Replies and shiz! (If yours does not show up, be aware that I read it and appreciate it still, ^^)
Martin Bajar said:
Wow. That's an Abra tale almost as good as the Bulbasaur life cyclus chapter in the Friendly Necromancer
Now that is high praise. Quite a few people have cited that chapter as ultra high quality, so I'm honored I made the cut for positive comparisons!
The Froggy Ninja said:
That's honestly a good idea anyway. Sapient Pokemon should be "caught" and have their own Pokeballs to prevent actual capture.
One would think pokeballs shouldn't register them as valid targets in the first place.
CV12Hornet said:
Well, Barrage is pretty obviously inspired by Danmaku Bullet Hell shmups and most likely Touhou Project in particular as the most well-known example of that genre in the West.
Archeo Lumiere said:
I'm sorry Derm, but did you just import Tōhō as a psychic training game?
Very literally a Danmaku expy, yes. Hehehe.
MrHobbit said:
Well, Dermonster asked for an in-depth analysis! Here one is. It's just a couple thousand words long! I spoilered it so I wouldn't drop a wall of text on unsuspecting readers.
Wow! I love these types of comments! Always nice to get an in-depth reaction. I think I've re-read it four times. Pain in the ass to respond to though. Let's see...
MrHobbit said:
I always thought that the Ancestor abandoned humanity after humanity slew Regigigas. Her memories said she had been there the day it happened
The day Regigigas was slain, the Ancestor was still a Ralts living in that village in [...]. At some point past then she learned what had happened up there.
MrHobbit said:
Also this makes sense why they didn't build houses and went further into the caves. It's a great way to make this feel like something that people set up. Abras sleep most of the day, so their tribe would have to account for that in raising them. If they had been on the surface it might be more difficult to stagger their sleeping, but underground they can.
...yes! That is! Exactly a thing I thought of and accounted for! Man, I am so good at this.
MrHobbit said:
Echo has to shepherd five hundred children all alone. When there used to be a couple dozen Kadabras. I'm surprised there's so many Abra though. That's a lot, especially considering that the Kadabra and Abra must not have had much food to lay eggs for a long time. It feels weird though that they have so many compared to the village. I was expecting something like two hundred. Not five hundred after the Great Dwindling. It breaks my suspension of disbelief a bit. I can see thirty Kadabra shepherding a few hundred Abra, but one? That's too much even for the decline.
'Here we spot a lowly fanfiction author, trying to vaguely guess at reasonable population standards. He is likely going to be wrong by a factor of two or more. Surely handwaving it away with nonsense about caloric requirements and shifting the remaining dregs of an ecosystem to make what is already written feasable will work, right? Nevertheless, this will teach him a lesson about using hard numbers for subjects he knows nothing about.'
MrHobbit said:
I wonder if the Abra-village doesn't have monogamous pairs for them to raise their children in creches. Is this implying that Ralts primarily use the nuclear family? Humans didn't do that frequently at that time period. It's interesting that they have communal hatchling areas though.
There's all sorts of living styles. There are also sometimes Kirlia who, for some reason or another, abdictate the responsibility of raising their egg and leave them in the care of the village at large. And these Ralts have to live somewhere, so...it's somewhat like an orphanage. And if a Kirlia pair who are unwilling or unable to make their own egg desire a child regardless, there's always a Ralts who would love to have parents all to themselves.
Astra's mom was one of these.
MrHobbit said:
I'm curious if every Kadabra could speak. It seems like that not everyone who could speak was a Kadabra, but I can't tell if all Kadabras could speak.
The process of learning to speak fluent Kadabrish (I guess?) is a major part of the process of evolving into a Kadabra. Speaking Abra only exist for as long as it takes for them to fully breach the threshold and become Kadabra.
MrHobbit said:
Five hundred Abra is this village at its lowest and they only ever got to thirty Kadabra? That seems a bit too extreme. I'm sure Abra lay eggs too, but I'm being serious here. Five hundred Abra is way too much.
The Abra are the only ones laying the eggs. If a Kadabra wants an apprentice theres quite a few available.
MrHobbit said:
This matches what Roxanne said about teaching pokemon. It's pretty damn difficult. It seems like it's difficult even for villages that have been sapient for thousands of years. I wonder if Astra's village has the human-like trait deeper in their DNA than Echo's village did. Humans have been put under similar circ*mstances as this, and they just regress technologically. They don't regress mentally.
MrHobbit said:
It's funny that we had the same thought about Abras. I'm curious how differently wild Abra act. These Abra seem a lot needier than wild Abra, who hypnotize themselves so they can get through the entire day without waking. Those Abra definitely more training and nutrition than the Granite Cave Abra, which is grimly ironic.
