PlatinumSkink

Pokémon: Start

@Joshua Tamashii With all likelihood, nope. No problem. XD

Pokémon: Start

@Rune_Alchemist My slight apologies if this is terrible. Anyway! So, if you have any questions surrounding the situation you're in or anything you want to do before the things described in the post happens to possibly interrupt any of it, tell me.

@Joshua Tamashii If you for some reason consider the past between Phantump and the Pumpkaboos to be important, we can talk about it. XD ... But, yes. Otherwise, go for it.

@Eklispe@Pikmin Eye You two are for the moment waiting for @Pyromaniacwolf, yeah. Hmm. I do realize Eklispe's post was written with the intention of moving on, but. Well. Pyro, keep us updated of when you think you can post. If you other two get tired of waiting, tell us, and I'll just write you along. Otherwise, yupp. I hope all goes well for everyone. Haha.

And, hm. Seems like we're down to six players. I did say seven to nine players, right? Then these are too few, and my waiting list was quickly depleted as time is a great turn-off, apparently. I'm going to switch this from "Full" to "Apply" for a bit. I am going to wait a bit before actually inviting anyone new, but we're not exactly full anymore. So, woo. There.

Edit: Actually... yeah, I can type that, at least.

Pokémon: Start

@Rune_Alchemist

Amusingly enough, although wary of ambushes in the complex she discarded this upon her arrival at the shrine, where there actually was a danger of this. She hurried after the Zigzagoon, intending on claiming the shinies it carried and arrived on the other side of the podium to corner it…

Only to find there was a perfectly round Zigzagoon-sized hole on the other side of the little pedestal podium which obviously the Zigzagoon had been heading for the entire time. Now inside the tiny shrine right by the podium with the mirror on top of it and only one way out. Yeah, that way…

‘Greedy… Terrible… Sadistic…’ A voice whispered, barely audible from above the shrine. ‘I’ve felt guilty for this in the past, but this time…’

The sound of two feet hitting the ground could be heard from right outside, along with the sound of three Pokéballs cracking open simultaneously. If Claire turned around now, she’d come face-to-face with another red-head. Except, this one had an angry frown, wore a pretty telling ninja/martial arts uniform and was bent into a position right alongside her Pokémon as if waging for a battle.

And her Pokémon was a small blue frog with one hand on the floor which also was frowning determinately forward at her, a humanoid baby-like creature in a yoga-pose floating a foot over the ground and a weasel in the same battle-stance as its trainer.

Trainer and Pokémon

Pokédex Entry #656 – Froakie, the Bubble Frog Pokémon. It secretes flexible and delicate bubbles from its chest and back which absorb damage that would otherwise damage it. While it is known for a happy-go-lucky attitude, it has astute awareness of its surroundings.

Pokédex Entry #307 – Meditite, the Meditate Pokémon. It is found deep in mountains, meditating for hours on end and surviving on a berry a day. It trains its spirit, and by heightening its inner strength it somehow achieved levitation. It also enjoys daily yoga workouts.

Pokédex Entry #619 – Mienfoo, the Martial Arts Pokémon. While not very strong, it’s very fast and has mastered the art of elegant combos using claws to increase damage. As it concentrates, it grows in speed and efficiency. They have a tendency to start acting like their trainer’s personal body-guards.

‘BUBBLE! MEDITATE! CONFUSION!’ She shouted out while pointing forward. Didn’t seem like she had any intention of explaining herself or giving her target a chance to speak. If any of them had not been interrupted somehow before, the girl launched a preemptive attack.

The Froakie immediately blew forward a mountain of bubbles, spreading out all over in front of him in a direction to hit all in front of him. As Bubble now is a move that hits all adjacent opponents, it was pretty much in position to blow the whole contents of the shrine full of bubbles and hit all inside.

Meanwhile, the Mienfoo took a quick step backwards and clasped its (paws?) together while standing straight, closing its eyes for quick meditation, which would raise its attack. While it did that, the Meditite smirked in mid-air as it focused its hands forward in preparation. It was going to use Confusion on the first Pokémon (or person) to move in to counter their attack, in a strategy that was clearly practiced. It hadn’t used Confusion yet, but was clearly primed to do so, clear to anyone who could see her… which could be hard given the wall of slightly damaging bubbles the Froakie spouted at them.

The aggressor trainer stood, eyes focused behind her Pokémon, in a stance of her own as if prepared to make a move. For now, she was inspecting how Claire and her Pokémon reacted to this attack of hers, which clearly weren’t exactly following the rules of a common Pokémon confrontation.

Now, how did Claire and Co react?

__________________________

@Joshua Tamashii - Night

When the Pumpkaboo came into contact with Litwick it opened its mouth and cried out loudly. in the way of sound plus impact did damage in the move called Astonish. As a Ghost-type move, it was highly effective against other ghosts, and with a bit of strength combined with level the impact turned out to be highly damaging for Litwick as he flew back. Although he wasn’t out, Astonish isn’t that powerful a move, it couldn’t be said if he’d be able to handle another similar move or not.

