Random Banter #239 - Now 50% more tangible!

[factotum]

So, I have a tube stuck in my chest to drain a bunch of horrid fluid that's built up in there. Since yesterday we've drained nearly 3l of the stuff--no wonder I had a persistent cough!

[halfeye]

"Oh what a lovely war" is supposed to be good.

So, I have a tube stuck in my chest to drain a bunch of horrid fluid that's built up in there. Since yesterday we've drained nearly 3l of the stuff--no wonder I had a persistent cough!

Good luck with that.

[Bartmanhomer]

D&D is like Pokemon. You work together as a team to beat monsters. Same thing with Pokemon.

[Anonymouswizard]

So, I have a tube stuck in my chest to drain a bunch of horrid fluid that's built up in there. Since yesterday we've drained nearly 3l of the stuff--no wonder I had a persistent cough!

Ouch, I'm guessing this is a side effect of, everything. Hope it goes well, you definitely win the prize for Worst Medical Experience this year.

D&D is like Pokemon. You work together as a team to beat monsters. Same thing with Pokemon.

Huh, in D&D I've never forced a bunch of creatures I've enslaved to fight other members of their species.

Admittedly that's partially because the only time I used a Summon or Enchantment spell the Wizard decided to immediyfireball the area (first session my Sorcerer was in the party as well, couldn't let me use my highest level spell slot on something cool this once?)

[Form]

Huh, in D&D I've never forced a bunch of creatures I've enslaved to fight other members of their species.

Yeah, Pokemon is pretty brutal. Bunch of juvenile delinquents running around, mercilessly hunting down innocent animals, stuffing them into tiny prisons the size of one's fist and forcing them into brutal gladiatorial against others of their kind for the amusement of bloodthirsty spectators and the personal glory of trainers.

[Peelee]

I think it'd a rather unfair characterization that Pokemon trainers only make Pokemon fight each other. Several of the games have the Team of the week not only intimidate, mug, or straight up kidnap other people and organizations with Pokemon. They even try to do the same to the player, and are at times surprised the player even has Pokemon of their own to defend themselves.

Pokemon being used to fight humans is canon.

[HalfTangible]

We see on numerous occasions that Pokemon are both able and willing to turn on/ignore their trainers when abused. Or sometimes just because. In the anime there's an early episode where Pokemon that don't want to fight refuse to come out of their Pokeballs.

Then again there's also that Ninetails that can't leave its home a century after its trainer died because its pokeball is still there =|

[Form]

Well, yes, but if I want to re-imagine Pokemon as dark and sinister I need to cherry pick and misrepresent things!

[Peelee]

Well, yes, but if I want to re-imagine Pokemon as dark and sinister I need to cherry pick and misrepresent things!

Imean, there's also game canon and anime canon (and likely manga canon). Game canon is arguably the darkest, since people do objectively use pokemon against people and it's heavily implied they are also used to help fight in wars.

It's still cherry picking, but it's cherry picking which version to go by.

[LaZodiac]

Imean, there's also game canon and anime canon (and likely manga canon). Game canon is arguably the darkest, since people do objectively use pokemon against people and it's heavily implied they are also used to help fight in wars.

It's still cherry picking, but it's cherry picking which version to go by.

Manga canon has Ruby's backstory be that a Salamance clawed his head open while he was saving Sapphire.

It's part of why he wears the doofy hat, and why he prefers Pokemon Contests to battling.

[Peelee]

Manga canon has Ruby's backstory be that a Salamance clawed his head open while he was saving Sapphire.

Let it never be said that Pokemon is incapable of surprising the ever-loving hell out of me. To put it loosely.

[LaZodiac]

Let it never be said that Pokemon is incapable of surprising the ever-loving hell out of me. To put it loosely.

Ruby/Sapphire arc in Pokemon Adventures/Pokemon Special is wild. Easily in the top 3 "wow this is Pokemon huh"... but not the first.

[Peelee]

Ruby/Sapphire arc in Pokemon Adventures/Pokemon Special is wild. Easily in the top 3 "wow this is Pokemon huh"... but not the first.

Spoiler

Show

Do tell!

[LaZodiac]

Spoiler

Show

Do tell!

Spoiler: Zodi screaming about Pokemon Adventure

Show

So the way Ruby/Sapphire arc ends is Maxie and Archie get the RIGHT coloured orbs as opposed to the games where they get the wrong coloured orbs.

This backfires worse, because now these primal god-beings basically just possess them and use them as Avatars, giving them water and fire powers and causing a big ****ing mess. Ruby, who is a battle maniac and incredibly capable, pulls out his trump card; Celebi has been chilling with him since he helped Pryce deal with his trauma back in Gold/Silver (because Pryce was the boss of Neo Team Rocket in that arc), and only through Celebi's power can they hope to win. They save most of the cast from the deaths they were about to face and break the link... and in doing so, eradicate the two from existence. Rip Archie and Maxie.

