[Discussion] You Are a Rock

[Negrek]

Well then.

I’m torn on trying to fight it out here. I definitely want to see whether clearing those blobs off someone brings them back to their senses, but there would be easier targets for doing so than the Arcanine. On the other hand, she’d probably be the most helpful to us once purified.

We still have Weavile’s bag, I think? And some helpful items therein. But we don’t know what all they are, and we’d probably need to use a consideration to find out.

 

[Mirage]

Yup, nice welcome to the dungeon we've got here

I think we probably need to fight - Arcanine's already lunging at us, and even if we might be able to outrun her, I dunno if N can. Plus, if we run back the way we came, we might bump into Druddigon again, and then we'll have enemies from both ends.

If we were to fight, this would be our first time doing actual combat in Weavile's body... I wonder, do we still have access to our attacks from when we were a rock? If so, if I'm reading everything correct and doing the math right, I think we can actually knock Arcanine out here in a single blow. Catapult has a base damage of 2, and if we add our combined 3+2 Offense stat, that gives us a total damage output of 7. Fallen Arcanine has 7 HP, so that would be the exact amount for a knockout. We can then try removing the dark matter, and see what happens to her?

Although, now that I think about it, we're in a dungeon. If we knock Arcanine's HP down to 0, will she get kicked out, I wonder? If that's the case, we might be better off going for a Rocky Tackle (if we have access) instead, since that will take away 6 of her HP. In that weakened state, it might be easier for us to try to remove the dark matter. If we check the bag, we could also then try to incapacitate her with a Sleep or Stun seed, if we have one of those?

 

[Namohysip]

You have the same kinds of attacks, though you do not know just yet how they will interact with Weavile's body specifically.

You also will want to take into account Arcanine's unknown Defense value, which will reduce the damage you deal.

 

[Mirage]

Oooh right, enemies also have their own defense stat. Thanks for the reminder! In that case, it's almost certain that Arcanine won't have a base 1 defense, so we'll probably need to count on several attacks to knock it out.

Could make this fight more dangerous than I thought... but either way, we don't seem to really have a way out at the moment, and Arcanine could be a crucial ally, especially with Druddigon lurking nearby.

I'm back and forth on whether to go for Catapult or Enervate. Enervate seems like a very useful skill here - it reduces Arcanine's effectiveness, won't cost us an energy if it connects, and makes Catapult significantly cheaper. On the other hand, Catapult would tell us how much damage we can do if we make contact, and we'll already get some chip damage in for taking her down.

I think I'll go for Enervate, just since it seems like it'll set us up for success further on in the fight. Checking the bag could be a great idea - I went back and looked, and the last items in there were the badge, warp seed, and a few other unamed seeds. Those unamed seeds in particular might really help us out here, if they can incapacitate her.
If getting her out of the dungeon is all that's required to cure her... I wonder if the badge might be able to do that? If we could rescue her with it maybe?

Of course, then it follows that we would have to get out of the dungeon too...

 

[Mirage]

Very nice on the early unlock, Negrek!

Synergize looks like a pretty neat ability, looks like it's meant to reward us for working together with our host and coming up with cool ways to combine their movesets with ours. I'll be looking forward to trying this out!

For our next move here... We're given an out here to run, but I feel like with Arcanine already weakened now, this is our best shot to purge the darkness from her. On the other hand, taking on both Marshtomp and Druddigon at the same time might be a tough challenge, especially since N is significantly weaker than we are.

Perhaps we could try using the Warp Seed on Druddigon, to temporarily displace him? That would allow us to focus on taking down just Marshtomp, and we could then trying removing the dark energy from him and Arcanine... Though we only have one Warp Seed, and it might be a bit early to use it...

 

[Negrek]

Agreed, warping somebody seems like a good call here. Almost tempted to do Marshtomp rather than Druddigon, since we have ice to use against Druddigon… but idk how willing weavile will be to help us out with that. Warping Druddigon is probably safer.

I figure… we start out enervating him and throw the warp seed? Idk if I could say Enervate and you could follow up with a different attack in your post.

 

[Mirage]

Heyo Namo, small procedural question. For our hosts, do we have a fixed moveset we need to discover (like, say, the traditional four moveslots), or can we use Synergy with any move that Pokemon could feasibly know, so long as we can tie it in with one of our own moves somehow?

 

[Namohysip]

Pokemon of this world follow four moves that they can actively call upon, but like in Legends Arceus, they can 'swap out' which ones they can readily bring about. However, you have to learn those moves yourself. If a host is uncooperative, you may simply not know what they had channeled. Night Slash was a lucky guess.

 

[Mirage]

Heeey Namo - this is a bit of a bigger question, and the answer(s) might potentially be a spoiler, so no pressure to answer if so...

