The Quest for the Legends

May's Dad: How did your Meganium die?

May's dad: It… it was an accident. We were in a battle against this Typhlosion, and we were desperate to win, and… it's painful to remember.

Mark: What sparked your interest for legendary Pokémon? Also, how have your opinions on legendaries changed during your journey?

Mark: I dunno. I've just always found them pretty fascinating.

Sandslash: Have you ever had interest in taking part in a Pokéathlon or any other kind of event?

Sandslash: Maybe. I've never tried it before.

Gyarados: Do you prefer to be in your Pokéball or out of it, in the water.

Gyarados: I'd rather be out of it, but being in the ball isn't bad. It's just… stasis, where you feel fine but you can't do anything.

Gyarados (Again): Why did you eat those kids? They could have saved you!
Mew: Who was the last Destroyer?

Gyarados: I ate them because I was hungry and they were too temptingly close.

Mew: Who was the last Destroyer?

Mew: …I do not know. The Destroyer has always been a mystery.

May: Do you, in any way, blame yourself for Taylor's… (Passing? Moving on? Trip to Kindly Old Man Simmons's Farm? Sentence to the Great Metaphorical Illegal Cloning Facility in the sky?)death?

May: …

Alan: Do you, in any way, blame May for Taylor's Untimely passing to Kindly Old Man Simmons's Great Metaphorical Illegal Cloning Facility in the Sky?

Alan: Well, right now I don't even really know what happened.

Chaletwo: What was the Dragon who survived supposed to do then?

Chaletwo: I didn't think it that far at the time. As I keep saying, young and stupid.

Mitch and Sparky:Have you ever had the misfortune of a HUMAN dying in front of you and you couldn't do a thing about it?

Mitch: All too often. Poisons claim many lives even after the victims are taken to me.

Sparky: I was there when my mother died. It always sits with you; it's a very surreal experience.

Mitch and Sparky (again): If you were told that your town would be starved by earthquakes and pestilence assuming you don't give up your Gym and Pokémon to some random ten year old who was completely unqualified for the job, would you do it?

Mitch: Depends on who was telling me that and why.

Sparky: I think I'd assume they were playing a practical joke until proven otherwise.

Ms. Grodski: Were you glad when Mark left on his Pokémon Journey?

Mrs. Grodski: I'm glad to be rid of him, but I can't say I'm glad his parents let him on the journey. When will he learn if they just give in to him?

Molzapart: What evidence do you have to prove that you're not the Destroyer, hmm?

Molzapart: Evidence? Why would I be trying to stop the War if I were the Destroyer? That theory is nonsense from the ground up.

Chaletwo: Same as above.

Chaletwo: What? That's ridiculous. I'm trying to stop the War. I'm not the one that needs to present evidence here. When you produce baseless conjecture like that, the burden of proof is on you.

Mew: Same as above.

Mew. …I suppose there is no such evidence. But I am not the Destroyer.

Nurse Joy: When you see an injured / dead Pokemon, does it make you feel worse than seeing an injured / dead human?

Nurse Joy of Stormy Town: Well, I suppose there is a sense of responsibility when there's a Pokémon, since keeping them healthy is my job, but injured or dead humans are no laughing matter either.

Sparky: What's the weirdest thing anyone's ever ordered at your restaurant. Besides, of course, a Scyther ordering a bowl of beer.

Sparky: Usually people just order things off the menu, so I can't say there has been anything particularly weird, can I?


Phew.

The Talking Cheese, for future reference, yes, that was way too many questions, but I answered them anyway because I felt like it. Please don't ask so many questions again, and don't just ask a boatload of questions because you're bored; I have better things to do with my time than sitting here answering questions if you don't actually care about the answer.

Chaletwo: No. Well, we know of some old classics from over there, but they aren't very widely read.

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.

Chaletwo: Where did your inspiration for the three dragons come from? And I don't mean why did you do it, but their colours and abilities and such?

Chaletwo: The legendaries of Kanto and Johto, mostly. Fire, Electric and Ice, red, yellow and blue. I wasn't very original.

Letaligon: What are you like when you're by yourself? Do you have any hobbies like cleaning yourself or watching the sky?

Letaligon: I train and I battle, and then I go in my Pokéball. I don't need hobbies.

Chaletwo: Is the Waraider Herd made up of many Waraiders of differing types or are they all just the one type?

