1 AM fights at Waffle House editionPrevious >>59315782>FAQ>What is this?People are turning into Pokemon in the real world. Some are having the time of their lives, and some are struggling to survive. These are their stories.>How do I join?Just start posting.>What's the lore?People and animals (and at least one tree) are changing at random in their sleep, waking up still in the real world, but now as Pokemon, and nobody knows why (that includes you. Please don't try to explain it). Just enough transformations are occurring to notably change day-to-day life without collapsing civilization. This is not the apocalypse, even if it might feel like it to some characters in the moment. Some people are more in touch with their instincts than others, and some have lost more of their humanity than others. That's about it. Avoid legendaries if possible.>What the Hell is PIPS?In many of the stories, the scientific community in-universe has begun referring to Pokemon instincts and the loss of humanity some people who transform experience as Pokémon Induced Psychosis Syndrome, or PIPS. The term is explained in more detail here: https://rentry.org/sip-concepts
Ongoing Stories:>Transformed Into a Lucariohttps://pastebin.com/dNfCG4se>Copanon the PokeWhisperer by Copanonhttps://rentry.co/PolicemanPokemonStory>Digigirlhttps://pastebin.com/rvUJh1Vd>Professor Decidueye by ProfDhttps://rentry.co/ProfD>VetPhox by Phoxanonhttps://rentry.co/DelphoxStory>Kartanimator by Kartanonhttps://rentry.co/kartanimator>The Pokemon Pit by ProfDhttps://rentry.co/r7aa9bzy>Churchanon by Churchanonhttps://rentry.org/cb24k1ti>Swiss Army Mienshao by Mienshanonhttps://rentry.co/whipping-back-into-action/>No Memories Umbreon by Churchanonhttps://rentry.org/ua24k1ti>Emolganonhttps://pastebin.com/EWkUN7zD>Miloticanonhttps://rentry.co/MiloticStory>Belarusian Blastoise by Phoxanonhttps://pastebin.com/WAh6Wnkm>Nineanon and Other Nineshttps://pastebin.com/7ngT3v07>Don Garbodor by ProfDhttps://rentry.co/DonGarbodor>Mimikyu Misadventures by multiple anons (open source)https://rentry.co/MimikyuStory>The DAW Reportshttps://rentry.co/Saffron-1>Copanon's side storieshttps://rentry.co/PolicemanPokemonSideStories>Kartanon's side storieshttps://rentry.co/kartanimator-disc-b>Mienshanon's one-shotshttps://rentry.org/miensha-oneshots>ProfD's one-shotshttps://rentry.org/ProfDOneShots>Bulbanon's one-shots (open source)https://pastebin.com/yCaEfNP9>Other one-shotshttps://pastebin.com/UtXMsyyD>One-shots that were too spicy for pastebinhttps://rentry.co/SoImOneShots>April Fool's Storieshttps://pastebin.com/dP9nGavs
>>59389214>furfaggot general
Archived stories:>Herding Catshttps://rentry.org/HerdingCats>Super Macho Monhttps://rentry.co/MachampStory>0332https://pastebin.com/WMdqhP8H>Tinkanonhttps://rentry.co/TinkatonStory>Not a Pikachuhttps://rentry.co/notapikachu>Lopunanonhttps://pastebin.com/ecBem3sz>Serpent and Wyrm by Snivyanonhttps://rentry.co/SerpentAndWyrm>A Loser and a Lost Snowpix by Drifteranonhttps://rentry.org/tcab223e>The New Police Animals by Snivyanonhttps://rentry.co/larsonkurt>The Human Wimpod Evolvedhttps://rentry.co/GolisopodStory>Sandslash and Ms. Gemstonehttps://rentry.co/h62h6eh7e>Mareanieanonhttps://rentry.co/MareanieStory>Drifteranon's one-shotshttps://pastebin.com/4K9M6uJ2Statistics and thread list:https://rentry.org/fd9ise4ohttps://rentry.org/sip-down-memory-lane
Another small addition to the changelog:- Added Indian Miltank one-shot to Mienshanon's one-shot Rentry page(Yes, that was me)Thanks for keeping the archives up to date, Macho!
just let it die nigga
>>59389214>”It’s okay, Mom, he’s a good guy.”>Mom didn’t think so.>Her eyes locked onto you like a hawk.>She rushed herself between you and the boy.>A veiny, frail arm finding sudden strength, gripping the back of the boy’s shirt too hard.>Wise mom.>”Mooooom, he’s a good guy, Mom! It’s okay!” The kid repeated, louder and longer. “He’s gonna help Kitty!”>As if she didn’t hear him perfectly.>The kid switched between struggling loose and listening to his mother multiple times.“I’ll look.” You called the kid, wanting to reassure both him and Mom.>It had little effect; they starting bickering. >Kitty was last seen near the clothesline, right before the copse at the back of the property.>You’d investigate there.>The back door slammed shut, muting the squabbling.>A lock clacked into place, echoing through the near-empty backyard. >Kid had a good heart.>Mom had a working brain.>You didn’t blame either of them.>Pokémon appearing was a dream come to life for the child. >For Mom, heck if she knew what’s safe or dangerous.>If a stranger appeared in your backyard, where your kid was playing… >Any sane parent would do the same.>Were you still human, it’d be downright frightening.>And with how you looked now?>The dreary, downcast, day made today’s patrol a messy one.>Paws caked with grime.>Fur glistened by humidity.>The skin beneath clammy with sweat.>An animalistic first impression.
>>59389759>Recent events made things tougher.>Wonder and awe from the first months still pulled a lot of weight.>But the stories couldn’t be ignored.>Pokémon were dangerous.>The more bizarre the story, the more memorable it was. >“Historic Grand Canyon Trail Closed Due to Dragons.”>”Grizzlies Brawl Ursaring for Territory.”>Pikachu Stops Pacemaker After Belly Rub: Dos and Don’ts of Approaching Pokémon.”>Mom was right.>Stranger danger.>The clothesline poles were old.>Compared to the new twine above, the metal posts were ancient. >They’d been painted and repainted white multiple times, and the most recent layer flecked away to the rust beneath.>Cats had definitely been here.>Your nose wasn’t sharp enough to tell how many, or what was what.>But there was a subtle feline undercurrent.>Sniffing at the air again made you pause.>Had the boy not flagged you down you’d have continued right past.>Nothing obvious was amiss.>Something was off.>All small and insignificant.>Perhaps nothing on their own, but together.>Fur rose when you stared at the tall woods ahead.>Consciously, you weren’t sure why.>Your unconscious knew.>What you smelled, and what you didn’t smell, were equally important.>A more thorough look shared concerning clues.>No recent droppings.>Elderberries on larger shrubs were left to rot.>Thorny raspberry bushes dominated the forest’s entrance.>The stink of fermentation stung the nostrils as you squatted for a closer look.>Here too, perfectly good raspberries were left to decay.>A fruit popped off with little effort, the gentle tug pulped its sugary innards on your hand-paws.>Too ripe now, but this was a mountain of food for any small creature.>Faded, days-old territorial scents barely registered.>Potent markings lingered, but to be this stale was bizarre.
(Shitpost inspired by the end of the previous thread I have no idea how to bring up in-character so here y'all go:)>https://rentry.co/007inoone(Also thanks everyone for the kind feedback last thread; it means a lot to see that people seem to appreciate the story and the formatting).
>>59389772>Beneath it all, you finally realized, was the unignorable bedrock of carrion.>Old, sulfurous cadavers.>Only at the edge of the forest did you realize how quiet it was.>Where were the birds?>Shielding your eyes, you looked around in a circle.>No songs.>No cawing.>Not a single tweet.>No squirrels hopping about.>Not even a chipmunk.>Only the wind, softly whistling through the brush and rattling leaves.>Lowering your head, you ignored the cauldron of smells, sights, and all other sensation.>Months of practice made seeing aura second-nature.>A wall of living, dying, and dead trees stood proud and tall.>Long tendrils of mycelium stretched below, mingling and aiding the roots of the giants above.>The pure, unthinking aura of long-lived vegetation.>All healthy, pleasant colors.>But the grove behind this neighborhood didn’t glow like a forest should.>Nothing bigger than insects.>You reached further in, and the same colors remained.>Where was everything? >Lifeless boulders, different colonies of pests, and hopeful saplings broke the monotony.>Any and all small animals eluded you.>You swam deeper, reaching the innermost depths of the woodland. >Only in a cropping of dead trees did you finally spot the outlier. >This far out, it strained the extent of your abilities. >You were tensing invisible muscles demanding relaxation.>It stood out so much it was impossible to miss.>You grunted, losing focus for a second and making your eyes water. >There was something.>The unmistakable aura outline of a kitten…>Scared.>Very scared. >Not on the ground… >A few feet in the air… >Rotating.>Spinning.>Like meat on a spit.>Round and round.>And above it…>So hard to make out…>Something…>Hungry.Updated Aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seMore tomorrow. I read everything from the previous thread. Didn't give a (you) to everything like I should've. Glad you nerds keep writing. Lotta fun here!Point out my mistakes, share advice, etc.
>>59389783Well that's positively horrifying. Good to have you back, Lucarioanon
>>59389759I wonder if wearing some human-ish clothes might help the Lucario’s first appearance. Make it obvious this isn’t some feral beast, but a human with (at least most of their) logic and reason.Superman shirt? Collar? PMD trademark bandannas?>>59389772I always imagine the Aura vision like Hitman “Instinct”. Very cool that he’s developed his skills this far.>>59389783I’m genuinely stumped by which Pokémon that is supposed to be and can’t wait to find out.
>>59389781We’re glad to have you and are looking forward to more “files”! I’d love to hear more about 007 and other adventures they go on.Clearly 007 must make it out alive if he was able to write the personal log.
>>59389781You sure that's a shitpost? That was some quality Spy Novel shenanigans!
>>59389781>He knew that the beginning of torture is the worst. There is a parabola of agony. A crescendo leading up to a peak and then the nerves are blunted and react progressively less until unconsciousness and death. All he could do was to pray for the peak, pray that his spirit would hold out so long and then accept the long free-wheel down to the final black-out.>He had been told by colleagues who had survived torture by the Germans and the Japanese that towards the end there came a wonderful period of warmth and languor leading into a sort of sexual twilight where pain turned to pleasure and where hatred and fear of the torturers turned to a masochistic infatuation. It was the supreme test of will, he had learnt, to avoid showing this form of punch-drunkenness. Directly it was suspected they would either kill you at once and save themselves further useless effort, or let you recover sufficiently your nerves had crept back to the other side of the parabola. Then they would start again.>Le Chiffre was talking again. 'Torture is a terrible thing,' he was saying as he puffed at a fresh cigarette, 'but it is a simple matter for the torturer, particularly when the patient,' he smiled at the word, 'is a man. You see, my dear Bond, with a man it is quite unnecessary to indulge in refinements. With this simple instrument, or with almost any other object, one can cause a man as much pain as is possible or necessary. Do not believe what you read in novels or books about the war. There is nothing worse. It is not only the immediate agony, but also the thought that your manhood is being gradually destroyed and that at the end, if you will not yield, you will no longer be a man.
>Kat and Lucarioanon after finding a hot tub (Lucario is trying desperately not to get paralyzed from the electric current)
>>59390314Dangerous as fuck if she's got a startle response.
Here's the first entry in my story of a neet who turns into a bulbasaur and tries to get his life back togetherhttps://rentry.org/bulbanon
>>59390356This thread is actually just one guy pretending to be eight different anons at once
>>59389218/thread
>>59389214furfaggots are less than subhuman
>What would I do if I turned into a Pokémon?Easy.
>>59390456It is a good use of the hands. But you know one of those little shits would demand attention from all four of your hands and be ungrateful if you divide your attention.
>You were worried that the animals turning would make it harder to herd your sheep>Your old ewe turning into an Ampharos made handling the others easy>The old girl is the best assistant you could ask for>Life is good
>>59389218furfaggot board
>>59389781This is greatI love the intrigueThese files are quickly becoming one of my favorite series of stories
I wish I was a Vaporeon.
>>59391475Swimming in clean water while being semipermeable sounds like a wonderful zen experience. Things literally flowing through you, feeling the currents all around you, deciding when to cut through and when to let yourself be carried, being at one with the water itself.
Thank you to those interested in the 007 file I managed to decrypt. However, that was done solely by chance; those are sealed up more tightly than Fort Knox, so it's a miracle I got it at all. If it happens again I'll post, but really don't count on it.As for the files I am here to spread, I managed to decrypt another one of Saffron's reports:>https://rentry.co/Saffron-2To the person who asked if I have any personal relation to Saffron, I can't really answer because that could give away who I am. Someone also said how the stories seem to have some strange part at the beginning. I looked into it and it seems like some parts of the third file got shifted to the front of the first two. Fixing that is beyond my capabilities, but I think the best solution I could come up with is making a site where people can access the database of my leaks. It's here. I guess this can be the 'homepage' of my files for the OP links:https://rentry.co/ARK-SIPThanks again for your care, anons. Stay safe out there; these are trying times.
>>59391581I like the way you post these stories in-character. It's very fun
>>59391581>unless the user has has tor
>>59391680(fixed many thanks)
>>59391581With how intense (or desperate) the government is getting with these Pokémon projects, it’s probably a good thing VetPhox got out when she did.
