Autumn Zephyr

Haven "Seems like we came to the same conclusion regarding the Purgatory bit," Haven confessed. 'Why does everything seem to lead to violence?' The group had hoped that they wouldn't have to fight anywhere near as much with that last battle, but it seemed that she wasn't so lucky. This did mean that she had to look at every single person as a potential enemy again, and that was rarely a pleasant experience. More importantly, that meant that the entity, or entities, that gathered them all here was unlikely to let whoever survived this experience return home without a whole bunch of strings attached... "So, some higher power snagged a bunch of warriors when their disappearance would be most unobtrusive to their realms, and had them beat each other down to see who is the strongest of the bunch," Haven shook her head. "This feels like a situation that won't end well to anyone who loses a match, or makes it all the way to the end. Though that's a fitting predicament, considering the previous conclusion..."

Haven Crossing the border between regions was a bit... different from what she was used to, audibly speaking. That was probably to be expected, though- back home, the change was typically a little more gradual compared to the abrupt nature of this one. That didn't stop the change from simple but calming rainfall to lively song from being any more jarring! Haven was more of a hip hop type of girl, but even she had to admit that this piece sounded good enough to... '...No! This is some sort of siren's song!' She snapped herself out of the trance and forced her way back toward her goal, heaving a sigh of relief when she found that the next border hid no similar traps. 'Guess I'll have to stay on my guard here...' Haven halted when she saw that this quadrant's resident had noticed her, and tried to look as non-threatening as she could while the lady approached. Between the overall pale complexion and the golden eyes, Haven couldn't help but wonder if she might be related to an old friend of hers, though their demeanors and senses of style seemed to be quite different so far. "It certainly is," Haven answered the local's inquiry. "Especially the place behind me- there's some sort of enchanted song that can only be heard in its borders." She shrugged and shifted to a more comfortable stance. "Anyway, I was wondering if it was possible that different people were given different bits of information when we arrived here, and figured that it might be worth it to ask around."

