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It was a bit disheartening hearing that the little critter before him wasn't likely to put up much of a fight at higher levels of competition, for as much as he'd like to believe in its fighting prowess like Bat, he was intimately familiar with the practical constraints of a pokémon defying the conventions of its species. For a depressingly large percentage of species, the convention was to be outshone. To offer a unique combination of traits in battle that was ultimately without significant merit, or perhaps worse, did offer something special, only to be countered by pokémon who could simply wield greater raw power.

Kaison didn't think he resented straightforward strength in a pokémon. Half his team, give or take, could probably be called relatively simple in terms of their gameplan, and he cannot deny that he chose, in part, to raise them because of the potential their species held as battlers. Although he certainly isn't the type to look no further than their raw power, there are some pokémon he fears he would simply let down as their trainer. After all, when he felt his team could be improved by a water type, his first thought was the 'Beautifly of the Sea.'

Storm Drain... Perhaps in double battles, though he didn't often partake in them, and his team mainly wanted a water type to handle opposing fire and ice types. Swift Swim? Besides Avici, his team couldn't particularly support weather manipulation, and they weren't known for their offensive prowess to begin with. W- ugh. Water Veil wasn't really an ability any water pokémon often needed, much less ones who didn't particularly fear the physical limitations a burn imposed. Looking at moves... Tailwind support? Defog support? Swagger and Psych Up combined with... uh... No Aqua Jet? It gets- but it doesn't get- that wouldn't work, maybe- no. Urgh.

No matter how he tried, he couldn't plan out a strategy that could take full advantage of a Lumineon's strengths, and as the Captain finally arrived and a girl named Tess made mention of her Mantine, he couldn't help but be reminded of one of the many pokémon species he kept comparing Lumineon to. Tougher. Stronger. Able to learn Defog, Tailwind, and even having a reliable recovery move in Roost whereas Lumineon was stuck relying on Rest, it was hard to argue that a Lumineon could do a Mantine's job better. He didn't want to accept training up a pokémon only for it to be a functionally inferior version of another species doing the same job. He didn't want that for any of his pokémon, ever. Perhaps his inability to find a way to use Lumineon was just his failing as a trainer. Perhaps he was grasping for some type of equality where there wasn't any. Who's to say? Grimsley would have said that nothing but the outcome matters, but he never did ask him what that would mean for the use of such pokémon.

He supposes it doesn't matter now that he has little Téhōm. He might adopt more pokémon in the future, perhaps even more water pokémon, but he finds it difficult to imagine another pokémon being quite as reliable as his cute little Téhōm.

Back to reality, he supposes he should clarify his identity. "Kaison, present."

Now, on the topic of the ship captain's Machamp... Kaison idly pulled out his phone, looking through databases with the relevant information on the species. No Guard and Dynamic Punch, obviously, but there's also Skill Swap shenanigans in doubles, often with a more supportive role with Wide Guard, usually partnered wi-

Wait a second... Machamp can learn Fissure!?

Location: Ocean Pier
Prompts: @Bartimaeus


On the day the S.S. Avalon was to set sail, Kaison had slept right through his alarm, rushed to get ready, flew off at a blistering pace on the back of Elysium, his Togekiss, only to arrive over half an hour early. Checking over the invitation again, then double-checking the time on his phone and the clocks on the S.S. Avalon, he realized he had compensated for daylight savings time when he shouldn't have, having gotten used to doing so since Unova observed it but Alola did not. It all worked out in the end, he supposes, since he wanted to arrive early anyway to take pictures of the ship, doing a fly-around on Elysium. He had to decide which six pokémon to bring on-board, at least initially, and Téhōm's water-bound nature made it an unfortunate exclusion by necessity, at least until he decides to take a dip in the ship's pool, and unfortunately only then. Avici, ever the mature one, offered to step down next, and while Nihil said they should follow suit, the rest of his team agreed with him that having a nice vacation would do the Smeargle some good. Elysium was mandatory, since Kaison needed transportation to the ship itself, and it felt rude to just box her as soon as she got there. Given the potential he would have to participate in some battles on the ship itself, he wanted to bring his lazy monkey, Naraka, since Téhōm's exclusion made his team vulnerable to fire types, and his ace, Samsara. While the Lurantis might have been outwardly mirroring Avici's borderline ascetic lack of concern, Kaison knew better than to actually believe her. It wasn't that Samsara believed she would be okay with sitting things out, it's that she was deliberately playing coy. if he was less charitable, he'd call it outright lying. She'd insist otherwise, of course, but the subtle passive-aggression to follow was just easier to not deal with.

