Marcello

Pretty much all my grinding has been in the Grand Hall, so Shinies certainly aren't there. Well, I suppose both Dodrio's can be attributed to pre-Grand Hall Grinding, but otherwise, I've been super lucky, haha. Although I did reset for my starter, obviously, and I breeded the Sneasel until I got a Shiny one. Plus I totally spent all my money on Floral Charms to catch the flabebe. So yeah, mostly luck. But if you want a super legit tally of what I have, probably best to take away three.

Alrighty, after a brief hiatus Exams are over so I don't get the guilty joy of this being procrastination anymore It's time to continue! (Also woo, 100th post) So, I'm pretty sure our next location of interest is Astrae. But if this thread has demonstrated anything about me thus far, it's that I'm not terrible at pokemon except when I am and that my memory about the order of game content is abysmal. Also I've been replaying Zeta recently and it messes with my head that the two games are identical in controls EXCEPT with a different quicksave button, given that I'm the sort who compulsively saves every minute or so when a game has a quicksave feature. So, we follow Radomus who follows Cain. Also it's sunny af, I'm used to Chrylosia and route 1 being too dark because I tend to play at night, now it's hurting my eyes because it's so bright. I really love the small details Reborn sometimes throws in. Like when walking past the gear in the Gates, your sprite as always facing forward because yo're sidestepping. I like Radomus' response to Cain, as well 'I'm going to pretend I didn't understand that remark.' I'm also intrigued about him saying that getting past the gear would be harder for a man of his stature. I mean, his battle sprite when you face him seems rather skinny. In fact... I would argue that THIS: is arguably skinnier than THESE: & But I dunno. It could just be me nitpicking, and it's hard to get an idea of build from these sprites. I still have serious concerns about Radomus' attitude. He forced himself through the gear and knocked Cain down the hole, which he had no way of knowing was a survivable fall. And he didn' seem all THAT bothered by it before looking down the hole. Firstly, I doubt a man who appears to be a borderline genius would have forced himself through in such a manner that he might knock Cain down a gaping hole. Secondly, I understand that aloof is the word to use with him, but even HE should've been significantly more stressed than he was at potentially killing someone, both before and after he found the drop wasn't a dangerous one. Perhaps I'm overthinking things, perhaps he did it on purpose, perhaps he knew what was down there... I don't know, but if I don't ramble on about my speculation here, I probably won't put it anywhere. And then if some of the crazy stupid shit I say turns out to be right, I have no proof for bragging rights purposes. #Victoria4Champ As I random aside to fill the space while I'm heading through, I headed back this way on my main file a while back because I needed to see what Astrae looked like for reference on a thing. I found, and I am not exaggerating, THREE Shiny Unknowns. I mean, I know they aren't the best pokemon and I'd almost certainly never use them, but it'd make for one hell of an update to this if I did that. Anyway though, upon arriving Astrae, I recall how very pretty it is. Plus I'm a sucker for the music. Plus I believe there's a Shiny Stone down here for Airy later, if I recall correctly? That aside, we met Adrienn. Xe is... Interesting. I consider xem rather... Overzealous in their protection of Gardevior, and the resulting being manipulated by El. But, from what litle we've seen, it seems the opposite end of the scale to the hyper-pragmatic zealot sort we find ourselves allying with such as Sapphira. You can tell xe's seriously condemning us, despite being generally polite, when we arrive. But there wasn't even the slightest hint of violence. Whereas if you put Sapphira or certain other characters we ally with in his shoes, we'd near certainly be dead by now. For anybody who was interested, I was correct about the Shiny Stone, btw. I always wonder who the 'Girl climbing up the cave wall' Adrienn mentioned is. Now, I BELIEVE the prevailing theory is Lin, but she must've been there before him. And it was 10 years ago xe fell down, right? Wasn't the whole Lin/Orphanage business more recent than that? I mean, Anna's what, 13/14? And Lin was younger than her. And I doubt the rather malicious child that Laura described was 2. Although I could be underestimating Anna's age, or perhaps I'm missing something on timing here. Either way, I'm reluctant to believe that whoever Adrienn saw was Lin. Also I'm intrigued about Cain asking Adrienn's gender. I'm playing as Decibel (I have established male and female characters that I play in games, I took this run as an oppurtunity to establish a genderfluid one), and everyone has seemed to have a gender 6th sense for me. Although, thinking about it, Victoria and Adrienn ARE the only people I believe have outright used any pronouns regarding the player character thus far, Cain's always opted to use my name. Still, it seems strange he appears to have some sort of gender-radar for the MC but nobody else. But I suppose that a scene at the beginning where a non-binary MC explains all that to Cain and Victoria would be really very