>>59389783>You bolted forward.>Wholly forgetting your place in reality, you tumbled into, though, and over raspberry bush prickles.>Hundreds of tiny jabs weren’t enough to disrupt your transition to a bounding sprint. >Afterimages of aura blinked away, mixing real-sight with the cosmic. >Instinct moved you faster than thought. >In situations like this, you learned not to think.>Thinking makes you second-guess. >Never second-guess muscle memory.>Paws avoided roots, sharp rocks, and outcroppings you never consciously registered.>Trees blocked your path, but bounding off the largest with your powerful legs kept up the momentum.>Ears bent and twitched at odd angles, avoiding branches and leaves.>At a wet slope, you speedily clawed your way up on all fours to keep balance.>Kitty wandered deep.>Kitty probably wondered where everyone was too.>Maybe looking for family.>Sliding down a ravine on dead, wet leaves brought you close.>Sobbing meows were barely audible over the rush of air and crunch of detritus.>A hop across a small creek was all it took to stop you.>Maybe, had you honed your aura skills, you’d have noticed the opaque snare.>Perhaps, had you squinted, you’d have seen it.>Foolishly, had you thought ahead in the past minute, you’d have anticipated this obvious trap.>All three thoughts came to you mid-fall.>Your ankle slammed into sturdy, gooey strands, and sent you careening over. >Momentum carried you a few extra feet in the air before you ingloriously smashed into forest mulch.>Air knocked out of you.>The wet ground kept you sliding and tumbling towards your target.>You instinctively covered your face, but the friction hurt less than the shame. >The thoughts came fast.>The false knowledge.>These things are never alone.>They breed and consume and conquer.>Molesting the landscape. >Terrorizing mammals as they have for eons. >Gasping for breath, you turned your eyes upward.>A moment was all you needed.
>>59392000>You entered an alien landscape.>A realm of death.>Webs.>Tens of thousands of strands glimmered in slender, crystalline patterns.>Dew illuminated the densest concentrations of silk, and the canopy was thick.>Had you fallen from the sky, there was likely enough to arrest your fall and save you from crashing to the ground.>Enough to trap something big as you.>Husks of birds, squirrels, and other small creatures too emaciated and cocooned to make out hung like Christmas lights on cords.>Little mummies in the breeze. >Unknowingly flying or leaping into the snare of this ecosystem’s usurper. >All unaware the rules of survival changed overnight.>It made you mad.>You hurriedly brushed away the leaves and dirt stuck to your chest, reorienting yourself after the trip. >You prayed the tumble hadn’t alerted the horde.>The webbing snapped when you tumbled over it, and the thread neatly wrapped itself around your ankle.> Seeing no movement above, you gave a few experimental brushes to rub the silk away.>It ground the tacky webbing further into your fur and gummed your fingers.>Little came away when you smeared it across the ground.>If a single strand was this annoying… >Muted, panicked whimpering reminded you why you rushed headfirst into this corrupted place.>Between a trio of dead, but standing, oak trees, an orange kitten struggled against an ever-tightening prison.>Above it, a red and black ariados languidly worked away, preparing its next meal. >A face of pained terror on its abdomen, created by oily, gangly hairs, bobbed with each vile movement.>Back legs pulled threads from its spinneret, and its front pair worked them with the precision of a sickly artisan. >Long, chitinous eggshell fangs clicked and rotated in perverse imitation of a man’s jaw.>Preparing a batch of venom.>A nightmare made manifest. Updated Aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seMore tomorrow.Please share thoughts, comments, suggestions, pointers, etc.
>>59392004You've successfully turned a bug type no one thinks twice about into the stuff of nightmares. Good job, but damn, that's a really ugly thing to think about in the context of the real world suddenly having to deal with this kind of shit.
>>59392004Thanks, I absolutely loathe this and it makes me slightly queasy. Burn it all down.
>>59392013Yeah, this is exactly the kind of thing I love about these stories
>>59392004This is revenge for all the bugs my cats have killed...
>>59390369I realized I missed this at the start of the thread, and boy was this a good pallet cleanser (no offense to Lucario, I’m just an arachnophobic wuss).The concept of transformation insurance is funny. Surely being a Bulbasaur must count for at least partial disability? At least 30%? Financialization of everything strikes again, as does social media setting unrealistic expectations. Poor kid, hope his parents are doing okay. Maybe this little axolotl will be what the doctor ordered for this grumpy frog.
>>59391581I really like how this adventure is shaping up. Saffron having a shot at Sky Forme is a neat thing to build the adventure of the day plot out of.
>>59389759I am so happy that we still get new entries in Lucario's storyIt reminds me of Spider-man (when it was good)You really have a talent for making mundane pokemon seem terrifying
>>59392195Thank you for reading it!I have a lot of adventures planned for these two and just added the second chapter.I plan to edit the rentry page tomorrow to make the formatting cleaner.
>>59392923To be fair, it doesn’t take much to make a three and a half foot spider terrifying
>>59393209A three and a half foot spider wouldn't normally be the apex predator of the woods, to be fair.
>>59390369I like how you worked in the angle that Evolution is a very slow, very drawn out affair, but damn, shit's rough if nobody's even managed to evolve from a Caterpie into a Metapod in the last two years.
>>59389781Okay, THIS makes more sense that it would be censored. Still in that weird narrative style, but, hey, we'll roll with it...I actually totally buy that most Zoroarks don't have the disposition to be spies. They tend to be flighty and nervous, whereas a spy needs absolute self-confidence. Any room you walk into - you belong there, regardless of how much you manifestly do not. That said, one must always temper that confidence to avoid it verging over into arrogance...>007No comment. Clearly someone was being a funny fucker.Hokay, so I guess we're infiltrating the underground Pokefighting scene. Hopefully VetPhox doesn't run afoul of 00noone at any point...I'm not even gonna "giggty" the ball-stuffing thing. Too obvious. Why do you care that "Digits" won the bet too, anyway? Also, normal types are perfect for blending in and all that, but he could apparently sus you out immediately. Great job, Noone. Great job...>He was a LopunnyOh hey, it's the long lost cousin of the girl from Alex's casino.Umm, why does the make of the drink of all things need to be redacted?...Okay, so let's review here - Digits not only knew Noone was coming (he had to have, in order to have planned this silly chilled sphere shit in advance), but was apparently intimately familiar enough with his dossier to know that he would be highly vulnerable to this particular Linoone instinct. As amusing at is to see Noone immediately get clowned on for his arrogance, this honestly feels less like incompetence and more like somebody set him up to fail. Is that too paranoid of me? These ARE secret government documents, allegedly, so I feel like it probably isn't...>Some rumors were that the transformed matched the Pokemon they had turned intoErr, no, that is VERY much confirmation bias talking, mate...
>>59393522Really, Digits? You've got this dude dead to rights and all you can think to do is copy-paste from the actual Bond novel (as 9973 already elucidated)? Not even gonna try to creatively exploit his PIPS further or anything? No? Just the copy-paste. Okay, now I KNOW Noone was being set up to fail, although you'd think whoever did so would pick a less useless toadie in that case. I mean as 9884 pointed out, we KNOW Noone gets out of this because of the forward, so...Yeah, I'm still not sure what to make of all this, to be honest. Maybe it will become clearer as ARK leaks more docs...(out of character, really fun and silly little interlude. Maybe the real spycraft was the High Jump Kicks to the head we got along the way...)>>59389783Bickering in front of a beast you think is dangerous. I guess we'll chalk that up to right idea, extremely poor execution? Granted that's me being generous. Dove-tailing off what 9864 said, you can't go wrong with a lanyard. Few things more official-looking than a lanyard. Honestly, with how many times Lucarioanon repeats to himself that the mum is right, I have a feeling it may be cope to deal with the broader societal mistrust and rejection - not to mention the trauma of his own parents rejecting him. See mate this is why you need to make yourself actually known to the community like the Gardevoir did (you already know from her example that you won't immediately be hauled off for experimentation or whatever) and build a relationship with them instead of keeping up this mysterious vigilante shit. It's obviously not good for your mental health, and didn't your finances dry up completely a while ago? You ever do anything about that?
>>59393525Yep, all the classic signs of a large predator operating in the area. Realistically you can only distract yourself from your broader problems with these heroics for so long, but we'll discuss further once you've extracted yourself from the danger you're about to throw yourself into. The kitten being off the ground initially made me think some psychic type or other, but then I wondered if we could be looking at one the spider-like web spinning Pokemon (of which there are several). Guess we'll see (very shortly considering your next update is already up as I'm writing this).>>59390369Good to have your main story up, Bulb. Let's see what we're dealing with here...We're dealing with getting slapped in the face with how awful insurance companies and youth unemployment are, apparently. Well that certainly sets a mood, doesn't it? But hey, easy sympathy for our lead is still sympathy. On the plus side, you can probably only get better with your vines with practice, and sunbathing as a grass type DOES sound pretty pleasant...>Neither of them would ever make it on the comedy circuit.Eh. If the Comedy Mothership is any indication, it's not what you know, it's who you know...Something tells me your scowl was already permanent, mate.Hmm... is there a Little Cup version of VetPhox's fight club...? I agree setting on people at random isn't the way forward, but for those transformees whose quality of life could be substantially improved by evolution, surely we could figure something out. Assuming phenomenon-spawned Pokemon even work that way, that is... Anyways, it's a little bit plot convenient that Bulbanon gets such an irrefutable reality check literally immediately, but I guess the story's gonna focus more on his and the Wooper's double act than on myself having to learn to be appreciative anyways.>On one side a cold indifferent monsterMethinks the Bulbasaur doth protest too much...
>>59393528>And then I said something that I would often regret in the months to come.To be fair, evolving would also benefit yourself - let's not pretend there's NO rational self-interest to be had here, even if you yourself are unaware of it. You know in a funny way, Sean kinda feels halfway between Valentine and Ben psychologically, and accordingly both his cynicism and his defeatism wind up feeling a little bit half-hearted. Needing to actually learn the ways of Pokemon rather than just going on larping as a houseplant might be just the thing he needs - a bit of direction in life for a change.>Why oh why did I promise a tiny blue axolotl that I could find a way to magically get his arms back?Because you know that Pokemon evolution is a thing that actually happens (at least in the source material)? Let's not pretend you're comparing apples to apples here, Mr. Pity Party. You made a commitment, so cinch up that bulb of yours and get on with it. Also, you're trying to blame PIPS for yourself... having empathy...? That's a new one. Also, implying staring at a screen all day is any different from what you did before you transformed, mate...Welp, at least his parents are the supportive (if slightly embarrassing) Kartanon kind and not the Lucarioanon kind. Guy like this could have a number of very bad experiences were that not the case...A Jellicent is only 2.2 meters long. How the fuck did one sink an entire cargo ship? There's a story behind that... Let's be honest, though, customer satisfaction has been on the way out for a while now. This is just another convenient excuse.I guess is the same website Copanon was looking at. Neat. Having Spinda-like pattern variations on other Pokemon WOULD be fun. Heh, yeah, get Matt to do Expie armless pushups. Perfect.>I’ll be a pariah if I let this kid down.We don't need to go too far to the other extreme either, y'know.
>>59393532Hmm. So it seems evolution might not exist in phenomenon Pokemon after all. Or at the very least it's rare. Not great, but there might be a secret sauce to it like there is in Mystery Dungeon. Considering battling constantly to level up is less viable here than it is in the main sequence games, that very well might be the case. Best thing to do would be to be honest with the kid about this, but Sean seems a bit too emotionally constipated for that, I so I look forward to him proceeding to dance around the issue for bleventeen chapters and inevitably breaking Matt's heart way harder because of it. At least Matt can jump good.Several MILES of interstate? That doesn't seem right... I feel like this emergency rations thing is a microcosm of Sean as he's been characterized so far. He's a bit annoying - a bit of a fuckup - but in an enjoyable way. The advantage of being stuck between Ben and Val's characters is that he feels more amenable to being able to turn his life around, as he's not as far gone as either of them. Hopefully he can get his thinking cap on and wring something productive out of this whole mess - it's nice to see someone who's evidently been faceplanting their way through life be able to step up and genuinely give something when the chips are down. Maybe he'll surprise even himself. "Figure out what new things you can do" IS genuinely good advice - one I give to our characters frequently - so I can definitely see it happening.Also, his dad just apparently completely missed the mess on the floor? Well alrighty then.
>>59391581>those are sealed up more tightly than Fort KnoxI'm still not convinced it isn't their incompetence that they're really hiding>I can't really answer because that could give away who I am.Which I fear is a statement that kinda gives the game away in and of itself for those in the know. >I looked into itYou didn't read this shit before uploading?Oooh, I like the ominous homepage, though. Very stylish. Probably way more effort than your department puts into its actual webpages, no?Welp, right back into Saffron's little adventure here and we're already "Civic, plz"ing literally immediately. Off to a great start! I genuinely don't know whether that's sarcasm or not... Anyways, it's kind of amusing just how evidently far above Civic and Saffron's paygrade whatever they're doing right now is. Gotta love that feel also when you're VERY clearly walking into a trap (doesn't take Lucarioanon to sus that one out in this case), but you're on a mountainside in a blizzard, so you don't have any choice but to keep going...Well, that's dark...So we're looking at an ice type that's sufficiently humanoid to be mistaken at a distance through a blizzard and likes to kill people. Froslass, maybe? Good thing guns would technically be a steel type attack, but all the same I don't like your chances here, boys...I'll say this for whatever glitch in the database apparently caused this - it has a helluva sense of dramatic timing...Rewinding again, it's good to know military psychiatrists are every bit as boring as the regular ones. Gotta love these guys paranoidly double and triple-checking to make ABSOLUTELY sure Saffron ain't gonna feral sicko mode on some bitches (although I don't know what they expect a tiny green hedgehog to actually DO... blow pollen on somebody who's allergic...?), while meanwhile the Swiss military is just over there raw-dogging nakedly unstable so-and-sos like Eti and Nick.
