The Quest for the Legends

Mark: *blank look*

May: What did you put in those exactly?

Alan: Um, thanks?

Sparky: Otherwise all those Swablu would really stick out. ;)

Mitch: Because of the properties of electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths.

Sparky to InnerDemon: You know what they say. Always look on the bright side of life. ;)

Flora: I don't flame at people for absolutely no reason! For the love of God, since when was being a bit annoyed flaming?

Sparky to steele: I think you mean "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" See, if you don't get it right, it just doesn't make any sense!

Mark: Well, Dragonite is a Dragonite. You can't really argue with that. Letaligon is strong too, but because her range of moves is a lot more limited, it's easier to take her down. So, well, you saw Dragonite in that match against May. But of course the others do better in other situations, and I don't know if Dragonite would be stronger than some other Dragonite, so it's kind of hard to call him unequivocally the best. They're all great and I'm proud of them.

May: Right now I think Skarmory's pretty great. I've been kind of disappointed in Tyranitar recently, but hopefully he'll come together and be even better.

Chaletwo: You ask weird questions because to you, we're just fictional characters you can annoy with whatever inane comment you think of.

Twelve, you mean. I don't really know about that; I've known some pretty smart twelve-year-olds and from remembering when I was twelve myself kind of think people tend to think of children as a lot more stupid than they really are (I was unable to write to save my life, and unable to tell that a bright blue background on a website does not look good, sure, but I know I could could debate and make rational arguments just fine when I was thirteen, and I can't really believe that all happened in that one year in between).

That said, it is also simply a tradition, hell, pretty much a law of children's books, films, series and entertainment in general to portray children as perfectly capable of rational decisions, thinking things through, coming up with good ideas and so on, for the very simple reason that even if real twelve-year-olds wouldn't be this rational, they can still tell when characters in a book are being blatantly irrational or useless and feel patronized if all children their age are being shown that way. As I said, I'm not actually convinced this is entirely unrealistic, but even if it is, writing them this way is kind of akin to not writing about people going to the bathroom - yeah, unrealistic, but it makes the story better (having the main characters make stupid mistakes all the time and being too immature to do anything useful is just tiresome), extends the potential target audience and avoids offending anyone.

Emotional maturity is something of a different matter; people have commented that Mark's general emo-ness at the beginning sounds a couple of years older than he is, for instance. But at least my twelve-year-olds aren't falling in TRUE LOVE OMG.

May: I get annoyed sometimes, okay?

Mark: Um, well, I like Dragonite best, but which one wins would probably depend on the individual Pokémon and stuff.

Alan: Eh? I don't really know and hope I won't have to find out.

Razor: No.

Ouch, I've been neglecting this thread lately.

Razor to InnerDemon: Challenging Nightmare to that duel. It's what started the entire ordeal.

Nurse Joy to InnerDemon: *smiles* I had a Treecko as my starter, a Wingull, a Teddiursa, a Geodude, a Leta and a Numel as my main team - as time went by, they eventually evolved, of course. And battling first while he watched, yes, he would do that. Always under the pretense of being a gentleman, of course. The sneaky bastard.

Sparky to yllfll: She had ovarian cancer.

Sparky to elyvorg: Oh, I haven't given it much thought why I am the way I am. I do like your theory. 83

Alan to steele: Er, well, she's… twelve. o_O It would be weird.

Mark to steele: *freaked-out expression*

May to steele: Oh, sod off with the romance questions. I have better things to do than think about boys in the middle of the League. Besides, Mark is a wimpy plush toy and Alan is a preachy goody-two-shoes.

Raitwo to SandStormBuisle: He's Master.

Mewtwo^2 to SandStormBuisle: …

Funny things, those Clone Balls.

That would depend on the situation; generally I'd only kill off a character when it makes sense for that character to die.

If I just specifically wanted to kill off one of each of their Pokémon and would engineer the situation once I'd chosen the Pokémon, I'd probably pick Sandslash from Mark's team because he is nice and loyal and his loss would be tragic without being quite as downright cruel as if it were Jolteon, plus that he is the least interesting to write and so as the author I'd miss his presence the least. May would probably lose Spirit because I'm mean like that and it's the one that would affect her the most by far, though Floatzel would also be a possibility in that regard if I didn't want to give Spirit the axe, and Flygon would be a possibility if I wanted to go for the nice-and-loyal-and-didn't-deserve-it death. For Alan it would be Charlie, because he would be so utterly crushed and horrified and it would be adorable and fun to write.

Spirit: You cannot harm us, human. Give it up.

Mark: Huh? What bill? There's a bill?

Alan: What? And Mark, no, there isn't. I think he's trying to mess with you.

Mark to steele: Vulpix, I guess.

Sandslash to steele: We used to have digging competitions and the like.

Scyther to steele: I like it just fine, aside from the bad memories associated with it. We don't usually have much of a preference in nicknames beyond not wanting them to be insulting.

Alan to maxmaxholly: I think I'm a pretty good trainer already, thanks, and I'm not interested in chasing after my dad's achievements.

Mark: Well, I definitely wouldn't have been able to catch any of the legendaries we've caught so far on my own. Maybe Chaletwo would've given up on me.

Mark: Um, I can't exactly do that. We're trying to keep this secret and all, and even in the legendary battles he's been saying he needs to save his powers for other things.