EXCEPT! As revealed in the Emerald arc; the girl with the big hoop dress from Team Galaxy used a space-time manipulater to save their souls and solidify them into physical form... but only within a relatively small space bubble. She has a suit of armour that'll serve the same function, allowing them to live... but only has one. She throws a sword in between them and says to call her in the morning. This is the origin of the mysterious knight in that arc, who is... Maxie. He won that particular knife fight- and ends up dying anyway when defeated at the end.

This is all just teasing for Diamond/Pearl arc, where we learn that the games go Full Throttle with Cyrus's nihilism; his plan is, explicitly, to erase all of existence except for himself. Then, in his own singular world, with just himself... kill himself. To ensure there is Not One Thing Left. He is a true, total nihilist character, and he hides this truth from his minions, only revealing it to an admin when she starts to have doubts about the plan; and makes it clear anyone who gets in his way will be eradicated.

He gets to the point of putting himself in his own personal bubble universe before our heroes break the Red Chains that let him control Palkia and Dialga. The two legends of space and time destroy this bubble, killing Cyrus canonically.

This is what I would consider probably the top "what the **** this is pokemon????" in the Pokemon Adventure manga meta-series. I haven't read Black2 and White2 yet since Black/White arc was only really just starting when I caught up and I've just been leaving it for awhile, so I have no idea how Black/White, Black2/White2, and ESPECIALLY OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire, X/Y, and Sun/Moon arcs go, so they might top it. Especially given what Lusamine does in the games, which are toned down in comparison to the manga!

Some lower key moments that are still "wait what?" include Giovanni freezing and then using a ballpeen hammer to smash some Magmar's, Koga's Arbok getting sliced in half multiple times (Arbok's have special abilities based on their neck patterning and his can regenerate like a lizard tail), half the gym leaders being Team Rocket and using their badges are a device to fuse the three elemental birds together into a screaming chimera hell beast... and Eevee being a screaming chimera hellbeast who morphs between forms because of the testing they did on it to get the device working.

Also if you're born in Viridian Forest you have magic powers, 9/10 times. Typically involves the ability to mostly understand Pokemon, and some additional power (Giovanni is just wildly powerful an individual, Yellow has a healing touch).

[Rater202]

Yesterday I found out that Cultivation isn't just ki/magic/soul stuff but just about anything that fits the general theme of "exponential power growth over an extended period of time with multiple discrete stages of physical/spiritual metamorphosis, that involves effort on the part of the cultivator and, at least at first, things being integrated into the body of the cultivator."

There is apparently a cyborg cultivation story and a cultivation story about people using viruses to cultivate.

...And then I realized that you could make a Cultivation AU based on Marvel Comics without having to change a damn thing about the setting other than "it eventually becomes common knowledge that superhumans can become gods."

And since I have a terrible amount of time finding cultivation stories that aren't just sociopathic power fantasies so I figured to hell with it, I'd make my own fan setting.

So then I started thinking about how you'd actually go about such a thing and then immediately ran out of ideas after getting to the basics of "okay, what kind of superhuman powers can be cultivated and which ones can't?"

[Anonymouswizard]

The urge to edit is strong but I must press on. Otherwise I'll never get the first draft even half finished.

[Rater202]

The urge to edit is strong but I must press on. Otherwise I'll never get the first draft even half finished.

....I feel this in my soul, friend.

[LaZodiac]

The urge to edit is strong but I must press on. Otherwise I'll never get the first draft even half finished.

Violently feeling this within my bones. The current batch of stuff I'm writing is stuff I know, explicitly, is going to get completely and fully rewritten ALREADY.

But I must put ideas on paper for the zeroth draft. It's only in doing this that I learn things LIKE this.

[Lord Raziere]

Well if cultivation stories are anything like wuxia stories, then there are societies based around philosophies on how this power is used.

in wuxia, this is basically to set up some societies/schools as being good and others evil with black and white morality. generally the societies that go for virtues like compassion, humility, responsibly using your power so you don't hurt the innocent and such and so on, are generally the good people and the evil societies are blatantly stuff like "ambition, cruelty, arrogantly explaining how my opponents will never win" and such are the bad people, and different societies arise from emphasizing different virtues whether good or evil.

both of these kinds of societies aren't really integrated into the normal world, but rather form its own little society/culture next to it. People know these xia exist sure, but most normal people generally don't consider their business to get involved in what they do. kinda like gangs and mafias: they know two gangs with martial arts are having dispute over territory, so they avoid getting involved in that world because like a gang those have their own customs and dangers that normal people are unfamiliar with revolving around people being more powerful than the ordinary person.

these societies teach new initiates how to use their power and to pass on their traditions, forming a web of teachers and apprentices and respect due to those that taught you what you value and what you can do from a close relationship of training probably years with that teachers- a xia or cultivator in this case seeing a rival or enemy xia killing their teacher is akin to someone killing that cultivator's father or mother, its just as serious without any blood ties because these teachers form so much of their foundation of understanding the power they wield and how to wield it, its a close relationship formed from all the things of value passed on from that teacher to the xia themselves. After all none of the martial arts you wield is formed in a vacuum and similarly cultivation requires expertise and techniques to learn, and thus these don't come out of a vacuum either, they tend to be taught by a long chain of people teaching others their skills, as the more successful techniques tend to outlast ones that aren't as successful- thus forming traditions based on what works in both technique and what makes good relations between societies.

hat doesn't work tends to be discarded, and jerks tend to be gotten rid of. evil societies tend to either be upstarts, ones who work in secret or in the criminal world, or be from faraway lands.

because if you have figured out how the powers work, all thats left for people to argue or fight about is how this power should be used, which can have a lot of different answers but for a setting like this, the basic starting point is probably two societies disagreeing on whether they should use it for good things or bad things then expanding from there, and your character is apart of the good society, what is good to this society? however you want to define it to your preference, that is the great part of this.