>>59393661I mean hey, if only ever referring to people by their callsign is good enough for Battletech... Heh, Corpus Christi sounds like a GREAT place to have Pokemon mishaps...You gotta wonder, how many Pokemon are ACTUALLY going to be THAT useful to the military in practice? The big birds can go fast, sure, but probably won't match the performance of top-end jets, same with the big bulky ones and tanks, and little guys like Saffron pale in comparison to the Ukranian drone armada. If it were up to me I'd focus a lot more on the burrowers, sea dwellers, and the potential of ghost and psychic types - the standard land and sky critters like Saffron just ain't all that if you ask me, which would explain why in just a couple of months time the Swiss will be integrating them into their standard units rather than doing this "it's teh top sekrit!" shit, especially since we know phenomenon Pokemon aren't as powerful as Pokedex entries describe their game counterparts as being (out of character, we discussed this when Miensha was pondering how strong to make Nick)... granted their game counterparts aren't as powerful as Pokedex entries describe their game counterparts as being, but still...Honestly, the fact that Civic of all people managed to fast-talk these brasshats into letting him be Saffron's "trainer" I think really underscores the incompetence and just how little everybody really understands what's actually going on, something even Saffron himself calls out. This tiny white hedgehog represents a bold new direction in warfare because... it's new, and don't question it, just like the last eight failed equipment procurements... I gotta get me my cushy MIC job after I retire from the Pentagon, damnit!The context of service member Pokemon having essentially no rights definitely puts a new, even darker spin on the spooks following VetPhox around...
>>59393667The guard... national guard...? Is there any reason said Corviknight COULDN'T learn those laws? Like I get it if she wouldn't normally make it into the air force because she's not smart enough or whatever, but surely under the circumstances if you're THAT desperate to counter the Chinese (or Russian or North Korean or whoever) Garchomp (which I think could probably be shot down by an F-35 just fine, but neverminded) you'd work a bit harder to make it work? Also, plot twist, the Garchomp barely has their shit together enough to just fly, isn't combat capable at all, and won't be for another six months to six years, just like half of the military capabilities America's adversaries show off in propaganda videos.Ah, so they ARE the Pokedex is full of shit. Well that's good at least.>those shitty gamesSour grapes, my friend?So he can't purify stuff. First of all, that sucks for him, but secondly, this is really underscoring the incompetence angle for me - they've seen with their own eyes that these things ain't all that, yet they're still thoroughly convinced that they're a game changer. I mean in fairness that sounds like the American military to me. I don't even think that's a headcanon or subtext anymore... I think that's just plain text at this point... I'm definitely sensing a note of resentment in Saffron's musings...Woah. Saffron, how are you more instinct low than ALEX? That's... actually kind of impressive... I guess it could be because a low level Shaymin will only know Growth, but the phenomenon doesn't seem to strictly follow the rules of levels and level up learnsets, so who knows? Maybe Civic's just a really bad trainer... You know what? Fair play to you, I think you've earned at least SOME of those sour grapes... At least you have officially sanctioned military gym badges now. Which I appreciate is a little bit like saying "at least I have chicken", but still...
>>59393671Heh, it would be really funny if all present-military transformees were super instinct low, such that the only guys who can actually use moves well are the ones protected by whatever shenanigans the UN got up to, leaving the spooks who follow VetPhox around to shake their damn heads as they eavesdrop on her latest fight club match, wishing that the army could get a splash of that. Hence perhaps the Swiss army encouraging new Pokemon recruits. Swiss army stay winning...(Poor Saffron. They're almost starting to feel like a bit of an anti-Stu)>baseless rumoursI'm sure>the thought of always having been a Shaymin, of my family always having been one, was terrifyingly euphoric.That one kinda reminds me of the way Cruz's PIPS works. Your memories aren't altered, but you can place yourself within the Pokemon's mindset easily and it's very pleasant to do so (hey, maybe that's the key to Saffron unlocking his powers and moves). At least he doesn't have his Pokemon instincts manifesting as a mentor figure tulpa... this shrink would definitely do some VERY fun things with that...Really? The parrot Churchanon ran into is the best report you have of animals turning?>I'm surprised you're hitting the bullseye with thisI'd say even he's not that stupid but with everything I've been reading in here so far, I'm genuinely starting to wonder about literally everyone involved... Also, isn't DEbriefing only for AFTER the mission? Or did I catch the chairforce's stupid too? Not even gonna go into the whole using a shrink to give briefings thing... that just seems like asking for trouble...>Plainly, it was exactly what the government would normally do.At least Saffron's with me on that. Just put the actual superior on the opposite side of some plexiglass or something, for God's sake...Eeyep. Sometimes, gentlemen, all you can do is laugh at the absurdity...
>>59393675Speaking of, this is another instance where I have to question the need for such secrecy. Can't you just tell the villages that you're gonna bring a Pokemon in who can handle the flowers and not to touch them anymore? Is this mountain range in the Middle East or something? Are you afraid the Chinese are gonna send their own Shaymin to get some of the flowers? Do any of you hear yourselves?I wouldn't count your Torchics before they hatch, Saffron, but it would certainly be nice if any or all of those things happened...>we didn't actually know our rank in relation to hisBecause why would you at this point?>pack a gunIt's almost like he knows something's going to go wrong, but I feel like that would be too much competence for this military at this point.Welp, I guess I was right about the whole covering up incompetence angle. I can definitely think of WORSE reasons to blow the whistle. You keep on furnishing us if you can, ARK... these are earnestly fascinating insights into the inner workings of sheer ineptitude...I guess it really is true what they say: There's progress, and then there's Army Progress.(Out of character, this is a total comedy of errors and I am honestly here for it. It kinda balances out Miensha's more serious and respectful take on the military quite nicely. Looking forward to more.)
>Lucarioanon if he was a normie
>>59393253>damn, shit's rough if nobody's even managed to evolve from a Caterpie into a Metapod in the last two years.I guess I should clarify that just because Bulbanon wasn't able to find any solid information doesn't mean it hasn't happenedThere's probably been dozens of cases by that point
>>59392004>The insect was gargantuan, and at least half your size.>Being larger did little to settle the gorge in your throat.>Ingrained programming made you hyper-focus when suddenly spotting a snake or yellow jacket. >This was no different.>And you knew without knowing; there were dozens more in the treetops above.>Maybe not as big. Maybe its young. >Maybe fewer, maybe more.>There was little time to check.>But they spawn sickeningly quick. >You inhaled quietly through your nose, steeling yourself. >Five seconds.>One to scramble into position, bracing the heel of your paw on a tree root.>Two to make out errant filaments in your path.>The final two for planning>’Run fast. Tackle Kitty out of the spider web.’>Calling it a plan was a joke.>It had to do.>You exhaled.>Pushing yourself off the root brought you to top speed within a second.>The first web-rope was child’s play to run around.>The next you ducked beneath.>Another you twirled over.>Ariados hadn’t noticed, all eyes on its soon-to-be-liquified morsel.>You were a whirlwind, kicking up leaves behind you.>Widening your arms like a charging linebacker, you rammed into the spider’s web as fast as you could go.>You had to slow.>Just a little.>You weren’t running straight through.>This was a rescue.>A sudden jolt might hurt the poor cat, but you needed the momentum to carry you through.>Just off-center, beyond the reach of your wickedly-sharp chest spike, you hugged Kitty’s cocoon tight to your breast.>One web-line broke, snapping loudly.>Your paw came to cradle the wound-up animal, pushing into the sticky mass like it was cotton candy.>The ariados, alien as it was, recoiled. >Shocked.>You pushed through another string.>Nothing else was big enough to challenge the giant arachnid this deep in the thicket.>Fibers yanked and tugged at your longer chest fur, pulling the looser hairs away.
>>59394850>Ariados withdrew from its wobbling web, hissing and scrambling to one of the sturdier dead trees holding its home aloft.>A taught silken wire snapped and painfully slammed into your ankle.“C’mon, c’mon!” You spat through gritted teeth.>A paw stepped in organic glue. >Momentum slowed.>An airborne web fell upon your tail, worming its way into the blue fur.>It wasn’t enough.>Your legs needed rest.>Just one second. >Only a second.>You stopped. >Ariados chittered and clicked its mandibles.>A warning.>A threat.>And, when you looked back, a call.>A smaller, green spider swarm scuttled above.>Spinarak. >Lots of them.>Enough to make your eyes widen.>Your options were limited.>One hand was fastened to the bundle of mewling cat at your chest.>A calculated swing of the other, free hand sliced a web away, the point on the backhand sailing clean through. >Not enough.>Not nearly enough.>Too many strings to cut with one free palm.>Purple-black venom dribbled from the titanic insect’s maw.>It clambered across surviving webs, scurrying towards you with malicious resolve.>Your emotions ran high.>Everything here was on edge.>It roused the fire in your soul. >You felt it before you saw it.>A wellspring of strength in this dark place.>Aura flowed down your free arm, to the tips of your paw pads.>A pleasant and welcome burn that drew its power from everything around.>You borrowed it all.>Just for a moment.>Kitty’s confusion and fear.>Ariados’ and spinaraks’ rage and hunger.>Their unending hunger.>Your disgust and hopes and valor. >You reached to the dead tree holding ariados’ web.>It served this forest long and well.>Home, protection, and sustenance for hundreds of generations of animals.>And this thing dared twist it into a killing ground.>Sully its legacy.>The aura around its roots remembered.>It all fiercely flowing through your legs and up your torso, tingling your soul.
>>59394855>Flames of blue and purple coalesced around your palm resting on the ancient tree. >Ariados reared back to strike.>The explosion rattled the entire forest.>Were the webs not bracing you, you might have been launched backwards by the immense force.>Practicing alone, with only your emotions to fuel it, produced nothing of this caliber. >Dead bark withstood the elements for years, but stood no chance against the ethereal life fiercely rushing back into it.>The tree trunk detonated.>Splinters rocketed outward, carried by the force of the blast away from you.>Shrapnel whizzed through leaves, stuck in the ground, and pelted the arachnids closing in. >Webs caught much of the shards, dotting the webs nearby like sprinkles on icing. >The fastest shards sheared right through.>By sheer volume, enough struck the smaller insects to make them panic and flail, scrambling for cover.>What remained of the tree fell like a giant, effortlessly dragging down the spinarak with it.>The stunned spinarak fell belly up on the ground.>Its many legs flailed at the air as it rolled side-to-side in brown, wet leaves. >Strands of its former perch fell over it, further tangling the horror in its own trap.>The chaos completely helped you.Updated aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seMore tomorrow. Share comments, suggestions, ideas for what to write, advice, etc. Thank you for all the compliments and kind words, I read everything you post.>>59389781Loved Casino Royale, but I much prefer the imagery of a linoone at a card table.>>59391581Haven't read this one, but I appreciate the good presentation you put into these. Keep up the good work!
>>59394882Tense one. I hope kitty's alright. Are there any faculties up there in that Ariados and the Spinarak, or were they wild animals or insects before turning?
>>59394882>>59394855>>59394850Lucario meets a a Real life Shelob
>>59394855Man, I wonder how long it would take before the wilderness just becomes completely unsafe everywhere
>>59395531At that point you start seeing exterminator squads show up to handle the ecosystem killers. And wouldn't that be an absolute clusterfuck and a half.
Gentlemen, we are falling victim to the question and general incomprehension of Large Numbers. The United States of America has an official estimated population in excess of 342,610,000. If one in one hundred people turn into Pokemon, that's 3,426,100 Pokemon. Excluding major legendaries, there are approximately 1000 species to choose from, and assuming an even distribution, that makes for approximately 3,400 examples of each and every species in the United States alone. Distributions are not likely to be even in practice, but common Pokemon should be very well represented in the general population at large.
>>59396026A good question to ask is how long it takes to reach that 1% turned number
>>59396475Ten year model, global population. Asymptote at 2% of the human population.
>>59394882>After three heavy, powerful lunges you yanked yourself free of the colossal spider web’s remains.>Hissing, spitting, and skittering noises were swallowed by the forest behind you.>More leaves, branches, and dirt clung to the sticky spots in your fur with every step back to civilization.>Adrenaline fueled you and instinct guided you. >Could they track you? >You hoped the surreal knowledge would bubble up.>Anything to help. >Precious little came to mind, save your feelings. >Intense revulsion.>A branch stung your shoulder.>Enough webbing remained to throw off your balance and movements.>Branches not only hit you, but stuck to you.>Jabbing you in tender spots unless forced aside.>A few sores were acceptable instead of slowing down.>Remembering the raspberry bushes this time, you cleared them with a long hop.>Damp lawn against your paws soothed your blood.>You slowed your sprint to a walk, and headed towards the house.>Half-walking, half-hopping, you plucked off the worst of the branches and leaves poking you.>The kitten stuck to your chest was no less frightened than when you stole it away.“Hey, hey, c’mon, little guy…” You said, hoping to calm it down.>Shrill and incessant meowing stung the ears.>It was all the kitten could do. Little more than his mouth could move; his legs and tail were completely restrained.>Your claws weren’t the sharpest, but you picked and tore at the more annoying stickiness bothering the baby cat.>Every time you plucked a limb free, it wildly flailed it into another more adhesive.>Gritting your teeth, you wrapped both paws around the orange tabby and gently drew it away from your torso.>Webs tugged at your chest fur as well as the kittens.>You couldn’t pull much.>You didn’t want to hurt the little guy.>Loosened strands hung like melted cheese, and you tore them off bit by bit.
>>59396885>You dumbly stood at steeps to the back porch, pulling and cutting and pulling again, making slow progress. >A large, white blotch of cobweb remained on your chest, now fully soaked into the fur.>You dreaded getting all this out later.>The kid stared at you between white, sun-bleached blinds, and it lifted your spirits.>The blinds were probably drawn in hopes of keeping the kid’s attention off you.>Mom fought a losing battle.>The kid screamed to Mom of your success.>Muffled, excited conversation behind the glass door gave you ample time to scrape the worst off the petrified feline. >It could move now, but nothing short of a bath and haircut would get rid of the nastiest spots.>Through the glass and past the blinds, you saw the mom talking with the boy.>Her aura softened. >Not by much.>Seeing you with their cat went a long way in showing you weren’t a monster.>A creep who trespassed where he pleased, yes. But a good one.>Thankfully, the boy wore her patience down.>The lock clacked and the back door slid open. >”You saved Kitty!” The boy shouted with an open, toothy smile and the overenthusiasm only a young child possesses.>Mom still protectively held back her son, silently judging.“He’s gonna need a haircut.” >Hopefully, you could avoid one.>The confused kitten tried to groom itself in your grasp>You combed the cat’s mangy fur with your claws again, smoothing the wild fur over.>The mass of cobweb in its coat acted like slick hair gel. >”What is all that?” Mom asked, watching you flick some of the white, balled-up goo away.“Spider webs.” You responded, matter-of-factly.>”That’s, uh… A lot.” >”Get some gloves, sweetie.” She told her son, finally loosening her iron grip.>He giddily disappeared back into the house, and out of earshot.>The woman stared deadpan at you, realizing how matted your own fur was by the same gunk.>You answered before she asked.“Giant spiders.”