Tartarus, drama queen that he is, would take it as a personal slight to be left out, even if he didn't actually care to participate, and Nemesis seemed ready to throw a tantrum to get her way on the matter. Ultimately, it was all too easy for the team to accept Avalon's offer to step down, which didn't feel fair given how the number one reason he was going on this trip in the first place was because the cruise ship shared a name with the Escavalier. He was too self-sacrificing for his own good, and while he was technically in a similar boat to Nihil, he wasn't chronically depressed and didn't have the same kicked-puppy look Nihil did. Ultimately Kaison just promised he'd take pictures for Avalon to peruse, which meant it would be harder to bench Elysium later after all the extra work she put in helping him get said pictures.

Hopefully Tartarus will get bored, Avalon takes his place, Nemesis doesn't set the ship on fire by accident, and that will be the end of that. It might get awkward talking to and about Avalon when everyone associates the name with the ship, but that's a bridge they can cross when they get there.

As he finishes taking pictures, he flies back down to the pier, waiting for the ship's staff to let people on board. Of course, nothing happens for quite a while, even as the designated boarding time comes and goes. After tiring of the games on his phone, he figures he should go socialize. Most of these people are famous right? Maybe he'll recognize someone.

Well...

Not a single face in the small crowd rings a bell. If they weren't notable in the Sinnoh, Unovan or Alolan leagues, they probably didn't show up on his personal radar, and he's never been keen on social media. Even if one of these people had been on every channel, he prefers playing, modding or making games over television. Sure, he's met famous trainers from foreign regions before; anyone with the "special trainer" designation in the Battle Tree was worth taking note of, and sometimes he looks up relevant trainers when he wants to learn something specific about his pokémon, but yeah, he has no idea who these people are.

He overhears a rather flamboyant man wreathed in pink address one 'Syl Archer' as champion, and he can't help but wonder if he's an acting champion or someone who just earned the champion title, like himself. He wanders over, in any case, wondering just how many champions were invited, when he spots an Alolan Rattata and just can't keep his mouth shut.

"Cool Rattata. Not a lot of people like them. Are they a battler? F.E.A.R. Strat perhaps? It's an all-time classic."





I think a general agreement to just not power-game will help here regardless of what @Carlyle's ultimate decision is. End of the day we're writing a story, not competing in real Pokemon tournaments aye?

To be clear, when I say I like the idea of Kaison being stronger in a 4-moveslot format, I mostly mean that I jive with the idea of some of his gimmicks being viable strategies in and of themselves (i.e. without alternative options) rather than a neat trick his pokémon can do that is expected to be played around for most of his opponents. I was struggling with a good way to word why I like Kaison's team in particular in a 4-moveslot format, though there's a good chance none of that matters as the RP may end up being chiefly pve.

(Of course yeah, on the topic of not power-gaming)
4 moves from their level up list, 1 egg move and 1 TM

Honestly more limiting than just sticking to the 4-moveslot limit imo. For trainers more or less at the end of their journey, where those moves come from shouldn't matter that much.

The problem with free-move is that I just don't want people to go "aha, my pokemon does x super effective move" all the time because they have access to other moves. It defeats the purpose of type matchups if everyone just writes the equivalent of an "I win" button.

