[X] …You?: You wrote your own name down as a bit of a lark. Thinking surely no one would vote for you. You only realized the gravity of your error when Erika and Ostia congratulated you and when Leaf wrapped her arm around you and declared you her minion for the foreseeable future.
[X] Rival Battle
- [X] Nemona
- [X] Attrition
I know Offense would be better for this fight, but it sounds like we are picking what strategy gets focused on more longterm too. And Attrition sounds more fun, especially if Infestation stacks and we get multiple procs off.
Let Nemona be the ultimate power. Mary can learn to be trickier, given time. And survival plus DoT is great in my opinion. Ignore me with my Ferrothorn and Toxapex...
Also, sorry if this was clarified earlier, but is mastery reaching that expertise or maxing out the MXP there? Because it would be really anime and protag-like if Roland learns agility in the middle of battling Nemona and Sunny.
You notice that Erika seems so engrossed with what they're reading that her hair has draped her head and her book completely. Well, that's no good. You're seated pretty close to one another so you can prolly fix that. You decide to lean over where you're sitting from so as to move her hair out of the way and back behind her head. Erika looks up from what she was reading and sees you. Her face grows red and she makes a wheezing noise. Now you're worried.
"From what my teachers told me, Old Andosin is the language and writing system our people used when we came to the highlands during the late Neolithic around 3000 years ago. While modern Andosin has a lot more influence from Paldean and Kalosian."
I do really enjoy the Basque mongolian nature of the Andosin, its really cool.
The student representative vote is hard, Imin between You or Elise on the votes personally. You is good because certainly, a non-noble Andosin is the best representative for the class, but also i just kinda really want that Leaf bond but I can go any way on it. but we need to get our nemona rival swag, clearly our confidence issues protagonist will experience nothing from comparing herself constantly to the best of the best, right?
[X] Rival Battle
- [X] Nemona
- [X] Offense
Also, sorry if this was clarified earlier, but is mastery reaching that expertise or maxing out the MXP there? Because it would be really anime and protag-like if Roland learns agility in the middle of battling Nemona and Sunny.
Let Nemona be the ultimate power. Mary can learn to be trickier, given time. And survival plus DoT is great in my opinion. Ignore me with my Ferrothorn and Toxapex...
More locally, since this is based on Paldea, getting a Paldean Wooper could be really nice. Too bad we need to specialize in two types probably, and one is gonna be either Ghost or Dragon...
Your Homeroom Teacher. Seems pretty laid back. Can get intense.
Pokemon:
Leaf's Wigglytuff. Female. Does the chores around the Class 7 Dorms
Strength: ???
Leaf's Mismagius. Female. Kind of a Bully. Prefers lounging in her Trainer's Shadow
Strength: ???
She had a third Pokeball with her. You don't know what Pokemon it could've been
Strength: ???
She had a fourth Pokeball with her. You don't know what Pokemon it could've been. Recent Capture
Strength: ???
Your Classmates:
Ostia
Your first friend at the Academy. Androgynous. Uses They/Them. Certified Goober. Unknown but not great home life.
Bond Level 1
1/3 to Bond 2
STATS:
PROW
??
KNOW
??
CHRM
7
SKLL
13
Pokemon:
Ostia's Beldum. Vacillates between friendly and jerkish. Cares deeply about Ostia.
Strength: 1-Badge Level
They had a second Pokeball with them. You don't know what Pokemon it could've been
Strength: ???
They had a third Pokeball with them. You don't know what Pokemon it could've been
Strength: ???
They had a strange Pokeball with them. You don't know what Pokemon it could've been
Strength: ???
Erika Furuwada
Your second friend at the Academy. She/Her. Emotionally Fraught. Extremely Intelligent. Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome. Is here on a Sponsorship Program.
Bond Level 1
1/3 to Bond 2
STATS:
PROW
??
KNOW
14
CHRM
6
SKLL
??
Pokemon:
Erika's Carbink. Is essentially Erika's sister. ???
Strength: 0-Badge Level
Nemona
A classmate. Pretty into battling
Jacinto
A classmate. Likes glaring at Nobles a lot.
Manuel
A classmate. Sort of a tense person
Theodora
A classmate. Looks like she's hiding something
Atticus
A classmate. Knows how to sew and weave using Spinarak Silk.
Pokemon:
Also I want to take a crack at a more detailed look into character AU equivalences because I've been playing ToCS 1 recently and I've come to some conclusions - most importantly, I think I've realized that the Pokémon characters are also standing in for Cold Steel characters. I don't know if the other way around applies given that the Pokémon characters just kinda show up as-is, but lemme cook.
