Behind Every Monster Is a Person in a Cute Costume: Let's Play Moemon Leafgreen!

[Mystic Muse]

Boo.

Hey, I never said you scared me.

*turns into a dragon*

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Feeling lucky punk?

[fizzmaister]

Feeling lucky punk?

Six. Definitely six.

[Deme]

I still want to know what all that internet-shouting was about.

[AtlanteanTroll]

I still want to know what all that internet-shouting was about.

Even if you dont update, you're usually pretty responsive to comments.

[Deme]

That's true, I suppose...It was just a little startling.

[Deme]

I have come to a realization. I just can't keep doing this anymore. My enthusiasm for this project isn't what it used to be, and school's been eating at all my free time. I just want to enjoy my 3D6 in peace. Maybe, once summer starts, I'll start a new LP...But this is the end of the road. Sorry I let you all down... I had hoped it would be better than this, and that I could have continued without lying to myself, but I can't.

I'm sorry. So sorry.

...What, you don't believe me? Well...You're right not to. April Fools! I'm half-done writing the next update at the moment of typing this, and hope to get it posted by tommorow.
...More seriously, what do ya'll think about Blastburn? Since Mando, who is usually smart about these things, was so insistant on Fire Blast, I assume the answer is to keep Fire Blast?

[Penguinator]

I have come to a realization. I just can't keep doing this anymore. My enthusiasm for this project isn't what it used to be, and school's been eating at all my free time. I just want to enjoy my 3D6 in peace. Maybe, once summer starts, I'll start a new LP...But this is the end of the road. Sorry I let you all down... I had hoped it would be better than this, and that I could have continued without lying to myself, but I can't.

I'm sorry. So sorry.

Tch. I've seen better. (Tricks, that is)

Blast Burn is a terrible, terrible move. Wild Rapidash couldn't force me to teach it to a pokemon. Same goes for Frenzy Plant and Hydrocannon.

[Forum Explorer]

Isn't blast burn horribly inaccurate? Do you have a fire pokemon with mind reader? cause then it could be worth it.

[Penguinator]

Isn't blast burn horribly inaccurate? Do you have a fire pokemon with mind reader? cause then it could be worth it.

Accuracy has nothing to do with it. It's like Hyper Beam, and especially in a Nuzlocke run, you can't afford to just waste a turn sitting around.

Only a starter can learn it, anyway.

[Forum Explorer]

Accuracy has nothing to do with it. It's like Hyper Beam, and especially in a Nuzlocke run, you can't afford to just waste a turn sitting around.

Only a starter can learn it, anyway.

that is crap. Yeah I wouldn't take it either in that case.

[Mando Knight]

Accuracy has nothing to do with it. It's like Hyper Beam, and especially in a Nuzlocke run, you can't afford to just waste a turn sitting around.

This, mostly. Although if it kills, you can always pull back the 'mon that turn. It's a pretty cool move, but Fire Blast is generally better.

Only a starter can learn it, anyway.

In FR/LG, not only is it restricted to the starter, but it's also restricted to Gen 1 starters. Not that it makes much of a difference when you don't have access to Blaziken or Typhlosion anyway, though.

[Deme]

You know, it would have been nice to have at least pretended to humor me...

Chapter 59: Burn, Baby, Burn

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During one of our battles against a wild pokemon...

"A burn. That's unusual." Ok, not so much when one factors in that this is a Magmar...
But the fact that she withstood the blow is impressive, much less getting in a countershot without even using a technique.
"How do you like that, huh?"
"NOT BAD. I THINK YOU WOULD SERVE MY MISTRESS WELL. MISTRESS?"
"I can't just catch willy-nilly, FISTICUFFS! We ask first."
Not that a magmar wouldn't be really nice to have, actually...
"So you're one of those sort, huh? Well -- If you think you can take me, go ahead! I'll only submit to someone stronger than me; that is the true nature of pokemon!"

