The Quest for the Legends

Thought: you should totally add to Alan's character ramble with something about this. It's pretty much the most psychologically interesting thing he's done so far in the fic, and I'd love to read more about what exactly is going on in his head right now. :3

Oh, I am going to. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

May: If you were forced at gunpoint to date either Alan or Mark, who would you chose?

May: I'd disarm the guy with the gun. These sorts of scenarios are stupid.

Alan: Will you tell your dad that you left because May's Tyrantitar killed Taylor, or will you think up some lie to tell him about why you left?

Alan: I don't know. No, I guess I'll just tell him we're going to be training separately until we can battle the next legendary.

(If you missed it, chapter 55 is up.)

I've updated the character bios for all three of the kids. The most interesting one is Alan, who has a bit in his character ramble now about the reasons for his departure.

Mark's Sandslash: How do you feel about May and her methods? How do you feel about Alan?

Sandslash: May is just confused. I wouldn't want to be her Pokémon, but I doubt she means anything by it, and if they don't mind, I suppose that's their choice. Tyranitar was a special case, but the others seem healthy to me - well, I suppose Floatzel is eccentric, but she was eccentric from the beginning and I doubt anything like Taylor's death will happen again.

Alan is all right. He's very nice, and I'd much rather be his Pokémon than May's, but he's just too argumentative and easily worked up. I don't think he should have left.

Mark: Well, I've never tried one, but it sounds like it could be fun, I guess.

May: It's a bit too much if you ask me. Many-on-many battles are kind of hectic.

Alan: They're pretty cool. Nothing against them.

Mrs. Grodski: Hmph. In my day, Pokémon just battled each other one on one.

Mark: Which oneof your Pokemon is your favorite?

May: Same.

Alan: Same.

Mark: Well, they're all different individuals. I can't exactly just pick a favorite.

May: Skarmory, but Skarmory's my favorite Pokémon in general.

Alan: They're living creatures! Having a favorite is like having a favorite family member. It's demeaning.

Anyone who can answer: Has Champion Cave changed at all since, oh, say, a month and a half before the league battles started?

Chaletwo: I don't think so. It may be that the Nevermeltice crystals that grew in Polaryu's presence are keeping it cold now.

Chaletwo: Assuming everything goes well and the war is avoided, what are you going to do about your dragon trio afterward? Do you have a better idea than having them stuck inside pokéballs for all eternity?

Chaletwo: I… guess I can try to reprogram them somehow, if I'm back at full power.

EDIT: Oops, forgot these, it looks like.

Mark's Charizard: Do Pokémon become depressed or are capable of experiencing appropriately similar symptoms to the affliction humans call "depression?"

Charizard: I think so. I wouldn't know how humans experience it, but…

Scyther: When eating prey, do you have any favorite portion of its body?

Scyther: Depends on the prey. Some parts are tastier on one Pokémon than another.

Rick: Where is Mewtwo2 now?

Rick: That's none of your business.

May: Is there anything specific you hope to find in the Ouen Safari? If so, what?

May: I… don't know. Nothing special, I think.

Mark: What is your favorite type?(Fire, Water, Dragon, etc…)

May: Same.

Alan: Same.

Mark: Probably Fire. A lot of Pokémon I like are Fire-types.

May: Dark.

Alan: I like them all. I don't really have a favorite.

Mark: What do you think would force you into a mental breakdown worse than any other you might have experienced previously? And what do you think an illusion world forcibly set up by your own mind to keep you happy (perhaps indefinitely), feature?

Mark: Um… that's a disturbing question. o_O I don't really know.

If either Mark, May or Alan had to die, who would it be?

Alan. Mark dying would be boring and May dying would just be a waste when she has all this character development to go through.

And how do I get the picture on my signature to not have a white background?

By making a picture that doesn't have a white background. Get a good paint program that can create transparent images, if you're using Paint.

