- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'd say it's pretty likely we'll be comparatively close to Thea because we hang out with Elise so much, so maybe Mariana can pick up a thing or two about regional autonomy/indepence that she can apply to her own home region...
Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)
- Thread starter ArvisPresley
- Start date
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
Andosin is actually in an awkward position because Paldeans being systemically racist aside, the Highlands that we've seen so far seem...fine? Not colonized, cultural autonomy, home rule, small population means that if it wasn't part of Paldea's empire it'd be part of Kalos's...they're definitely a satellite state, and there's always improvements to the human condition that could be made, but unless we're missing something big that doesn't have a counterpart in Trails, the Highlands seem to be in a mostly beneficial equilibrium with the Paldean core. It's not a case like with Spain's cultural minorities or colonies irl, or a situation like Crossbell in Trails where imperial exploitation is causing problems, it really does seem to be a symbiotic system that benefits both nations. Shocking to consider, but that's what the textual evidence points to.
Now, would I like Mariana to be sympathetic to the cause of national liberation for actually colonized and exploited people? Obviously. And I think she's empathetic enough to get that pretty instinctively. I just think applying independence for independence sake to the Andosin Highlands would cause more problems than it solves, unless we're tearing down the Atlantean State System entirely or replacing it with Fantasy Eurofederalism or something.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I don't think we really know enough yet about the political situation in the highlands to judge either which way, but they do seem relatively hands-off aside from the military presence.
However that's something that the Reformers might run into actually, because the nature of 19th century state formation and centralisation of power generally means doing away with those pre-modern power structures and institutions and the autonomy that results, especially when it comes to the formation of a national identity and the institutions required to support it, such as schools and by extension national languages.
Idk if the story is going to go there, but I wouldn't be shocked if part of the reformers' plans entailed asserting more direct influence in the highlands, trying to get nomadic groups to settle down so they become governable (and by extension taxable), whether by hook or by crook, and getting them to become productive citizens of the nation.
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
Yeah, that's absolutely something that happened....everywhere, irl. Maybe it'll come up in this quest, whether out of direct Paternalist Progressivism or some pragmatic need by one faction or another to extract more resources. It doesn't really in the Cold Steel series (the Nord Highlands' problems are pretty specifically their unfortunate geographic position wedged between two superpowers with limited routes for land invasion of each other), but Arvis isn't beholden to that and could absolutely base an original subplot on the sort of real world conflict you describe.
- Location
- United States
I forgot that those machines were named Gigaremo units, though certainly do remember everything else about them including the giant tower one as have played those pokemon ranger games.
Remember both the last version of those units that Darkrai destroyed to the constant mistaking of what they are.
...Obvious answer but what are the chances someone has the ideal of using those to try and control certain pokemon in the region. First thought goes to both the legendaries specifically the ones sealed even with what we've already been informed about them to the ones from the past and/or future.
Remember both the last version of those units that Darkrai destroyed to the constant mistaking of what they are.
...Obvious answer but what are the chances someone has the ideal of using those to try and control certain pokemon in the region. First thought goes to both the legendaries specifically the ones sealed even with what we've already been informed about them to the ones from the past and/or future.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Bluffs notes:
-In Project Moon there are 12 Associations, each with a different number (in a different language), which has a different specialty.
-Deux/Two/Zwei Association are literally a police force in a way, as their specialty is Civil Protection (Or just Bodyguard work) and Peacekeeping.
-You would usually need a Fixer (Ranger in this case) Licence to join an Association but in this case it seems to be Civilian run and you can join as long as you're a Trainer.
There's probably more I could say but I'll only bring that up if it becomes actually relevant. At a bare minimum the important part is the second and third point meaning, yes, it is exactly citizen's police force.
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Let them cook! Roland needs to learn sooner or later.
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
From what we can assume, based on what group 1 was told from the wild pokemon, it's already been used to remove large amounts of Charcadets from the area.
What makes me more curious is the fact that the Gigaremo unit worked at all, since the most vital piece of the machine were the crystals that Darkrai was protecting. Did whoever built them again manage to gather some of those crystals, or make them themselves somehow.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
Well, I suppose it's not out of the question that someone found another Darkrai to create another source of crystals, or Kincaid had a few more leftover from the oil rig site, but if you look over here...
Looks like some enterprising minds looked at the remaining stock of Giga- and Miniremos and created some knockoffs that don't require a source of power created by the embodiment of nightmares. Leaf says Miniremos were more common but if I'm not mistaken Miniremos are the laptop-sized ones that had very specific control over one or a handful of pokemon, rather than giant mailbox-sized ones with three legs and a rounded tip, these are Gigaremos. The Gigaremos have less precise control over entire city blocks worth of pokemon at once. So obviously some mad scientist (and there are a lot running around this setting) created some that don't run on Darkrai power.