>>59396891>Mom stood dumbstruck as you walked across the wooden patio.>Weeks ago she’d have laughed such a thing off.>A biped, talking jackal was one of the saner things to happen in the state.>Seeing was believing.>Every other step you made left a wet squish, the foot clumped with sticky webs dead leaves.>”Are they…? You know.” >She looked beyond your shoulder, at the dark forest behind you.>You felt the pit in her stomach drop.>Any worry about you was replaced with something more primal.>The monster in the dark. >Leaves rustled in the modest wind.>You said nothing, for she asked many questions at once.>Your guttural grunt answered and didn’t answer her.>They were out there.>They were dangerous.>And you made them mad.>This was your problem now.>This ultimate, invasive species effortlessly toppled an ecosystem.>They wouldn’t stop because food low here, no.>Like a festering wound, these mega-arachnids would spread unless treated.“There was a lot.” You finally answered, >The woman regretted asking. “I’ll take care of them.” You added.>Someone had to.Updated aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seMore tomorrow.Share thoughts, comments, criticism, etc. I love reading what you guys write. If you have suggestions for what I should write next how how the next scene might go, I'm all ears.
>>59396902We going spider squashing.You know in the anime always saw beedrill as this infestation problem.It was every Region but the Unovan ones that had beedrill like a disease.And I always wondered how thePokemin world would handle Infestations.On another note, could our world handle an Ultra Beast attack?
>>59396891>“Giant spiders.”That'll do it.>>59396902>“I’ll take care of them.” You added.>>Someone had to.And true enough. But now they're going to be in the real shit, because the endless string of the Ariados is going to lead straight back to that house, and mama giant spider is gonna be pissed. Good update.>>59396865Another variant, which is probably more realistic for a mystical but asymptotically bound transformation.
Man, the thread's been the livliest since the beginning of the year, I believe. It's a bloody shame I don't have the brain capacity to reply to them all, and properly share my thoughts. God-forsaken heat wave makes my mind go all numb and tired...So, sorry lads, I won't be able to reply at this time. Rest assured that I thoroughly enjoyed all of the posted stories this and last thread! Keep up the good work, all!
>>59396915A note for anyone thinking about using this model, the actual reporting would be noisy, delayed, imperfect, and the clear trend of transformations slowing down would not be visible to statisticians until year six.
>>59396961Don't worry about it Mienshanon, just survive the heatwave.
>>59396961I just started reading your story yesterday and got to the part where Nick the Fletchinder does his fitness test.I'm really enjoying it!
>>59396026I’ve had in my mind “everyone knows someone” who has been affected. If you estimate you meet about 80,000 people in a lifetime, 1 in 30,000 people sounds about right. That would be about the same occurrence rate as Achondroplasia, (what Peter Dinklage has). That would work out to only about 11,000 people in the US. Plus, it’s a good amount where it’s notable, but only a novelty to the average person and the world doesn’t cater to them (like being born a midget).
>>59397445The Dunbar's Number estimate of people you actually know personally would be 150. The number you're aware of by name is around 600. The number you meet in your lifetime is around 80,000. Only the Dunbar estimate seems salient.
>>59397481>CTHAC-ATORASU is free once again! The invisible strands of the spider web slowly cover the entire city, entrapping everyone - including you...>Wrapped in a cocoon, suspended in a near-death state you will wait days, months or maybe years until it's finally your turn to be eaten.
>>59397459Interesting, I guess I misunderstood. In my mind, it’s not necessarily someone you know personally, more like someone you’re aware of.>My coworker’s cousin is a Mudbray>My hairdresser has a client with a sister who got turned into a Maractus.>Remeber the guy who gave the commencement speech back in high school? His wife is a Salazzle now.
>>59397532Those were all supposed to be quotes from different people by the way, not one guy who keeps having everyone he barely knows get turned.
>>59397553Could all be the same guy, though. For every one person you actually know, there's probably 10 to 100 or more you've heard of in passing that have turned. Celebrities would really skew things.
>>59397553You've got to keep timelines in mind.It's only natural people will know more people who turned from one year to the next.
>>59397122Why, thank you for the kind words, Anon! Just a heads up: You might wanna hold back on reading part 7, since I'm currently rewriting a lot of it. What do you think about the formatting on the Rentry page, btw? I find it rather jarring to read, since all the chevrons turn into that stupid quote line, leaving no real distinction between new lines.Also, any thoughts about the glossary? I kinda run into the issue, that there is no nice way to make footnotes and link the occurrences to the table entries.
>>59397940I've found your rentry page to be very readable. I wouldn't worry too much about formatting it too much. ARK-anon set a very high bar but not everyone needs to go that far with their own page.
>>59398073Glad to hear that it's not as hard to read as I thought. Might be different from Anon to Anon, though. I'm still looking into possible low-effort improvements, but even I know that ARK-Anon is over the top for me. ARK's stories live in the Rentries, while mine live in the thread, after all. I might go fancier with future one-shots but that's gonna be it.
>>59389214With so many new Anons joining in on the fun of writing, and the fact that we now have multiple open-sourced stories/concepts, I updated the Rentry talking about /sip/ concepts: https://rentry.org/sip-conceptsThe aim of this page is to provide Anons with a centralised point of entry that can be referred to by newcomers.>What's new? What changed?- I added the chapter "On the Topic of Writing", which should give everyone who wants to start contributing a selection of questions that might cross their mind. The questions and answers are from things I read and discussed with others ever since joining myself, and should in no way be taken as gospel. It's supposed to be a self-help guide to get started.- I slightly updated the existing chapters about PIPS.- I also added chapters for our open-sourced stories, like Zam Technology Corporation or Mitchell the Mimikyu. You can find a short blurb of what the story is about, as well as what a potential writer can do with it. The green boxes are just suggestions, not hard-set rules.Bulbanon, if you find something off about your stories on the page, please let me know. Same goes for the Anon who created Mitch in the first place, as well as everybody else who has suggestions or corrections.
>>59398572>Bulbanon, if you find something off about your stories on the page, please let me know.Everything looks good to me!That "On the Topic of Writing" section is great too!
>It won't be much longer before Cole turns.>Or at least, you hope it won't be.>Of all the PIPS cases you've dealt with, Cole's has been the most vexing.>He began having symptoms two months ago, believing he was a Pidgeotto, when he tried to take to the air from the ledge of a three story building.>He was taken to the hospital after breaking both of his legs.>Cole's been interned ever since. >The duration of his wild Pokemon episodes have been getting longer and longer.>A dark part of you hopes he'll turn soon, just so he'll be out of your hair.>You have your hands full enough without having to placate the loonies.>Fucking PIPS.
>Computer fag >Wake up as porygon>quack.mp3>Float over to computer, hyped to explore cyberspace>Go inside>mfw I can finally navigate through Linux without using the fucking terminal
>>59398572I added another question to the "On the Topic of Writing" chapter. I's about referencing (or even writing about) other writers (side-)characters.>>59399136Poor lad. Let's hope he turns before jumping off a cliff and dying. (also glad to see another small jab at pre-turning PIPS)>>59399140You might be able to use Linux without the terminal, but be aware that your doings *will* be reported. The Sudo-Gods will have your hide!
>>59390369Chapter 3 has been added to the rentry
>>59399670That tears it. Between Bulb’s intruder and the spider hell Lucario went through, I’d rather die than live in a world with super powered insects.
>>59399786>Burn insect nests>Roundhouse kick an insect>Slam dunk a nymph into the trash
>>59396902>Looking to the forest, you saw nothing amiss save the hole where you bowled through the foliage.>Nothing except one, single thread.>From the treeline, a barely visible string snaked between trunks and shrubs.>It wound around the clothesline and through the grass.>Up the sundeck.>Around the patio furniture.>You sighed. >Flicking your tail to the side, you saw the white fiber stuck to you.>You coiled your wrist spike around the web and pulled hard, snapping it.>You hadn’t doubled back, or ran in one direction before pivoting to the correct route.>A riolu knew better than to lead something straight to the den.>They were ambush predators, sure, but did they track prey this way?>Intuition said yes.>Tag someone breaking free, and they’ll lead you to a potential buffet.>Maybe the more important question was whether they held grudges?>Whether they believed they could take you in a fight.>You felt their simple emotions.>Hunger, anger, fright…>You hoped it stopped there.>”Oh my God!” The startled Mom yelped.>It probably didn’t.>You saw it too, before it climbed over the raspberry bushes.>A lone spinarak traced the winding filament’s path with near-fanatical devotion.>Its many bumblebee-colored legs were a blur; it scurried horribly quick.>The green-faced carapace helped blend in with the grass, but those legs and its orange mandibles were giant warning signs.>It would be upon you in moments.>You moved with purpose across the deck, kitten still in your grasp.>Mom started closing the sliding door, wholly focused on the tiny terror. >Your firm, strong grip on the frame held the entrance open. “Kitty is an indoor cat now.” You declared, roughly pushing the confused animal into the returning boy’s latex hands.>Sticky webs connected you and the kitten for a moment, before you grabbed the door handle and slammed the door shut.
>>59399956>The lock clacked close, and Mom drew the blinds.>Not a moment too soon.>Your muscles seized as tiny legs crawled up your own.>An involuntary kick wasn’t enough to dislodge the vermin, and it sped to your back. >You flailed like a bull at a rodeo, wildly knocking patio furniture aside but were wholly unable to buck it away.>Out of arms’ reach, it bit once and it bit hard.>Your resilient body fought the poison, but the burning sting drew out an undignified yelp.>Your fur bristled.>If you couldn’t reach it, you’d improvise.>The spinarak preyed upon birds and mice, not something your size.>Bracing yourself, you backed up hard against the house, using the insect as a cushion for your unorthodox charge.>Aluminum siding rattled, and windows shook in their frames from the force.>Wind wheezed out of the arachnid like a saggy balloon.>Dazed, it stopped biting.>But Ingrained instinct made it clutch your back harder.>Big mistake.>You repeated the move a second and third time, bruising the bug further. >It unceremoniously collapsed to the deck in a mass of twitching, cracked limbs.>Regaining your composure, your eyes snapped on the woods.>You didn’t need to look far or hard.>The briefest dip in the ethereal was all you needed.>A mass of furious, vengeful yellow aura marched its way through the woods.>They weren’t far out.>This was the vanguard. >The bravest, and fastest, and the stupidest. >You doubted it would be getting up anytime soon, much less fight.>But it never hurt to be safe.“Eugh…” You grumbled, picking up the jerking, barely conscious thing. >It’s oily hair made it slipperier than it looked.>It still tried to nibble at you.>The nearby recycling bin made for a suitable, temporary prison. >You hoisted a spare propane tank on top for good measure.
>>59399958>If these things used to be human…>Merely thinking about it made you wince.>So, you didn’t.>They were dangers first, and living creatures second.>Alone, this thing was an annoyance.>In the numbers headed here, however…>You had to think fast.>Maybe run in there, pick off the stragglers…>Hit the ones furthest away from the horde.>Might keep them from the neighborhood.>But they might have the advantage within the trees.>They could just as easily overwhelm you in there.>No, perhaps the open ground of a yard would be best.>Your eyes went to the long, broken webbing.>Maybe lure them somewhere…>…>Huh…>The neighbor had a pool, right?Updated aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seMore tomorrow.And hopefully the finish of this episode, I didn't expect to keep the scene going this long, but I've got other ideas I want to get to.If I had planned ahead, I also would've written about a swimming pool earlier, but that's what I get for scribbling out a little every day instead of finishing first and then posting.Post comments, thoughts, ideas for what to write, etc. Love your opinions. >>59399670I'll have to read it later tonight.
>>59399966My genuine reaction to this information: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kYd86-fTh8o&t=480s
>>59399966A pool, you say? I'm interested in what Lucario's plan is.>>59399670>DELELELE WOOOOPNOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
>>59399670Chapter 4 is up now too.It was going to be incorporated in Chapter 3 but it ended up being longer than I expected.>>59399140I can imagine that better coding leads to a more pleasant clean environment for porygon inside a computer>>59399966I'm really loving this episode! It is truly unsettling to think any of those bugs might have been human.
>>59400305You might want to add a table of contents to your Rentry, Bulbanon. It's getting messy to scroll down, especially on mobile devices. You're also allowed to post a link with an anchor to your latest chapter for easier access.I'll get around to read it later. I have to say, you're really crushing it with the updates!>It was getting longer than anticipatedThat shouldn't really be a problem when you post in a rentry, should it?
>>59400305I feel kinda bad for Bulbanon. That Pangoro's a hardass and an Elgyem is pretty off-putting. Who watches the watchmen?