dull. Now for one of my favourite parts of Astrae, the logic puzzles! Now, I don't remmeber these, so it should be fun. For those of you that don't know, I'm a total maths nerd. Hell, I even did a few extra exams, and one of them was an entire exam ON formal logic. Seriously, I love this stuff. So, I'm gonna type up my reasoning on the logic puzzle here, because I lack paper, but I'll spoiler it because I hardly want to delete all my work when I'm done, but I also appreciate that people generally would rather skip over it. Now, just for fun, I do the Amethyst puzzle even though I totally don't have to and I already struggled far too much with the Ruby one (Although only because I misunderstood the setup at first.) On principal, I don't offer to give Adrienn the Ruby Ring. Like, even if I was inclined to believe El in all this, Sapphira told me to look after the keys and she's way scarier than Adrienn. I also appreicate Cain's humour even in serious moments like this, and also Radomus' almost funnier responses. Oooh, there's a nice touch. Cain dropped an 'Oh, so like Azrael. No wonder you're both so cute.' After Adrienn briefly explained the non-binary stuff. I approve of that, I was worried he might act all confused like on my original file, I'm glad to see it was considered. And I swear it was Adrienn suggesting pronouns in my original file, but here it was Cain, likely knowing them from my character. As I said before with the gear, I do love the small details about Reborn. Although if you talk to Adrienn before opening the door, xe does go on a little mini-rant about xyr understanding it might take me a while to understand or get used to it, and that xe'll explain it better later, despite Cain saying moments ago that my character is non-binary. That's probably a slight oversight, so I'll drop it in bug reporting after I'm done with this. Now, next logic puzzle. Spoilering this too. Now, I have typed an huge amount this post, and we haven't even had a battle yet. I am now going to rectify that, although it may be the only battle. Now, I side with Radomus for a number of reasons, the first is naturally foreknowledge of the plot. Now, I would LIKE to think that I would side with Radomus on principle even if I was uninformed, given that by now if you've been paying attention it's been all but confirmed that El is Meteor-alligned, and his first few lines when you arrive here at the sanctum do rub me the wrong way. But I remember agonizing over the decision for a while on my original file, so obviously I wouldn't have it as clear cut as I'd like. Either why, this means it's battle time, and I of course am required to win. Although before that, the exchanges between Radomus and El certainly imply a history between them. And yet when we first met Radomus, he assured us that the first he'd seen of El was him trying to recover Luna. I'm definitely not flly trusting of Radomus, but I'd certainly rather side with him than El. Team Vs. El: The Manbat Lv54 Brainfreeze Lv51 Mozilla Lv55 Peach Lv55 Sonicette Lv55 Lucky #6 Lv55 So, for once I'm slightly underlevelled. But I'm going to the grand hall after this to train Airy anyway, so it's not an issue. My initial plan was to brute force this, but Arceus was 2 stronk 5 me. Thus, I put a sash on Brainfreeze, Icy Winded to cut his Speed, had Peach, who now outspeeds an Arceus 20 LEVELS HIGHER THAN HER when he's at a -1 to Quiver, and then hoped for the best. It didn't do all that much. Next up was Mozilla who Flamethrowered, stealing Leftovers [This is not the first time I've found Magician way more useful than it should be], then Wisping, so El wastes a turn on Full Heal. That turn is spent on an SD from Sonicette, who then gets of a powerful Earthquake, and #6 finished the job with two poison jabs. I'm seriously impressed that half my team was capable of outspeeding a Lv75 with base 120 Speed after just one Icy Wind. I cannot get over the hilarity of Radomus' costume change to policeman. Now, I'm just quoting the voice that speaks when you leave, so I can look back at it later, because it's got to be important: 'Hee hee This is fun... Hey... Everybody... Come back and play again sometime, okay? Let's keep playing together for a long, long time.. Isn't that right~? Hehehe...' It's hard to tell if that's malicious or childish. Due to time shenanigans under the Gates, I'm inclined to believe that's a mischevious Celebi, but... Well, I see no reason for it to not be Arceus itself. After having time shenanigans explained, I headed back to the Grand Hall in preparation for training, and I think I'll leave it there. Team is identical to last time so I won't pose it, and next time I will probably swap a team member out for Airy. No idea who yet. I'll decide on the fly. And then we can finally get to Radomus' gym battle, and TV, and some other misc stuff I've been meaning to do!

I wonder who's first meeting with Lin you were reading about It seems to make a lot of sense to me. I mean, the most significant factor about Lin is the Anna not seeing her thing, which I never picked up on on my first file, and it does suggest something along these lines. I have to wonder, I know original Lin was younger than Anna, but where was it confirmed Adult Lin is younger than Julia? I probably just missed this, but I don't remember seeing it anywhere. I don't remember seeing much of anything about adult Lin.