Chaletwo: He can't just "use me" in battle. I've already explained to everyone several times why I can't battle with them, and it's not as if any of them have the power to force me to do anything.

Scyther to Kitsune: I can't really hug anyone, sorry.

May to Kitsune: *rolls eyes*

May to Eloi: That's stupid. You can't just group people into predefined personality types like that. I'm me, not some "trope".

Mark to Eloi: Um, I guess she can be kind of like a Tsundere without the "dere" part? Sometimes she's a Jerkass, but other times she's all right, depending on her general mood at the moment. She's been getting better that way recently, too.

Leah to steele: Right now, my team consists of Tiberius the Venusaur, Webster the Ariados, Felix the Alakazam, Willow the Arcanine, Manos the Tentacruel and Sheena the Weavile.

Mutark: *sniffs suspiciously*

Mark: Well, yeah, I guess I'd use Fire-types. I mean, a lot of my favorite Pokémon are Fire-types, and I just like the type. Don't really know about anything else… definitely not double battles, at least, since I don't really like those.

Mark to Kitsune: Well, I don't think Pokémon training is really my thing. It was something I wanted to do because everybody did it, but now that I've actually tried it… I just don't really like battling or catching Pokémon or traveling much.

Scyther to Kitsune: We don't hug. Generally we're not very keen on physical contact outside of mating and dueling.

Mrs. Grodski to Kitsune: There were many students like him, but of course, most of them left on their doomed Pokémon journeys, while he just remained behind and got even more obnoxious. He wasn't the worst, no, but he was the only one left, which made him especially grating.

Mutark to Kitsune: *jumps after and bats at*

Mrs. Grodski to Scyther: Hmph. What are you playing at, boy?

Ash to Scyther: I ended up winning a few, yeah. Most memorable… probably some of those adventures with raging legendaries and whatnot. Those always stand out a bit.

Weavile117, you cannot ask Chalenor anything, as he is both dead and has not had a speaking role in the story. But Arceus has pretty much sat in his own universe without communicating, yeah, mostly asleep.

Mark: Maybe. I guess traveling is inspirational to people, and I'd like to see the legendary birds and stuff when they've been freed, but I'm not too keen on traveling, at least by foot. Maybe I'll just get a car.

As for my Pokémon, well, they'll have to choose that for themselves.

May: He's not really close to anyone. Doesn't like to be touched except by me, doesn't speak, and pretty much ignores everyone else. But he battles well and is obedient, so I'm not complaining.

Mew: The legendaries? They always exist. After the War, the Creator's first job is to recreate the legendaries so that they can guard the Pokémon of the world and maintain balance in it. That is how it is and has always been.

Entei is a separate individual from Heatran, and he resides in Johto while Heatran guards Stark Mountain in Sinnoh. Some of their powers are similar, others not.

Chalenor was… a good friend. He was kind, caring, intelligent, courageous and loyal. I wish he weren't gone.

Diamond: It's pretty fun. I like it, as long as it doesn't last too long.

Vicky: *smiles mysteriously* That's for those who battle us to find out.

Sparky: Well, the kids told me it was some sort of a dragon, and there is a previously unknown cavern that's opened up and is all clawed out on the inside, so as far as I can tell it all adds up.

Carl: Crater Town is still gone. I keep in touch with most of the inhabitants where they are now, and we are hoping to establish a community somewhere else, but for now we're all only staying with friends and relatives.

In the meantime, I've set up a temporary Gym and have had a few battles in it so far.

Mitch: I suppose the most memorable one was the first clear one I had, at the hospital after I returned to Scorpio City. I looked at an old man in a bed as it was being rolled down the hall, and suddenly I was certain that he was dying. I saw his name in the obituaries a few days later. I tried to tell myself I'd just seen he was pale and sickly or something like that, but deep down I knew that wasn't it.

Mark: It's… *looks* 0439522166.

(Wait, is that really a phone number? It appears as on my browser.)

You probably have a Skype plugin or something of the like that just looks through the page for strings of numbers and assumes "Oh! This is a string of numbers! Must be a phone number!" It's even done that with my hit counter.

Mark: Mm, maybe. I'm not sure exactly what I'd say, though.

Mark: *draws* It was something like this.

(What, you thought I would draw it? :P)

May: I am not "uncaring"! No, I'm not going around waxing poetic about loving your Pokémon, and I expect them to perform if they're going to be on my team, but why do you people keep talking like I'm some big meanie being mean to them?

Alan: Right now, Route 308.

May: What the hell? Vibrava himself said he was fine with it. They're all fine with it, except Lapras and that was just because she was a special case. Give me a break.

Mark: *glances at May* Um… well, she's right that her Pokémon don't mind, I guess, and you can't really… I mean, she is harsh sometimes, and if I were a Pokémon I wouldn't want to be hers, but they seem to just ignore it. As long as we can avoid another Lapras, I don't think she's that terribly bad… right?

Rob: I am looking for Mew. It's none of your business what else I've been doing.

Mark: Well, Lugia couldn't possibly be the Destroyer, since it's been caught already… but if it somehow was, well… I'd still find it the most beautiful one, but I don't know about keeping a favorites list beyond that, really. I mean, I don't know all the legendaries personally. I don't even know how Lugia would feel about being the Destroyer or anything. It's hard to say.

Mark: Well, I'd like to. Depends on how they'd take being models.