>>59392004Lucarioanon has become VERY in-tune and synergistic with his Pokemon instincts by this point, huh? Bit more and he might just perfect this shit. >Terrorizing mammals as they have for eons.I mean, I can't speak for Pokemon spiders, but mammals aren't really the primary target of most real world spiders. Is it really "molesting the landscape" when they're just kinda doing what nature evolved them to do, like everybody else? I guess it's a bit of a different complexion when the giant spiders are transposed to an environment that didn't evolve to support giant spiders.>AriadosYeah that figures. Although I'm doing my best to see things from the Ariados' perspective and set aside the reflexive horror response to the situation presented (and more broadly to spiders in general), I'll grant you this 'mon is a lot more adorable when it's helping a grandma knit a sweater than when it's surrounded by the dangling, sucked-dry corpses of its victims...>A nightmare made manifestSomething something Darkest Dungeon reference.>>59394882I'd certainly hope the Spinarak are its young. I'd hate to think the phenomenon decided to randomly transform dozens of spiders simultaneously. That would look a little bit too much like intentional trolling on its part. To be fair, his plan is better than anything I could probably come up with in that amount of time. The slightly lackadaisical attitude of an apex predator in a position of complete and hitherto unquestioned dominance definitely worked in Lucarioanon's favour here.Interesting how the trees can still "sense" what the Ariados repurposed them for despite having been dead for years. Harnessing their outrage at its actions this way is wild. I've said this before, but I love the way you portray aura - it's so much fun. Do you think blowing up spider murder tree will have someone coming around to investigate the "explosion" at some point?>The stunned SpinarakDid you mean stunned Ariados there?
>>59400594>Did you mean stunned Ariados there?I don't think he did, he mentions that the one stupid/brave/fast Spinarak was the vanguard of the tide of bugs heading for the house. Mama Ariados and the rest of the young are coming up soon. Lucario's lucky he's a steel type.
>>59396026Yeah the numbers are probably a lot lower than that as 7445 pointed out, but with "hotspots" where the transformation rate per capita is a lot higher than normal, as is the case in Lucarioanon's hometown. We've kept it deliberately vague so that individual writers can interpret it how they'd prefer in any case.>>59396902The general grossness, discomfort, and inconvenience coupled with the adulation of the kid is very, "It's not much, but it's honest hero work".>A creep who trespassed where he pleased, yes.There's this miraculous thing called getting over yourself, lady. At least she kinda starts to talk to him like a normal person after that. Grim as it is, I can't really fault Lucarioanon for feeling he needs to end the threat here and now. Maybe if the Ariados showed any glimmer of higher intelligence or attempt at communication, but as it is...? His options are somewhat limited, especially if they're going to actively pursue him rather than just going back to tending their webs after a prey gets away like most normal spiders would. One concern is that it seems vanishingly unlikely that he'll actually get them all, leaving the survivors to reproduce anew.>>59398572Thanks so much for all your hard work, Miensha. You're too good to us.>>59399136Pre-transformation PIPS being "annoying" is certainly a very different characterization from what we got in Reto's story
>>59399966>A riolu knew better than to lead something straight to the den.Another case of "needs must", I'm afraid. Just that little bit of fantastical bullshit about tracking their prey via web strands makes the line FAR more dangerous than it otherwise would be>Kitty is an indoor cat nowBro still shows off his inner capeshit from time-to-time."Note to self - bring backscratcher on next patrol". Y'know this is yet another reason you could REALLY use some teammates, Lucarioanon... Good improvisation, though...>If these things used to be human…I doubt it. We know his town has high missing person's cases since the phenomenon, but surely not THAT high. MAYBE the Ariados is, but again, it's made no attempt to communicate or act as anything other than a beast of pure instinct, so, like I said, it's not really giving our boi a lot of other options here...>The neighbor had a pool, right?Oooh, this is gonna get VERY interesting, isn't it? I feel like a pool full of dead Spinarak is gonna make it significantly harder for Lucarioanon to stay under the radar. I'd honestly be perfectly fine with this being the incident that finally forces him to go public. He's definitely making the right call not trying to fight them within the trees, in any event.
>>59399670Ah jeeze. The bugs are going for the nectar in Sean's bulb, aren't they? I'm wondering why he can't ask his parents to take him to the store... is it because they're even more fucking embarrassing than being a Bulbasaur...?Ooh, opp, yep, yeah, yeaaah, there it is. Not much you can do with those false memories other than do your best to sort the real from the fake ones. I just realized I didn't even give a false memory-related comment on the "even a Riolu knew..." thing. I think the false memories are just normalized in Lucarioanon's life at this point...I like how Sean doesn't even think of trying to use his moves until someone else suggests it and even afterwards is like, "Eh, yeah, sure, I'll try it I guess..." I stand by my comment that he sits between Val and Ben, as he's DEFINITELY giving Ben vibes right now. >I may have gone too far in some places.Ah, I see Sean and I share the same taste in old-ass memes.Damn, do these parents EVER get mad? I guess it WAS mum's idea, but still...Well, on the plus side this is a MUCH less terrible bug type problem to have than the spiders. Not sure if I'd describe Cricketune's visage as "terrifying", but......okay, maybe you need to worry a LITTLE. Well now it's giving a bit of Kartanon, where others are gonna bring the pain to him regardless of his intentions to just keep to himself. Hopefully this IS just revenge and the Kricketune isn't ALSO some kind of weird extremist like Cruz's Gallade seemed to be.>I really need to learn what I’m capable of. No shit. At least he seems to learn decently fast, though. The Venusaur line are masters of stall, which helps when you haven't yet developed the stomach to fight at your species' full strength without holding back. I know it's scary, but, I think you've got this, man - you can take him!...Err.Okay. I have... thoughts... about what happens next, but I right now I need to go and get my dinner, so I'll hold off on that until later.
>>59400757Alright, so the first thing I'll say is that I honestly feel the police arrival unnecessarily robbed Sean of a moment. Perhaps you felt you'd written yourself into a corner or something, but it really looked like he was winning. Sure, he might've taken a more severe injury waiting for the Kricketune to faint, but that could've been character building. Maybe he gets hurt but presses on through the pain with teeth-gritted determination, or shows an unexpected flash of heroism and rams his head into the bug out of desperation and it actually works, or gets extraordinarily lucky as the Kricketune faints an instant before delivering a telling blow. Maybe the Kricketune turns it back around and Sean gets the full Cruz treatment and then has to be rescued (dad with the proverbial steel chair, perhaps?). As it is, it feels like we picked the option that demanded the least possible of Sean, either physically or emotionally, hence why it feels like a missed opportunity.The police response also doesn't seem to flow naturally from what we established before. Comparing to Kartanon, Amaro's care for Cruz was established prior to him making the save, and it also felt like Cruz endured longer than Sean had to. Whereas here, the parents explicitly say that the cops will take ages to arrive, only for them to come in full (proverbial, thankfully) guns blazing after what had to've been... maybe less than sixty seconds...?It goes on from there, too. I can excuse the extremely violent entrance and takedown... it IS a Pangoro, after all... but the opposite side of that particular Pokemon's coin is that it doesn't care for bullies (meaning that, implicitly, it's a champion of the weak), so if a Pangoro cop is going to show the 'mon's raging berserker side, I feel he really ought to show the other side as well. Sure, Layla's struggles with that, but this guy is being trusted with leading SWAT-style assaults, so you'd think his instincts would be more balanced.
>>59400890But no, instead he's totally unsympathetic, even after Sean starts talking. Not only does the way he stands over Sean seem like deeply unprofessional behaviour for an officer, but it seems to point to a concerning lack of training considering this is fully two years after the phenomenon started. It leaves the reader with many questions: What if Sean was newly transformed? What if he was visiting from out of state? Are there no contingencies for any of the myriad of possibilities? Are transformees being hauled in off the street no questions asked if they can't immediately prove their identity? Why is this Pangoro acting like such a jackbooted thug and why is his human handler turning a blind eye to this? Don't get me wrong, I know the police have a poor reputation in many places, often deserved, but this just seems egregious. If Larson and Kurt can handle themselves with grace and aplomb, why, one is left wondering, can't this guy restrain himself even a little bit with a tiny, scared, injured Bulbasaur who isn't attacking and is vocally protesting his innocence?I suppose maybe you could argue it's justified because Pokemon are so dangerous that they must be always be treated as a clear and present threat to life and limb unless proven otherwise, but that doesn't jive with the gentle and kinda silly slice-of-lifey tone this story has otherwise established thus far, which would lead such a a philosophy on the police's part to feel jarring. We'd then also be left to wonder why Sean's parents would be so chill about having him around (especially after he poisoned a huge swathe of their lawn to death) if that's the prevailing wisdom in this version of events. Wouldn't they cast him out out of fear or try to hide him from the overreach of the powers that be?Also, this is a minor nitpick, but Sean narrates "I'm going to die for sure", then never narrates relief or otherwise any change in that thought process after he notices the human cop.
>>59400891>>59399670Ultimately, I normally don't like to be too critical, especially after what happened with PichuGuard, but this did all seem like a pretty sudden and unjustified swerve to me. However, I should stress that that's JUST me. I'm not God around here and my opinion is NOT sacrosanct. Please let me know your thoughts regarding my thoughts before I tackle chapter 4, Bulbanon. After this I'm perfectly happy to just shut up and let you cook if that's preferable.
>>59400305Nice addition to the story. Bureaucracy Is working as effectively as ever, I see. The captain may have passed his own psych-eval, but only because it doesn’t test for “bedside manner”. The implication of a town being leveled sounds absurd at first, but I could imagine a Pokémon fairly easily accidentally triggering something that would end up in a USCSB video.As an aside I’m personally having a hard time getting a read on his parents. Their balance of teasing yet supportive yet frustrated is a unique blend.
>>59400305Alright, all caught up now. Let's see...Sean seems to suffer from a minor case of PIPS, which is nice to see. Should give you enough leeway to make some interesting story bits. I definitely vibe with just lazily lying around in the sun all day.>KricketuneGreat, another bug! I don't know how feasible status moves based on sounds are in the world, but I dig it.>RESIST. A voice in my head shoutedI don't know what that is supposed to be. Is it supposed to be a literal voice, like Simon has with his Serpent? It comes out of nowhere and isn't mentioned again. >The fight itselfI honestly wanted to see some more fighting, see what Sean can do and what his limits would be. It was a great opportunity for fleshing out his character. Instead we get our "slow police force" deus ex machina through the fence, what a pity. Who pays for that gate, btw? Seems a bit excessive for professionals to just barge in like that. Maybe the mom was hysterical on the phone, so that's why they were here so quickly?>“There aren’t any bulbasaur registered in this county,” he growled.Two years of continuous Pokémon transformations, and that silly panda seriously wants us to believe he knows every single registration in a town of 40k? That guy is either remarkably good at remembering things, or he's full of shit. Either way, his tactfulness certainly isn't a forte of his.>Then the bear leaned down as close as he could.*Sean uses poison powder* ahem... Guess the Pangoro is just a brute, after all.Overall, I like your third chapter, It has a bit of everything and gives some character to Sean. His parents could use a bit of that, though. But nothing too serious.>>59400891>Pangoro's behaviour after two years of the phenomenonI generally agree, but I also think that it could very well just be an overworked officer. People tend to get grumpy when under stress for long enough. He's definitely a rogue Cop in that sense, but we simply don't know enough about him yet.
>>59389214What's happening in that pic?
>>59400375Will do. I'll get a table of contents in there. Maybe an intro as well.>>59400894>Ultimately, I normally don't like to be too criticalNo, anon. Your advice is valuable. I have never written anything nearly this long before and I want to improve as much as possible! All your critiques have given me something to think about.I was even considering the timeline of events being too fast in that kricketune battle regarding the police response. Rereading it again I notice that I failed to mention the time between kricketune cries and my own internal justification for the fast police response was that a neighbor called the police much earlier while Sean's family was trying to ignore the noise and just sleep. I am definitely going to edit that chapter before continuing on with the story.I think I will extend the battle a bit too and put Sean on the ropes. It was pretty anticlimactic.The captain means well but his threat assessment still needs adjusting. Almost every day he sees the pokemon version of liveleak and some of the images haunt him. He takes no chances and knows horrible things can come in small packages. That mining town incident wasn't a total massacre. People mainly got displaced but he always tries to scare pokemon he sees as 'too laid back'.>>59401075Thanks for reading it!Definitely going to rewrite the fight. I'm not happy with it either!The parents were based on an aunt and uncle I have who tend to dote too much on my cousin and laugh things off a little too easily. It's hard to capture them perfectly. I figured they would be the type of parents that wouldn't push Sean to grow up as much as they should have.Overall, I'm having fun writing this but I want to make it fun for the readers too so please don't hold back on any criticisms or questions about something that wasn't made clear!
>>59401111I’ll take a slightly different stance and say I don’t mind the Deus Ex Machina. Explaining that the police have already been in pursuit helps. Overall, the story is still establishing itself so I feel like Sean gets 1 “get out of jail free card” to establish the stakes and shock him out of his complacency and wake up to the reality of his world. He was saved once, but next time he may not be so lucky so he better start training.
>>59401075Onto chapter 4. A change of scenery is always welcome.>seatbeltLooks like Sean is stubborn, or rather easily embarrassed. Either way, I like to see more of this side from him. The talk about seatbelts makes me wonder how legislation around these safety features would have to change. Considering the US is such a car-centric country, I imagine they'd change laws rather quick. Sean sitting in a baby seat... now that's a mental image!>Mentioning the weatherI love this little detail about Sean. It's the small, barely noticeable lines that make /sip/ stories such a pleasant read. Great way to characterise Sean while also giving us information about his surroundings.>The conversation with Pangoro and ElgyemNow here's something I don't like (unless you wanted to portray Pangoro and the general topic for your story like this, in which case, good job!). Pangoro might be the grumpy cop, but the way he portrays all turnees is frankly worrying. He thinks that every Mon is a huge threat to society and a ticking time bomb. Accidents aside, this is a slippery slope to go into discrimination. Forced to wear a lanyard with identification on you all the time, forced to have quarterly check-ups, getting generally suspected of being a danger. This is some heavy shit straight from the Soviet, or even Third Reich era. What happened to "innocent until proven guilty" and other democratic believes? It all reads like turnees don't have the same rights as humans anymore, which certainly can be a story you want to tell, but your previous chapters didn't allure to that one bit. It also kinda undermines the whole "this is not the apocalypse" theme from the OP. If a town of 40k could be decimated at any given moment, that would be a pretty solid case for mass-hysteria akin to the nuclear scare during the cold war.>mind readingThe way you portray the Lt. as a living lie detector is a cool idea. But I also think officials wouldn't just pry into minds like that. Too dystopian.