That was easy.
"...Ok, you got me. But next time --"
"WE'RE ON THE SAME TEAM. THERE IS NO 'NEXT TIME.'"
"NOOOO!"
That was...interesting.




...There aren't even trainers here. It's all quiet. I let everyone out; it's just a good way to focus despite the silence.
"...Well, Spike; you've pried into my life recently enough... Have you ever thought you were in love?"
"Why you gotta ask that? Women: always asking about love!"
" And you’re better? Boo, hoo; my tiny violin will play the saddest song for you, Spike.... But don't think you're getting out of this one." She says, with a laugh.
"...Fine, fine..." He blushes and thinks about it. "N-No. It always felt like there was just too much pressure. That's why I can hang out with you; you don't normally ask me about love. NORMALLY!"
"So, in other words, you want to be the one demanding, and for her to submit to your command? Seems reasonable from you -- I always sort of pictured you with a whip, maybe a few chaaaai--"
"Q-QUIT THAT! ...You know what I mean."
"Oh, goodness. If I knew it got you this riled...I probably would have asked sooner."
"Hmph."
And then, grudgingly, he chuckles.

...

Oh, hey, free stuff!
...And yet there's still nothing out here but rocks to push around.

I don't even realize we reach the mountaintop until it's there. And, really...It's not a volcano. The crater's hardened up, because something's eyes are upon me now. Because the heat is gone and is in front of me, breaking the air into white-hot shimmers.


The temperature's warmer here; not warm the way Articuno's cave was cold, but like something waiting to explode. Like a volcano. Oh, goodie.
"L-lady of fire..." Azula makes a gesture of almost religious deference. Frig, she's going to be useless.
Moltres:"Off your knees, puny flame."
Azula rises and then clings closer to me, as if afraid of being wrapped up in Moltres's orbit.
"WHAT IS YOUR BUISNESS WITH OUR MISTRESS?"
Moltres looks about as surprised as I feel, to see FISTICUFFS stepping up to this.

"Why do you care?"
"I AM HER SERVANT, BUT I AM NO PART OF YOUR MAGICS. ANSWER... WITH YOUR POWER!"
W-wait, wait!
"Don't we want to know what's up before we fight?"
"Please. That's a purely human sentiment. Don't let such weakness hold you down. FIGHT ME!"

A bright, hot flame is kicked up by her wings, cutting FISTICUFFS off from the world. The two stare eachother down.

"I watched all of you in this mountain. The rocks, formed by magma. The hotsprings, shaped by flame. They were all my spies..."
"THEN WHY NOT FIGHT SOONER? UNLESS YOU ARE AFRAID."
"I was impressed by you. And dissapointed. Why fight me? Why attach yourself to humans? Why date your rivals? I know you."
Fisticuffs waited, her gloves poised against the ground.

"Another psycological attack? Reee-aaal clever! Yeah, never seen that before!" I said over the rising flames. The wind changed direction with a flap of her wings, sending hot smoke into my eyes and lungs.

"We're sisters, you and I. More than that silly fire-beast will ever be. I have no intent of breaking you; that's something for humans to do. I'm...impressed by your fighting spirit. Because that's all that matters, in the end."

FISTICUFFS pounds the ground with both fists, sending a landslide of boulders onto the bird, who breaks them to pieces with a spray of flame.

 

"There is only war. Fighting, competition, the rush of blood... Isn't that what you and I burn for? What we were born for? What compares, what makes anything else worth it? Everything else is just a distraction. They mean well...But it's just foolishness. Your true destiny...Is to fight, and nothing else."
Fisticuffs, weakens, pauses.

Shoot, shoot, how do I get a hyper potion to her -- she's hurting bad!
...And, worse...She might be listening to her. I am. FISTICUFFS has always loved fighting...Until now, I thought it was more than anything else. If it were me...If she were asking me...

No, no, think about that later.
I look around for a path through the flames, to help FISTIFCUFFS, to save her from dying in this next attack.
...And there isn't one.

"There's no reason for us to fight -- not when there's a whole world to battle, not when I can so easily send you to cinders!"