Chaletwo: They're of different types. Waraider is just the Normal-type who's their leader, so to speak.

Mark: Do you have any recurring(?) thoughts/dreams of your family? If so, elaborate!

Mark: Nothing in particular. I mean, I think about them sometimes, but not like all the time or always the same thing or anything. Just like normal, really.

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.

in the anime, ash knows mewtwo personally.
how is it possible, if according to the fic mewtwo died 999 years ago?

In chapter 25 Chaletwo explains that Mewtwo was taken back in time by Chalenor and was still there when the War happened.

The number of times I get this question confuses me. Heck, it's even brought up again in chapter 39, so it's not as if it's just that single mention.

So Chibi Pika hasn't yet responded to my plea to crosspost this here but I imagine they won't mind.

BASICALLY this makes every goddamn minute of the nine years I've spent writing this fic completely worth it. Chibi Pika is God. The end.

(Context: a silly joke in the QftL thread on Serebii about how Chaletwo is going to decide to become a pimp and stop caring about the War of the Legends. But you shouldn't care about the context, damn it.)

And, uh, chapter 58 is almost done. But who cares about the chapter when you can have pimp!Chaletwo? :D

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.

Chaletwo: Why don't you just not wait for the War of the Legends to begin, kill all the other Legendaries with your eyes, and then become the new Creator? (apart from plot reasons!)

Chaletwo: …are you serious? Is everybody this convinced I'm a giant jerkass who doesn't really care about stopping this thing?

And it wouldn't even work, besides. Remember how Mew is a true immortal and can't be killed except during the War? Remember how we don't know who the Destroyer is but he's probably also a true immortal? Remember how the War will happen if even one legendary is out there when it happens?

Chaletwo: What is your relationship, if any, with other Legendary pokemon?

Chaletwo: I'm vaguely acquainted with most of them. Mew I know well, Molzapart I'm friends with, most of the others I've talked to from time to time but don't know that well.

Mark: what happens if in a trainer battle, a pokemon uses roar and sends out chaletwo?

Mark: Um, I'm not carrying Chaletwo with me. He's on the PC and in my head, but not in any of my Pokéballs unless he needs to be sent out.

There have been a lot of queries regarding the fact Mew is referred to by both 'he' and 'she' in chapter 61 - most of them noticing one instance and assuming it's some kind of a typo.

It is not a typo: Mewtwo consistently uses 'she', while Chaletwo and Mark's narration consistently use 'he'. (And May, you may also notice, uses 'it' - which means in this chapter the same character is referred to by all three standard English third-person singular personal pronouns, something I quite enjoy.) This is because in the world of this fic, all legendaries who are genderless in the games are biologically sexless single-individual species that don't have a gender as we know it. Some of them - like Chaletwo - prefer to be referred to by one particular pronoun anyway; others don't, and much like with Pokémon nicknames, the pronoun used in any given instance is up to the speaker. Mew is one such legendary.

This is not a new thing; I've been consciously writing it that way since at least the beginning of the HMMRCIG if not longer, and outside the fic I've been explaining this to readers for about that amount of time. The first time I found occasion to actually bring it up in-story, however, was the first time the opposite of the usual pronoun was actually used for a legendary: chapter 51, where Entei used 'she' for Mew. I threw in a paragraph of Mark remembering that Mew has no grammatical gender preference - kind of out of nowhere, but it was at least intended to introduce the concept to readers so they wouldn't be confused. And it seemed to work: I can't recall anyone expressing confusion over it then, so I actually was kind of surprised by how many people were completely puzzled when the same thing happened in chapter 61.

Now, I said I'd been consciously writing it this way since at least the beginning of the HMMRCIG. If this were a newer concept, it would probably be a bit more refined and informed by modern ideas about gender - but the fact it is old means that pronoun use has been an active part of the characterization for ages. So now that I've found an excuse to ramble about that, I will! :D

If you were to reread chapters nine and ten or Mew's random appearance in chapter 13 (but please don't), for instance, you'd notice Mark's narration awkwardly avoids using any pronouns for Mew as far as possible but goes with "it" where a pronoun is absolutely necessary. However, Chaletwo has always referred to Mew as 'him' - in fact, Chaletwo uses 'he' for every legendary that doesn't expressly prefer the feminine. It just seemed like what he'd do: he wants things to be simple and easy and doesn't like to think about them too much, so he made a rule - using the same pronoun he prefers for himself - and just sticks with that. And Mark, since chapter 25, has simply gone along with Chaletwo's pronouns for everyone, including Mew. (When he started not going along with everything Chaletwo said and did, it didn't occur to him to change his pronoun use in protest, but on reflection that would have been rather amusing.)

