The Quest for the Legends

Chaletwo to elyvorg: Well, how else do you think you could see it all written down?

May: …What the hell? No.

Chaletwo to dogsgofetch: My eyes can see through the fourth wall. I know all about this "fic" you've been reading.

Mew: In a book? I cannot say I pay attention to books. They are a human invention.

Letaligon: That is how evolution works. It's about the hormones released when you fight. That is how it works. And he would never let the rest of the herd assist him. He has too much pride for that.

Mark: Well, you are… wait, now you're confusing me…

By the way, guys, can you please stop it with all the stupid fourth-wall-breaking questions? A while ago I added a rule to the first post of this thread:

- No giving the characters important information they don't actually know in the story. Stick to questions they can personally answer, not "Hey, this happened while you weren't there! What do you think about it?" These questions are really awkward to answer; the character would start thinking, acting, and generally deviating from their in-story selves the moment you give them the information, and then generally have better things to do than trying to explain their thoughts on the matter to a vaguely defined transient entity harassing them in the void between chapters. This still applies even if you phrase the question as a hypothetical ("What would you do if you found out that this had happened?")

I'll have to start widening the scope of that rule if you don't stop telling the characters they're fictional.

Alan: Huh? No, I'd have taken her siblings in too if they'd still been there, but they'd all wandered off by then and we couldn't find then.

Charizard: Well, I talk a lot to Dragonite, so I suppose it would be him.

Gyarados: Terrible, but I was hungry.

Letaligon: I do not know why I am different from all the others. I should have been shiny but wasn't.

After my father is dead, I will go off on my own and find a different herd to join.

Mark: Huh? Games? I mean, there are some virtual Pokémon battle simulators, but nothing more than that.

Mark: …huh? No. I'm not really a suicidal kind of… person. o_O

Lapras: Better. I'm glad to be free.

Floatzel: Battles, battles and more battles! Battles are fun, yes?

Mark: Well, I don't like it, per se… but it feels worth it because I feel like I'm helping to save something. At first I was kind of just doing what Chaletwo told me, but after Suicune, well, I realized there's a better reason to be doing it.

Chaletwo: Well, yes, and his memories erased and the event of his death erased, but I'd have done everything in my power to make him agree to it first.

As twiggylover pointed out, puredragon222's question was asked just a page or two ago.

Chaletwo to SilverLatios47: What do you mean? It has happened twice, although I think the time with the Manectric it was Alan who asked. That hardly sets a trend. I don't know what was up with Suicune, but the Manectric's body was just too damaged.

Resurrection is impossible more often than you'd think. Simple damage can be repaired by speeding up and helping the normal healing process along, but if you've got crushed bones or other irreversibly destroyed tissues, you can't repair it just like that, and recombining the soul with the body in that state would only lead to it dying painfully again.

Mark to hellfirehoundoom: Um, well, I'd still like a Vulpix. Do the Pokémon I actually have count? If so, I always wanted a Charizard as a kid. Growlithe too, really - I like a lot of Fire-types. Pidgeot too - I think they're beautiful and I like birds. And Taillow.

May to hellfirehoundoom: Well. I've got Skarmory and Tyranitar; that's two I really like. Flygon too, and Mutark though now that I've actually used her I'm a little disappointed. Outside of that, there's Garchomp, Salamence, Weavile, maybe Absol.

Ash to hellfirehoundoom: He's great. Been sort of bored since I stopped serious training, though; I try to take him on vacations so we can spend some time traveling together like the old days and fight a few battles.

Dragonite to hellfirehoundoom: Well, we were brought up in a sort of natural park with something of a population of Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite. There were humans always sort of watching over us and checking on us regularly. When we were old enough they started to talk to us about whether we'd like to stay there or be released, and whether we'd like to be released near a human-populated area or not.

Tyranitar to hellfirehoundoom: …

Scyther to twiggylover: Annoyed, mostly. He decided to antagonize me for no good reason and then wouldn't leave me alone.

Stormblade to twiggylover: I have a new friend in Nightmare, but she's not quite the same. I miss Razor and Shadowdart sometimes, but mostly it's different. Really, things have changed many times - first when Razor left, then when I met Pearl, then when she died, then when Shadowdart died… This is just another change.