>>59401111First of all, nice digits!>response to Macho's post.Glad you don't fret away from criticism. PichuGuard wasn't as resilient I'm afraid and scrubbed his story afterwards. That's why Macho and others walk a bit on eggshells whenever we see some big flaws in stories of newcomers. (Hello, in case you still lurk here Pichu. I still miss your story and think you should give it another go.)About the other things you wrote. With that knowledge, a lot of my criticism vanishes. Oh well... Anyway, If you can get those things into your story in some form without just straight up telling us out-of-character, you should be golden. Maybe let the Elgyem help you out with that one.>the parentsMakes sense. Maybe it is just too early to make that judgement on our part. Maybe add some flavour somewhere to let that laissez-faire attitude shine through more. I'm sure you have plenty of examples for that.
>>59401221Everyone here seems really nice! That said, I really don't mind if you guys give me extremely harsh feedback. You wont get rid of me that easily!I really suffer from not having an editor to look over things.In general, my vision for Sean is that he starts off as the kind of guy that has never really done anything in life unless he was pushed to do it. He can ignore problems far away but if something sad or awful happens in front of him it generally moves him to action. I want his character arc to involve him pushing boundaries and becoming a lot more responsible and proactive.Captain Anderson the pangoro actually has only been turned for half a year. Before that he was fearful of what pokemon could do after witnessing a particularly disastrous event while human. Society isn't anywhere near collapsing. Supply lines have taken some inconvenient hits and very small towns get unlucky from time to time though.He greatly exaggerates danger but only because he wants everyone to stay alive. He takes no chances because he doesn't want his daughter to live in a dangerous world. His own PIPS habits scare him and takes PIPS symptoms in everyone seriously.Lt Moreau is more laid back. He doesn't like invading people's privacy but it saves hours of tests and paperwork and this branch of the PD is overworked.Intelligence agencies have been lobbying against any legislation that outright bans mind reading. The govt is still busy trying to figure out what rights super powered creatures should have. It's a bit of a wild west from a legal standpoint.I'm trying to think of a good way to get information like this into the story.
>>59401262Oh yeah, I wanted to note that the lieutenant can't speak to the captain through telepathy because pangoro is a dark type. I'm not sure if this is how it would work or not. Perhaps it's just very difficult to deliver a psychic message to the mind of a dark type?
Hope this fits in nicely>Well... this is a rough Sunday morning, if I've ever had one.>It's not like I'm not used to waking up feeling like a massive, stinky blob.>I guess I've just never had that reflect on my actual appearance. Literally, at least.>Plus, when you wake up with half your body melting onto the floor, it doesn't take long to realize something's wrong.>I rushed out of bed to look at myself in the mirror and confirm the obvious.>Yep. That's a big mass of purple ooze looking back at me.>A handsome one at that, if I can still lie to myself.>Well, there go my Sunday plans, I suppose.>I'll just spend the day watching TV and pretending that this won't turn into a massive problem.>...>Oh god, this will turn into a massive problem.>My boss is gonna kill me tomorrow. That is if she even lets me step foot on the office grounds.>I mean, a lot of my colleagues have turned into Pokemon, and they continued working like nothing ever happened.>But those guys at least have functional limbs.. and non-horrid odors.>I doubt someone like me will have an easy time working a nine-to-five while stuck in this body.>And it'll be even less fun for anyone who has the misfortune of working near me.>I don't want to lose my job. I love my job!>Not everywhere can you spend eight hours sitting in front of a computer screen and get paid for it.>Not at least with my set of skills. I was pretty much born to stay in a cubicle and do paperwork!>Okay. Let's calm down and put the anxious workaholic thoughts aside for a second.>It's not the end of the world, and it's not like I can't come up with a solution.>Yeah, I'm a problem-solver, baby. I can definitely find a way to go back to work normally. No big deal.>First though, I should call my boss, tell her what happened, and ask for my two weeks of paid vacation.>That should give me enough time to figure something out... probably.
>>59401635>I wonder if I can still hold a pencil normally. Should make it easier to press the buttons on the landline phone.>Plus, I could also write my ideas down and ideate a proper plan!>I'd usually do that on my work laptop, but like hell am I getting that old thing any dirtier than it already is.>For now, I'll just grab my old notebook and do my best to write legible sentences.>Best case scenario, I go back to work and pretend none of this ever happened.>Worst case scenario, historians will romanticize the notes and call it the legacy of a tragic life.>Win-win! My life goes on either way.>Now, how do I even start planning this?>...>Hm... this is harder than I thought.>How could I, a purple, gooey, stinky mass with eyes, go back to being a normal office worker...?
>>59401639>A Muk"Shit" indeed. You're doing great Anon, keep it up!
>>59399136He doesn't have PIPS. He's just schizophrenic.
>>59400894>after what happened with PichuGuardIf it helps, did start another personal project around February. Not relevant to the thread so won't post but you didn't kill my interest in writing. Just don't have ideas for the thread and kind of just like lurking
>>59399966>Hopping off the deck, you saw the neighbors did.>A gray, above ground pool next to their back porch. >The spider web that tracked you peeled away from the deck like gum off concrete.>You took it across the lawn. >Time was not your ally, and you had limited battlefields to pick.>No choice but to think on the fly.>Peering in, it was full and filled.>Clean water with a few floating leaves. >Your nose crinkled at the over-chlorination.>Would that deter them?>Maybe. >It almost deterred you.>But if the whole group came at you with the speed from earlier, you’d have little choice but to flee. >You needed something to slow them down.>Some spiders swam.>Or at least stood on the water.>These had to be too big for that.>Throw them in.>Drag them in.>At least It was something you could put between yourself and the larger ariados.>You smeared the web over the edge of the pool.>It wouldn’t fool them for long, but they would probably think you went up and over.>Stress helped you focus.>Kept you thinking.>You blinked the real world away, seeing life’s aura again.>Nobody in this house.>Made things easier. >Within the forest, the mass of rage stampeded ever closer.>Unlike the earlier spider, they kept a tight formation and stuck together. >A minute; maybe more if you’re lucky.>You ran up the deck, looking around for anything usable.>A sandy, resin deck box caught your eye. >Tearing off the lid, you rummaged through.>Patio cushions? >Weather-stained and useless. >Pool toys? >The orange, foam noodle might annoy them.>Beneath a coiled hose, you spotted the tarp.>A pool covering. >Now there’s an idea.>Everything else in the box banged and rattled as you pulled the covering from the bottom. >With how furious the warband coming your way was…>Maybe you could spring the trap this time. >Use that hatred against them.>You gripped the edge and flung the tarp in the air, spreading it out.
>>59402393>Floating down, it unevenly landing over the pool, partially draping over the edge. >You moved around the pool, messily pulling it into place.>Covering the water’s surface as quickly as possible was easy enough.>It might not fool a person, but that wasn’t your opponent.>Lifting an edge, you dipped your toes in.>Chilly.>It wasn’t exactly pool weather today.>And you didn’t have the luxury of taking your time. >You took a deep breath and slunk into the dark water, slipping the tarp into place above.>Pupils dilated at the temperature shock, but it was tolerable.>Helped you focus.>Every splash and movement was amplified beneath the black canvass.>Once you moved into position, noise wasn’t a problem.>Tears and holes provided limited light.>And with any luck, the chlorine masked your scent.>Only quiet breathing through your noise was heard. >Quite calming.>With your worldly senses naturally deprived, it was easy settling into aurasight.>Your sensors floated on the water behind your head.>Beyond the pool, the pack skulked through the raspberry bushes.>Now past the trees, the ariados took things slower.>Conserving energy.>it gradually moved forward, scanning for threats.>Following the web.>The spinarak, smaller and nimbler, didn’t stand still.>They ran in figure-eights and loops, and scurried beneath and over the ariados to keep constant vigil.>Beneath the tarp, you were especially glad you didn’t take them on in the open. >They followed the thread, veering off Mom’s property.>You breathed a sigh you didn’t know you were holding.>You didn’t have a plan if they went to their house.>Nearing the pool, the most forward spinarak’s legs tapped the sides.>Testing it first.>It was strange and new.>Then climbing.>Slowly at first, before gaining some confidence and moving quick again.>They rarely paused for more than a second before adjusting course and climbing to a different part of the pool.>Sentries with a combined 360 degree view.
>>59402400>Adrenaline flowed more and more through your body, >Their temper was palpable. >Your aura feelers twitched at the heavy emotions. >A fountain of passion.>Another source of power.>Your steady breathing kept you coolheaded, but the anger was unmissable.>It made your own rise. >A heavier rap, tap, and bap reverberated through the water.>Ariados tested the side.>Above, spinarak skimmed across the covering.>They were light enough to do it.>One paused above your head, before moving again to look over the edge.>Ariados crept higher.>You’d pull it under. >Just as it climbed the edge.>Drag it into the dark depths.>Cut the chain of command at its head. >You readied your paws, twitching with blue and purple glow.>You were almost giddy about it.>Your heart beat fast. >It was halfway there.>Only a few more steps, and it->Your hands were glowing.>The interior was far brighter than before, and your glowing paws were the light source.>Oh no.>Calm down.>Stop it.>Begging didn’t help.>Bringing your hands beneath the water didn’t quench the ethereal fire.>Something above noticed.>It widened a tear in the covering. >The hole was small, but it was enough for the invertebrate to worm in. >Upside down, clinging to the underside. >An inch above the still water.>Looking away from you.>You were frozen stiff.>With agonizing slowness, you reached a hand towards it beneath the water.>Not a noise. >Not a sound.>Not a s wave.>You were almost there.>It turned.>It saw.>A moment too late.Updated aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seActual, legit, for real done tomorrow. Got in the zone and have a rough draft of the end.Share comments, thoughts, ideas, etc. I love reading your comments, especially those who put a lot of effort into them yesterday! Always appreciate a (you).>>59401635>>59401639I have no muk and I must scream>>59402107Still disappointed I didn't get to read everything you wrote, even if it was cringe-kino.
>>59402411Did not expect him to dip in the pool. Lucario better make that count, because he's used up his surprise and now he's at a tactical disadvantage.
>>59402411This went a different way than I expected. Trapping the spiders in the pool would have been my first instinct, rather than on top of the cover, but then again I’m not brave enough to do something like this in the first place.
>>59401111It's wonderful to see you approach this with such good grace, anon. Looking forward to the re-writes! Never be afraid of re-writes - most of our top authors have done them at some point or other.>The captain means well but his threat assessment still needs adjusting.Knowing this, rather than going over chapter 4 in detail right now, I'll instead just say that I think the important thing for chapter 4 and the end of chapter 3 is that it needs to be clearer (to the audience if not to Sean) that the captain is exaggerating. Little hints like his partner looking uncomfortable with his attitude when he stands over Sean, his parents off-handedly mentioning that they haven't heard anything about registration requirements in ages (implying the captain is the only one who enforces it so harshly), or even Sean himself reflecting that he hasn't heard about cities getting erased off the map, but makes a mental note to look into it as soon as he gets home. Stuff like that, where the audience is encouraged to question the captain's words rather than taking them at face value (which, as Miensha pointed out, would be highly incongruous with everyone's blasé attitudes in the first three chapters. If towns of 40,000 getting erased is so commonplace as to barely even make the news, why is nobody - not his parents, not Matt's parents, not the HVAC guy, not the passers by on the street, or anyone else - positively shitting themselves in fear at Sean's transformation?). The mystery shouldn't be whether the captain is right (since, again, if that's even a question then the first three chapters of your story simply don't work), but rather why he's like this and whether there's any way for Sean to possibly help him.And yes, the parents could use a little more character meat as well.
>>59402768All of this is reasonable advice, just keep in mind that "drip feed" is a completely reasonable pace for doing it. You don't need to complete everyone's exposition dump on introduction, and almost always better if you don't.
>>59401639The more the merrier, anon! Don't feel shy just because we're busy! Let's see what you've got for us...Hokay, well aside from the slightly anomalous quality of actually loving his office job, bro is certainly #Relatable. Kinda reminds me of Kartanon, but a bit less cerebral. Cruz is a super-smart guy who's somewhat wasting his potential, while Mukanon here is much more of a very ordinary pencil-pushing schlub with ordinary schlub thoughts. I'm liking it a lot. It's also amusing to note that he seems to see this more as a big inconvenience than something existentially devastating.My only slight criticism so far is that he still uses certain human figures of speech ("rushed out", "step foot") that don't really apply to his new Muk form, but that could easily be chalked up to him not having come to terms with it yet. Other than that, very keen to see you continue this and where it goes. Looks like it has the potential to be a fun one.
>>59402777Checked!>My only slight criticism so far is that he still uses certain human figures of speech ("rushed out", "step foot") that don't really apply to his new Muk formThats very nitpicky. Considering Mukanon just turned, I wouldnt expect his speech to change with it. I've met an amputee (both hands, lost many years ago) once, who still used "can I lend you a hand".
>>59402768All this feedback has been really useful!I want to do a total rewrite and rethink what characters are necessary and flesh them out a lot more.Unfortunately, I wont have as much free time to write in the coming weeks as I did this past week so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from me for a while. I'll leave the old draft up until I have the new one done.