Alright, so I was typing this up and then closed out of the window like an idiot. To paraphrase what happened thus far, I had hope for an easy Noel when he didn't open with Cincinno, that hope was crushed when I found out he still had that devil pokemon. My first victory I tried to win normally, and got slaughtered. Second time I tried burning field shenanigans, I got slaughtered. This time I'm trying Misty Field, and if it doesn't work,I'm probably gonna have to suck up my pride and change my team around. Team Vs. Noel: Brainfreeze Lv51 Mozilla Lv50 The Manbat Lv50 Soicette Lv53 Peach Lv53 Lucky #6 Lv51 The field in full bloom. Mist settles on the field. Alright, so I opened with Mist from Brainfreeze, and this is the first battle where Wiggly hasn't opened with T-wave. Annnnd Wiggly setup rocks and Mist went down before Wiggly even went down, let alone later. Balls. I decide I'm tired of losing, and having established with Manbat in an earlier battle that Wigglytuff was setup bait, I sent in Peach. And Quiver Danced. SIX TIMES. I REFUSE TO LOSE THIS BATTLE. Wigglytuff Down. Swellow Down. Porygon-Z down. Cincinno Down. This is the point I recall Girafarig has Sap Sipper. I am so glad the AI is slightly borked, because he could've totally stopped that semi-sweep in it's tracks if he hadn't've waited for 4 KOs to send it out. Mozilla Flamethrowers Girafarig twice. Lucky #6 Poison Jab's Clefable twice. THE BATTLE IS FINALLY WON. While you didn't get to experience my anguish over the first two losses, trust me, I was getting seriously frustrated. Why didn't I think to use Peach before. Thus far, that's essentially been the answer to any problem I've had. Just use Peach. But yeah, Standard Badge get! Naturally, my first order of business isn't silly things like progressing plot, it's checking the TV. Oooh, Arclight is the interview. I know next to nothing about him, I'll take it. There was nothing really enlightening in the interview, but still, it was nice to see he seems to be a pretty cool guy. Radomus' profile was just a standard profile, but still. I hadn't seen either of these before, so it's nice to pay attention to the TV. So, heading back to deal with terrorists some more. Sapphira demonstrates the already obvious fact that she's tough as nails, I note the puzzle to get the Yureyu key as changed (I need the plug thing from Iola valley now, it seems), so I head to the Aventurine Woods. WHAT THE HEL WAS THAT I SAW A BIG SPRITE OF SOMETHING JUST SPEED OUT OF THE GRASS BRB RESETTING TO GET A BETTER LOOK. Well, that was Heracross. Huh. Well, before I can really follow after it, I'm ambushed by some kind of disgusting, slimy creature. Team Vs. Fern (5): Brainfreeze Lv51 Mozilla Lv51 Peach Lv54 Lucky #6 Lv51 Soincette Lv53 The Manbat Lv50 The field in full bloom. How does he have a badge more than me with his pokemon not even Level 50? I mean, There's no way he battled Noel, and it seems incredibly unlikely he battled Shade. Even assuming he DID beat Shade, an extra badge over us would mean Radomus and Luna, which also wouldn't happen. I get that he's just bragging, and with all the stuff going on and Leaders away from gyms, maybe there are behind the scenes backup leaders we're to assume he beat or whatever, but still. I get it's mostly just Fern having a reason to be Fern, but still. Anyway, my gripes aside, his team seems to have evolved from being Monograss to just being 'Anything, as long as you're weak to Ice'. Which begs the question of how he managed to take Serra, too. Long story short, Brainfreeze had fun, not much interesting really happened. Although what he says piqued my interest. The fact that he's concerned with not being able to get through to Agate so he's gonna try and find Noel... Well, that cuts out the possibility of some backup Normal Leader. And he would be going to Vanahaen or however you spell it if he hadn't already beaten Radomus and likely Luna. So I guess it was them he beat. They probably just gave him badges so he'd leave or something, idk. I wouldn't want Fern in MY house either. So, after using nearly all my pokeballs (I was 30 levels higher than it, I couldn't afford any damage done ), we have acquired a new Team member, who I'll definitely train up (although probably only after Astrae because I'm not walking back to The Grand Hall the long way). Even though it totally just looks like a normal black flower version (I THINK the body's I different colour? I dunno, it'll probably be more obvious when she evolves). I wanted to name here 'What's Outrage?' but it's two characters too long. Thus, welcome aboard our newest member, Airy! I totally didn't buy like 30 Floral Charms because I really wanted a Florges. Nope, not me. I would never do that. I have complete and utter integrity with regards to this run. I ran into Titania, an event I never recall seeing in my original file but have heard about. ...'Fern was here, Azrael is a loser.' ...Screw that guy. Anyway, liking the Vanhanen Castle music. I was, of course, politely greeted by Luna. Speak to Radomus with his awesome Pyramid Hat When he next shows up I want even more ridiculous hats and finally, a challenge from my favourite Rival! Team Vs. Cain (5): The Manbat Lv52 Mozilla Lv55 Sonicette Lv54 Lucky #6 Lv53 Peach Lv55 Brainfreeze Lv51 Opening variation set. As usual, I opened by setting up The Manbat. Cain decided to Minimize >;[ Conveniently, thanks to the Chessboard, one Calm Mind from my Simple Manbat is a whopping +4, so I could proceed to spam Psychic with Abandon. I took out Muk, Galvantula AND Samurott that way before he brought out priority in the form of Absol (Also, how in the hell did a Swoobat manage to outspeed a Galvantula?) Sonicette set up a Swords dance and then Quaked Absol and Nidoking, and Mozilla finished us off by Psychic-ing Gengar. That was relatively painless. Radomus is... Weird. I like him, but I can't even remotely get a read on him. Maybe it's just me, but I have no idea to tell if he's being overly serious, or joking, or anywhere in between. His reading of El's letter is brilliant, and funny at points, but I still couldn't tell you if Radomus was going for humour. Having played this segment before, I can appreciate why Radomus wants us to not act. And essentially, his entire going along with things and heading after El is all just a big act to reassure Luna so she doesn't put herself in harm's way. He sure is devoted to protecting her from El...Which certainly begs questions for later. But anyway, that's all for this time. Next time I guess it's down to Astrae! And then we battle Radomus! And then more TV! Shiny Collection Mozilla Brainfreeze Jalapeno? UniqueTyping Jackie Pan Lucky #6 S. Quawking Sonicette Dr. HAWKing The Manbat Mystery 0/10NotGrbdr Peach Bigglesworth Kevin Airy

For anybody who doesn't know, a store in China broke street date so... Yeah. Serenes forums are exploding as streams of the game are going on right now. Won't post anything here because I know a lot of people don't appreciate spoilers, but figured I'd let you all know.