Speaking of Colosseum and XD, what are your thoughts on them?

They were fun, atmospheric and had awesome music. I'd have liked them to be a little more properly story-based and I hated Poké Spots, but otherwise I liked them. Though I never got around to finishing XD; it was one of those games I went through training everything I got and I was somewhere on Citadark Isle with grossly underleveled Pokémon and kept losing to one of the Cipher guys. I'd like to see Genius Sonority make another Pokémon console RPG.

Oh, one other thing. What was your team on your first playthrough of Diamond / Pearl?

Something like Infernape, Staraptor, Luxray, Scyther, Gastrodon and Roserade. Later I added several more and started to rotate them (Butterfree, Leafeon, Charizard, Jolteon, Espeon, Lucario…).

Boy, I really need to catch up with these questions.

Mark: What Pokemon do you plan on catching once you arrive at the Ouen Safari?

May: Same.

Mark: I don't really know. Something good against the remaining legendaries, I suppose.

May: I… don't know.

Mark: If you could be any Pokemon, what Pokemon would you be?

May: Same.

Alan: Same.

Mark: If I had to choose? Uh, I don't know. I think I like being human. Maybe a bird Pokémon. I like them.

May: …a Psychic-type, I guess. Telepathy and teleportation would be useful.

Alan: Some Flying-type. I'd love to be able to fly on my own wings.

Mewtwo(squared): So, what's been going on with you since Taylor died? Has Rick taken you back? Does he use you? Were you released, instead? Also, similarly, how do you feel about Taylor's death?

Mewtwo^2: …

(If you just want to know, Rick has taken him back and he was not released, but he is not being used either because by now he's way too high-leveled for a first Gym of the region. And Mewtwo^2 is a bit too mind-controlled to have much in the way of opinions on Taylor's death.)

Charlie: How do you feel about the evolution/devolution?

Alan: How do you feel about Charlie's evolution/devolution?

Charlie: I'm pretty neutral about it. It can be convenient, but I don't really like to flaunt it.

Alan: It doesn't really matter to me what his physical form is, so long as he is himself.

chaletwo: how do you exactly know that you're in a fan-fic and if you know, how come mew doesn't?

Because his eyes see through the fourth wall. Look, these sorts of questions are just annoying. He nominally knows he's in a fic for convenience so that some character will be able to make fourth-wall-breaking comments in this thread. That does not mean it's some interesting canonical property of his you ought to be scrutinizing.

Mark: what would you have preffered eevee to evolve into if he didnt evolve into jolteon?

Mark: I don't know. Whatever he wanted, really.

mew: if you used future sight to see what would happen when the war would start, what do you see?

This question is nonsensical; Future Sight does not work that way.

mewtark: ~ gives bowl of milk and bowl of blood ~ what do you prefer?

Mutark: *sniffs at the milk, then eagerly goes for the blood*

may: what do you hope to replace tyranitar with?

May: I don't know, okay? Stop asking me that.

Tyranitar: ~Gives may doll~ how do you feel? ~gets female tyranitar and uses attract~ hmm?

Tyranitar: *growls suspiciously*

mark (again): do you plan on visiting the other regions just as a travvaler?

Mark: Sure, sometime when this is all over.

Rob: Have you found a pokemon to replace Scyther?

Rob: That's none of your business.

Leah: I know a guy you can call for help with Mew.

Leah: Really, who?

(No, you can't actually tell her. See the rule in the first post of the thread about not giving the characters important information they don't know in-story.)

Mark: Just a thought, but if you never formally released Mew, won't that make it impossible for anyone else to capture it? Since it's already 'marked' by a Pokéball.

Again, no giving characters important information they don't actually know in the story (or, in this case, make them think about information they haven't actually thought about). This is intentional.

Ignore the nature bit in chapter five. It makes no sense and is just another one of those goofs.