Haven 'Seriously, why am I always the whose body gets hijacked?!' Haven complained as her body missed another swing against at the shadowy figure before her. The Annuler had done it, one of the crime bosses the Spritebound Investigative Agency had targeted early on did it, even Cer's stuck-up twin had done it. Though, she had to admit that this was the first time one such body thief had tried to destroy her psyche in the process. It took as much magic as she could muster to keep the psychic tendrils at bay... "This is getting old, Ven." The shadow declared as it deflected another jab with its blazing scimitar, curved slit-eyes filled with displeasure. It warped to the top of a nearby cliff with a burst of flame, the blade now a longbow drawn and aimed at her. "How many times have we told you to work on your mental resistance now?" 'Well, well, well! It seems I've found weak spot in your team's synergy~!' her possessor's voice jeered in her head as he willed his puppet to lunge up the cliff and deflect the arrows fired at them along the way. 'And the other four were playing so well togethe- what?!' This time, the punch landed true- but it had hit a mere distraction, a fake that exploded into countless shards of blackened ice and gave the real shadow an opening to press a blade against the body's neck. "You actually fell for that? Seems like you haven't been able to access our tactical secrets yet, huh?" They pressed against Haven's back, allowing their foul aura to eat at the cords that bound her. "You don't have enough power to snap them, you know," the villain chided in Haven's voice. "The only way you can free this girl from my grasp is to killer her. Can you live that guilt, Ms. Hearth?" The shadow was silent for a moment. "...Talk about cliche. But, as it turns out..." She let go and quickly stepped away just as a massive blade shrouded in brilliant light ran through where she had just been- and Haven's torso. "...I don't even have to." Two different voices wailed in excruciating pain as both victim and villain were rent asunder and seared by raw divine power. One voice died out as his presence was exorcised away. The other died as her wounds claimed her. As, too, did the trenches of the realm beyond... ... - - - ... ...But the trenches occasionally make returns shipments. Through the haze of unconsciousness, Haven was vaguely aware that she could feel herself again. That led to questioning about her state of being. Was this the afterlife? If so, where was she? The ground beneath her was too rough to be Heaven. Or had NYM managed to revive her despite the grievous wounds? No, that couldn't be right. She would never allow rain to fall in the healing ward. Besides, she didn't seem to be able to heal mental injuries... Eventually, she opened her eyes and drug herself to a sitting position. She seemed to be on the roof of an apartment complex- one very similar to where she lived before... well, before the situation that led to her making her pact. Except for the school of see-through anchovies that just swam by. "...Uhm?" "Finally awake, I see." Haven looked behind her to see Bulla, her patron, mixing something in a plastic bowl. "I'd imagine you're pretty hungry. Care for some tuna salad?" "...Tuna salad? Seriously?" Bulla shrugged and scooped some of it into another bowl. "For a multistory apartment building, this place isn't especially well stocked." "...Fine." She took the bowl from her familiar and sighed. "...So, did we win?" "A bit hard to say," Bulla replied. "My memories end shortly after our backup arrived for some reason. I do know that you didn't, though." "What do you mean by that, exactly?" "The fact that we're here means that you died." The matter-of-fact way the sprite had put it was a little off-putting, but at least confirmed Haven's suspicion. "As did at least half of the people in this realm..." Haven looked up toward the rainy sky for a moment, only now realizing that the water wasn't actually sticking to her at all. "Guess this is some sort of Purgatory, then. Hell doesn't strike me as the type of place that'd give you time to contemplate the situation before throwing into of the thick of things." "Could be," Bulla answered, floating toward's the edge of the building. "Though the view from here gives me other ideas..." The human followed them, and dropped her bowl in surprise at the sight. To every side of their apartment was a different sort of location, ranging from a restless graveyard, to a concrete square, even to some place with massive stone words! Weirder still, the closest any of the places got to sharing her weather was a thick haze that shrouded a nearby forest. "Th-this is even worse than when the worlds first became marbled!" she exclaimed. "Exactly. My theory is that this is some sort of alternate dimension set aside for those who have both forged a pact of some sort and fallen in battle in their own worlds." It heaved a sigh of its own. "At least whatever power it is that brought us here had the decency to let me know that each area is technically a manifestation of its resident's mind, which means that this has nothing to do with the Great Spirits' Conflux." "...Weird. But the separate dimension thing does suggest that there may be a way back home." Haven's face shifted from one of awe to one of determination. "And if there is one, then we'd best start searching for it!" "Certainly beats sitting around twiddling our digits while we hope for the Starmantle to find a way to rescue us." "...For the umpteenth time, he has a name." Haven snapped her fingers, and paused. "...Huh. I can't seem to change vision modes anymore." If Bulla had eyebrows, they would've been furrowed. "That's odd. I'm still granting you that power... Maybe it only works when you transform here?" "And people are likely to panic if I approach them looking like I'm ready for battle. Talk about inconvenient..." She cracked her neck and climbed atop the railing. "Might as well start by seeing if anyone knows anything we don't, hm?" She leapt confidently off the edge, caught her fall on a windowsill, and safely dropped the rest of the way to the sidewalk below. 'A bakery is probably best visited last, and the pair directly north of us probably shouldn't be interrupted alone... Guess I'll start with the campfire then.' Bulla caught up to her as she started to head northeast. "Just as eager as ever, I see." "You know the saying: think too much at the start, and investigation never gets done. Come on!"

So, Chaoticangel is now a gengar? Anyway, sorry about the drop there. Between housesitting for someone with a trash computer, yardwork up the wazoo, having a hurricane somehow manage to get this far inland (it was just a tropical storm when it got here, but it was still bad enough to pop the internet router), and generally being an easily distracted individual who can't even stick to Inktober for even half a week, it seems I've managed to miss almost a fifth or so of the game... You don't mind if I start back up with the next vid, do you?

...Oh, dear. It seems I have finally found someone I couldn't come up with a witty opening sentence for right off the bat. Um, the moon's nice... Anyway! Welcome to the starlit(?) realms we call the Reborn Evolved Forums! Be sure to read up on the rules (again, I guess), feel free to check out all we have to offer, and above all else, enjoy your stay!