Well, in theory the Shinies are done now. They were recolouring them Gen by Gen, and E15 finally had them all done, main reason I decided to do the run.But hey, a blue Ampharos sounds awesome. And probably Majestic af if it gets the same colouring on Mega. Anyway though, onwards to Noel/Abra/Sigmund, but almost certainly not in that order because my memory is awful! Goodness me Anna's a strange one. I used to dislike her because she was the main flaw in my 'Victoria's the Champion' theory, being a FAR better candidate. Buut I've accepted that my theory is not the most reasonable thing in the world and based on arbitrary gamepay facts, and I've grown to love Anna's character. I certainly wanna find out more about her and Noel. Still, I'm not sure what's weirder, her giving Nostra the medicine, or it actually working... Also, I guess I was right on Noel beign first. Interestingly, I've never watched the Noel leader profile. Hell, I sorta stopped watching TV around this point in the game on my main file because I went on holiday a bit after beating Serra, and so forgot about all the TV stuff by the time I came back. So you'll probably get my thoughts on interesting stuff I see on the TV from here on out after each Leader. But anyway, with the Noel profile, the end of it is a VERY interesting one: 'For those curious about how such a young boy became gym leader, he was promoted at the recommendation of an existing leader. Which one? You'll never guess! Should we tell you? Maybe we'll leave just a hint...: ...' And that's the end of the interview. My first thought was naturally Radomus, because of all the stuff that points at him being Anna & Noel's dad. BUT, not only am I skeptical about that theory because it seems a bit too obvious, it occured to me that maybe they actually DID give a hint. Meaning it's Shade, because that's the majority of his dialogue. Which is curious indeed, Anna seems to like him, at the very least. But we know so little about him, and while I originally assumed he was just some ghost and there wasn't really any more explanation needed, I've been getting increasingly more inclined to believe that Shade is CENTRAL to Reborn's plot, in some way. Perhaps he's their father? I initially thought that'd be weird because htye're both miles better trainers than him but... Well, Laura is theoretically better than her big sis. Heather than her dad. Luna than either of her (fake) parents [Although she's no doubt significantly worse than El], I have a feeling we'll eventually battle Hardy after Titania, although that's baseless speculation. The point is, age doesn't necesarrily make someone better, it seems, even within the same family. Not to mention, if Shade is their dad and he's actually dead, maybe he lost all his pokemon and stuff when he died. But anyway, paragraph of Marcello's musings and speculations aside (The tl;dr is that I think Shade is very important.) I have a gym battle to get to. Now, I think this was tied with Charlotte for the absolute hardest Gym Battle on my original file, because I fought Charlotte with her original team. Now, I managed to beat her with the wonders of Rain Dance, but Noel? He broke me. I wasn't creative enough to tweak my team to better handle him. To cut a long story short, my main file has a box with 6 level 50ish Fire Types I trained up specifically for Noel,, because he made me angry so I just set everything on fire. Still, hopefully better luck with it this time, especially because I hear that Staraptor is gone! Team Vs. No- Wait, I called it too soon. Looks like the good Doctor will be first! I guess I'm protecting the house from a buncha terrorists, as per usual. Oh hey, I love the Paranoia music, digging the slowed down version that plays here in the house. Dunno if it always did that. Anyway though, I have a batle with cool music to do! One which I never did in my main file, I add: Team Vs. Dr. Butt Connal: Sonicette Lv48 Brainfreeze Lv49 Mozilla Lv49 Lucky #6 Lv48 Peach Lv48 The Manbat Lv48 Sonicette gets off a +2 Magnitude thanks to SD, and Jolteon goes down. But he couldn't ouspeed Electivire, so he went down. #6 went in and set up Toxic Spikes, as he should've from the onset, although only one layer because Ice Punch is stronk. Anyway, though, Electivire was dealt with by Mozilla, as was Luxray. And Lanturn is exactly what I need. Or as I call it, 'Setup Bait for Peach'. Three Quiver Dances Later... Petal Dance! - Lanturn Down Petal Dance! - Eelektross Down Petal Dance! - Rotom Down And that method of victory is exactly why Liligant is my joint second favourite Grass Type [Along with Whimsicott], only topped by Abomnasnow, because I love Ice types. Pretty much everything from 4th place down to 10th is Grass/Poison, given that I love poison too. Now, I BELIEVE the choice I'm meant to make here to get partnered with Laura is going aftr Sirius...? I mean, I'm not sure which is acually more reasonable. On the one hand, Laura is powerful and she's upstairs, along with Anna and Noel, who are also powerful, potentially incredibly so with Anna. But then down here, we have Shelly, who's likely about our level, and Charlotte, who is a fair bit above us. Basically, everyone is powerful and SHOULD be able to take care of themselves. But Laura managed to get kidnapped on my original file, so upstairs I go! I know I made the right choice just by Saphira's 'Peekaboo, bitch.' xD Buuut it seems I actually made the wrong choice, because this seems to be a pairing with Saphira. And no Hyper Beam Shenaigans I've heard so much about. Which I guess means I'll quickly beat Sigmund again and make the other choice! That battle was slightly harder than before, mainly due to Sigmund getting hax-y in every possible way. A Fire Punch Burn, Thunder Punch Paralysis, and Ice Punch Freeze should NOT all happen in the same battle. That aside, Peach dealt with it more or less the same way as before. And this time I'll let the E4 member defend stuff upstairs as I probably should, and go to the Kitchen. Oh Lord this scene is even better than Peekaboo bitch. Saphira is vicious. As she has every right to be, given what the Doctor is like. And she Hyper Beamed him through a wall after the barrage of taunting. She is one scary woman. But anyway, I think I made the right choices on this one, now. Sirius demonstrates he's even more scary, and I get to team up with Laura, woo! So it's off to Tanzan, methinks. Anna certainly piqued my interest with this line. Particularly if things in Tanzan go similar to my original file: '..Oh! She says that you shouldn't catch Laura when she falls! ...Whatever that means. Nostra's a little weird