MrHobbit said:
Roxanne talked about how it is very difficult to teach Pokemon civilization and that it's somewhat easier to teach pokemon whose parents can speak to speak. It starts near Roxanne talking about a Meowth in Kanto. She mentioned that it could take hundreds of years to become self-sustaining, which is interesting because the Kirlia seem to be self-sustaining but the Abra even at their peak seemed less so. (no idea what I was talking about earlier here)
The Ancestor had plenty of time to thoroughly carve the capacity for higher thought into her village, building up momentum for a thousand years until they finally hit their stride and could continue on their own indefinitly.
The Kadabra seem to have begun that same process but it was halted early, leaving the few who did learn to try personally tutoring apprentices from a population that will never gain widespread affinity for the skill. And when you have a cabal of very powerul leaders watching out for your safety and attending your every need for a thousand years, you might find that when they can't anymore, you are left worse off than a wild pokemon who hadn't been generationally coddled would be in the same situration.
MrHobbit said:
The description of the ecosystem was stellar. It really feels, lived in. And it sets up wonderfully the fall, when humans upset it for their comfort.
Thank you; I made a whole MS Paint chart and everything mapping it all out.
MrHobbit said:
It's funny that May tried calling, no one there knows that it wouldn't have worked and only caused more problems. They'd be able to hear the environment... but not Astra.
What's even funnier is that Astra herself doesn't even realize that this is a problem yet. 
MrHobbit said:
Ah, a sign of true civilization! Narcotics! Now they only need alcohol and humans can deign to acknowledge them as people!
Magic Mushrooms! And hey, did you forget that Astra's village makes Fermented Berry Juice? It's a party!
MrHobbit said:
I'm still hesitant about saying the Ancestor helped them. But it'd make sense for Abras to develop psychic communication further. I wonder if Astra could learn to it in time, or if she needs to evolve to Gardevoir first.
There's not much to learn, I think. It's basically a really complex, eternally present system of psychic diacritics overlaid on top of Human (English). And it'd be of limited use since only Echo knows the dialect.
MrHobbit said:
...They might still be around but in stasis. Even pessimistically it'd be hard to believe that the humans killed them all. Many people do end up giving in even if family believe they wouldn't.
But leaving them in the PC and forgetting about them still leaves the possibility there. Maybe Astra could do something about that if she ever succeeds.
35 years is a long time to be in a box. Even if they had survived initial capturing...well, one can only hope.
MrHobbit said:
And some much needed levity. I'm ashamed I didn't notice Astra not describing Echo holding a spoon before now. But I like the hints this laid. I didn't see anyone mention the lack of spoons, but in hindsight that was incredibly obvious. And just another sign of how far they have fallen. You can't really get more clear about their degredation than their last Kadabra not even having her spoon.
I was reminded a lot of @Swagner's lecture in this chapter. (I really enjoyed that lecture btw)
I even explicitly had Astra bemoan the lack of spoons for her stew last chapter! I really am suprised nobody picked up on it. There's a lot that people don't pick up on, really.
MrHobbit said:
I wonder if that is related to the rumor Brendon got lost in the caves before. It mentioned an Alakazam with five spoons. This Kadabra had five spoons and gained a lot of strength. The Kadabra probably didn't evolve, because then Echo wouldn't say that they only have the one evolution. But I am curious how this is linked to Mega Alakazam. I feel like though that there must be something going on here too. If making the Kadabra stronger was as easy as giving them spoons, there'd be plenty of dumbass trainers throwing spoons at theirs. Hell, there'd be dumbass trainers doing that even if it didn't. It might make them mentally unstable. Thus trainers don't do it because trainers that do die.
A Kadabra's spoon is special. It is part of their very self, obtained in a moment of pure, personal clarity. A shard of their very mind, one could think. Permanently gifting it to another is unheard of, for the gifter would wither and the spoon tarnish in turn. But before then...oh, what power to behold.
But taking a spoon from a Kadabra? Taking it from a fallen Pokemon, or severing that bond while still alive?
That would be pretty twisted, if you ask me.
MrHobbit said:
This wasn't really surprising, I expected it. But it still was a gut punch, right on top of the last one.
Kai Merah said:
I teared up when Kadabra gave that Abra the last gift she could give
I had tears in my eyes the entire time I wrote that section. I'm glad people like it.
MrHobbit said:
I wonder if Echo's efforts would be easier if she was an Alakazam or not. She'd need a lot more food, but she'd be able to do a lot more. Alakazams are pretty OP. Of course there's the question of how do they happen. Especially how they happen without capture.
Personal power isn't the issue. She would just be able to do what she already is a bit faster. It's the fact that she's alone that is holding her back.