Pokemon Magictm, presumably. It may also be a reference to a certain joke ROMHack that used lavafishing as one of its many gags. Anyway, it may be a bit before I actually come up with one of my infamous reaction posts. On the plus side, it means I might not wind up double posting!

...Probably? They're in the area post-restoration, and while that does add a significant number of pokes to the wild list, wooper and quaggy make sense to have already been in the Azurine Region in the first place. If they are there, then wooper should be a common encounter and appropriately easy to locate as a result.

Not just any drifblim, mind- one that has absolutely nothing to do with Fire because the species wouldn't get Heat Wave until Platinum, or Flare Boost until BW! It's there to counter Ground Types, which trample over his actual Fires. Oh, you already know he has it and brought a Ghost of your own? He has a Normal Type to counter that! Okay, so it shares rapidash's weakness to Rock attacks, maybe that'll work? Nope! He's got a steelix. Add in the fact that infernape is actually a really good pokemon (itwas even OU back in the day), and you've got yourself the makings of the real gatekeeper of the Elite 4! Like, Aaron and Bertha I was fine with having wildcards in comparison, seeing as the former's Drapion most likely was a Bug Type when he got it, and the latter's sudowoodo at least shared both of the most commonly exploited weaknesses in-game with her actual Type. But Flint's actually somewhat balanced type spread, with only two pokes of his purported specialty? That was some Grade A nonsense! Let's not forget that DP's level curve spikes tremendously after the events at the Spear Pillar, to the point where my team is usually lower leveled than the wild pokemon in Victory Road when I get there, and that trend continues throughout the entirety of the gauntlet! Basically, DP's Elite four consists of a pathetically easy Bug user, followed by Sand Stream: the Battle (R.I.P. Potions), followed by OH DEAR LORD ARCEUS WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!, then Lucian's annoying bronzong (the rest of the team barely matters, though that girafarig did manage to screw me over once), and then you finally go up against what is widely considered to be the strongest Champion in the series, who would be very likely to tear your pathetic casual team limb from limb even if it weren't already horribly bloodied by the battles that came before! All whilst being underleveled from the get-go, and watching helplessly as the gap between your team's might and the opponents' rapidly increases based off of that one number alone. It's quite the challenge, but dang if finally getting through it doesn't feel amazing!

Fair enough, I guess? I'm actually not familiar with vivillon's Reborn shiny, so I wouldn't have guessed that. Considering that it's created during the evolution of nincada into ninjask, which is the pokemon equivalent of the final molt between cicadas' nymph and adult stages (a process that's known for leaving behind the old shells in unusually pristine condition), it's safe to say that shedinja is indeed that old skin. The pokeball's just there to make sure said skin doesn't pull a "I'm free! So long, sucker!!" type of move once the possession happens. Though, considering that the shedinja retains the original's personality, does that mean that the original sheds part of its own spirit to animate the shell? That's the most ambiguous part of the whole deal, really...

There's a significant amount of variety across all the lists, hitting as many different viewpoints on what Halloween means across them all. Can't argue with that, no? Assuming the possessed moth question is referring to shedinja, that thing's a cicada shell. There was one of those in my backyard just last week, actually...

I mean, drapion and heracross aren't bad (though the former's a big cheat), but dustox and pre-Quiver Dance beautifly just aren't E4 material by any stretch of the imagination. Having two pokemon with the exact same Type combination (Bug/Flying, shared between beautifly and vespiquen) doesn't help his case either, even if they do have different roles on his team. Besides, the rest of that League was plenty difficult without Megas, especially in the originals- two Fire Types doesn't make you a Fire specialist, Flint! Really, Aaron was a terrible first look for what's to come...

