ZEL

According to Ame: So yeah, he's quite a bit older.^^

Tynamo has always struck me as super adorable for some reason. I like the entire line, but that lil' friend is too darn cute. Also, Pyukumuku.

Still need a Cranidos? And if yes, do you have a preferred nature/ability for it? I have a Skull Fossil I can revive, so if you want I can reset for any nature you want, and maybe try to get decent IVs, too. I don't really care what I get in return; it's my Flying mono file, and I already have every 'mon I can use and enough held items for all of them.^^

[23:44:34] +Kurotsune: Well Mike, thanks to you by tomorrow I'll have a duplicate of everyone's usern- [23:44:48] Thiѕ Net: YES. [23:44:53] This Net: no. [23:44:55] Thiѕ Net: yes. [23:44:58] Thiѕ Net: YES. [23:44:58] Thiѕ Net was muted by BreloomBot for 1 hour. (Automated Moderation: Spam) [23:45:01] This Net: LOL [23:45:03] Meteor Admin ZEL: lmao [23:45:04] This Net: GOTTEM [23:45:05] +RBRN Azery: BODIED LMFAO [23:45:11] +FraRPetO: bibs is op confirmed [23:45:11] This Net: SOMEONE QB THIS [23:45:12] GaZELle Ojama: LOL [23:45:14] This Net: PLEASE

Eyy, happy birthday, mde! We may not talk privately or anything, but you always seem like a very helpful and friendly fellow when I see you around the forums or the server. I've only ever known you to be a polite and level-headed person who does his job around here very well, and I'm sure we can all appreciate that~ And tbh I've got to admit I don't know if it's still your birthday in your own timezone or not, but if you're not currently having a nice one, then I hope you already did have a nice one!

Because stories about characters with no flaws and no struggles wouldn't be as engaging. I a character loses or gains nothing, never changes throughout the story, has nothing to learn and nothing to confront, personally I'd find that incredibly boring. I would much rather read about flawed characters, so that I may root for and feel for them, so that I may relate to them or despise them, or anything that rouses my emotions. Real people are flawed. Real people aren't embodiments of virtue and righeousness and moral goodness. We've all got issues and depending on whose eyes we're seen through, different facets of ourselves will seem good or bad. I want to see that in characters, too. Fiction is a way to explore ideas and concepts in a way that's not limited by reality. We can give characters the lives that we'll never have, whether that's a good or a bad thing. We can process parts of our own lives through characters. Sometimes we find ourselves in them because the things they struggle with or are passionate about or dream of are things that we, too, feel the same way about. Sometimes we find characters admirable because of certain traits or accomplishments - just as we may find a real person admirable for such things. I find stories about characters who are dealing with trauma and psychological issues to be very engaging and often uplifting. As someone who is dealing with such issues, I'd much rather see characters trying to pick up the broken pieces of themselves and putting things back together, than to read the story of someone who always achieved their goals, always succeeds at first try, never did wrong, never made mistakes. I find it especially wonderful when I can find characters I relate to strongly, and then read about the ways they work for and earn their happy ending. It gives me hope. That maybe, my own story is going to end well, too. Despite everything that happens.

Wow, this one's a tough question that I've never really found a 100% satisfying answer to in the past. I find it ridiculously easy to say who is closest to the person I used to be - it's Zero. I can see a lot of my younger self in his character. Being stubborn and confrontational and letting my feelings of the moment control my actions and treatment of others was a huge problem that took me a long time to get a grip on. But at the same time, I miss being as straightforward and open about my opinions. There was a time in my life where I wasn't the doormat I am now, hah. I've been very openly emotional and always had a hard time figuring out how to appropriately communicate my feeling to others, or understanding when it was best to keep them to myself. There's also the unfortunate fact that for how dear my few friends were to me, I was often unnecessarily mean towards them. Good lord, my people skills fucking sucked. But as for currently... I'm really not sure? Somewhere along the way I lost a lot of that, and now struggle with standing up for myself or being honest about my feelings. I often let people walk all over me in order to avoid conflict. I'd rather avoid fights at all costs, even if I'm being wronged, even if the other person deserves to be confronted. I think I can relate to characters like Shelly or Lumi that way. A lot of my thoughts and feelings towards other people stay hidden now; I've learned a huge deal about how to be more appreciative and affectionate, but at the cost of being too scared to hurt people to be able to call them out on problems, even privately. My approach to problems has turned into a big ol' game of "maybe if I ignore it, it'll go away". I guess maybe it's also a bit of Taka; I know what I want to and should be doing, but I never actually take the initiative and change anything about all the stuff that bothers me. I would probably have a much easier time creating the life I wish to have, if only I acted. I'm very good at reflecting on myself and my issues, but absolutely terrible at actually dealing with and correcting them.