I've actually read some fanfics that write battles without the 4 moveslot limit, and while super-effective coverage moves are a common enough occurrence at higher levels of battle, they usually aren't the main focus of a battle's matchup. There's much more of the alternate ways of writing that you mentioned earlier available when pokémon have wider toolkits. Using moves to dodge or cover distance (2-turn moves, priority moves, vaguely mobility-based moves such as Acrobatics or Zing Zap) is an obvious one, though there's also a lot of emphasis on the state of the field (e.g. with liberal use of Stone Edge tearing it up or Surf turning it muddy) or even combination attacks which, with no moveslot limit, no longer comprise at minimum, half of everything your pokémon can do. One of the fics I've read resolved the issue of back and forth switching becoming an issue (besides league limitations or metaphorical sucker-punching being commonplace despite the additional issue that it may not make much sense given field sizes and trainer aim) by making it common for trainers to use setup moves during a switch, which might otherwise be hard to pull off safely in the middle of battle due to the time it takes to execute, and whereas readying an attack can just end in the opponent dodging. Even beyond the obvious stat-boosting setup moves, it also sometimes allows more niche moves like Magnet Rise to shine.

One way I've seen the move limit addressed is that it is thought of as a limitation mainly for novice trainers, with more experienced pokémon (or more experienced trainers) able to (and expected to) train their ability to remember more moves, with talented pokémon able to (effectively) use up to 10 or so at the champion level. There's variance, with different pokémon being better at different things.

In general I prefer larger movepool limits because I think it allows for a lot more creative freedom, (it also stops pokémon from being relatively one-note and usually gives them multiple "modes" of battle) and think that forum RPs are the best place to try out the wacky things we can't get from the pokémon company or even fangames, but I'm also down with the 4-moveslot limit in this instance mainly because I think Kaison's team is significantly stronger when people have less options to work with. That's probably true for most gimmick strategies, though the downside is that the pokémon lack the flexibility to do anything but that gimmick.

In any case, to reiterate what Yankee said:
Let us know if you do end up wanting people to choose specific moves and add them to the CS.
@BurningCold Valid. I guess you could say I've had some bad experiences with RPs in that vein. Happens more with Yu-Gi-Oh RPs, where, if you're not basically running it as a tabletop RP, (which very few people seem keen on doing) it usually ends up with everyone not only expected to ass-pull as much as humanly possible, but also heavily incentivized to deckbuild around doing so, making sure you have as many contrived solutions and impractical combos as you can fit into a deck. Combine that with players who do not want to collaborate in a doc nor decide on an outcome ahead of time and... yeah.

...Pikachu cuts the Earth Power/Stone Edge rocks created by Cynthia's Gastrodon and throws it at them twice. (it caught them, and resists it if it can be called a rock move) It then quick attacks the rocks Gastrodon was holding without actually making contact with Gastrodon. And that's apparently enough to knock it out.

God I hate Ash Ketchum. It's not just that he has plot armor, but that it always feels so lazy and unearned.

Anyway...
I prefer the four moveslot limit

I wouldn't mind holding you to that, though I do have a few concerns if pvp ever arises. (Which seems likely because Pokémon trainers are involved) There's a lot of room for tactical abuse when everyone can canonically change their team's moves between battles and noncanonically change their team's moves mid-battle by retroactively deciding what four moves they have. This might not sound like a big deal, but for a lot of matchups it's a huge unfair advantage, having a greater negative impact on pokémon that rely on specific strategies. (e.g. because moves that can get around their strategy can be swapped in, while the moveslots tied up with the pieces of that strategy cannot logically be swapped out)

This could be alleviated by adding moves to everyone's app (albeit it also spoils what moves they have) or by PMing all moves each pokémon has to you.

Are we abiding by the 4-moveslot limit of the games? I would assume not, but I have plans for either case.
Added Tess, removed Felix.
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