Mismagius, yamask, Alolan marowak, blacephalon, mimikyu, trevenant, and gourgeist have already been covered (though either marowak works for that slot). Cofagrigus: the closest we get to a mummy Dhelmise: Got a pirate themed haunted house? Can't do that without one of these things! Palossand: Thought you were safe once you stepped off the afore-mentioned pirate ship? Oh, how naive of you! Dusknoir: Is the Grim Reaper. 'Nuff said. Chandelure and Jellicent: For your posh haunted house needs (the latter's a bit weak here, though). Drifloon: What's a party without balloons? Be careful about holding them, though! Spiritomb: it's like those candy bowls with the hand that pops out at you when you try to take something from them, except it's a swirling vortex of 108 dead people instead. Guaranteed to get a few scares! Rotom+Lawn Mowers=True terror. Probably too much hassle than it's worth and not even a Ghost Type anymore R.I.P. Decidueye: He's looking spiffy in his home-made Green Arrow costume! Unfortunately, his teenage son has been poking fun at him for dressing up all day... Doublade/Aegislash: Like dhelmise, but with haunted castles instead. Sensu!Oricorio: Not all the entertainment has to be about getting the most screams- come wind down with some dance! Be careful not to get cursed, though. Banette: Would certainly work for a haunted toy store, but there are plenty of other themes it can slip into. Specifically, those with fancy beds... Shedinja: Please, get out of the Lost Woods. It's probably even worse for you than the city in there! Alternatively, string a bunch of them together and hang them like Christmas lights or something. High risk, moderate reward? Sableye: ...I'm not sure why anyone would want to set up a Haunted Mine type dealio, but here's your main crew for such an endeavor... Golurk: ...A haunted amusement park's robot mascot? The concept has been done before, albeit outside of the context of Halloween. Oh, and gengar's gengar. That guy fits in everywhere, do to how common shadows and cold chills are! And I do believe that's all of the non-legendary/silvally Ghost Types! Not too bad, considering.

Bug: a Type that gradually gained relevance through the Generations, culminating in becoming the preferred Type of a brutal crime boss to significantly greater effect than the the "Bug Specialist" that somehow managed to achieve E4 status in Sinnoh. Or, at least, that's what I hear. Anyway, welcome to this buzzingly peculiar land we call the Reborn Evolved Forums! Be sure to read up on the rules, feel free to check out all we have to offer, and, above all else, enjoy your stay! Trash Cloak Wormadam buff when, Game Freak?

The Sakitron might count after what we did to it

Alternatively, it could just be a case of her being an aggressive and unwise child, having deliberately put the blame for the tragedy on someone who had done them a minor ill recently, and remembering that blame incorrectly so frequently in the ensuing decade or so that it ultimately became her truth. The memory replacer wasn't interested in 3rd parties that weren't directly related to their goal, after all.

Slurpuff's the best we got for representing the candy so far- though the official shiny's chocolate, and thus brings it more in line with the goal. On the subject of costumes, wormadam's the OG dressup mon. Plus, the bizarrely-named Trash Cloak variant looks like cotton candy- Halloween Festivals, anyone? Leavanny, too, is a costumer- albeit one that prefers to dress up others than itself. Does that count? You know those people who dress up their dogs during Halloween season as if they were toddlers? Houndoom already looks the part, methinks! Mandibuzz+ marowak= those boneyard decorations people cover their front yards with, but mobile. Mr. Mime and blacephalon both fit the creepy clown subtheme, if you want to go that route. Parasect pretty much is a zombie. Reborn's shiny tauros fits in here as well (if you count Frankenstein's Monster, anyway). Need a Masked Hero costume pokemon? Roserade's got that covered! Ditto: always searching for who's the most likely to win the costume competition so that it can nab the prize money under their guise! Or it's heart of the party by changing costumes on the fly without changing the base creature or something. Or maybe combining parts of the other party goers until it can pass for a Lovecraftain abomination? I dunno- all I know is that this thing's got a lot of potential here if given the chance!