@the ditto(the one Mark battled)
how does transforming work and did it hurt as much as it would for the "real" thing when you were charizard and your tail flame got wet? oh and if you transformed into eevee would another eevees attract "make" you "love" it?

Aaron's Ditto: You just… transform. It's easy. The body transforms completely, so what's painful to them will be equally painful to me while transformed. It doesn't affect the mind, though.

@chaletwo then…how does it feel to know your not real?lol(well hey he SAID it himself;he knows)

See this answer.

mays quilava: how did it feel to be picked by may?

Quilava: It didn't feel any particular way, at first. I'd volunteered to be a starter so I was ready for anything. It turned out pretty quickly that she wasn't especially fond of me, though, and it was all downhill from there.

any of marks pokemon minus sandslash: how did it feel to be caught/picked by mark?

Charizard: Better than rotting in a Pokéball all my life. He was nice and I liked him.

Sparky: why are jolly jolteons so damn fragile?

Sparky: Don't go around breaking them!

Allen: what do you think of my team of venasaur, rapidash, jolteon, omastar, rotation between onix and tyranitar and rotation between xatu and farfetch'd (note:optional)

Alan: As long as you love them all and they love you, it doesn't matter what Pokémon are on your team.

Dosnt May remind you anything about Paul?

Ash: Huh? May? She was nothing like Paul. o_O

(Ash has never met TQftL-May, so he could not possibly have an opinion on her.)

Alan: Did your father tell you anything about Paul? If so, do you think he and May have something in common?

Alan: I'd… rather not talk about May right now. Sorry.

Mark: if you caught lugia or articuno, would you ever just ride around on it trolling and saying "haters gonna hate"

Mark: …huh? o_O I doubt they'd let me do that.

chaletwo: are you sure the destroyer is not a pokemon on another planet?

Chaletwo: I have no idea. That would be handy if it were true and all, but it just sounds like science fiction to me. We have to assume something that's draining the power of the legendaries on this planet is probably also on this planet.

alan: what if a pokemon loves you too much in a… uh… yknow way

Alan: I… don't think that happens a lot. But if it did you'd just have to deal with it, like you'd deal with somebody else who likes you if you don't like them back. Talk about it and see if they can't get over it.

*late!*

Butterfree & raichu: What are your favorite moves?

Butterfree: I like Sleep Powder. Putting opponents to sleep helps me a lot.

Raichu: I'd have to go with Thunderbolt. It's fast and does a lot of damage.

Mark's Dragonite: Are you designated the "legendary substitute" in training exercises more often than the others because you are a Dragon-type?

Dragonite: Well, we try to take turns, but I do think I've landed the role a bit more often than the others, probably because of that.

May's Stantler: Do you think May's other Pokémon care as much for her mental health as you do?

Stantler: It doesn't seem like it, from what I've seen. Most are focused on her abilities as a strategist. I don't blame them; it's how most Pokémon think.

Alan: Did your father tell you anything about Paul? If so, do you think he and May have something in common?

Alan: I… suppose so. From what he told me Paul was very focused on having the strongest Pokémon possible, and May has shades of that… or had, at least. I really don't know how she's changed by now, though.

Oh, God, why do I keep forgetting about this thread.

Raichu: During the Thunderyu battle, you and Jolteon teamed up to sap the electricity from the funnel cloud, but you don't have the Volt Absorb ability. How could you do it? Is this a trait that all Electric Pokémon possess, or does your absorption differ from Jolteon's? If it does, how?

Raichu: We were just gathering the electrical energy to be able to use it to power our own attacks. Any Electric Pokémon can do that.

(Volt Absorb is the ability to use absorbed electricity for healing and had nothing to do with what they were doing there.)

Scyther/Razor: You mentioned in Ruxido that you used to slash through tall grass for fun (or training, I can't remember which). Did you ever accidentally slash a wild Pokémon? What happened if you did?