I was curious how leaving a host works after we've claimed it? The description for Reaper's Harvest says that we can only have one avatar at a time, and that when we leave, the body turns to lifeless stone. Does this mean that their soul disappears completely as well, or does it stay as a part of us and follow us to the new vessel? Can we re-inhabit a lifeless stone vessel after we've left it?

 

[Namohysip]

You're not sure generally what happens, but you have to possess a living body in order for Harvest to work, and Weavile seems to think that there's no leaving you now. Leaving the body behind will kill Weavile for good -- but his soul will probably still linger with you.

 

[Mirage]

Gotcha. So harvesting is a final, one way trip... thank you Namo!!

 

[Mirage]

Just a heads up - I'm in the middle of moving at the moment, so I've only got limited internet access and I'm still looking for my computers. However, I hope to have my response up tomorrow!

 

[Negrek]

Hokay... here comes the tough one.

We are, honestly, not looking too bad on resources? Half our energy and HP left, essentially. But we've burned most of our item resources and lost our backup. (Maybe N will agree to accompany us deeper into the dungeon at this point... I don't know.)

Absent anything else I think I would actually be most inclined to investigate the place where the dark entity disappeared to? They at least seem to believe that we're on the same side, so I hope they wouldn't be hostile, and perhaps we could team up with them before going to look for Millie.

But the biggest obstacle to us going anywhere right now is... Druddigon. I don't want to just leave him to potentially get re-corrupted by the dungeon, and that would probably piss Weavile off a lot, too. Even if we can carry him, I expect him to wake up soon, and it seems *really likely* that he'll be hostile once he does so. Maybe we can try using the badge to warp him out of the dungeon? No clue how badges work in this setting, help. It seems likely that we'd need to go with him if we tried that anyhow.

So with that consideration, I guess I'm probably most in favor of regrouping with N, seeing whether he can ensure Druddigon gets evacuated with everyone else? And then maybe going after potentially-dark-matter from there?

 

[Mirage]

We are, honestly, not looking too bad on resources? Half our energy and HP left, essentially. But we've burned most of our item resources and lost our backup. (Maybe N will agree to accompany us deeper into the dungeon at this point... I don't know.)

That's true! I tend to start stressing once I reach the halfway point of a resource in a game, but I think my lack of storytelling experience is showing, hah. If I step back, we could pretty much do everything we've done over again, more or less - that should be good enough for another boss fight!

Absent anything else I think I would actually be most inclined to investigate the place where the dark entity disappeared to? They at least seem to believe that we're on the same side, so I hope they wouldn't be hostile, and perhaps we could team up with them before going to look for Millie.

I'm down for that! I'm very curious to learn more about this being and our relationship with them, especially about anything before our memory wipe. I do have suspicions about whether they're someone we want to ally with though. Even if they're genuinely on our side, they may not realize our memory was wiped and that we've undergone a drastic personality change. Weavile hints we used to be far less benevolent... though tbf, the Prism Knights aren't the most reliable source

But the biggest obstacle to us going anywhere right now is... Druddigon. I don't want to just leave him to potentially get re-corrupted by the dungeon, and that would probably piss Weavile off a lot, too. Even if we can carry him, I expect him to wake up soon, and it seems *really likely* that he'll be hostile once he does so. Maybe we can try using the badge to warp him out of the dungeon? No clue how badges work in this setting, help. It seems likely that we'd need to go with him if we tried that anyhow.

100%, we definitely don't want Druddigon getting back up and having to fight him again (dude always seems to be getting in our way). The badge is a great idea! I honestly completely forgot we had it, hehe...

Except for GTI, in game, the rescue badge can typically be used to evacuate a Pokemon from a dungeon without needing to leave yourself. But if we don't want to risk us leaving or him getting reinfected outside the dungeon, going to N and having him evacuate Druddigon in addition to Arcanine is also a very reasonable option. With N running out of steam and the increasing difficulty of our enemies, it's probably time for him to leave and rest anyway.

So with that consideration, I guess I'm probably most in favor of regrouping with N, seeing whether he can ensure Druddigon gets evacuated with everyone else? And then maybe going after potentially-dark-matter from there?

Sounds like a plan Negrek! o7

Because we're kind of straddling decisions 1 and 4, I'm going to pick 4, but use my consideration slot to direct us toward the dark being after we hand over Druddigon to N instead of fleeing with N.

 

[Mirage]

Heyo Negrek! After you catch up on the latest chapter...

I'm personally leaning towards decisions 2 or 4. I feel like 2 has the advantage of avoiding misunderstandings and making us come off as confident and self-assured. On the downside, it might potentially result in us offending or confronting said force in a way that we might not want to.