>Be me>Been living as a Noctowl for a while now>Thought being nocturnal wouldn’t be an issue>Living that NEET life should be good training right?>Wrong!>Actually have energy and motivation at night now>Unfortunately, COVID killed the concept of 24 hour everything so can’t even enjoy it>Been researching WTF owls do>Flight, Hunt, 360 Neck, Drive Schizos Insane, all that jazz>Discover videos of owls “allopreening”>https://youtube.com/watch?v=aA_u1gw0l0U>CriticalHitOuttaNowhere.jpg>Suddenly feel very lonely sitting at my computer>Aw man I don’t want this gushy emo crap
>>59403520>>Suddenly feel very lonely sitting at my computerMe too Anon, me too.
>>59401650>>59402777Thanks!>>59401639>Oh wait! I have an idea!>I'll call it... Plan A: The Janitor Cart-Man!>Let's give my new features a good use. After all, I'll be stuck like this for a while.>Step one, I'll head to the office building, step inside, and look for the janitor.>...I'd leave a trail of goo everywhere, and I'd be fired.>Okay, nevermind. Let's try a different entrance.>Step one, I'll head to the nearest manhole cover and I'll access the sewers.>Pretty sure no one will mind me using those.>Just another mon in their natural habitat, or something like that.>Step two, I'll access the sewage system, and make my way to the office restrooms.>The janitor's closet is relatively close by, so the restrooms are a good starting point.>Step three, I'll hide in the janitor's cart and wait for Louis to come around.>Louis has been our office janitor for over 10 years. If anyone can deal with my stench, it's him.>Step four, I'll ask Louis to give me a ride to my cubicle, and leave me with the cart there.>Step five, I'll use whatever tools he leaves me with to work on my laptop...>Wait, what if he doesn't leave me any tools?>Step four-point-five, ask Louis to leave me a couple of cleaning tools as well.>Perfect. Crisis averted.>Step six, keep doing this process forever and ever, and hope my boss is okay with it.>Great! This is a great plan! A genius one, even! Who would've guessed it'd be this easy!
>>59404211>...>Wait, I still have to deal with the smell problem.>And I'm sure combining my body odor with sewer water on my way there will make it that much less bearable.>I could ask Louis to give me a hand with the smell... but how would he do so?>Soap? He could throw some soap into the cart and hope that covers the smell.>The smell of a billion rotten fish covered in feces? Yeah, no. That won't work.>Oh! I know! Maybe he can make me a cocktail of cleaning products and turn me into a lavender-scented blob!>Yeah! That should work just fine, right?>...actually, maybe not.>Mixing cleaning supplies to make me smell good would not only be expensive, but also very dangerous for everyone.>Also, the fact that I'm salivating at the idea of a "chemical cocktail" is worrisome, to say the least.>God, I need a drink. A real one, preferably.>Oh! I know! I've heard bleach can combat bad smells. And it's relatively cheap, compared to other alternatives.>I'm sure Louis could throw a bottle or two on me before work.>That way, the chemicals could kill off the odor and... kill off... >You know what? I think I'll pass on the bleach bath.>I don't want to torture my coworkers for my sake, but I also don't want to torture myself for theirs.>I should look for other solutions that don't involve me burning my own skin- eh, goo-skin.>Can this new body burn? Hell, can this body even feel pain?>I feel like these are the questions that I should've asked before panicking about losing my job.>I'll just punch the wall as hard as I can to test it out.>...yep! I can definitely feel pain perfectly well! Bad idea to test that out!>I can't feel my hand anymore. And that could be because my hand is now the giant stain I left on the wall.>I really hope I can regenerate limbs now that I'm like this.>For the time being, I think I'll just think of something else.
>>59402411>The spider’s hiss was shrill and sharp.>A warning call interrupted by your paw slapping its wriggling form into the water.>Spinarak floated back to the surface on its back, kicking desperately in the air.>Every arachnid outside was alerted, raising their haunches and legs.>You had seconds to act. >They’d figure it out. >Ariados was just out of reach, its fiery aura separated by barely a quarter inch of material.>Lunging for it was out of the question, it would scramble away.>You could pull a few smaller ones in, but how long would that last? >Would taking out a few pawns stop anything?>No.>Your paws glowed bright.>This was still a trap.>You broke free of theirs with the power of aura.>You could do it again.>The side of the pool was stronger than the tree from earlier.>But emotions were out of control.>Plenty of fuel for your soul.>You beckoned the aura forth.>Every spider felt it.>A wraithlike chill. >Stolen emotions and borrowed life. >All yours to use.>And yours to return.>You pushed your paws against the smooth pool’s edge.>Pads brushed over a hairline fracture.>Opposite your paws was ariados, the most furious of all.>You held the aura back a moment.>Welled-up anger bubbled under pressure, eager to escape.>You held it until you couldn’t.>Ghostly fire was working its way up your arms.>Intense unlight made you shut your eyes.>You didn’t merely let the aura out.>You forced it out.>Pushing with all your strength.>It burned your nerves and licked your fur, and it felt good.>You shouted, completely muted by the flare of aura. >A geyser of water shot up, launching any arachnids on the tarp into the sky.>They were the lucky ones.>Those climbing up received the worst of it.>The unleashed aura cracked and burst the sides of the pool.>The wall cracked and blew outward.>The hefty Ariados launched backward, both from the blast and the tons of water instantly rushing out.
>>59404513>For the second time today it was on its back, kicking and flailing as the rushing water carried it across the wet lawn.>The spinarak fared no better.>Sticking together proved their undoing. >The ones alongside ariados were knocked out immediately; the blast was too much.>Only the strongest, or most fortunate, weren’t swept away by the strength of the water.>They were very few.>Those atop the tarp fell into the water, and were tangled in the sheet as it too was tossed about by the emptying pool. >Chlorine stung the eyes of some, and they blindly ran in circles, panicking and throwing webbing out in a hopes of a lucky hit.>Prepared for the deluge, it carried you out with full lungs and a heart riding high.>The rush was indescribable. >The coven’s confidence changed to terror in moments. >It was a rout.>You knew it and felt it.>Your body weight was a weapon by itself. Crashing into two floundering bugs cushioned your tumble, and took them cleanly out of the fight. >With the water still pouring out, you righted yourself and moved from target to target.>There was only one shot at this working.>You would not let them recover.>One blow was more than enough to incapacitate most of the thrashing bugs.>You stomped one further into the mud.>Grabbing one, you spun around to lob it into the side of the deck with a thwack.>Kicked another into the treeline.>Batted one flipped over hard enough to break legs.>Water and mud barely slowed your breakneck speed.>You tore your way through their defenseless ranks with brutal efficiency. >You took no chances.>Each pounding hit had to end it quick, ruthless as it may be. >Fully half their number was down for the count before the uninjured struck back.>A brave spinarak rushed to its hurt matriarch, and spewed webbing onto your arm.>Jerking it forward, the web pulled the surprised spinarak with it.>You made it a makeshift flail.
>>59404519>Swinging the spider it into a charging companion knocked the wind from both of them. >You’d have kept bashing it had the string not broken. >One leapt at you from the deck like a jumping spider, and you punched it mid-air.>A brave spider nipped at a paw, breaking the skin and making you wince. >It paid for its gallantry with a kick to the face, soaring high enough to land unconscious on the roof. >Two spinarak rushed you like bulls, but found the uneven water levels high enough to disrupt their run.>Once you pounced on them, it was over in an instant.>With most of the smaller threats incapacitated, you trashed through the slowing water toward the shaky, crimson ariados.>It was not in good shape, having taken the brunt of the explosion.>A large hunk of the pool lodged itself on its forehead horn.>One of her larger eyes was swollen.>It barely stayed upright, but it still issued a piercing challenge.>The remaining spinarak rallied to her defense.>Too few remained, and the few capable still struggled. >To your surprise, the ariados spat a thick string of web from its mouth upon your chest.>It didn’t just come from its spinaret.>The attack mattered little. >Your charge was slowed, but you kept moving.>Muddy water splashed around your paws as a second burst of toxic webbing splattered against you.>Slick with water, not nearly enough stuck to make a difference. >Their webbing was meant to keep things from escaping.>Not to stop you from getting closer.>It reared back, baring its mouth and defensively swung its many legs.>Some scratched you.>Some drew blood.>Dueling something so alien was wholly unlike anything humanoid.>But you pushed through, batting aside the weakened defenses.>A brutal backhand passed its guard, and the ivory wrist-spike smashed through a chelicera into its mouth.>Spindly legs flailed at the shock.>Purple venom and black ichor dribbled into the cloudy water.>Lucky her.>You didn’t hit anything too vital.
>>59404525>Flicking viscera from your wrist, you turned to face the rest. >Some still fought, unaware of the futility.>The worst fought like cornered beasts, biting and scratching what they could in a last, defiant stand.>Two hid, unaware they can’t hide from a lucario.>You made it as painless as possible after dragging them out. >They were the first to go in the recycling bin.>The rest unceremoniously followed.>A mass of twitching limbs and chittering bodies.>Those with the worst injuries you tossed on top of the pile.>Ariados, too big to fit in the bin, weakly kicked at the air and clacked her maw.>You dragged it’s bulbous form to the clothesline. >You tugged at the twine above to test it, before tearing it down.>It was far stronger than the webbing.>You tied the spider tight to the pole, winding the string between each set of legs so it had no hope of escape.>The mother nervously crept out, checking the yard from side to side. >Her gaze lingered on the neighbor’s yard.>You winced, thinking about the damage.>Part of you wanted to help rebuild…>No, pay for a new pool.>That was unsalvageable without serious work. >Something you definitely could not afford.>You shook your head, shooing away the shameful feeling.“It’s safe now.” You assured the mother.>She wasn’t assured.>Her son was, though.>He stood in the doorway, waving and combing Kitty’s fur with a thick brush.>Mom felt safe enough come to the deck’s edge to shout.>”Check the house, please?” She asked.>You caught the inflection at the end.>A question, not a demand.>Your aura sense told you the house was safe and sound.>But you doubted you could explain your fantastical powers faster than actually checking.>”The uh… The police are on their way, just so you know.”>”I called.”>You nodded.“Good, good…” You answered.>You didn’t hear sirens yet.>Wouldn’t be long.“Tell them I’m sorry about…”>You gestured toward the destruction at the neighbor’s deck.
>>59404527>”Aren’t you gonna stay?” Mom asked, wondering why you’d want to leave.>”It’s okay! The police are good guys too!” The boy in the doorway yelled behind his mother.>You shook your head, flinging droplets of water to the side.“Might be more in the woods.” You frankly explained. “Big nest.”>You jogged around the house, checking for the nothing you knew you’d see.>Hopefully it put them at ease.>You waved goodbye to the mom, the boy, and the kitten on the deck.>They waved back.>You took off into the forest again.>A job worth doing was worth doing well.>And this was a job only a lucario could do. Updated aurabin: https://pastebin.com/dNfCG4seShare comments, criticism, advice, and suggestions for more scenarios to write. Love your ideas.Didn't think this bit would go on for so long, but I think it turned out well. >>59404213Drink that Mr. Clean for that lemony-fresh stink of clean.
>>59404534>>Didn't think this bit would go on for so long, but I think it turned out well.It definitely did. I like how Lucario used the pool to amplify the impact of the aura attack. I wonder how the cops will handle the Ariados and the Spinarak; they aren't exactly packing gear to make them somewhere else's problem.
>>59404213I like Muk's chain of thought here. I feel like he's gonna hit a wall where he suddenly realizes that the life he'd lived is not really open to him anymore.
>>59404544>Poor unsuspecting cop or garbage man when they open the bin and have giant spider hell spawn unleashed upon themTotal Archnid death. Gas them all, species war now.
>>59404648Good thing none of them are arachnids since none of them have eight legs
>>59404675Curses! Foiled again!
>>59404534>Good work doggy! You saved the day!
>>59402411Man. Kartanon aside, you always have the best picrels.>Nobody in this house.Convenient!Hiding under a pool cover in ambush is some straight-up Henry Stickmin shit. I respect the hustle, Lucarioanon, let's see if it pays off for ya~>You didn’t have a plan if they went to their house.Yeaaah, pretty much just had to hope their predictable behaviour would stay that way. Thankfully it did.The tense moments as the spiders swarm inches from our boi fire the imagination really well. I can picture the scene so clearly and it's awesome (or awful if you're arachnophobic).>You'd pull it under.You think Lucarioanon will look back on this and wonder where his life made that critical turn that would ultimately result in him wrestling a giant spider in a pool? I love how excited he is in the moment. So eager to do justice. So eager to fight. So effortlessly Pokemon.>Begging didn’t help.Ah. Whoops. Guess he still needs a BIT more practice to find that ideal balance...I have a burning desire to see this scene in particular animated. It's so fucking good. Lucarioanon is both predator and prey at the same time. Whoever gets that critical first shot off is going to win. It's glorious.>>59403520Idle talons are the devil's plaything, huh Noctowlanon? I'm sure there are night shift workplaces that would have use for the sharp eyes of an owl. Maybe you can find some fellow nocturnal Pokemon in your area online?>>59404213>Step one, I'll head to the nearest manhole cover and I'll access the sewers.You know, perfectly natural progression in thought.>Also, the fact that I'm salivating at the idea of a "chemical cocktail" is worrisome, to say the least.This got a big laugh from me. Pokeinstincts cometh for us all, Mukanon.>I feel like these are the questions that I should've asked before panicking about losing my job.Yes, yes he probably should've. I love this guy so much already.Not much to say - your comedy is really on point so far. Keep it up!