Do pardon the lateness, please. I'm a bit worn out from 4 days of yardwork in a row... Alternate Title: Why Rescue Kids (Again) When There's No Drinking Water? You know, I wasn't actually expecting Chuck to stay in that Timer Ball. Always figured that shuckle would be a bit of a waste of funds on the wasted Ball department, ya know? Seriously, though, this part of the game always kinda bothered me, because of just how many hoops you have to go through just to have a shot at hoping you're not somehow already too late to get the Orphanage Crewname not final out of the crazies' clutches. Like, we need to do two Gyms, and it's likely that each one has a dungeon attached? If any Meteors are still on the other side of the door at all, it's a specifically to ambush you! Never mind the whole issue with crossing the lake in the first place! But oh well, what'cha gonna do? Most of the pollution's coming from just one place? Maybe it's because most of the factories have been shut down for a while? Breaking News: local crotchety old woman accuses local hero of pokenapping! Could this possibly be true, or is it a result of her rising dementia acting up? More at 11! Holy moly! They weren't kidding when they said that Amaria was high up there- the lapras' level is ridiculous! How can you possibly lose in this dungeon?! Wait, you're splitting the party? Oh, that'd be how, all right... Well, uh, this mission's a bit of a bust. One battle in, and we're already in prison? Preposterous! On the flipside, it looks like it's about time to finally make use of Reborn's insistence on highlighting the usefulness of pokemon outside of battle for ourselves- and with minimal property damage, to boot! Oh, and it seems we now have the introduction of the Meteor promotion classes as well! Of course, no amount of Fire Emblem shenaniganry can bust through Ribbon's plot armor, but it's still nice to see. ...It seems that Operation: Clean House and Operation: Jeweler's Box have managed to intercept each other right in one of Team Meteor's bases. Now's certainly a good time to have a high-leveled Gym Leader on our side, no? On the other hand, am I the only one who thinks that the PULSE muk's Ability being something other than Gooey or Liquid Ooze is a bit of a missed opportunity? Protean's a powerful tool, yes, but this thing is literally melting away as the fight wears on. Not exactly much room for constant change with that flavor, methinks. Also, Maqqy comin' with the close shaves to save the day! Er, Amaria's ribs don't share the sentiment, but you can't please everyone. Current Death Toll: 7.5 (Unchanged from last time) Major Decision's Made: 2 (Unchanged from last time)

Alternate Title: I See Dead People... Eventually Goodness, klink waits that long to evolve as well?! After my experiences with tynamo the other day, I can't help but wonder if Chargetone Cave just doesn't like being big... Oh, and how about an attempted meme? *Slaps Seal* "This baby can fit so much luck in it!" I don't know if I'm even doing it right... *One murder montage later* Hey, Mr. Shadow! I've got a couple favors to ask... ya... *Looks at gengar* Didn't I just see you? Wait, did Shade always have a banette? I don't remember there being one, but I can't think of something that would've taken its place in my memory either... Not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting ZEL to survive that +2 STAB, Field-Boosted Shadow Claw, yet alone with as much health as it did! Guess klang really earned its praise for that matchup, huh? Aaand, all our friends are gone, and it's partially our fault. Next time: Let's rescue some children one more time! May the reaction post be better than this one~! Current Death Toll: 7.5 (Corey's alive again, but not human; what else am I supposed to say here?) Major Decisions Made: 2 (Unchanged from last time)

I'm fairly certain that voltorb, yamask, and duskull are all new there... I just don't think any of them are on Ribbon's to-train list. The location after that, on the other hand...

It is, it is! There's an Orderly on 7th Street that'll grant you the ability to fight it, in exchange for Incidentally, it's also one of the most morally black sidequests in the game...

...I'm gonna guess that the only reason this isn't a four-way fistfight is the fact that Goku and just fly off and blast everyone else to smithereens from a safe distance? I'd imagine that Waluigi would surrender pretty quickly under such situations and Sakurai is just a man...

Hmm. I wasn't expecting the Badlands to be on a separate landmass from GDC, to be honest. I guess this also means that GDC's part of the world is the only non-mountainous part of Aevium (Neverwinter potentially notwithstanding)? Interesting, interesting indeed...