I'm her trainer. She'll do what I say. I can't help her, and Rock Slide is waaay unreliable. If the only way for FISTICUFFS to live for sure is for this fight to stop...
And the only way for her to stop is if she agrees to this. If I let her.

...Chun Li's going to be so pissed at me. Everyone will be.
"FISTICUFFS, if that's what you want...If you really think that Chun Li and I are just distracting you...Then go ahead. I won't hold someone who doesn't want to be held. Go. Join her."

Everyone stares at me. Except FISTICUFFS, rising up to her feet.
"THANK YOU...SEED."
Then she takes a single rock from the ground...
"FOR GIVING ME SOMETHING TO FIGHT FOR.
...YOU SEE THIS ROCK, SPIRIT OF WINGED FLAME?! THIS ROCK...IN MY WOUNDED ARMS, WEIGHS TOO MUCH TO CARRY."
"No it doesn't. You're lifting it."
"THAT'S BECAUSE I HAVE MORE THAN MY STRENGTH. I WANT HER VICTORY; I WANT TO GO TO A POKECENTER AND SEE MY APPRENTICE. I WANT TO LIVE. SHE WANTS IT FOR ME -- MORE THAN SHE WANTS VICTORY FOR HER. THAT IS STRENGTH.
STRENGTH ENOUGH..."

"TO CRUSH YOU INTO DUST."


"...I am beaten. But know -- we are three sides of the same magic. The last of us will come for you... It is inevitable. The winged storm...will taste your blood..."

And the smoke dies and the wind clears...And she's gone, leaving a circle of ash drawn in the dust, and FISTICUFFS left in the dirt, collapsed from exhaustion.

"FISTI!" I run out to her and hold her in both arms. She's still breathing, a little unsteadily now.
"...THAT WAS A WONDERFUL OPPONENT. SO DANGEROUS. SO STRONG..."
"FISTICUFFS, think you're up to a flight back to the pokemon center?"
She nods.
"Make it so, Azula!"
”Of course.”



We land and I hand FISTICUFFS over to the nurse. Bill and Celio, arm-deep in their machinery, look over.
Bill: "Boy, she looked beaten up."
Celio: "She? I would have sworn that was a he..."
"Yeah. Ran into a bit of a tough fight."
Bill:"So that delivery's harder than I thought it'd be?"

Delivery?
....Oh, yeah. I was supposed to be doing stuff.
"...Yeah, but I'm sure I can get it worked out in just a jiffy."

I decide to take my healed pokemon and flee before the discussion can continue. I guess I better go do those things.


On the boatride over, Azula clears her throat.
"Mistress...I do apologize."
"What for?"
"I... You must understand; the Lady Moltres is... We're alike. She is a part -- a large part, wholly and entirely, the very essence of, or near it -- the power from which I am formed... She pulled at me, in a way I cannot describe."
"Oh, yeah... It's ok; it worked out."
"YOU CAN'T HOG ALL THE FUN."
"That, too."
"Still...I feel I failed you."
"Azula... You didn't. And if I hear you say that again, we'll need to have a serious talk."


We disembark on Two Island. The water here looks a little strange...

...How do currents effects fishing, exactly? Well, I'm not a fishing expert.


The eye? Is it an evil eye, or just a funny wandering eye?


...What?

I really cannot imagine a pokemon going 'boing' Like, at all.

Ok, maybe Jiggleypuff.

"Boing?...Hey, that's kind of fun to say. Booooiiing!"
Oh....snap. What has he unleashed upon me?

To a chorus of 'boings,' I continue wandering the town.

The flowers were a tip-off.

Funny...I don't see a younger brother.

If I’m not allowed to know what I’m getting into, why should anyone else? Sometimes it’s best not knowing.


"Well, we'll see...I need some hyper potions and some more ultra balls..."

Well, this will do, I suppose. Better than nothing, which is about what I have.

I find what's probably the game corner...

Lostelle.

No, no, back up. Lostelle? Who names something that?