Us, Mariana Ganzorig
We share a face with Thors Academy student Linde, who's one of Cold Steel's recurring supporting characters and more or less acts the way we come off at first - lacking in confidence but still charming enough to be a fan favorite. We share a background with Class VII member Gaius Worzel, who's from the Andosin equivalent Nord Highlands and despite coming off as a sexy himbo is more informed than you'd expect about the occult background of the setting, as well as serving as the requisite "innocent outsider" to point out how deeply moronic Erebonia's class system is. Considering our CHRM penalties against nobles, we might as well point this out ourselves when given the opportunity.
It's possible a "different" "Gaius" is around in the form of Eri Merkit, who fits a gender-swapped version of his appearance. If we run into the Andosin Princess in Art Club, that's G.
Instructor Leaf
Leaf is transparently equivalent to Instructor Sara Valestein, who is herself transparently Misato Katsuragi with some red tint in her hair and extra belts. Leaf seems to have dropped the rampant alcoholism but kept the fun-loving one-of-the-girls shtick, and like Sara seems to still be actively involved in Doing Protagonist Shit off-camera. Sara's background is in being an actually very accomplished Bracer, which can be described as "professional JRPG protagonist", fitting for a retired Pokémon protagonist.
Ostia
Ostia's filling the role of someone who wasn't initially in Class VII, Millium Orion, and wearing the face of a different Trails character, Renne Spoilers. Both of them are, through various circumstances, incredibly dangerous child soldiers who start off working for the antagonists (or, an antagonist, Cold Steel's got like four competing bad guys). In Milium's case, she's a government agent working for the Chancellor, having been created in a lab by one of his numerous secret backers as well as playing a massive role in fulfilling some prophecies no sane person wants fulfilled. I'd fully expect Ostia to be a similar keystone to whatever Raifort and, importantly, whoever is backing Raifort is up to.
Erika Furuwada
Wearing the face of unrelated character Erika Furudo from Umineko: When They Cry, Erika throws off my attempt to 1:1 members of canon and Quest Class VII because she has aspects of two. Her background and incessant nerdery mark her as an equivalent to Emma Millstein, genius scholarship case and actual fucking witch from a hidden clan of magic users who formed one half of the prehistoric war that resulted, eventually, in creating ToCS's godlike villain. Which is very funny when you know who Erika Furudo is. However, Erika is also a genius with the social awareness of a stunned carp, which puts me in mind of Alisa Reinford, a beautiful and brilliant woman who has never not rolled a 1 on a social skill check. That could just be a matter of backgrounds matching up and personality being different, but on the other hand, if we're not getting two transfer students later, someone's doubling up as it is.
Nemona Mendoza
Alright so hear me out - Nemona's a canon Pokémon character, but I think she's also standing in for ToCS character Laura S. Arseid, "the strongest First Year". Laura's the daughter of the most famous and dangerous swordsman in the Empire and is an incredibly skilled combatant even by Trails setting standards, being one of only two of the initial Class VII to start with an "S-Craft" (super move), representing her absurd sword training. She also regularly has stilted I Studied The Blade conversations with Rean and in general shares Nemona's pure love for the art of combat above all else.
Notably, Nemona's backstory as the scion of an incredibly wealthy manufacturing concern who wants to do her own thing is also shared with Alisa Reinford, albeit basically none of the rest of her personality is. I guess I kind of argued this one in the opposite direction as the other characters, really. I just wanted to point out that in terms of memetically terrifying battlefield presence, that's our Laura
Jacinto
So far has a one-note personality of hating Nobles. Notably, this is identical to Machias Regnitz for the first two chapters of Trails of Cold Steel. He's also the only non-Pokémon character besides Elise not visibly modeled on a runner-up protagonist vote, meaning he's probably closer to an unalloyed version of the Trails character.
Manuel
Considering that he's coming off of the Cascaraffa and Noblesse Oblige background, it seems extremely likely he's based on Jusis Albarea, a troubled Noble with a similarly fucked-up backstory and awful dad. Even Cascaraffa in this AU got merged with Jusis's hometown of Barehard, home to snooty aristocrats and their jewelers.
I put good money on Jacinto and Manuel kissing eventually.
Atticus
The other canon Pokémon character, I think Atticus is standing in for Trails of Cold Steel's Elliot Craig. A good bean with "unmanly" hobbies (violin or seamstering), appreciation of culture over fighting (or math) and...okay, ScarVi's limited characterization isn't working much for me here and this is probably my weakest idea.
Elise Montenix
Very obviously based on Rean Schwarzer (and his adoptive sister Elise), although the appearance is different. I'm not going to go into this guy except to say that he looks like Kirito Swordartonline but is actually Ichigo Bleach (he's connected to like six different occult bullshits, I mean).
Theodora
She's the trickiest one, and I say that as someone who wrote the runner-up plan she's based on. Similarly complex relationships with technical nobility but a completely different attitude toward it presumably inspired Arvis to give her the face of Beatrice from Umineko: When They Cry, a person who is without going into excessive detail an incarnate indictment of the crimes of the hereditary rich. I could throw another "it's Alisa lol" in here due to them both being infamous blonde tsunderes but realistically, there's only one member of Class VII that someone with a tragic backstory from Porto Marinada could be, and only one person whose penchant for disguise, manipulation, and sleight of hand could be associated with the Golden Witch.