[HalfTangible]

The urge to edit is strong but I must press on. Otherwise I'll never get the first draft even half finished.

must not be distracted by new writing projects...

must... finish editing... finish book... publish book... HNNNNNNNG

[Peelee]

My dad wrote a bunch of books and was in the middle of three more when he died. How hard can it be?

[Rater202]

Random Super Power Idea: Adaptive Psyche.

You start as normal but every time you recover from emotional or psychological stress or damage your mind becomes stronger and more resilient. You learn better, you become a better problem solver, you cope with mental and emotional stress better, and so on.

If psychic powers exist in the setting, resisting psychic attacks counts and the adaption makes you resistant to them. You might eventually start developing your own(or make ones you already have stronger.)

Because "your body gets stronger from damage or stress" is a pretty common power if you know where to look but you don't really see a mental equivalent.

[LaZodiac]

Random Super Power Idea: Adaptive Psyche.

You start as normal but every time you recover from emotional or psychological stress or damage your mind becomes stronger and more resilient. You learn better, you become a better problem solver, you cope with mental and emotional stress better, and so on.

If psychic powers exist in the setting, resisting psychic attacks counts and the adaption makes you resistant to them. You might eventually start developing your own(or make ones you already have stronger.)

Because "your body gets stronger from damage or stress" is a pretty common power if you know where to look but you don't really see a mental equivalent.

This is what being Neurotypical is, ostensibly.

[Rater202]

This is what being Neurotypical is, ostensibly.

That can't be the case, too many neurotypical people I know can't even learn the normal way.

[LaZodiac]

That can't be the case, too many neurotypical people I know can't even learn the normal way.

I did say ostensibly!

[Rater202]

I did say ostensibly!

...How weird is it that we were talking about neurotypical people like they were mythical creatures with supernatural powers just now?

[Lord Raziere]

...How weird is it that we were talking about neurotypical people like they were mythical creatures with supernatural powers just now?

Probably a bit weird maybe. I dunno, I'm too weird to judge.

But really the whole "what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger" mindset is a bad mindset to have and is kind of mythical in its thinking. Turns out trauma is injury, not exercise. an injury might motivate you to exercise better after the recovery but it could also just wreck you up. Similarly a trauma might motivate you to prepare yourself mentally for something like that again, but thats no guarantee and you might end up cope in other ways that is unhealthy. Some people might be able to motivate themselves after something bad happens to them to improve and rise like a phoenix from the ashes without any support, but I don't think thats something that can be reasonably expected from most people as a matter of course or whatever.

[LaZodiac]

...How weird is it that we were talking about neurotypical people like they were mythical creatures with supernatural powers just now?

Honestly the more I interact with people the more I'm convinced "show me a human being without mental problems" is an impossible task and the idea that there is a "typical" neurology one can be, or attempt to act as though they are, is just bull****. Yeah there's people who don't get distracted by stuff easily, or people who don't linger on every negative thing they've ever experienced. But no one's brain is free of dysfunction.

One of the most normal, well adjusted, neurotypical esque people I've known were just also completely dyed in the wool certain the NWO would happen any day now. This was like, nearly 7 years ago.

Probably a bit weird maybe. I dunno, I'm too weird to judge.

But really the whole "what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger" mindset is a bad mindset to have and is kind of mythical in its thinking. Turns out trauma is injury, not exercise. an injury might motivate you to exercise better after the recovery but it could also just wreck you up. Similarly a trauma might motivate you to prepare yourself mentally for something like that again, but thats no guarantee and you might end up cope in other ways that is unhealthy. Some people might be able to motivate themselves after something bad happens to them to improve and rise like a phoenix from the ashes without any support, but I don't think thats something that can be reasonably expected from most people as a matter of course or whatever.

Also this yeah. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is a sucker's game. If someone ever says that to you in the wild, ask them if anything has tried to kill them and see what the response is.

[Rater202]

To be fair, I did include stress in the things that triggers the adaption.

So like, if you're studying something and hit the wall/crash without making much progress and then go take a nap, when you wake up... You'll be better at learning, thinking, and it'll take more before you hit the wall again.

[Lord Raziere]

To be fair, I did include stress in the things that triggers the adaption.

So like, if you're studying something and hit the wall/crash without making much progress and then go take a nap, when you wake up... You'll be better at learning, thinking, and it'll take more before you hit the wall again.

well yeah, your talking about a custom superpower, thats completely different from the actual philosophy.