No and yes. On one hand, it was literally designed to erupt as violently as possible, so it'd make sense that it'd, yknow, be unstable. It's not like it should have been hard to destroy, considering its very purpose is geared towards killing it. Except... its stats don't match up with that at all, instead giving it a lot of HP and formidable defenses. I honestly don't know what to make of this stat distribution on a Pokémon that was supposed to blow up. I guess the HP could be explained to represent that it's all uh... charged? For a lack of better terms? When I first played the game and encountered Avalugg, I did think it was purposely placed like that, and maybe the machine just malfunctioned due to conditions. But Shelly's dialogue made me question it, because there would be no reason to make her say any of what she did if Avalugg was actally meant to be like this. The Dex entry then also mentioned that the 'mon evolved into Avalugg through the machine - which is weird because we only know of one 'mon that did this previously: Magnezone. So this PULSE must be an older one (it's 02!), as we've seen later on that Abra can be PULSE'd up just fine without evolving. I feel more like it was left behind and a Bergmite happened to find it. Again, while it seemingly makes sense for Meteor to use this PULSE to block Ametrine, Shelly's dialogue questioning this would be pointless if there was no truth to it. Ohey, funny that you brought that up at the same time as I was typing the above. Seems like we're sorta having the same thought there. I'm not ruling out the possibility that Meteor did use the PULSE for its own convenience, but the Dex entry and Shelly's dialogue do make me doubt that it was really intended to exist this way originally.

The Dex entry describes it as a formerly wild pokemon, and it's remarked upon in the game that the PULSE was in a really weird location. Shelly points out in quite a bit of dialogue that she thinks it's strange to have the machine out in the open instead of blocking off choke points of the mountain. shamelessly stealing the screenshots from DerogatoryTrainer's nuzlocke bc I can't find my own rn But maybe I misinterpreted that? There's also the part where the PULSE is mentioned to be malfunctioning, so whatever its purpose was, it would appear it was no longer fulfilling it the way it was meant to be.

Yeah, I'm not gonna oppose that. Still not quite over the fact that we had to go through all this. "Because Luna asked me to" screw you

For all Adrienn knows, Radomus could've written that note himself. I mean, I guess xe could have demanded the two of them write something for xem to figure out whose writing it's more likely to be. El could've pulled off the "I'm blind, I can't even write that" card anyway.

IIRC Biggles only got put in as a side fight in the first place because Ice kept annoying Ame about wanting a Garbodor named Mr. Bigglesworth, so eventually she gave in to his demands. Unless Ame decided to run with it any further, Biggles should not have any story significance. I do remember Ice telling me that his personal idea for a backstory to Biggles was that it belonged to a trainer living in the Wasteland, who apparently had a hoarding compulsion. Eventually she got taken into the care of her relatives and Garbodor was left behind, accidentally stumbling over the abandoned PULSE (as we know, things just randomly tend to end up in the wasteland). The reason it's capable of talking was due to having learned from its trainer. ...But then again, that's more of a "creator's headcanon" because there was never any plan to incorporate this into the game, so canonically we know next to nothing about Biggles.

I'd doubt we'll ever get to battle PULSE forms of Garbodor (as in, with an actual, mutated sprite) or Camerupt. The 'mon we meet, Biggles, is the reason for the existence of the entry, and wasn't a planned PULSE - much like Avalugg it just happened to find a machine by accident. Meteor didn't create PULSE Garbodor, not even sure if they're really aware it's a thing that existed. "Function" in their cases refers to the effect PULSE has on them, and doesn't imply intentional creation. And I don't see us fighting Camerupt unless Team Meteor decides they need to use this PULSE type for anything again.

Mhh, but is it really a leap of logic for Cain to act like that, after everything that already happened in the game up to this point? Cain has always been a character who wants to help where he can. Think back to what happened at the castle, and then imagine you're there, and not a player knowing it's a game. You may guess something is off about the situation based on Radomus' reaction, but you would still wonder what's up, right? Cain is the type of person who wants to investigate. He wants to know what's going on. Radomus' reaction implies that he thinks or knows that nothing bad will really happen to Gardevoir, but as it is, Cain still sees a situation in which someone intends to harm her. And hell if he's gonna let some bad person get away. The risk level doesn't matter, what matters is that the situation exists. At this point he can't possibly anticipate what precisely it'll eventually lead to. Or did you?

Yeah, you have to imagine yourself in Adrienn's position there. Adrienn met El, El showed xem "Gardevoir", and basically had time to just manipulate xem all he wanted. Because yes, telling someone lies about a person they've never met is manipulation. El was actively shaping Adrienn's opinion about Radomus before Adrienn ever met the guy. And then Radomus appears, and all he has to say about the whole situation is that he has it under control. That's... not very convincing to someone who doesn't know that Radomus happens to be a very intelligent man with a "chessmaster" character theme. Remember, all Adrienn "knows" about him is what El and "Gardevoir" told xem. And Radomus makes no effort to disprove any of the claims effectively or defend himself. So... why would Adrienn want to believe that Radomus is the person to trust in this situation? Xe has plenty of reasons to believe El, and Radomus presents nothing to challenge this position. ...Xe never met the real Gossip Gardevoir, either. So xe also never witnessed her swooning over Radomus and being so obviously infatuated with him as we know her to be. It's easy for Dittovoir to claim it was all faked.