sometimes.' Which is... Well Anna can certainly see things more than the average person, but that's awfully specific. Very curious indeed. Y'know, just before carrying on, this set of choices, here and at Yureyu, appear to bug me. Because it seemed almost arbitrary which of the four options got you the extra background info that this one does. But thinking about it, it IS the most reasonable set of choices to make. Sigmund is nasty, but he was just keeping Heather for potential questioning, as opposed to harming her. But Anna was on the floor above with Sirius, who is a murderer, and God know what he wanted to do. So it makes sense to rush to him. Equally, in the house, a member of the E4 is upstairs already defending it, so it's more reasonable you stay downstairs. Essentially, pairing up with Laura is the result of making the most reasonable choices, so I now approve of this choice. Nice touch. I remember when I came through here with Saphira she just ripped the door open. Laura accidentally trips and falls on the switch. I'm glad I get to see this pairing, I'm curious about her character and you don't see that much of it. Plus she puts the Meteors to sleep instead of slaughtering them like her big sis. I'm still not entirely sure where I stand on the whole 'Killing Meteors' issue, about whether we should or shouldn't. I instinctively want to say we should be pragmatic and kill them as possible, but the game does like to throw plenty of reasons at you why we shouldn't. Sleep is good enough for now. I would like to point out that aroundabouts meeting up with Saphira, Sonicette learnt Earthquake, so I can finally get rid of Magnitude, and I had a talk with Simon. Otherwise, it's been a usual Meteor base raid, although I do wish this segment had a double battle alongside Laura, so I can see what E4 levels are like. Because if they're all 100 as the level curve would suggest, the Champ is gonna need one hell of a team and field to set them ahead. Which is a terrifying thought. Connal going mad for a moment and talking to Lizzy (I believe his dead wife's name is Elizabeth?) is something I also don't mind. And it's really something to see Sirius having no regard for your presence because of how scared he is of Lin. But hey, I guess we aren't fighting Abra just yet, because we're under Tanzan now... But Laura gives us interesting Lin backstory, which is exclusive to this path, as well as giving us insight into the whole number 8 thing she has going on. So Lin WAS even younger than Anna. And really really mean. And... Dead or escaped from the orphanage. So the plot thickens. I really hope we see her again soon. There are so many characters I wanna see more of because I have so many unanswered questions. But I think it's about time for another battle... Team Vs. The Giant Freaking Steelix: The Manbat Lv49 Lucky #6 Lv51 Mozilla Lv51 Sonicette Lv53 Brainfreeze Lv50 Peach Lv50 The field is littered with rocks... Woah boy. I remembered this thing being 65, not 75. So Manbat didn't survive at all. Luckily it's slow, so Mozilla got off a burn and from there it was actually pretty straightforward. Still, being faced with a Lv75 Steelix is terrifying, no matter how straightforward the actual battle is. And now Saphira is riding the thing, But after that little section, I head straight into the next battle! Team Vs. ZEL(4): The Manbat Lv49 Lucky #6 Lv51 Peach Lv52 Sonicette Lv53 Mozilla lv51 Brainfreeze Lv50 Machines whir in the background. So, I know this isn't REALLY a ZEL battle, but I'm counting it anyway. I was hoping to get off a calm mind and outspeed it but... Well, I didn't outspeed it, and it dark pulsed Manbat. And then Hyper Beam'd Mozilla. Sonicette got off an Earthquake while it recharged, got Hyper Beamed, and then #6 Got it with an Earth Power whie it recharged again, bringing it down to a tiny bit of health. It Pulsed #6, Hyper'd Peach, which left me with just Brainfreeze, who finished him off with an Ice Beam. That was less difficult as it was almost a puzzle battle. Send out the right things to bait out a Hyper, and then the right things to attack it while it recharges. Holy... This slowed down version of Solaris' battle theme is incredible. I can't remember if it was like this before, but it makes a brilliant theme for Lin. Although after sitting there listening to it for a while, it sounds less fitting after the opening. Of course she's here so briefly, I doubt you're meant to hear past the opening, so it works. I like how he just remarks that lying becomes Sirius when he introduces as as a new recruit. And also the first hint you get that El is a bad guy, because he was a pretty stand up guy in the section we'd seen him in thus far. I am intrigued though about why Lin DIDN'T kill us. She knew we were against them, she even knew the giant Steelix was to do with us. But she just left to go deal with that, instead. It's intriguing, I mean, I know that the plot dictates Lin can't really kill us but... I wonder the in universe reason. I have to wonder what level of Hydreigon using what move can annihilate a level 75 Steelix in one shot, though.That woman is terrifying too, I really DO want to see more of her. Maybe not battle her though. It talking to Sigmund as you're leaving he just mutters how similar she looks... He does seem to be losing it a tad, really. Maybe he DID kill the girl who pranked him in the orphanage, and this is a guilty conscience speaking up. Although heading back to the house, it's interesting, Anna couldn't see Lin... There's so many questions about Anna. Anyway though, I'll leave this one here. Next time we battle Noel, and then, umm... Do whatever comes after that. Citae Arc d'Astrae, I think. But we've established my bad memory about plot order is a thing, so I guess we'll find out next time! Shiny Collection Mozilla Brainfreeze Jalapeno? UniqueTyping Jackie Pan Lucky #6 S. Quawking Sonicette Dr. HAWKing The Manbat Mystery 0/10NotGrbdr Peach Bigglesworth Kevin

Haha, thanks! Although me doing good is in part due to the fact that I've gotten more than a little lucky with what Shinies I've come across, it helps that I've been through Reborn once before. I'm having a load of fun doing it, glad it looks like I'm being pretty competent. Although a lot of my really close victories have been down to lucky crits or misses. And what colour is Reborn's Mareep Shiny? What about it's Ampharos? Ouch, that's bad luck. Or probably normal luck, and I just had it really good. Hopefully they're good shinies! If not, good luck against Shade. Although you should be fine given you beat Corey, and I spent forever struggling on him with this run.