Nightmare to twiggylover: It was horrible. I had no idea how to use the pincers. I kept trying to use them the way I would use my scythes and failing miserably.

He was attacked a while ago, yes. It was some Sneasel, apparently.

I just love the actual note - the mechanical wording, the capitalization of the "variables", the general idea of implicitly accusing Mark of feeding his Pokémon steroids, and just the logic of it, really - of course the League will assume something suspicious when somebody enters with an überpowerful Pokémon like that Gyarados. Let's just say it's the sort of random thing I would find completely awesome if it were in somebody else's fic because I'm weird like that. I'm not expecting you to find it particularly remarkable or anything, but I was incredibly giddy over finally getting to write it.

Mark: Um, right now, around the sixties.

May: Late sixties to early seventies.

Alan: Well, while there are still legendaries in Ouen and the other kids are still out in the other regions, I don't see any reason for me to go to other regions, even if I had already found Rainteicune.

Mark: Well, I'm hoping I win one more battle just to go out with a bang, but I had a really hard time against Michael. As May said, he'd have creamed me if not for Scyther. It's pretty much luck that I've gotten this far. But I hope I'll be able to at least vindicate having gotten here, instead of just being the guy who got into the top eight because he was lucky.

Mark: I'd just try my best, I guess.

Mark: MSN? What's that?

Mark: …why me? Can't you still tell her yourself? o_o;

May: Uh, thanks?

Mark: *freaked out*

May: Oh. Huh. It's 874 AW. Why? Did you just wake up from a coma or something?

Mark: Umm, religion…? Like, legendaries? I mean, I like to think the legendaries are watching over the world making sure nothing bad will happen, but after sort of… getting personally involved in it, I can't really think of it in a reverent or godlike way anymore.

May: Religion is dumb. The legendaries exist, sure, but they're just Pokémon. Worshipping them is stupid and won't get you anywhere.

Alan: I don't know. Maybe there's a higher being that's not just like the normal legendaries. I don't really think about it much.

He has no faith in them in the sense that he can no longer view them as deities to be revered in the same way as he used to to some degree. In the sense of believing they exist, of course he does; Chaletwo has told him as much, and he wouldn't be a very good legendary enthusiast if he were inclined to think they don't exist to begin with.

Mark: I went camping with my parents once when I was little. It was awful; the rain was falling in sheets and it was freezing cold. It was even worse than that night we came to Stormy Town.

May: Probably that storm when I was out training Vibrava. It was wet, at the very least. Otherwise I'm not much of an outdoors person.

Alan: Probably when I came with Dad to Thunderclap Cave that one time. I was seriously afraid I'd be struck by lightning.

Ash: I'd say that time when the legendary birds went mad in the Orange Islands.

Razor: Sort of bitter. It's not that good the first time. You need to acquire a taste for it.

Letaligon: He will not beat me.

Stormblade: I would choose Pearl over anyone.

Tyranitar: *eyes from a distance*

May: Well, they're Dark-types. Psychic powers don't affect them, period.

Mark: Well, as I told my Pokémon, I'd like to just go home, finish school, maybe go to art school and become an illustrator or something.

(Since the Effect is not technically in the ILCOE, Mark can't really answer in this thread, but in the IALCOTN, it is inside the city, though the borders are rather vague and it's hard to pinpoint the center exactly.)

Mark: Um, okay, I'll try.

May to ivymeleon: Just the usual, flinching away a bit. Seriously, though, leave him alone. Hasn't he made it clear he doesn't want you touching him or hugging him or crawling all over him or whatever the hell you're doing?

Letaligon to ivymeleon: He thought I was worthless because I wasn't shiny. I will show him I'm better than him.

Mark to ivymeleon: Huh? I mean, she's beaten me before, and I'm not exactly a sore loser or anything. o_O

Razor to steele: The Scyther swarm doesn't have punishment. If you disgrace yourself, it's you who has to repent for it with suicide of guilt.

Mark to steele: Um, do you actually know any Pokémon-world bands? o_o

Mark: "Real world"? o_O