It could be said that Phantump knew who this Pumpkaboo was. He was a bit self-absorbed due to his size, and was known to have bossed around the younger crowd of Pumpkaboos because of this. Phantump herself had probably not interacted too much with him herself, but she knew who he was. The Pumpkaboos typically avoided the areas where she usually roamed on account of how protective the Trevenants usually were of her.

‘Pum, pumpkaboo!’ The Pumpkaboo chuckled and taunted his foes, Amelia switching out his opponent bolstering his confidence despite the Ember and Smog having done considerable damage to him. With his next opponent decided, the Pumpkaboo locked its eyes on Shuppet and the two holes in the pumpkin glowed as it prepared. When Shuppet had come forth near enough for the Pumpkaboo to be satisfied he once again charged forth.

Confident in a repeat-feat, the huge Pumpkaboo was just charging Shuppet head-on for another Astonish. Amelia and Shuppet now knew roughly what she could expect. How would they react?

Accidental Magical Girl CYOA

@Ariamis Hm. Alright, then. Well, then I submit for your consideration, since it has to be approved, I believe. Patron benefits and drawbacks for Deni and Eli.

Simple List of Benefits and Drawbacks

Creeping Doom - Instead of Minions. Free.
Reasonable - Instead of Marked. Free.
Takes One To Know One - Extra.
Genki Girl - Bought with Bane. (intended for Deni only)
Retrieval - Bought with Mind-Bent.
Magical Overload - Came with ally-perk, but left here for signification.

Quick-Tempered - Free.
Insomnia - Free.
Bane - Bought with Genki Girl.
Mind-Bent - Bought with Retrieval.
Monstrous Form - Came with ally-perk, but left here for signification.

Character Sheet descriptions

(creeping doom, reasonable and quick-tempered are already written on Asengav, as is the in-depth description of what being "amorphous harpies" actually entails)

Patron Benefits:
Takes One To Know One - There are two parts of Asengav’s power. The portals and the darkness. Deni and Eli are literally dripping with the darkness to their cores, and this has consequences. They feel the same energy if exposed to it in others. This allows Deni and Eli to see through the disguises of monsters and detect Horror champions should they touch or meet eye-to-eye. If they have a bane, they also get a rough idea of what it might be.
Genki Girl - Deni only. As Mariette’s scout, Deni’s filled with insurmountable amounts of energy and fortunately finds stealth-missions fun, and she can stalk targets for days upon end without getting tired or bored. It does mean that not actually doing anything engaging bores her extremely fast, now, but that was sincerely always the case. She’ll also never get tired mid-battle.
Retrieval - As with Mariette, should any of the two of them end up in mortal danger and it has the time to spare, Asengav might reach out through a portal and save them. Might. It’s a multidimensional being with plenty of other things on its mind. Saving underlings is significantly less important than saving champions. If they’re lucky, with other words.
Magical Overload - They’re amorphous harpies.

Patron Drawbacks:
Insomnia - With a horror as their patron, neither of the two monster girls have an easy time falling asleep. Something’s always clawing at their minds, whispering horrendous nothings, giving them terrible dreams when they do fall asleep. Neither of the two seems to ever want to go to sleep, staying up playing games or stalking targets outside, and this is a large part of that. But eventually, they have to…
Mind-Bent - Deni and Eli are both as mind-manipulated as Mariette. They think they’re following Mariette out of their own free will, but they’re really not. Their minds have a compulsion to follow Asengav and their current leader, Mariette, and although they can disagree with commands they can never even consider going against the cause. Any notion of such will send a pang of pain through their heads, punishing them for even thinking the thought. Should they ever fall out of favour with their horror overlord, they’ll find themselves quivering wrecks huddling forever in fear unless someone bends their minds back.
Bane - While Mariette is affected by both lit wax candles and cracked mirrors, Deni and Eli are more or less immune to the cracked mirrors. This is because they have no portal or dimension-travelling abilities of their own, which the cracked mirror bane is linked to. However, a lit wax candle is the bane of the darkness of Asengav, which Deni and Eli are the personifications of. The slightest light of such a candle or the smell of wax in their noses will cause burning pain, forcing them to flee. Being locked inside a room with lit wax candles will burn them alive and cause their amorphous bodies to melt. A much more extreme reaction than that which Mariette experiences.
Monstrous Form - They’re amorphous harpies.

...

I don’t think allies were supposed to have patron bonuses. Because, if it’s like this, I could say that I picked Deni & Eli to be the “more experienced magical girl” option and then just have them take the monster girl benefit/drawback, and then I have the exact same girl(s) but with two silvers and three bronze coins to spend on stats. Which isn’t fair, so I’m not going to. But, really.

Edit: Scrapped TOTKO being Eli only, she has enough of an advantage on Deni with the Third Eye already. XD
Edit2: Honestly, Eli could probably benefit from endless energy while stalking and fighting and such, too... but she's not a Genki Girl! Deni barely qualifies, too! XD

Accidental Magical Girl CYOA

@Ariamis Gotcha. I'll consider it. I don't want them to be as heavily loaded as Mariette is, but some of these things would be nice to have. Thank you very much for all the clarifications and help during this conversation. I'll now go do something else for a while.