Talon TigerDino said:
Y'know, this does make me wonder how Metagross work in this setting. In every Pokemon media, they are stated to be stupidly smart and incredibly powerful. Can they talk? Do they remain with a trainer out of logical reasons such as increased access to numerous resources, emotional ones of "this person has been with me throughout my development," or both? I have so many questions.
Like all Pokemon, they can't communicate. However, they are very much in the upper eschalon of how smart pokemon can get. Alas, they are also incredibly rare.
Coshiua said:
I do hope that Astra will come back to talk with Echo after she talks with May and Brendan. She might not be able to do that much, but she could purchase or "borrow" some spoons from a local store or restaurant and see if they could help Echo. Maybe see if Echo could teleport close to the Ralts Village with directions so that Echo could ask for help from them.
We aren't quite done with Echo yet. We'll see her again...relatively soon. Say, two years ooc? Lmao.
FuzzyZergling said:
Hell yeah Fuzzy! Thank you so much!
Everyone go check out his new story about a Grunt in Team Rocket, as an aside!
The Froggy Ninja said:
One notable thing is that Kirila naturally learn Healing Pulse shortly after evolving. While it doesn't cure status effects, it can outpace the damage from poison fairly easily. How that would work long term with the setting's lore is hard to say though.
In some versions they learn it at 50. in some, 25. Translating that...I'd hazard that it's probably gonna be at the upper end of that scale personally. And since most of that range is above the threshold for evolving into a Gardevoir...
The Froggy Ninja said:
Or try giving Spoons to the Abras. Any psychic type can benefit from them and it might help their development.
One thing that's interesting is they don't seem to have any Spoons from the previous generation. Since they're already aware that they can use other people's Spoons, it seems odd that they don't keep a strategic reserve. Perhaps their spiritual practice requires that they be sent to the Last Secret with their Spoons.
MrHobbit said:
I wonder if you could give Abra spoons for them to use. I imagine humans would have tried it at one point, they don't seem to do it though.
MrHobbit said:
Or Echo was just speaking metaphorically. I imagine that Kadabras were buried with their spoons. They can't get in the area where all the Kadabras are buried because there's no air. And they can't go to Dewford to steal spoons because there's no guarantee they could get spoons that would work or even come back.
Those are some pretty Twisted ideas, there. I recommend keeping them well away from any Kadabra you see.
MrHobbit said:
I can't imagine it'd be easy though to teach Abra those moves without capturing them though.
Especially since many of them can barely seem to function at all at the moment. You know, because they've lived on a majority of poison for several decades.
MrHobbit said:
Kadabras can learn Future Sight by leveling. They need to be at level 30. Though that is an attack, so who knows how you interpret it. Weirdly enough the Japanese name seems to match it. Mega Alakazam are directly mentioned to be able to read the future.
This move seems limited to only peeking ahead...probably about 25 seconds or so, depending on how long one things a 'round' lasts. I would suggest that this ability grows in strength alongside the ability of its user, but is still limited to the rough duration of a pokemon battle. But non-move future sight...well, it doesn't seem like Echo or her colony had any flashes of insight during their fall, but that doesn't preclude her from such. That sort of thing doesn't seem very common, though...
Krazyfan1 said:
She does have those berry packets in her bag... 
DevilsAdvocate said:
Wait, if Fairy type just does not exist (rather than being unknown/nascent) then why/how do Mawile eat Sableye? When I first read it I thought it made perfect sense that the Steel/Fairy would snack on the pokemon weak to fairies but absent that I am unsure why that relationship exists.
The Froggy Ninja said:
Well that's weird then. Sure they're immune to Fighting type, but there's no reason the Geodudes and Aron shouldn't be hunting them too.
I never said my MS Paint chart was perfect. :<
The Froggy Ninja said:
My point was less about capacity to be taught and more capacity to teach. Even before every Ralts came out of the egg knowing the touch of civilization, I'd imagine the civilized Kirlias would have been willing to expend effort to teach them. It sounds like the Kadabras, through some combination of their instinctive natures, and their own lower than Abra but still higher than average needs for sleep and mental stimulation simply aren't suited to childcare beyond the barebones basics.
It really doesn't help that teaching an Abra is really hard in and of itself. They aren't generationally attuned to learning this like the village is; the colony is starting from square one each and every time. This isn't a case of teacher and student, this is an extremely long, mono-focused apprenticeship.
JmonsterNEO said:
Hoo boy, the Reveal is gonna be even more explosive than I thought it would be.
Nyarky said:
The thing better be Astra telling what she is, otherwise that's horrible, horrible teasing.
All of you are going to absolutely hate me. I'm not saying that something won't happen, but I can guarentee that you will hate me.
I hope you enjoy doing so. I know I will.
