, or a Pokémon belonging to her. The OP maid hanging out to make sure Thea got what she wanted and her love interest didn't accidentally get herself gored to death.
First of all: second, and this time much longer, Elise POV section. Thus far we've gotten alternate POVs exclusively from her, Leaf, and Mariana's Pokémon. Human narration, it seems, is the privilege of protagonists, in one sense or another.
And second, I have been ragging on Elise in my commentary here for making poor choices, but she's doing what Mariana frequently does and getting lost in self-recrimination when she could be learning. This ties back in to what I observed above, self-assessing as a "monster and a burden", despite being objectively quite capable. She has no patience with herself, in the same way Rean doesn't, and is her own harshest critic. But like Mariana, "be less hard on yourself" is actual useful advice, not just coddling. She's missing so much by self-recriminating.
This even crosses over into her interpersonal relationships - oblivious to Theodora's obvious crush on her, Elise is worried about embarrasing herself, thinks it 'absurd' that someone good-looking voluntarily spent time with her, and christ she doesn't even realize she's crushing back on Thea, does she.
And this little aside is...extremely dense with information you can tease out of it.
First of all, it establishes a parallel with the initial relationship-defining meet-cute of Crow and Rean, with the former hustling the latter out of a 50 mira coin with a magic trick, which confirms to my conspiracy-addled mind an entire world of speculation on Theodora's character that I'll get into later, perhaps after Arvis narrates her saving our ass in the woods. Again.
Elise looking at Theodora's teasing with frustration and some degree of cynicism is another Crow/Rean parallel, as well as getting into the territory of the Battler/Beatrice relationship from Umineko, where the former finds it quite impossible to tell when the latter is doing anything other than lying to make him suffer (although the dynamic is rather higher-stakes there. Usually. Sometimes. Okay it's higher-stakes to start with but the troll-off gets amazingly petty amazingly quickly.) Then again, there's a degree of competitiveness from Theodora's end too that's definitely contributing to the mixed signals Elise is getting here. Probably not as much as Elise's negligible self-esteem though.
1. Said mixed signals genuinely swerving Elise pretty fierce there as she goes from obvious teasing to sincerity on a dime.
2. I like getting outside perspectives on Mariana because when you don't see all the inner panicking she actually comes off as a pretty serious and vaguely intimidating person when she wants to be.
3. Even Elise is shocked at the amount of money Thea is
Cute. Beatrice wrote the goddamn Tolstoy-length novel on gap moe, so it's only fair that that comes across in some of Thea's Pokémon as well.
Also I don't understand why Braixen, a Fire/Psychic-type, needs a wand that's specifically Grass-aligned. I suppose it uses it as a torch, and Grass means it's both flammable and resilient?
Yeah it was her in the forest.
As I said: a Zoroark's shtick is illusions, and generally, the only tell with Pokémon appearing as something else is the eyes. It is exceptionally possible that Virgilia, the perpetually eyes-closed terrifying maid, is a Zoroark casting an illusion to look and sound human. At the very least, I want this to be true.
Mary no.
Okay wait that's kind of the premise of a military academy and a JRPG, so. Mary yes?
So my theory here, since all Pokémon seem to have a capacity for receptive language, is that most Pokémon can't speak human languages because they don't have the vocal structures for it. Psychics can communicate fine, because they directly communicate with their brains rather than making sounds. Ditzy can speak by mimicking a human voice box with her transformation powers.
I don't have good artwork of what this might be referring to on hand and I'm not scrubbing manga panels in case it's there, but this is probably a uniform from a previous conflict Leaf was involved in as a Ranger.
Anyway Leaf is heading out to Rime City as foreshadowed in this sidestory post to go meddle in the Detective Pikachu/Trails from Zero plot and try to pick a fight with Lieutenant Surge (fashy manga edition). Without quoting a bunch of disparate sentences in amongst the instructions and trust-showing to Mariana, suffice to say, Leaf's pretty haunted by her own past with Team Rocket here and is trying to take responsibility for them metastatizing in Atlantea and whatever the hell Silver's doing about it. With any luck she'll share some details about it with her Duckletts by Trails of Tera Steel 2 or so.
And that's...interesting. No idea why. Names are important, I suppose.
Lightning round of cherry-picked Bond options I find interesting.
Why are you exhausted, Thea? What are you up to? You 'can't' leave the city, right? How are you occupying yourself? What's the difference between gossip and intelligence-gathering?
Also the point where we got the notice of Thea's Bond 2 bonus. The gift of gab, it seems, is contagious.
And this was an opportunity to learn more about the weeboo fightan magic I went over earlier. Her Bond 2 bonus is interesting since it seems tied directly into swordswomanship, or at least dueling in general.
Do we qualify for giving advice on not getting killed anymore?
I'm sorry but this would have been the funniest thing possible.
And I definitely remember doing the Nemona option so I'll cover that next time. Or I already did. I'm gonna make an index post eventually...
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sometimes, simple answer is best answer, and in the case of Renne?
We have earned her trust, so far, the rest haven't.
At that point in time? ...Yeah, barely. Mariana's plan was to engage in diplomacy with the Sawsbuck, so its not like her plan put them in lethal danger aha~