... ... ... ... ... Um. They're technically benefiting from Reasonable and Creeping Doom, which are things Mariette bought for Asengav. Do I count these as obligatory Benefits that they have to have equivalent Drawbacks for? XD

Edit: Or maybe that'd be a sign that he's not as patient with mere underlings as he is with his champions. Hmmm. Heh. Well. Things to consider.

Accidental Magical Girl CYOA

@Ariamis I like considering Deni and Eli part of Mariette's character, and such don't want to make them complete. I don't like the idea of having a second character just to support the first. That said, I did wonder if they'll, like, have to have the same drawbacks/benefits or get to pick other ones or what. I don't necessarily want them to have Health Sapping just because Mariette has it, for instance.

Accidental Magical Girl CYOA

@Ariamis Okay. I've removed Marked, Takes One To Know One, Empty Pockets and Big Brother. I'd like to think there's still an eerie air around Mariette, but it won't cause lesser monsters to fear her anymore. Knowing others are Horror minions could be useful, but eh, I'll deal with that like any other girl. Asengav now has money and won't be interfering quite as much with my personal life. Yupp.

Edit: I had Marked be switched to Reasonable, for clarification.

By the way, I've been meaning to ask. How should patrons be handled with allies? I've kind of skipped counting anything patron with Deni and Eli, but how do you reckon it should be, if we're to completely follow the rules? It doesn't say anything concerning patrons on the Ally perk.

@Shifter_Master And, heh, thanks for also taking the time. It's appreciated. Haha.

Accidental Magical Girl CYOA

@Ariamis There's a few benefits/drawbacks I've taken that only applies to Asengav, as well. It's rather confusing to count when they're split up like that, I agree. Here's the full list.

Benefit - Drawback
Minions - Quick-Tempered
Marked - Insomnia
Creeping Doom - Bane
Takes One To Know One - Mind-Bent
Retrieval - Empty Pockets.
Mystic Might - Health Sapping
Mana Font - Big Brother
Reasonable

So, yeah. That's 8 Benefits and 7 Drawbacks.

Edit: ... So, is it just that everyone saw that and was like "yeah, that's alright" and didn't read on Asengav and so everyone missed it? ... Hahaha.

Accidental Magical Girl CYOA

Um. Excuse me, it has come to my attention that I've taken too many Benefit/Drawbacks, because I didn't understand that there was a limit.

"For categories representing a many different types of being or a loose organization, this base package may have benefits or drawbacks swapped with alternative options." - This implied to me that the base package, that is, the four things you get no matter if you want to or not, may be swapped.

"These categories may modify their base package with options. XXX - may take _ additional drawback(s)" - Is exceedingly weirdly worded, but it implied that one can modify the base package, which I assumed to be the four original things you get from any patron, by adding the amount of drawbacks mentioned. The meaning of this distinguished, this would then mean the line "After your initial package and benefit are chosen, you may gain an additional benefit for each additional drawback you take on" appears to have no limit.

However, having examined the character sheets of others, it has proven that one can pretty freely switch the two base benefits/drawbacks without any penalties whatsoever, which makes me seriously question why these four were forwarded like they were anything special if they can just be switched out whatever. Why not list them with the other options, then, rather than present them in any way? This realization meant, however, that the "may take _ additional drawback(s)" could not be referring to switching this. Meaning they're likely a limit, since "After your initial package and benefit are chosen, you may gain an additional benefit for each additional drawback you take on" implies one would freely take on drawbacks rather than benefits, which is exceedingly backwards but I seem to be the only person not to get it.

So, I seem to have bought too many benefits. Thing is, I WAS STILL ACCEPTED. This might just be because Western Robot didn't properly keep track of Benefits/Drawbacks of the players, but that's exceedingly weird because he once pointed out those that hadn't fully used their potential benefit/drawback situation. He even mentions "one free benefit from the Universal list, and can take extra drawbacks depending on their patron" thing, there, which I must have missed, but it implies he had that under check. So why didn't anyone mention I had gotten things wrong?

It makes me have to ask, HAVE I gotten things wrong? Or am I just confused? Is what I've taken somehow legal and I've just misunderstood everything?

I mean, I can pretty easily discard... let's say "Takes One To Know One", and "Marked" could have been switched to "Reasonable". Who needs a mark, anyway? Is that REALLY a Benefit? And knowing other Horror children isn't that important anyway. Knowing them isn't important to Asengav's goals. I'm pretty fond of all my Drawbacks, though. Do I need to discard two? Hmpgh. Suppose I could remove Big Brother, because I'm worried I might not properly roleplay it, anyway. And... hm. I could remove Empty Pockets. A multidimensional horror could probably get coins anywhere at any time. Not that Asengav's ever going to give Mariette money, anyway. Haha.

Anyways. Some clarification would be nice, because I'm confused as to why nobody has brought this up if I did this wrong. Thank you.

Pokémon: Start

Alright. Time to start working on a post. Hopefully in around 13 hours.

@Pyromaniacwolf? How's the situation?

@Delta44? How's life?