"No, not really. I don't even believe there's a person by that name."

Lostelle is...lost.
...
...
Ow. It's so obvious that it actually is causing my physical pain!

...I understand your words, and yet cannot imagine them to be true.

...
That poor girl...
"I'll help look for her. Any idea where she might have gone?"

Three Island? That's a little out of the way for simple lostness. But OK.


Oh, great. Just what I wanted.


Any friends of a biker are bad news.

And I'm headed right for them, and that lost unfortunately-named person is probably there in the middle of it. I better be ready for a fight.


You go, mister baldy!
My respect for bald people everywhere has increased dramatically.




"That jerk."

I head up the cape, where there are a few wild pokemon in the grass: Mainly Slowpoke and Slowbro...
But fishing yields...

Wait, is that another male pokemon?

Buh. Wha? There's a pokemon out there...that can being of either gender? Spooky.

Anyway, also Poliwag and Goldeen and can I talk about how weird that is?

Either way, I decided to go see that lady with the evil eye.


I will!


She stares down Rya.
"Boing?

"See, Rya? That's why I don't want you saying 'boing.' It ruins everything."
"Aww, man..."


OOh, yay! At least this wasn't a total waste of time.

And that was pretty fun! Much better than going in a barrel!


Wow, free stuff! Today's been a pretty good day, after all.

So, voting on pokemon at Cape Brink.
I've elected not to worry about the inside of Mt. Ember, since didn't feel big enough to qualify as an area, unlike what I was imagining.

[Penguinator]

You know, it would have been nice to have at least pretended to humor me...

I'd already seen two "I'm quitting. BUT NOT REALLY!" by that point. And none of them beat TheSummoner's last year.

[AtlanteanTroll]

You had me for half-a-second Deme, when I thought that you posted that on the 2nd.

Also, you have codes of [b] ... [/color] around some of Moltres' text which doesn't work. And you have no idea how badly I wanted Moltres to KO Fisticuffs.

[Deme]

Also, you have codes of [b] ... [/color] around some of Moltres' text which doesn't work. And you have no idea how badly I wanted Moltres to KO Fisticuffs.

Wanted? That's an interesting one... I'm apparently a little sorry it didn't happen myself, since I had a nice little plan for taking FISTICUFFS out of the action temporarily after the fight...that was ruined by the game's actual plot forbidding me from using the PC, so what would have been the point?

Also, fixed. I've gotten into the habit of [/color] at the end of every line of dialogue, and sometimes I don't spot where I've put them in. I usually manage to take them out of Seed's dialogue, though.

Also, just so we're clear... You guys are largely in charge of party management. If you want to change the party up, permenantly or temporarily, you guys just need to ask and get a couple of votes on the subject together. This can happen at any time, you've just not been taking advantage of it.

[ScionoftheVoid]

My vote for Cape Brink goes to male Poliwhirl, just out of interest of there being another male pokemon. Edit: And with the blue getup we have an excuse to call him Bridget! Alternatively, if it's going to eventually be a Politoed rather than a Poliwrath, Ackbar.

I don't have any complaints about the team, and you do great with the other characters in training sessions anyway, so I shall not request any changes.

[Forum Explorer]

Well there are a lot of pokemon in the PC I would like to see get more screen time but only the pikachu seems to be replaceable in your team.


Also yes you should grab another male pokemon.

[fizzmaister]

A few things. I continue with my vote for Slowpoke here. If however, the vote goes to get another male moemon, get a poliwag not a poliwhirl. More pokedex entries that way.

Just for fun, a list of all moemon that have a 1/255 chance of being male.

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caterpie, metapod, butterfree
weedle, kakuna, beedrill
pidgey, pidgeotto, pidgeot
rattata, ratticate
igglybuff, jigglypuff, wigglytuff
oddish, gloom, vileplume, bellosom
poliwag, poliwhirl, poliwrath, politoed

[Tome]

A few things. I continue with my vote for Slowpoke here. If however, the vote goes to get another male moemon, get a poliwag not a poliwhirl. More pokedex entries that way.