Alright, so between updates, I trained up team members, including evolutions for both the Newbies, swapped out Jackie Pan for Peach on my main team, did all the side stuff I can do requiring Strength (By which I mean Pyrous. I'm saving the Wasteland Strength stuff until i have Flash), and now I'm ready to rescue some kids! Oh yeah, and Brainfreeze evolved, which I had totally forgotten was even a thing. Oh, right. Welcome Kevin to the team yada yada yada. Now if only I had a NON fire starter so I could do field shenanigans with pledge moves. Or something with a terrain move or mist. I just want field shenanigans, really. Huh. A quick google search reveals Brainfreeze can learn mist, and I must've forgotten it at some point. Well, I at least know the first order of business once I get to the move relearner. I do not remember Cain's 'Be gentle Senpai' line in Yureyu. Although I thoroughly approve, though. Anyway, me and him battled terrorists, as tends to be the status quo when I'm not in a gym. Anyway, after the Simon and Tara stuff, (They sound why eviler after battle than I remember, too. Maybe they're just retroactively endearing after what happens later) I made the choice opposite to what I did in my original file. So it looks like I'm battling... Team Vs. Sirius: The Manbat Lv47 Peach Lv47 Mozilla Lv50 Brainfreeze Lv47 Sonicette Lv47 Lucky #6 Lv47 Bzzt! So, I've never done this battle before, only fought Sigmund. While not fighting him doesn't really sit right with me, I hear you can get some extra info out of Laura from this path. Also appreciate the hinting at Lin from Sigmund this early. As for the battle itself, now that The Manbat has Simple, it's Calm Mind is a brutal tool for setting up. Too bad he still fell to a single shadow ball from Chandelure. #6 and Cain's Nidoking made a team to fight, and they managed 2 pokemon before Nido fainted, and a further two until #6 went down. Brainfreeze then finished everything up while Cain promptly lost all his pokemon. This battle wasn't too hard, but it was somewhat tense, Brainfreeze went quite a few turns with next to no health, but Sirius was far morei nterested in Cain's pokemon Now, Ithen acquired Flash, took a brief detour back to The Wastleand, in which I did the Gastly Misdreavus event. I have to say, she mentions the fact that I actually beat Solaris, which is a nice touch. Anyway though, I think this counts, so: Team Vs. Spectral Kiki: The Manbat Lv47 Mozilla Lv50 Lucky #6 Lv48 Sonicette Lv47 Peach Lv47 Brainfreeze Lv47 The waste is watching... So, The Manbat died very quickly but, luckily, I got off a burn with Mozilla. And then I lost. Yup. ...Well, that was embarassing. Anyway, second time round i opened with the burn and then Mozilla alone managed to win, so I guess i had really bad luck with the first try. After that was over with, I did the other Strength stuff in the Wasteland, and, umm... Is Rock Smash meant to be there? As in, the Rock Smash that I already have? I mean, if it is, it's a nice touch to add to the stuff I said last time about things appearing in the wasteland being copies but, it COULD also be a glitch. It's in the place where I THINK you find Mudkip/Squirtle, but I've never quite figured that event out so I can't say for sure. Anyway, I headed back to the Railnet soon afterwards. Made my way through. When I got to the house... I always forget that Laura is only just 18. I mean, in my mind she's agged more like Charlotte's mother than Sister, but I dunno. She just seems rather maternal, despite being the middle child. With Anna and Nostra peacefully sleeping, I'm off to Spinel town to find Medicine! I like how in Chrylosia, you start off with little things like the odd bit of train track disappearing, and then trees offscreen, and then eventually trees right in front of you. It was about the time I walked into the Volcain estate that I realised 4/6 of my main team was weak to Ice. Instead of going to switch to more reasonable members, like a normal person, I decided the pokemon center was far too far away for that, so I decided to just go for it I'm also very fond of El's introduction. He seems nice enough, there's a touch of humour... I like El. He's a very cool and complex villain. The whole Elite Four thing is cool too. I look forward to seeing where his character ends up going. Woah, Serra's gym has a puzzle now, huh? And no Bennet battle? Well, alrighty then. Oh, wait, nevermind. Bennet fight Team Vs. Bennet: Mozilla Lv49 Brainfreeze Lv48 Sonicette Lv48 Lucky #6 Lv48 Peach Lv48 The Manbat Lv48 Mirror, mirror, on the field, Who shalt this fracture power wield? Welp. Everything but Larvesta went down to a single Flamethrower, so Mozilla swept. I do question whether his particular choice of bug types would ever allow Bennet to become a competent E4 member, sans Larvesta, he has a serious fire weakness. Hell, including Larvesta, he has a SERIOUS rock weakness. I can't recall whether he later changes up his team a bit, but with it's current makeup... Well, he isn't that great. On to battling his mother! Team Vs. Serra: Brainfreeze Lv48 Mozilla lv48 Lucky #6 Lv48 Sonicette Lv48 The Manbat Lv48 Peach Lv48 Mirror, mirror, on the field, Who shalt this fracture power wield? Leading with Mozilla, Flamethrowers had Serra waste her pokemon and THEN she swapped to Aurorus before I could finish the job, but I at least took the Aurorus down. Then I recalled that Brainfreeze knows Mirror Shot... The mirrors strengthened the attack! The mirrors strengthened the attack! - Cryogonal Down The mirrors strengthened the attack! - Jynx Down The reflected light was blinding! - Her Vanilluxe outsped me and Brainfreeze went down. Luckily, Mozilla is still in play. Three Flamethrowers had Vanilluxe and Glaceon both fainted, but then Froslass took him out. And all I'm left with is pokemon with an Ice Weakness. Luckily, she chose to confuse #6 instead of Forst Breathing him, and he got off a crit Poison jab, and... Well, the badge is mine! That was pretty close though, all I had left at the end was Lucky #6, who is REALLY living up to his name. Anyway, that'll be all for now, next time we'll... I'm not sure, really. I can't quite remember what order we go to the Tanzan base, battle Noel, Tanzan underground, the raid on the house... Lots of things will happen, but I can't quite say when! Shiny Collection Mozilla Brainfreeze Jalapeno? UniqueTyping Jackie Pan Lucky #6 S. Quawking Sonicette Dr. HAWKing The Manbat Mystery 0/10NotGrbdr Peach Bigglesworth Kevin

Y'know, despite my original suggestion of Hypno or or Jigglypuff, I think I'm way more inclined to believe the whole Parasect/Breloom/Amoongus thing. The lack of sound WOULD make spores a very feasible idea... So I'm torn between Parasect or Hypno, personally. Plus I think both would have awesome looking PULSEs. I sorta wanna see a PULSE Parasect, now.