But you know, it isn't out of possibility that there isn't a Legendary powering these things, we don't know the state of any of the Stakes after all. Maybe someone is tapping into Chi-Yu or something like a Warlock or Cleric.
- Location
- Sealed away in a pure maidens heart
Very nice analysis, bringing it back to the Gogoats made it seem like you knew where you were headed from the get-go (goats).
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Trying to think of a good surfing pokemon for Mariana. Someone mentioned Lapras, which would be sweet, but I also have the mental image of her riding on a Basculegion or Sharpedo which would be badass as heck.
Ferb_Ancos
The one under the table
- Pronouns
- He
This gives me Tachibana Hibiki x Kohinata Miku, from the anime Symphogear, vibes
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
I think I'd prefer something capable of mobility outside of water. While I'm sure it's possible to get around that issue with some good old hydrokinesis I think I'd like to have that as base.
I'd love a Palafin personally. Although a Wailord would be funny.
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wailord would be very funny yes.
Though if we want mobility while a transformed Palafin could work, my mind actually jumps to Golduck, though partially because I've never been able to get the image of Blue from the Pokemon Special manga riding his like it's a surfboard
Edit: actually, thinking about it, Aqua Breed Tauros is excellent for riding both on land and on the water.
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SolarGemX
The Crystalized Sun
- Location
- Somewhere in the Cosmos
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And it is Water/fighting.... bit that would cut any other future fighting we could have (and personally I love the idea of healer lucario and H samurott even if BOTH are VERY Unlickely to come true).
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
Haha yeah definitely not just a thing I noticed and threw in 3 seconds before hitting post.
There are a couple of reasons for oddly intact abandoned cities, but I'm going to point out the obvious one - the city's only been abandoned by humans. The structures themselves have been inhabited by Pokémon probably continuously since the Collapse, so the Pokémon keep the walls standing, or at least go out of their way not to knock them down. Gotta have somewhere appropriately spooky and shady for the Ghost types to live, right?
Mary, there's a difference between Class President and Field Commander. Elise is stepping into the main character role of directing the cast herd and setting the tone for the operation here - not something uncommon in RPGs, but Elise has a good resume for this particular sort of fieldwork with her Ranger training. Rean does similar stuff but in the first game his authority to do so is more down to everyone liking him personally and no one else really volunteering.
And hey, there's our explanation for who's keeping the building standing. A sufficient population of Bronzong plus other Pokémon who are more interested in keeping the rain off than causing earthquakes means stone buildings could last indefinitely.
And here's this quest's contribution to the Ghost Discourse - Yamask, at least, aren't the souls of the deceased, or 'ghosts' in the literal sense, but they're Ghost-types who associate themselves with funerals and grief and sometimes humans get confused. This is consistent with an interpretation of Ghost types as conceptual spirits, or things associated with memory. If nothing else, we know for a fact that they (or at least pure Ghost-types) gain sustenance from certain kinds of emotion.
(We know Roland doesn't have to eat food, he just likes it. We don't know where he's actually getting his nutrients. Although presuming he and other ghosts would still get something out of vitamin supplements oh dear I've gone cross-eyed).
When you need someone who speaks Goblin but the only party member who speaks Goblin is the 6 charisma dwarf with a superiority complex. Who might or might not be working for the BBEG.
We get nothing out of the local interviews, although the Bronzors being actually hostile is a point of interest. Someone has been fucking around in here and their guard is up.
Clue number 3 or so on this trip that we need to spend quality time with Roland. We'll hopefully get to Bond 3 by the end of the week with him as a result of the plot and gym, and I'm hoping the team training does the narrative effect of getting his head in the game.
Also food.
I'm going to try to piece together Ostia's Shenanigans in a minute, but for now here's some more Pokémon commentary
The official regional form names don't make much sense in the context of the Pokémon reality, but they don't make sense in a way that's very realistic - taxonomists just name shit whatever they want, and other taxonomists get salty about it. Given Paldea's intense nationalist pride, I imagine they're salty over pretty much anything called "Galarian" while perfectly happy to claim those Poison-type Woopers for themselves. Meanwhile if Kalos had regional forms we'd probably be on World War 4 by now.
Also a note here that might be relevant later - "the Imperial Rapidash" is not, as I assumed, a reference to heraldry. It's actually referring to the alternate Psychic/Fairy unicorn form of Rapidash.
This is the national symbol of the setting where this quest takes place. Explains everything, really.