Option 4 reduces the risk of a premature confrontation and lets us defer making our move until we know a bit more about who/what we're dealing with, but might have the disadvantage of making us come off as passive and let the dark force possessing Millie (...unless Millie is the dark force and has been decieving us this whole time? ) set the tone.

Option 3 could be interesting, if we try to assert ourselves, might I feel like it might backfire if this force is indeed friendly to us, and even if it isn't, it might make us come off as impulsive and easy to manipulate.

Option 1 could make a good start, but... this force will surely know by now that our memories were erased, either from the Prism Knights or from Millie herself. I feel like trying to bluff being a friend won't go over very well...

I'm wary of Option 5 and pledging loyalty to someone until we know more about what's up and what they expect. Plus, if we were actually partners, we were implicitly on somewhat similar footing, so trying to appease them might be somewhat strange to them.

Curious to hear your thoughts/opinions about what you'd like to do - and even though I think 2 or 4 would serve us best, I'm totally fine with picking any of the others if you'd like to stir the pot or try throwing them off or something along those lines!

 

[Negrek]

Same hat, really! Two or four seems best to me, and I'm personally thinking I like #2 best. If this entity is related to Dark Matter in some way, I don't think it's going to be fooled by any lie we could come up with, whether that's that we totally know what's going on here or that we're prepared to kick its ass if it doesn't do what we want. Overall I favor #2 because I don't think we're going to be keep up a charade of knowing what's going on for very long, so might as well get that out in the open fast and see how things shake out.

I love the potential twist you suggested of Millie having been the dark one all along. That would be great.

 

[Negrek]

Yup, that's a Dark Matter, there. :P

Since Weavile wants to run, I imagine we aren't going to be able to stick around for more than another post or two? We can probably suppress his consideration for a little while, but unless DM restrains us itself (which would be bad in its own way, lol), I figure we're going to have to take off pretty soon.

Not sure if you have any thoughts on that or anything you want to get out of this conversation, but this is what I'm most interested in talking with DM about atm:

1) Just why the hell are the two of us in this world, anyway?

2) Could DM maybe stop possessing Millie/Lillie? :P I assume that's going to be a "no," it needs a body blah blah and there's no one else around. I wouldn't mind offering our own selves up to be possessed if DM is going to insist on doing that, but I have a feeling that's going to get a Fuck No from Weavile, and things might be a little crowded anyhow.

3) Does DM know anything about why this dungeon appeared? Did we actually cause it somehow? Did DM cause it?

4) Does DM know what's up with the Prism Knights?

5) Are there any OTHER interdimensional beings currently in this world that we ought to be worrying about?

I think that's plenty, and more than we'll have time to cover, almost certainly. Any thoughts about how we ought to play this encounter?

 

[Mirage]

It is indeed! You predicted it perfectly Negrek, well done

So I have to confess, I have legit not caught on to the Super references until now. I actually managed to forget most of the story since it's been so long since I last played it, including that there was a Ylvetal at all and that Dark Matter was turning Pokemon to stone. But now though, yeah, I see the influence

Though while I was digging around Bulbapedia, I found some very cool forshadowing from Namo. I didn't think there was anything special about the name "Millie" other than it being a neat name, but it turns out, it's actually the French name for Emma, a character from X and Y! She was Looker's assistant, and she had the whole arc where she was possessed as Essentia. Theoretically, you can predict that twist since literally post #3!

Since Weavile wants to run, I imagine we aren't going to be able to stick around for more than another post or two? We can probably suppress his consideration for a little while, but unless DM restrains us itself (which would be bad in its own way, lol), I figure we're going to have to take off pretty soon.

Yeah - honestly, I'm kind of with Weavile on this one. The way Dark Matter refers to us in the 3rd person instead of as "you", and says "was" one of their most devout donors, implies it's well aware that we're not the same Ylvetal it knew. Given our copious lack of sacrifices or even claiming all that much during this run, I can't imagine we've done anything to please it, and we're rather weakened from our previous fights. Not to mention, Dark Matter is probably going to be way stronger than Druddigon or Marshtomp... So running soon will probably be our only play here in a bit.

As for you questions, I think they're all really great! One stands out to me in particular...

Could DM maybe stop possessing Millie/Lillie? :P I assume that's going to be a "no," it needs a body blah blah and there's no one else around. I wouldn't mind offering our own selves up to be possessed if DM is going to insist on doing that, but I have a feeling that's going to get a Fuck No from Weavile, and things might be a little crowded anyhow.

Crowded maybe, but imagine handing a Consideration slot to Dark Matter. I'd pay to have see him weigh in on some of our past choices

The funny thing is, I suspect we may actually have been Dark Matter's vessel already! As in, he literally used to possess us. The Prism Knights were clearly targeting us, and claim that we used to be an evil being with no cares or attachments for others. Sounds like Dark Matter, right? And as we know from our own claim power, when we lose posession of a host, that being turns into stone.