Scyther: Slashing grass is loud; normally the wild Pokémon would have plenty of time to get out of the way. But if you did accidentally hit something, you'd eat it, or take it back to the swarm and share it if you weren't hungry.

Racko: Have you chosen to stay as a Grovyle, or are you not powerful enough to evolve into a Sceptile?

Racko: I just like this form! I'd feel naked without my wrist leaves.

(IALCOTN) Mark: The school you go to has a Porygon to help with grading tests; how can it stay in Sailance without becoming debilitated and tired? Or can it avoid this by converting itself to computer code?

Mark: The Porygon are just in the computers, and presumably the Effect wouldn't reach them there. I don't think they ever take physical form.

Mark's Sandshrew: How many moves do you know?

Sandslash: I don't keep count. Fifteen, twenty?

(As I keep saying, asking the characters is not the best way to find out factual information. He knows Sandslash's natural level-up moveset plus Rock Slide and Aerial Ace, unless I've forgotten some off-hand mention at some point.)

Pamela: Do you use ranged moves (Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Round…) often?

Pamela: Sometimes. Alan likes Swift and Power Gem.

Victor: Do you think Mutark's ability to grow in size and power is a way of making up for it's lack of evolution? And I don't recall, is yours male or female?

Victor: Precious is male. I wouldn't say it's a substitute for evolution, per se; its utility is quite different, since it relies on enticing the opponent to underestimate it before it grows.

May's Stantler: You said you're a mother, how long ago did you have your baby? And have you had more than one?

Stantler: I had one calf, some five years ago, after my trainer died.

to Mark, May and Alan: What's your favorite species of Pokemon and why?

Mark: Lugia and Articuno.

May: Skarmory.

Alan: All Pokémon have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they're all their own individuals to be judged on their own merits, not their species. The idea of having a favorite Pokémon rubs me the wrong way - like having a favorite race of people.

(Mark's) Charizard: In the event of a battle between Charlie and yourself, who would be the victor?

Charizard: Probably Charlie. He is older and has more experience.

Mark/May: Have you considered buying or stealing a Pocket Healer? Seems that it would be awfully convenient.

Mark: Well, they're really hard to get and limited in scope, since they can only heal mild injuries - they're basically like a Max Revive and Full Restore in one. Serious damage like legendaries can do mandates proper Pokémon Center care.

May: Is it possible to hold a normal conversation with Mutark in any of her forms?

May: Kind of, but she only transforms during battle, so there isn't much of an opportunity for it.

Female Color Dragons: What do you suppose your male siblings are up to?

Raudra: They're scheming to leave us powerless and have us grovel before them as they rob us of our homes and mock us and slowly kill us!

You can't ask the male color dragons or the Destroyer, because they haven't appeared on-screen in the story (or, in the Destroyer's case, you at least don't know that he has), one of the requirements for being able to ask questions. Furthermore, all information I'll answer regarding the Destroyer in Ask the Author, etc. is basically channeled through Chaletwo - I'm basically telling you his beliefs about the Destroyer - and even if you could in fact ask the Destroyer questions, this would still violate the rule about not giving characters important information they may not actually know in the story.

Chapter 66: Doubts is finally up.

Chapters 67, 68 and 69 have also been completed; they will be posted on the following three Thursdays. Thus, chapter 67 will be posted on February 25th, chapter 68 will be posted on March 3rd, and chapter 69 will be posted on March 10th.

I also updated Alan's character bio (contains spoilers for chapter 66), because did you know Alan has all of the issues.

Bwahaha. Alan's mom is some random woman you don't know, because Ash met her as an adult. That's it, that's the grand reveal I used to insist was going to be in the epilogue. Eventually I realized that no, this silly "haha take that shippers" is not in fact the awesome clever reveal that I thought it would be when I was fourteen. The fabled epilogue is not actually happening, I'm sorry to say. I think this chapter wrapped up everything that needed to be.

Thanks for reading! Hope the lack of epilogue doesn't disappoint too much.