Okay. We know Ostia is covering something up here for the group I'm gonna call Team Horseradish until they get a name (or are provably linked to someone else with a name). They sent off Poly to "find" something and then immediately draw our attention to it, it being a destroyed but very important piece of machinery. Is the Gigaremo part of Team Horseradish's plan? Who destroyed it, Ostia last night (checking up: they went to the forest, but not necessarily not the ruins), Poly just now, someone else? Or is the whole thing a distaction and Ostia was doing something else and just happened to know there was a destroyed Gigaremo left here by a third party, making a convenient decoy from us getting closer to what they were really doing?
Occam's Razor says that the Gigaremo belonged to Ostia's group and they're exposing the damaged form to distract from something more important here. Ostia commenting that it's a convoluted plan means it could be something else though. Either way, let's talk about the Gigaremo.
So, as Theodora is going to exposit in a second, this is a Gigaremo, the central plot device used by the villains of Pokémon Ranger 2: Shadows of Almia, which is confirmed as more or less happening as canon in 2014, 8 years ago. Gigaremos are large and heavy computer units that can effectively hypnotize all Pokémon within a wide area and place them under control of the user, which...well, someone was using this one for that, before it broke.
Think I fucked up the order but this is just a quick aside: I don't know if this is some kind of plot clue or just the narration acknowledging "sure is convenient how cell phones just work. Hope the story doesn't need them not to later (it will and they won't)."
First off, we see the stamina difference between
Theodora knows about Gigaremos quite intimately. Thinking about it, even beyond her usual social gossip, Thea knows almost everything there is to know about Rangers - first Leaf's identity, now the plot of Shadows of Almia, although neither she nor Elise mentions the power source for the *remo machines (it was Darkrai, apparently, or rather crystals arising from Darkrai's aura for everything but the final boss version. Other people have brought up that it's curious where even Miniremos would get their power supply). Elise, trainee Ranger she is, knows Miniremos (the portable version), but not the original on sight, and everyone here understands that these are absolutely morally vile devices...while Ostia doesn't even look at the thing while we're there. You're not beating the allegations, bestie.
I'm mainly pointing out the Woobats here because 1) I know Thea did some teasing of Elise over the heart noses and 2) unlike the Bronzors, the Woobat were actually helpful. Wonder what the difference was, other than perhaps the Woobats being recent arrivals. Or Argy...
Also, obviously, someone kidnapped a fuckload of Charcadet using that Gigaremo. I have some ideas of where those little guys will end up but I'll save it for later.
And I think we found the "noise that broke the Well", too. Whoever's responsible for this mess (Ostia and Raifort's group or not) is almost certainly also responsible for capturing and experimenting on Renne, unless we've got two groups using bootleg Dim Sun tech (not impossible, admittedly, especially if one sold it to another). Hopefully she lets us interrogate some when we catch up instead of rightfully going Akira on their craniums.
This happens to Rean constantly and I'm not surprised Elise is similarly cursed with weirdos hanging around on overlooking cliffs or ledges. That lone Charcadet is probably the future link to the Charcadet Kidnapping Plot and, unless I miss my guess, Elise's future second Pokémon.
Also, third Elise POV.
Anyway on to Field Exercise 1, Day 3, Part 1, Act 3. There's so much thread in this thread.
Told you the murderblimps made good travel Pokémon.
And we see the Trainer Association coming more into the plot here, as discussed in my previous post, as the de facto law enforcement while the League and Nobility are having their slap fight. Leila Watterson is an interesting character as a retired Ranger and we should probably keep an eye out for future cameos in Association-related stuff. As explained by Sakamander here, the Deux Association is a Project Moon reference and refers to the Zwei Association, who indeed serve as civil peacekeepers.
Leila is a name that means "night" in both Hebrew and Arabic. Watterson is an English name that means what it sounds like, and by sheer coincidence is the name of an adopted monster NPC in my weekly Trails-themed tabletop game (he was adopted by the detective character so that one's a play on Watson.)
The story of Messa's disappearance is suspect from the start, something that at least the older and more socialized members of the group note immediately. Given the context of his POV section below, it's clear that Mr. Watterson is part of the grand tradition of Trails characters who act like buffoons as a cover for espionage and counterintelligence work, which is a........very long list. If you see a moron who's inexplicably alive despite a critical lack of situational awareness, it's either an act, or Anton. If they're also incessantly hitting on women with 0% success chance pickup lines, they're either a spy, or Angelica Rogner. Or I guess Anton again.