Just for fun, a list of all moemon that have a 1/255 chance of being male.

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caterpie, metapod, butterfree
weedle, kakuna, beedrill
pidgey, pidgeotto, pidgeot
rattata, ratticate
igglybuff, jigglypuff, wigglytuff
oddish, gloom, vileplume, bellosom
poliwag, poliwhirl, poliwrath, politoed

Wait.

You can get a male Bellossom?

That aside, go for the male Poliwhirl.

[fizzmaister]

The normal gender ratio is 50/50. For compatibility purposes, I had to make some moemon have a 1/255 chance of being male, otherwise the old man that teaches you how to catch, and the teachy tv don't work. For anyone with this hack, pull out the Teachy TV that no one uses, all of the moemon in there are male.

[FantasyFoxMan]

I totally vote for a male Poliwhirl.

Totally.

[Feriority]

I discovered this thread late last night, which I almost regret for the two low-sleep nights it caused in a row... but I'd just like to chime in and say I love this LP so very much. I'm a bit sad we don't get to see more of Beau, which I would never have expected to describe the rivals with, and a bit amazed you've made it this far without any casualties at all (I was expecting an unlucky self destruct, because that's gotten me way too many times...).

One question about the hard mode rules you're using: Seed's explicitly called revives useful, but it sounds like the rules you're playing by would keep you from being able to use them. Was that just because she didn't know the pokemon wouldn't faint to be revivable, or are you allowed to use revives you find (but not, say, buy new ones)?

[Deme]

Thank you for the compliments. Makes my day, which is good, because Tuesday is my "Sweet Mercy, when will it end?" day.

I think there's a little more Beau -- he shows up in post-elite 4 content, right, people who have played this game before? Because if he doesn't, then that changes my plans considerably.

Also...Yeah. It's either "Useful if I could use them" or ironic (not sarcastic, but literally "the reader knows something the character does not"), since she didn't learn that she couldn't use them until Lavender town. Seed is not a terribly reliable narrator.


I am also very impressed by the lack of death. It's been quite a few close calls, though.

[FantasyFoxMan]

If I recall correctly, the rival is shown when you get your National Dex, then proceeds to leave and never appears again. (unless of course you decide to go challenge the Elite Four again, in which case... oh hey look there's your rival again as the Champion.)

[fizzmaister]

The remaining rival encounters that I'm aware of are: route 22, elite four champion battle, national dex in Oak's lab, and post sevii island elite four champion battle. I know you don't fight him in the sevii islands, and I think you don't even run into him.

[Deme]

The remaining rival encounters that I'm aware of are: route 22, elite four champion battle, national dex in Oak's lab, and post sevii island elite four champion battle. I know you don't fight him in the sevii islands, and I think you don't even run into him.

Hm. I'll have to move my schedule up a bit. I was under the impression you ran into him in the Sevii islands after the game. Hmph. Well, the last few moments with him maaaay be a bit more rushed, or I'll have to make up something. Maybe something to pad out the post-game, "Let's fight legendaries/do island stuff" area.

[EifieFlare]

Would it be possible to edit the game to make the rival show up more? It sounds like something doable, especially considering how there have been some other changes to the game already. I'm not sure how much work that would take (if it's even possible of course), but it could resolve these narrative problems.

[Mando Knight]

It's a different kind of modification. You'd need to write in new scripts for triggers, dialogue, etc. Modifying Pokémon files is one thing, modifying the game's script is another. They're both possible, and I imagine they're roughly the same difficulty-wise, but they're still different.

[fizzmaister]

To be perfectly honest, walk and talk scripts are some of the easiest scripts to make. If Deme were to give me a location and a script, I could code something up in an hour or two. I don't know if that goes against any of her arbitrary rules, but the possibility is out there.

[Deme]

It doesn't. I will consider it, and see if I can't figure out where a nice narrative lull would be, and write up a little script or some such. It's technically no different from just writing up a scene whole-cloth, but with pictures.