Well, it's worth noting that the situation we were dealing with was not just "ditto imitating a gardevoir", but "a ditto turned into a talking gardevoir and then told stories about its supposed abusive life with Radomus". That's a pretty impressive feat for a ditto. Yes, the situation was obviously fishy and we could once more guess something weird was going on (and Cain, too, wasn't sure what to think of the whole thing), but I can see how Adrienn may not have been prepared to see through this trick. Xe knew neither El nor Radomus previously, apparently. So xe had no reason to trust or distrust one more than the other. El met xem first, and had time to feed xem all the false info and introduce xem to "Gardevoir" talking about "her" terrible experiences with Radomus - whereas Radomus just sort of played along without making an actual attempt to disprove things. Radomus' actions throughout the scene just reaffirmed the bias Adrienn had towards him - that he is a careless trainer who doesn't care about the wellbeing of his pokemon. We can guess who is in the wrong, but Adrienn cannot, and Cain does show that he's unsure about things, but decides to trust your judgment. Heck, Adrienn also mentions during the course of the scene that it's gotten confusing for xem. To us, Radomus' behavior isn't as confusing because we've gotten to know him already and have an idea of what his personality is like. Adrienn hasn't.

You have to look at it from an in-story perspective. For all the characters know, Anna is simply showing symptoms of her schizophrenia, and as real as they may appear to her, to everyone else it'll just be something inside her head. Unless every single schizophrenic person in the Pokéverse is actually some kind of medium seeing true things hidden from others, why should the characters assume that Anna is different? Or, rather: I'm pretty sure they'll be coming to the realization now that plot is happening and all the pieces fall into place, but at first, why should they believe it? It's easy to look at it as the player, because whenever Anna says weird stuff, we are expecting it to have a meaning. Because it's a story and she's an important character. We're aware there will be connections to things that'll happen/things we'll find out. We know it's not a coincidence the character connected to the Key of the Beyond has visions. To the characters, she's a person with a disorder that is by no means unique to her, and since they don't get to have the "this is a game with a story" perspective, all they have to analyze Anna's statements is hindsight. And things like glowing people or strings or scars are vague enough. Talking dolls? Sounds just like the type of thing to expect from her. Basically, from an in-universe perspective (even in the Pokéverse) it's simply much more likely that Anna is just experiencing schizophrenic symptoms. And considering that she's 12 and Sigmund's "therapy" methods were dubious at best, dealing with such is probably not an easy feat. Also, y'know. For the plot. To put it into a bit of perspective (oh man I'm so thrilled I can use this example): How many players d'you think started out the game and upon meeting ZEL immediately went to the conclusion that they have a multiple personality disorder/DID? Probably most. At most you'd expect a backstory on how they developed it. Even in the Pokéverse, where you could reasonably expect stuff like "maybe they're possessed by ghosts", most people's reactions I've seen went the disorder route. Because it's the most likely explanation. It'd be no different with in-universe people dealing with Anna.

If moving out and living on your own isn't an option for either of you: Is it in any way possible to find a compromise for you and your brother? I understand the argument of an expensive neighbourhood as a reason to want to move, as it's important to make sure your living situation is affordable. So the move itself is probably unavoidable. However, without knowing the details, I can't see a clear reason why either of your wishes should have priority over the other. Both of you have your wishes because you personally would feel more comfortable with getting what you want/less comfortable if you didn't. Get the family together and discus: What arguments does your brother have for why he wants to leave the city? What are his exact reasons? And in addition, why does he prefer the other location specifically? And what reasons do you have for wanting to attend this particular university? Why would the possible alternatives be less desirable? What benefits would you gain from this uni? (It's got to be your dream uni for reasons, right?) I think both of you have reasonable motivations, so it's important you both present the pros and cons either options would have for you. One option could be to move out of the neighbourhood, but to a place that's near enough to allow you to attend the uni. This could solve the financial issue without depriving you of your chance. I believe the ideal compromise would be a place outside the city that's close enough to make it possible for you to still visit the uni. This would mean that your brother doesn't get to live in his preferred location, but he would get his wish of leaving the city behind, at least. It may mean that you will be a bit inconvenienced in how to get to uni, but you could still attend. Sometimes there's no perfect solution. The best you can try is to talk it out. The situation does suck, I can completely understand that. Having a chance at going to your dream uni sounds amazing, so I can see why you'd be devastated that it may not be possible. I do hope you'll find a way that works out for both of you!

I always understood the rule as being a prevention against people using chatspeak excessively to the point where it becomes difficult to understand, but it can be pretty difficult to draw a line sometimes, so I'm happy to see the rule removed. (Alternatively I could gush a bit about language and how cool it is that different uses of chatspeak vs non-chatspeak contribute to the tone and meaning of a sentence, and how sometimes replacing one with the other completely alters the way people process a message, but I'll restrain myself.) The new SotD method sounds amusing, certainly more fun and easier than it was to have to gather all them rupees for one.

Happy Birthday, Sparky! I really like how you often, almost always actually, manage to be a positive force on the server when you take part in the conversations. You're friendly and have that fun-loving attitude that makes it very easy to take a liking to you. While you aren't someone i talk a lot to in private, I do always like seeing you around the lobby, but I figure you know that, hah c: I hope you'll have an amazing day~