Meanwhile, Sableye and Houndoom are not joke Pokémon, either. The former's a rare-ish Ghost/Dark type with Mega potential, and the latter is a fully evolved Dark-type. It's pretty clear later that his Kirlia is a serious threat too and is probably just waiting on a Dawn Stone to evolve given the Gallade vibes I'm getting off of him. I wouldn't want to fight this guy, even without the Type disadvantage.
Messa is a hard name to pin down in my usual google-fu manner, but the most likely results seem to be from the Italian word for "Mass", as in the church service. That or it's a spelling drift of the Spanish word for "table" but probably the first one.
And here, surprisingly to me, we have a Messa Watterson POV. This is likely for the same reasons we've had Leaf cutaways - Watterson actually knows what the hell is going on and can tell the thread things the kids don't know yet. He does talk around stuff quite a bit, though, as befitting a spy NPC, so it takes some parsing to figure out just what he's been up to.
Fun fact all of these Pokémon have a weakness to either Psychic or Flying, so the Woobats probably eat pretty good down here considering the dearth of prey made of meat or vegetation up in the ruins. Something's disrupted the normal habits here, though - our mystery poachers. The Pokémon here are looking to the Trainer Association for help, and working with Watterson, a man who actually knows how to talk to Sawsbuck.
Apparently some of his absent-mindedness is genuine, at least. Basil is of course an herb, and the name of the Great Mouse Detective...although in this case it seems more likely to be a good fit for a butler-knight themed guy.
So. What we know for sure is that the Pokémon of this duo was a Type: Null, an artificial Pokémon designed by the Aether Foundation in Alola specifically to fight extradimensional Ultra Beasts - in addition to being terribly powerful, they were also an attempt to recreate legends about a certain primordial creator who could change Type at will using a system of accessories called the "RKS System", a joke that only works if you pronounce Arceus correctly, Game Freak.
Fucking "Arkoos".
Ahem, anyway, three prototypes of this man-made Legendary were created but all three were deemed failures and put on ice, with Gladion's breakout of one of them serving as an inciting incident for the Sun/Moon plot that happened (as the "Aether Incident") 6 years ago in this world. That (and Gladion's friendship unlocking its full potential as Silvally) probably should have been the end of it...except the research notes were leaked. That's not thread canon, that's game canon - you can pick up a Type: Null from the Battle Tower in Sword/Shield from a random Macro Cosmos employee, since apparently they went full Jurassic Park reference and stole the research notes to make their own. It seems that the data spread somewhat further in the thread verse (probably along with that Schroedinger's Alolan Rattata from the tenements), so now there's the pre-evolution of a Type-swapping Legendary kicking around the region with Type-swapping as a gimmick. So that's fun.
But anyway...was this Ostia? Probably. Ostia retired to "watch TV" after our second task on Tuesday, well before sunset, and we just caught them recalling a Pokémon when we returned close to bed time. Plenty of time to hoof it out here on a flying Pokémon, beat up some bears for 90 minutes, and head back, especially if one of their Psychics knows Teleport - although this timetable might preclude the idea that Ostia was also in the Ruins yesterday. But why were they here? What's their/Raifort's angle? They don't seem to be cooperating directly with the other antagonists here, and we don't know what's in "Ursaring territory" that they would be after. More mystery for later.
(And obviously, neuralyzing their appearance out of the police's memory doesn't seem remotely improbable for a Psychic specialist).
And just to analyze the other suspicious member of our team: Theodora doesn't have an alibi either, other than her new Pawniard, but whatever it is she's up to, I don't think she was doing anything in the Forest yesterday, and she has a shorter window given that Elise was talking to her before our gym trip, and we talked to her right after, as opposed to Ostia who we didn't go see until after several other conversations. I also think she'd behave differently in the next scene if she had been up to something here, so unless Arvis is feeding us a steady diet of red herring, she wasn't in the forest yesterday.
Watterson isn't here to figure out the tiny, adorable intruder, though. There was another group he was after, the poachers proper, most likely. And also meet probably the recruitable Teddiursa.
And here we ID the snag in the main plot: the Gliscor-using
Meanwhile the protagonists are stuck in a puzzle, with Theodora being the one to catch on to the magical trickery of mischievous spirits. Surprise, surprise. Props to the Ursaring for making the sidequest's title lore-accurate, though. Presumably they did this so Watterson would be unmolested in his investigation, or just in principle as a normal heightened security measure after probably-Ostia's intrusion.
Little brat. You didn't like someone strong trying to fight you and your primordial abomination, did you.
And here we have a name for the rat, Bragg. Apparently he's aware that there's meddling kids about, or that he needs to silence Watterson. Or Watterson is just that unlucky. Braxton Bragg was one of several Confederate generals from the US Civil War with an absurdly on-the-nose comic book villain name, and I don't know if this guy is named in honor of him or just in the sense that he's arrogant or something. Or it's a name Arvis drew out of a hat, I don't know.