While all the signs POINT to poison, he's not really very happy about all the pollution and stuff, I'm sure he'd much rather things go back to NORMAL. Addmitedly, Normal for him is a Swamp, so that's still pretty poisony... Although I guess that puts Water type on the table too... Hard to say for this one, really.

Part of me feels like PULSE legends aren't gonna happen. I mean, they couldn't control an Abra. There's a reason none of them have been super powerful pokemon in their base form. I feel like there's no way they could possibly control a Legendary PULSE, no matter how scary Lin is. Anyway, by nature of Fern & Blake's personalities and Terra's craziness, I feel like if a PULSE Darkrai was responsible for Agate, someone would've bragged. It's more likely somethink like Jigglypuff or Hypno. As for the City, I do hope Meteor don't redestroy it or something after it's restored. It'd suck that all Adrienne's hard work would be going to waste. Even more importantly, it'd suck that all the dev's hard work in making it all pretty and fixed would go to waste by just destroying it again an episode or two later. So hopefully we really do get a beautiful restored City!

I started playing JUST after the E12 release, I think, and made an account a little before the E13 release. So I guess I'm firmly E12.

So, a funny thing happened. I commited to replacing Jalapeno? with Sonicette, so I was training up our favourite Hedgehog, and figured to take the time to wander around the City and do events I'd missed, seeing as it was sunny. Did the Budew event, the Onix & Heliolisk events (Neither of which I even knew existed before I stumbled on them), and, umm... Well, remember when I said my ideal grass type for the team would be a Petilil or a Cotonnee? Ahem...Thanks to another event I didn't know existed... Everyone, welcome Peach to the Team! She's only level 15, and we're just about to head to the Wasteland, plus I have no Sun Stone, so she's going to be in the box for now. But more or less as soon as Aya is out of the way and I have my sunstone Time to SR infront of some mining rocks, methinks She will be trained up and joining the team, although I haven't decided who to drop yet. PROBABLY Jackie Pan. But anyway, other than the new Team Member this update starts with us actually getting the Wasteland Key. So, without further ado: Team Vs. Cain (4): Sonicette Lv40 The Manbat Lv44 Mozilla Lv44 Lucky #6 Lv44 Brainfreeze Lv44 Jackie Pan Lv44 So, just to address the levels, I still keep to what I concluded earlier about the pacing of this segment being fine. But training up team members like 0/10 and Sonicette but not the Numel I should've caught at the Grand Hall inevitably leads to experience spilling over to other guys, so I end up slightly overlevelled. I'm carrying Candies though, so hopefully there should be no disobedience shenanigans. In regards to the actual battle against Cain, his Samurott taught me a valuable lesson. Namely, it's a good thing I'm adding Peach to the team after the Wasteland, because my team isn't really prepared to handle Water types, particularly with half of it having a weakness to it atm. Luckily though, Jackie Pan managed to tank and handle it. Other than that, the battle was more or less straightforward, although using Sonicette has reminded me how much I thoroughly despise Magnitude. Can't wait until she learns Earthquake. I have to say, one thing I've always found interesting about Byxbysion is that Biggles, or whatever it is that has caused it to be full of trash, doesn't just bring trash. He CREATES trash. Like... stuff here is stuff that's in other places. Particularly with like the graves and gym signs, you can see these are graves and gym signs that are also in other places in the world. Pulse-00, as I believe the machine says, sure is intriguing in capabilities. It became apparent quickly enough that even on a good roll, Magnitude isn't going to help me here (Wibble Wobble Wibble Wobble...), but luckily I can fall back on Dig. #6 is also packing Earth Power. I always like the unique messages Field Effect's have when the power of a move is altered, although there are so many I'd never normally see, because I'm not gonna actively use weakened moves. This Wibble Wobble when I Magnitude is priceless, and I had no idea it was a thing. Anyway, as I was wandering about the various Wasteland areas that I should probably wait until I have Flash for but I'm super impatient I came across a Sun Stone! Which means Peach is going to be joining the action the moment I beat Aya. While I was exploring, I also acquired ANOTHER new team member. It's the Shiny Trubbish I wanted at the beginning of the game! Sadly, now I have a Nidoking, I can't REALLY justify the switch, even if he IS one of my favourites... Eh, he'll probably worm his way into my team anyway. On anoher sad note, there aren't enough characters to name hime 7.8/10TooMuchGrbdr. I am torn between naming him 10/10 Grbdr or Bigglesworth. I think this warrants another poll! Also worth noting that I'm a bit silly