Considering that he's coming off of the Cascaraffa and Noblesse Oblige background, it seems extremely likely he's based on Jusis Albarea, a troubled Noble with a similarly fucked-up backstory and awful dad.
I still think Manuel has a bit of Musse in him just because of the green hair + Noblesse Oblige could be used to describe both Jusis and her, and while Porto Marinada fits the location of Ordis better then Cascaraffa does the aesthetics and structure of Cascaraffa fit Ordis more then they describe Bareahard.
The other canon Pokémon character, I think Atticus is standing in for Trails of Cold Steel's Elliot Craig. A good bean with "unmanly" hobbies (violin or seamstering), appreciation of culture over fighting (or math) and...okay, ScarVi's limited characterization isn't working much for me here and this is probably my weakest idea.
Nah I think the Atticus = Eliot idea has ground given his somewhat effeminate appearance, the sewing hobby and such, that said we don't know that much about them overall so it's hard to say for sure.
I still think Manuel has a bit of Musse in him just because of the green hair + Noblesse Oblige could be used to describe both Jusis and her, and while Porto Marinada fits the location of Ordis better then Cascaraffa does the aesthetics and structure of Cascaraffa fit Ordis more then they describe Bareahard.
I'm operating entirely off of ToCS1 and OG Class VII (plus Crow and Millium) here. It definitely wouldn't surprise me if Arvis threw in bits of other characters, though (see Mariana's face and also the fact that her personality has nothing to do with any of the OG characters but our hangups were clearly established before we even picked a background).
If we can only specialize in two types, I'd suggest Fighting considering we're absolutely going to end up fighting the ruinous quartet, plus fighting I believe has every type combination, so we are not lacking in choice
If we can only specialize in two types, I'd suggest Fighting considering we're absolutely going to end up fighting the ruinous quartet, plus fighting I believe has every type combination, so we are not lacking in choice
I think that's more supposition and "genre convention" than something mechanically enforced. However our starter options were Dragon, Fighting, and Flying, so having a combination of those types kicking around our team would be suitably "thematic", I think.
I'd suggest Fighting considering we're absolutely going to end up fighting the ruinous quartet, plus fighting I believe has every type combination, so we are not lacking in choice
So out of curiosity I went to check all Fighting type Pokémon, and yes it does have 1 Pokémon of every type, but with an Asterisk of Ground, Rock and Fairy only being in incredibly rare Pokémon (In this instance, Terrakion, Great Tusk and Iron Valiant) Which is still pretty solid coverage.
I will continue being a shooter for the Ghost Specialization because I am a huge Ghost type fan, but for the record it has access to every type combination aside from Rock, Normal* and Psychic (Psychic/Ghost being available in 4 separate legendaries) (Honestly you'd think Runergious would be a Rock/Ghost and not a Ground/Ghost.)
*Depends on how hard it is to obtain Hisuian mons.
Don't know how it took me this long to realize, but what will be the equivalent of the Divine Knights for this fic I wonder? Legendaries/mythicals? The paradox mons?
Assuming that we will have a equivalent to them that is.
For anyone worried about the AP cost of being class prez, I'd like to point out that the weekly action "Pokemon and Me" only gives us 500 League points per AP, whereas this one gives 5000. Sure every so often we'll have a month where we spend 2AP, but that's still a pretty good return! Also, 12 CHRM should be one of the highest in class, so that should help us with being the class rep.
Roland already likes getting up in people's faces. Might as well lean into it. That and I think hit-and-run close combat type stuff has more of a learning curve and is worth starting in on first.
"Hey, could you train Kali a bit before she goes out for her Journey? She's been kinda in the dumps lately. I think it's 'cause she didn't pass the exam with me." you ask him.
He gives you a look of exasperation and disbelief. "I pity that kid and anyone else who falls in love with you," he whispers something under his breath you couldn't hear.
After Orientation, Leaf led the class to what was going to be our classroom. It was on the second floor of Rodrigo Hall, the same place as all the other First Year Classrooms.
She told us to pick a seat and release one of our Pokemon, while she goes and gets something from the Faculty Office. So you release Roland, Ostia sends out Argy and Erika releases Cornelia.
ArvisPresley, these first few paragraphs of the update are in first person past tense, before switching to second person present tense. Just wanted to point that out because it was bugging me. Thanks for the update.
I know it's not gonna win, but I feel the combination of Student Council President and having as high a measuring stick as Nemona are going to be too much for our already over-stressed protagonist. Especially when she already had self-imposed expectations to not "disappoint" everyone back home.