I think us being a rock wasn't a random thing, but may actually have been a fragment of our soul getting unpossessed by Dark Matter after we were somehow defeated by the Prism Knights. The main difference is, when we unpossess a host, they stay a lifeless stone forever, so far as we know at least. Perhaps our legendary spirit is too powerful to be trapped within a rock, or perhaps our own ability to claim somehow allows us to possess the rock that's supposed to bind our soul? Or maybe some other Pokemon somehow intervened...

Interestingly, reading the opening post again, it mentions how hard it is for us to think and how cold we are. I thought that was just because, y'know, that's how life is when you're a fuckin' rock, but in retrosepct, that might actually have been when we were literally posessed by Dark Matter.

The big counter to that is that Weavile is still clearly conscious and able to influence our behavior, while we seem to have had very little awareness or control over Dark Matter, if we were indeed posessed by it, though. Then again, Dark Matter's claim might just be much more powerful than ours is... he definitely seems like a more powerful being overall.

I admittedly have little experience with Namo's RPs or storytelling (though ngl, this story is making a fantastic case for me to try HoC ), but I have to wonder if that would give Namo a heart attack if we tried to do it. "You're supposed to defeat the evil being, not merge with it and achieve world domination!"

------------------------

But yeah - how to approach! As you say, we probably won't be able to get to them before Weavile heroically 1v1s him we flee in terror. I personally am most interested in seeing if we are a former host of his, since that could potentially explain a whole bunch of the story in one go.

I'm thinking about also seeing if I can catch Dark Matter off guard with a quip about Millie probably not being his ideal host. Y'know, it just seems like he'd want to possess someone a little more... threatening... than Millie is

I'll try to update sometime tomorrow evening at the latest, maybe tomorrow afternoon if I can squeeze it in during lunch. It's already very late where I live for how early I have to get up, unfortunately.

 

[Negrek]

I didn't think there was anything special about the name "Millie" other than it being a neat name, but it turns out, it's actually the French name for Emma, a character from X and Y! She was Looker's assistant, and she had the whole arc where she was possessed as Essentia.

Oh, wow! That is a good catch--I never played that part of X/Y, so I never would have gotten the parallel. Verrry interesting...

Crowded maybe, but imagine handing a Consideration slot to Dark Matter. I'd pay to have see him weigh in on some of our past choices

omg. I love this

The speculation about us previously having been possessed by DM/its relationship to us being a rock is really interesting. I haven't played Super and forgot about people getting petrified entirely, heh. Us being possessed by DM, or even working with it of our own free will, sounds extremely plausible to me. I think when DM petrified mons, they turned into statues, rather than the, like, perfectly ordinary fist-sized rock we seem to now, right? Could be something else going on with that, idk.

I admittedly have little experience with Namo's RPs or storytelling (though ngl, this story is making a fantastic case for me to try HoC ), but I have to wonder if that would give Namo a heart attack if we tried to do it. "You're supposed to defeat the evil being, not merge with it and achieve world domination!"

I don't know... I wouldn't be wholly surprised if us teaming up with Dark Matter is how this was expected to go all along. Namo likes to play DM as a bit less straightforwardly evil than you might expect...

I'm thinking about also seeing if I can catch Dark Matter off guard with a quip about Millie probably not being his ideal host. Y'know, it just seems like he'd want to possess someone a little more... threatening... than Millie is

FWIW I see you didn't go with this option, but I am all for trolling Dark Matter a little bit. A bad pun on "cool" would be delightful imo. If you have the chance to fire one off in the future. :P

 

[Negrek]

So that could have gone better.

Looks like we'll have to worry about shadow corruption also acting against our considerations, at least when Dark Matter's nearby.

Curious whether or not Dark Matter's correct about us not being Yveltal. The Prism Knights seem pretty convinced, and it seems like they of anyone would know, but also there's all kinds of identity fuckery that could be going on here, so who knows. Maybe we're actually the Yveltal of this world or something, not the one who came over with Dark Matter. Maybe we're another species entirely (or originally... maybe we ascended from a mortal pokémon after Yveltal got taken out of commission?). Regardless, we didn't learn very much concrete here.

Dark Matter also doesn't seem super powerful in this form... so maybe, if we're feeling spicy, we could try to attack. But idk. We might just end up killing Millie if we did that, anyway. :(

We seem to have been pretty summarily dismissed, and Weavile's obviously desperate to get out of here. I could see maybe trying to get one last question in--maybe demanding more information about Xerneas or else we won't do what DM wants? Other than that I don't know that there's much to do here besides peace.