(I did pick out the Civil War connection without googling since Bragg is one of those guys who still had a major US army base named after him until recently, despite being comically incompetent as well as a traitor. God I hope this was intentional or I'm gonna look dumb for this tangent).
Also something something, impostor coming after him while he's going to the Amoongus colony, I'm old.
Notably, these illusions and terrain manipulaton aren't actually something that Ursaring or Ursaluna are normally associated with, being more or less just...bears.
(Weeeeird.)
It's probably more specific to these woods and the Ursarings' connection with them, or something inherent to the Ursarings of Badajoz Forest. Perhaps a blessing from Xerneas, he's a weird deer fairy after all.
More notably, there's a bit of a change from the games here, thanks to Arvis wanting to make more Pokémon available - there's only one Ursaluna in S/V, and it's the quasi-legendary Bloodmoon Ursaluna in Kitakami. Rika having one is a change from her game teams, although since it's a Normal/Ground-type, it still fits her specialty. Side note Bulbapedia reminded me she's in Masters EX now with Clodsire as her partner and I might need to actually play that.
The second Pokémon stalking him is "shifting" and unaffected by the Ursarings' manipulation. If the Type: Null trainer was Ostia, that's not what's happening here, since Ostia wouldn't bust out finny fun in front of their classmates. I think more likely that Theodora has involuntarily dragged her Guardian Zoroark along with her - I know if I was Virgilia, I would keep an eye on my ward when she went into the same forest where two of her teammates nearly got themselves killed, to say nothing of the overall mystery of her allegiances.
You can tell people to run and save themselves all you want, but this is Trails of Cold Steel. Your friends ain't gonna go for it.
And the kids to the rescue, getting the rest of Messa's team on the scene. Also help, the name theming is cute.
No real analysis here because Messa is doing it for me: we're not getting sent in to this situation because we're the best and brightest, we're getting sent in because we're VIPs that no one can afford to fuck with willy-nilly (proving these poachers are significantly smarter than the washed-out Jaegers who were doing the gruntwork in the first couple chapters of ToCS). The cold political calculus going on here is pretty nasty, but a great example of how you can set up an "even if I lose, I win" in a setting with as much political chicanery as this version of Paldea.
That said, the fact that we are good at what we do means that everything resolved her with no casualties or injuries, so that's good.
And this is more or less confirmation that the mystery pursuer was, in fact, Virgilia. I can't think of anything else that fits the description and is likely to have been following us the entire trip into the forest.
That last bit is a tad ambiguous, but the way I'm currently parsing it is admiration of Leila's skill at throwing a VIP (in this case Medali heiress) into the line of fire to make the enemy hesitate.
That said...why is Thea so nervous here? What was Messa's maiden name, anyway? Or does she know him by some other reputation, that being her specialty? As usual, a lot of chess being played where I can't see it. Or maybe the analogy this time is Triple Triad cards in the hand that haven't been played yet.
There is so much thread in this thread.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Technically, Gyarados is a water/flying type that can presumably move outside the water, can learn Surf, is big enough to ride on, and is a really cool Pokémon that can be a good addition to our party. If the thread can have the patience to raise a Magikarp, it's an option with roleplay possibilities we can go for.
Just to be thorough with our options.
Just to be thorough with our options.
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
Could just be that Ursaring, even if they aren't ground types yet, are still pretty good with ground type moves. Nothing happened in these woods that can't be explained by an earthbender or several just physically moving things around with enough finesse a group of (even if skilled) teenagers can't tell.
We have enough pokemon of strength we could probably support a deadweight for a while, so I'd be down for a Gyarados. There are a lot of water types to choose from though so it's hard to narrow down a swimmer. A starter pokemon would be fantastic, but they're rare. Blastoise or Greninja would be great.
*Puts on Tinfoil Hat* The whole forest is secretly a Trevenant colony! The bears are in on it!
- Location
- Wisconsin
It's actually a giant Torterra thats been slumbering for centuries!
KnownParadox
Not a sphere
- Location
- Canada
It's all Zoruark!
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Clearly it's a Missingno that's glitching up the landscape
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
The finale to this quest is us getting to the moon and Virgilia walking up behind us with a gun as we look down on her planet-sized illusion.
StattStatt
Supplier of suspenders for your disbelief
- Location
- On one of your shoulders
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That sounds like it could have been the plot to a Mystery Dungeon game tbh
- Location
- Earth
Maybe Virgilia was helping guide her through the forest and Thea didn't want to reveal her?