May, meanwhile, uses 'it' for all such legendaries, because as far as she's concerned that's just the correct pronoun for something genderless. Its potentially 'dehumanizing' properties don't bother her because she's not the most tone-sensitive person in the world. (Who would've thought?) I don't think anybody has ever commented on May's use of 'it' for legendaries Mark and Chaletwo are calling 'him', which just goes to show that people are perfectly capable of seeing the same character referred to by two different pronouns as long as they don't happen to be 'he' and 'she'.

Entei was an interesting case - it felt like he would refer to Mew as 'her', but as I wrote him I started to realize that as part of his general condescension he has shades of a kind of pseudo-sexism - he uses 'she' for smaller, less imposing legendaries. Although Suicune for instance also has no preference, my mental simulation of Entei found it absurd to call him 'her', because Suicune is his equal. He goes through all the motions of respecting Mew, but doesn't think anything of just going and making a plan to stop the thing that Mew doesn't want to be stopped - where Chaletwo keeps justifying his decision to disobey Mew with the greater good and Mew just being tired and not wanting to live anymore, Entei has no real impulse to care about Mew's opinion in the first place. In some way, calling Mew 'her' is because he doesn't think much of her and uses it as a kind of way to designate her as a different class from himself that he can be elitist towards.

Mewtwo, on the other hand, began to use 'she' for Mew to differentiate himself from her as part of his journey towards realizing that he was his own person with a right to exist independently of Mew. (Side note: I really liked writing Mewtwo and how he's dealt with his issues in the twenty-seven years since he was created.)

I've also written some backstory material from Mew's point of view that alternates between using 'he' and 'she' in the narration between scenes. If you found it confusing in chapter 61, just wait until you read that.

Chaletwo: I'm confused about Arceus's place in the war of legends. Has anyone captured him? Did he create the universe, or are the Sinnoh myths false?

Chaletwo: Arceus has nothing to do with it. He is usually sleeping in his own universe, and he isn't affected by the Destroyer and doesn't participate in the War. As I understand it, he created the universe but has only interfered with it a couple of times since.

Lapras: How has life been treating you since you were released?

Lapras: It has been fine. I have yet to find another Lapras, but I enjoy being free.

Letaligon, Quilava, and Tyrannitar: same as above

Letaligon: …All right, I suppose.

Quilava: I'm part of a colony of Cyndaquil and Quilava now. It was a bit weird adjusting to life in the wild, but I'm having a better time now than I ever was with my trainers.

Tyranitar: …

Charizard and Gyarados: Would you like to be able to mega evolve?

Charizard: It could be nice, I suppose. I don't think that's likely to happen, though. Doesn't it need some special stones only found in another region?

Gyarados: No. I'm fine as I am.

Rick: Can any of your clone pokemon mega evolve?

Rick: …

Mew:Did you create Arceus?

Mew: No. Arceus was the Original One. He created Dialga and Palkia, and with them space and time. They live outside of the universe and do not take part in the War.

Chaletwo: Is it possible that Yveltal is the destroyer? It is the death pokemon after all and its signature move drains energy.

Chaletwo: That would have been a theory, but Yveltal has already been caught without problems and yet our power continues to be drained. It's most likely someone we don't know of.

Although I'm a little confused as to how Chaletwo can't tell what's bothering May if he's all up in her thoughts and all, unless he's just being polite and pretending not to know.

The way telepathy works in this universe, Chaletwo only has access to what she's consciously thinking at any given moment. So he definitely knows "grr get out of my head this is awful", but May doesn't want him much deeper than that, so she's not exactly inclined to introspect about why she really doesn't want him in her head at the moment.

It's a sentence where I attempt to imply a lot of things in the space of time it would take May to start to think something and then not continue that train of thought. It's a tricky thing to manage. But I'm closing in on it!

Glad to see some people are still here!

Apologies for being ridiculously late as usual.