because, after spending a while SRing for my Sun Stone in a mining rock, I also just found the one that's always in The Wasteland and forgot was there. So I have two now! Anyway, onwards to the best boss battle thus far! Team Vs. Mr. Bigglesworth: Sonicette Lv42 Mozilla Lv44 Brainfreeze Lv44 Jackie Pan Lv45 The Manbat Lv44 Lucky #6 Lv44 The waste is watching... Unfortunately, this battle was nowhere near as hard as it should have been, because Biggles missed three Gunk Shot's in a row. And I managed to get him down on turn 4 he was out, which he spent Stockpiling. So despite the rather scary level difference, he actually did no damage. Hell, the only damage I got all battle was from one of the Trubbish's Toxic Spikes thanks to the cool way The Wasteland handles hazards. It saddens me that we have to beat up Biggles instead of hugging him like he wants. Part of me also really wants to see PULSE Biggles (Although, with what we know about how the original Pulse Magneton went, and the fact that Biggles is one of the earliest, he COULD just be a PULSE Trubbish, with talking as a sideeffect. No real way to know. Hopefully we find out more about him in later releases.) Biggles is generally a really fascinating concept to me, even if he is largely a joke character. Beign on of my favourite pokemon helps too. After doing everything I believe is doable in The Wasteland without Strength, I finally headed to Aya's house/gym. I so far much prefer Ame's machine to Gym Guy, as a helpful tool, but my one reservation was at Aya's gym. I was happy to learn the conversation with Lana still happens, and I am thus totally sold on the Ame Phone. SUDDEN SEGUE TO BATTLE WITH FERN I FORGOT ABOUT AND THUS DIDN'T PREPARE FOR: Battle Vs. Fern (4): Sonicette Lv42 Mozilla Lv44 Brainfreeze Lv44 Lucky #6 Lv44 The Manbat Lv44 Jacke Pan Lv45 The waste is watching... Did Fern get a new team? Like, I know at this point he stops going mono-grass for obvious reasons, but I sure as hell don't remember the Scyther. I remember Krokorok, and the Fraxure he gets later but... Eh, probably just me. Anyway though, this battle was pretty close. Only Mozilla, Lucky #6, and Sonicette were left standing at the end. Roserade hits REALLY hard, and that Scyther I wasn't expecting did a number on my team as well. Still, I got through it. Now, let's just jump straight into the gym battle which I'm REALLY worried about. [Despite my hatred of Magnitude, my main plan for this battle was gonna be Manbat paired with a Magnitude-ing Sonicette. For obvious Wibbly Wobbly reasons, that plan isn't happening. But hey, my team is pretty well geared to counter Aya's, so I SHOULD be fine.] Team Vs. Aya: Sonicette Lv42 Mozilla Lv44 The Manbat Lv44 Brainfreeze Lv44 Jackie Pan Lv44 Lucky #6 Lv44 The waste is watching... Tentacruel is down in one Psyshock, which is good, because we've already established Water types do a number on my team. Sonicette learns Swords Dance, which would've been nice to open the battle with, but this'll be useful, especially when she gets Quake in like 10 levels. YEEESSS Mozilla not only outsped Dragalge, but it went down in one Psyshock as well. I'm glad, that thing is terrifyingly powerful. Mozilla Flame'd Venusaur as well before Drapion finally took him down. That's half of Aya's team I got with one pokemon. This battle is thankfully looking to be way less scary than I had iniitally anticipated. Brainfreeze made short work of the rest, while Sonicette just sorta survived and did chip damage the whole battle, while also levelling up to where everyone else was. Now, maybe that SHOULD have felt underwhelming, but the fact I was so worried about that battle made me more proud of the easy victory than underwhelmed. One line here I actually wonder about. Aya says Cain hasn't talked to any of them since he ran away, but earlier on in the game he talks about meeting up with his sister in The Wasteland. I mean..I GUESS he didn't run away proper until after that point but... I dunno, timing feels a bit off on it to me. But she then says that he disappeared and didn't take his pokemon with him, which would make sense to have been before we met him because, well, he had no pokemon. Yet after that he says he's gonna talk to Aya. It's all a bit confusing, really. I also wonder what Cain's old pokemon actually WERE? I mean, are they Aya's? Did she just pick up her bro's old team when she got shoved with his job? Or are his original 6 locked in the back room of the house? I'm seriously curious about that, even though it's such a minor detail that we'll probably never find out Anyway though, this is the end of this update! Now I'm going to study for my exams like a good student Train up/Evolve Peach and the soon to be named Trubbish, go do a buncha stuff that requires Strength, and then next time we head down to the Railnet! Shiny Collection Mozilla Brainfreeze Jalapeno? UniqueTyping Jackie Pan Lucky #6 S. Quawking Sonicette Dr. HAWKing The Manbat Mystery 0/10NotGrbdr Peach (Bigglesworth OR 10/10 Grbdr)

15? I thought there were 18, 1 for each type.