Letaligon: How is your life in Ruxido? Are you dissapointed about your father's death? Would you come back with Mark if you had the opportunity?

Letaligon: …I… I'm fine.

Mrs Grotentwoski (or whatever your middle name is): What would you say if I told you Mark is one of the 4 best trainers in Ouen this year?

Mrs. Grodski: Hmph. It looked like dumb luck, if you ask me.

Chaletwo: If you did absolutely nothing to stop the War of the Legends, who do you think would win?

Chaletwo: The legendaries' power is equalized for the War. There's no point speculating on who would win.

Mark and May: If you had a chance to become any Pokémon, which Pokemon would you choose to become? (No legendaries)

Mark: Um… One that can fly, maybe? It'd be nice to fly on my own.

May: Do I have to? I'd rather just stay as I am, thanks.

Mewtwo
how do you like chaletwo being a more powerful version of you

Mewtwo: I once thought power was the true measure of worth, but I have since realized that every life has worth in itself. Power is irrelevant. Now that I know why he looks like me, I do not fault him for it.

How do u put your pokemon personalities on?

Not a character question, but I believe you're referring to the personality test results? Take the test here, and when you get your result, it will give you a BBCode for your result image. If you click the "Edit Options" link on this site, you can paste the BBCode into your signature and it will appear at the bottom of your posts.

Just not at the festival! I toyed with the idea of him making use of Suicune's nightly appearance at the Lake of Purity at one point, watching for trainers who'd stay there past sunset to see Suicune, then stalk them for a while until they've collected enough badges to have a chance against some legendaries.

I mean, it's possible I end up working out something where he appears at the festival anyway; it'd definitely tickle me to be able to keep that. It'd probably involve him beginning to make appearances at the festival after he learns about the War, in order to find recruits (probably roped into it by Mementity/whoever his new not-Molzapart partner would be, since it doesn't really seem like something he'd think of himself), but with some other ostensible purpose to prevent the legendaries from getting suspicious. It might not actually be that hard to get that working. I haven't given too much thought to exactly what I'd do with it, since I didn't start thinking I'd want to change this until after it'd been years since I was actively working on the IALCOTN.

I haven't decided exactly what I'm doing with it yet! Still mulling it over as I work on the commentary. Recently, it's occurred to me that I could still keep Mark being killed publicly at the Pokémon Festival, if I either:

1) have Mark be the first kid Chaletwo kills in public. There can be a scheduled Chaletwo appearance, where he scouts for potential subjects, but he hasn't murdered them right there and then until now, when he knows this is his last scheduled appearance before the War and just goes screw it, I need to get this last kid initiated as soon as possible. Thus, Mark can show up for Chaletwo's appearance without this being an invitation to be murdered! Unfortunately this'd mean no building tension about Chaletwo and what he's up to, unless I, like, also had a rumour mill where somebody's Pokémon says they know a Pokémon who witnessed Chaletwo killing a human out in the wilderness somewhere, or something like that, and obviously Mark doesn't believe that stuff because a legendary Pokémon would never do that, right? Hrmm, could work.

2) Chaletwo has been killing kids in public, but not on a schedule; it's just known that a few times now, he's appeared suddenly in crowds, killed a kid, and then teleported away. Chaletwo appearing at the Pokémon Festival is a surprise to everyone, and Mark is simply there by coincidence. This does allow for looming Chaletwo menace, and I can picture the scene being pretty intense, but since nobody knows he'll appear at the festival, there wouldn't be the whole aspect of the countdown to it.

But yeah, this isn't something I developed for the IALCOTN since I didn't start thinking I needed to change it until after I'd stopped actively working on that, and for something this major and significant, coming up with a complete idea that I'm happy with is going to take longer than the time it takes me to write a chapter commentary or blog comment off the top of my head! So don't expect a definitive answer anytime soon.

Oh, man, I love your comments. I would totally like to write more Leah at some point, particularly Leah with Chaletwo in her head. Chaletwo's kind of resigned to needing to keep the peace with his legendary hunters by the time he gets to Mark, but I suspect Leah's how he learned that.

Chalenor's soul didn't actually end up in Chaletwo or having any influence on the resurrection - this off-the-cuff attempt to just attach whatever's in the eye to this body just accidentally tethered it to him. So it would've turned out pretty much the same - only the War wouldn't be happening today.