>>59406158>Maybe you can find some fellow nocturnal Pokemon in your area online?Now there’s a concept:>”Poke-nnection”>A new social app - not a dating app - released soon after news about Pokémon turnees went mainstream>Human verified so only actual Pokémon can join and be active>Set up your profile with your species, diet, chronobiology, and general abilities (flight, illusions, poison, etc.)>Specify what you’re looking for in a match (Casual Sparring, All-Out Fights, Romance, General Friendship, Training to Develop Abilities)>Get semi-anonymized profiles served and opportunities to match>Government had been trying to create a central registration system for months to no avail>Now, this app was the de facto place everyone turned into a Pokémon went
Taking over from the daily uploads of Lucarioanon. o7>You stepped outside and took a deep breath of fresh, hand-sanitiser-free air.>It was warmer now, but refreshing none the less.>You looked around the entrance area, not sure what to expect.>It looked exactly like it did when you first arrived. Cobbled entrance elevated from the main road, the gradient up to the entrance was overgrown with wild grasses and what was left of the flowers from late summer, and the big, empty flower pots you sat on.>You didn't notice before, mainly because you were lost in thought previously, but apart from the birds singing and chirping away, not a lot was going on.>Quite frankly, you could stand here all day and just enjoy the lazy mountain village's overall vibe. However, you had plans.>Vanessa and Joel were waiting to your left, right around the corner of the building.>You, however, turned to the right and walked towards the tree you saw from the window upstairs.>You went past some more empty flower pots and a few younger, freshly planted trees.>You reached an old and big oak, where you spotted a familiar looking red plumage.>There he was! He was still sitting at the top, barely visible if not for his bright colouring.>You didn't want to shout, so you tried whistling to get his attention instead. But the snout of a Mienshao, turns out, wasn't built for whistling.>Either that, or you just didn't know how, anyway.>Your aggressive exhale seamlessly turned into an annoyed sigh. Another shovel on the pile...You had to shout up the tree after all. "Hey, Nick! I know you're up there!">You thought that you saw his head turn towards you. He didn't respond, though."You just stormed off. What did that Lefty tell you while I was away?" you asked.>Again, no response.>You let your shoulders slump in frustration and let out a quiet sigh. This will take some patience...>You moved away from the tree, sat on an empty flower pot nearby, and made sure that Nick could still see you.
>>59406306>In silence, you looked up the weathered wall of the recruitment centre. A spindly, single tendril of ivy clung desperately to the smooth concrete wall."I bet the view up there is a lot better than down here," you began. "But I think you're not just up there to enjoy the view, are you?">You heard something shift in the tree top. A Reaction?"You know, I might be preoccupied with myself a lot, but I'm not blind. Something happened during your sports test and it's bothering you," you called up the tree while not looking at it.>The silence returned and you let it settle.>Some birds were chirping and the slight breeze made the leafs rustle pleasantly.>You already guessed that Nick was somewhat shy around new people, but you hadn't thought that he'd shut himself off so directly.>Perhaps he would respond to authority, in case you still were too much of a stranger to him? It was worth a shot, you thought."You already know that I'm not some loudmouth sergeant. I always looked out for my group back in RS. We're gonna be a team in the future, no?" You paused briefly. "I know it's hard to open up, but a squad that hides things among themselves will get killed in the field. Trust and openness is paramount. Secrecy is the poison.">You heard another shift in the tree, but no chirp, nor a word.>You sat on the pot in silence for a moment, just in case Nick decided to finally speak up.>He didn't.>That lieutenant left quite the impression... or was it you he didn't want to talk to?>Either way, there was nothing you could do for now, but you hoped that your words would have an effect down the line."Listen, Joel and the Meowstic are waiting on the other side of the building to soak in the sun before lunch." You jumped off the pot. "Feel free to join us when you feel like it. I bet she'd love to meet you too!" you called up to the sullen bird Pokémon.>You looked up the tree again just to see Nick hastily looking away.
>>59406308>You paused and just listened to the rustling."Keep your chin up, Nick!">You saluted the private."I know we both have to..." you added quietly.>With those final words, you dismissed yourself and left Nick to his own devices.>He'd come around, you were sure of it. You just weren't sure when.>Perhaps he needed more time to think, or maybe he just didn't trust you fully. You did have a mental breakdown right in front of him after all...>How could you trust someone with your troubles when they've just admitted that they themselves cannot handle their own? It would be foolish to think that anyone else wouldn’t have trust issues in exactly the same way afterwards.>You seriously needed to get a hold of yourself if you wanted to be a dependable sergeant again.>Just... where could you start? Where did you *need* to start?>You passed the entrance again while you were deep in thought. A few recruits were standing by the ashtray – a third of them were smoking. You ignored their stares and whispers as you passed them.>...Your pile of troubles was enormous and all you had was your bare, thumb-less hands. Climbing the north face of the Eiger as an absolute novice seemed like a more pleasant experience.>Man, if only Michelle didn't take a break from your relationship right before you turned.>Just how bloody lucky can a man get that his girlfriend needed a time-out right when she'd have the perfect shovel to your problem.>She didn't break contact, even told you that she would be there in case something happened.>Yet... you've seen what her last case did to her...>You simply couldn't drag her down even further.>She didn't tell you any details – medical confidentiality forbid her to – but you suspected it included Pokémon, maybe even a turnee, in a central way.>She couldn't stop reading about them, how to care for them.>She amassed Pokémon care guides from various – and quite frankly – dubious sources.
>>59406312By the time she told you about wanting a break from your relationship, she had three dozen books. She was obsessed.>Your mind drifted to the many books you saw while you packed them with her for her stay with her parents.>You thought that you saw a book about all the different mustelid Pokémon and how to help them... or was it ungulates? Blast your shoddy memory...>No matter how you looked at it, Lady Luck spat in your face and dealt you a low-scoring hand straight after.>...>Others said that it would pass, that it would get easier after adjusting, but what if that wasn't your last bad hand? >Your only trump card was your wit, yet a single card couldn't win you a game.>You shook your head. Enough of the bad thoughts! You'd been dealt your cards and no amount of whining would make them better.>Maybe life would make a bad play for once and let you steal the victory in the end? After all, even a low six can win if it's a *Bock*.>You emptied your head as you turned the corner of the building. It was time to relax and enjoy life for what it was.--The rewrite is 99% done, so I start posting it on a daily basis. Should give you all something to read for the next few days. I'll update the Rentry once I've posted everything.The glossary will be kept up to date with the new posts here, though. Talking of which, new entries:- The North Face of the Eiger- Bock (Term in the Swiss card game "Jass")https://rentry.org/whipping-back-into-action#glossary
>>59406326Good revision of the parts. I still hope Nick and Etienne bounce back soon.
>>59406326>>59406312Nice, it feels like you’re taking your time with this more than before, and it fits with the moodier moment the characters are stuck in.By the by, is “have the perfect shovel to your problem” also a Swiss-ism?
>>59406563>By the by, is “have the perfect shovel to your problem” also a Swiss-ism?Nah, I just thought that I might as well go the extra mile with the mental image when I wrote about a big bile of troubles.>>59404534Good stuff! The daily uploads gave me a strong sense of nostalgia from way earlier threads.Like Macho already wrote, the Aura vision is a splendid tool and very fun to read. I hope you keep them up or get even more creative with them. As for how Lucarioanon handled the Ariados with the pool...yeah figured as much.>>59402411>You readied your paws, twitching with blue and purple glow.>You were almost giddy about it.Lovely to see that Lucarioanon is still so impressionable by his own new body and situation, even though it's probably the Lucario-side in him that is giddy. He truly feels like a kid again, doesn't he? Despite the initial mishap, he more or less gracefully saved the encounter. Overall, pretty good action scene.>>59404213The (mis)adventures of Mukanon go to the next round. Continuing with the master plan, I see... and it's as well thought out as I imagined! Go get yourself that chemical cocktail after that fancy wall-punch of yours. (You might want to scrape your hand off the wall first, though. I can only imagine how hard it will be to get rid of the stain afterwards.)
>>59404213I work around a water treatment facility. They often use Hydrogen Peroxide and Calcium Nitrate to neutralize and prevent the smelliest of chemicals from forming, like Hydrogen Sulfide.
>>59407090Hey, as long as it works.
Thanks for the support. Here's more!>...>Hey! That's a thought that might work!>My new body has proven to be easily malleable. Ask my new hand-on-the-wall decor.>So, if the problem is that I don't have a human body anymore, I'll just have to make one myself!>Yeah, that's a great idea! And I'll call it... Plan B: The Goo Armor!>...I might need to work on my naming skills if I want to keep doing these.>Step one, I'll go to the nearest hardware store.>Those places usually accept all kinds of people and Pokemon, and I'm planning to abuse that policy.>Step two, I'll buy all the materials needed to build myself a human-shaped container.>Step three, I'll go back home and build myself my new super human-looking body!>...>On second thought, I don't think I could build a human-shaped container, even if I was still human.>Plus, aren't hardware stores in the area particularly expensive?>I don't think my salary can afford a DIY Robocop cosplay right now. Especially not right now.>I'll switch up the plan a little. It'll now be... Plan B2: The Goo... Man?>Yeah, let's go with that. Plan B2: The Goo Man.>Step one, I'll head to the nearest... stationery store.>Step two, I'll buy... actually, what should I buy?>How does one make a body with school supplies? Paper? Cardboard?>Tape. I'll buy lots and lots of tape.>Step three, I'll go back home and cover myself in tape.>If I do everything correctly, I'll have a half-decent human body in no time!>There won't be any need to take off the suit either, because I won't go back to being an amorphous mass.>And the tape should seal some of the smell inside, right?>Yeah, at least enough to cover what little remains with some strong perfume.>Oh right. Step four, buy some very strong perfume.>I should probably do that regardless of whether this plan works.>My room must smell like the purgatory right now.>Heh, haven't heard that one since my teenage years.>Wait, I'll focus on the plan. I cover myself in tape, and...
>>59408042>How exactly am I going to cover myself in tape?>I mean, sure. These big, dripping hands can do some stuff, but I wouldn't define them as "delicate.">There's no way I can make a convincing body with these.>If I'm making this happen, I'll need some sort of help.>But then again, who could I even call for this?>I mean, once again, Louis is the first name to come to mind, but we aren't really that close.>Thinking back, I should've given him something for his birthday... or his daughter's... >You know, had I known this would happen, I would've been a less selfish human being.>Oh, the karma. Who would've guessed? >Anyway, who else do I know that could possibly assist me without getting intoxicated in the process?>...>Oh wait! I think I know someone that could help>An online friend of mine turned into a Toxicroak a couple years ago.>I'm positive that another poison type won't be affected by the smell.>And better yet, I heard somewhere that Toxicroak are quite dexterous with their hands.>He should have no problem covering me in tape and making me feel like a person again.>He could even throw in some nice gloves and draw me a nose to make me look more human too.>Alright, it's decided. I'll give him a call and I'll get him to come as soon as possible!>...what was his number again?>I could check my phone's contact list... oh wait, no I can't.>Even if I were to be capable of operating the touch screen, I doubt I'd be able to see anything through the stains.>What about texting him through my laptop?>Hell no! Laptop is off-limits until I can figure out a way to NOT stain it.>But if I can't call him or text him, that means I have no means to contact him...>In fact, I have no means to communicate with anyone other than my boss.>Thank you, boss, for handing out business cards like pamphlets at a plaza.>I guess I could also call my parents. I memorized their number, just in case.
>>59408044>But thinking it thoroughly, I don't think they have the guts to deal with the smell.>I recall accidentally poisoning my dad when I was a kid with the first "cake" I ever made.>In my defense, how was I supposed to know at the time that "more sugar" isn't "more good"?>Ah, what good memories of my childhood I retain.>Getting back on topic, I don't want to get my parents involved in this fiasco.>So I'm completely alone in this until I can figure out a safe way to operate my devices.>...>Wait, that's it! I might not reach the final goal with this, but it will definitely make it easier!>I dub thee, magnificent idea of mine... Plan C: Operation New Hands!>Maybe I can't make myself a whole new body yet, but I can definitely get me some functional limbs.>All I have to do is turn these monstrous liquid arms into small, sophisticated hands.>And the best part, I know exactly how to do so!>Step one, I'll go to the supermarket and buy myself some cleaning gloves.>If I recall correctly, touch screens react to latex.>That's how my mom managed to text her friends while cleaning.>And supermarkets around here also have the all-inclusive policy that hardware stores keep.>Hell yeah, I'm getting somewhere with this.>Step two, I return home and try to shape my hands into the gloves.>If my hand can turn into a giant stain with a single punch, I'm sure I'll have no trouble doing this.>Step three, I learn how to move my new "fingers" in a controlled way.>And just like that, voilá! A brand new pair of human-looking hands!>I'll be able to use my phone, my laptop, and basically every other electronic in my apartment.>And better yet, I'll do so without leaving stains everywhere!>At least with my hands, that is. I still have to solve the slimy trail issue I've got going on.>But hey, little progress is better than no progress.>So first stop, the supermarket!>Let's get me a new body before night hits.
>>59408042>>59408044>>59408048>inb4 Muk fren squishes himself into a latex bodysuitI’m loving this big guy.
>>59406326>The backyard looked surprisingly pleasant, helping you emptying your head. The building was adorned with bushes, a small fountain stood proud at the far end, and on your side stood a lonely tree on a big grassy area.>The white-and-blue, long-eared cat and a barely noticeable yellow speck sat on the recently cut lawn.>The scrabbling of your steps on the neatly arranged cobblestone made Vanessa's ears perk up and she looked your way.>She waved you over to her and Joel.>Once you left the cobble to walk on the slightly damp grass, you immediately felt how much more pleasant it was to walk on.>Being forced to walk bare-footed made you appreciate the softness of natural surfaces. You felt every loose pebble on your way here.>Vanessa had a wide grin on her face as you came closer. She turned her head to the electric type. "Told you that he'd be here soon!">You greeted them both and sat down cross-legged next to them.>Joel sat with his legs tucked in under his body – much like a cat would, funnily enough – while Vanessa leaned back on her arms while stretching out her legs.>The way she was lying on the grass didn't fit the graceful appearance of a Meowstic at all. The thought amused you.>"Anyway, where was I?" Vanessa asked no one in particular, trying to pick up the thread again. "Oh, yeah, doing anything physical suuucks!">Apparently, you interrupted Vanessa as she was talking about all the exercises and how a Meowstic fared in them.>She ranted about her weak core strength and that she barely reached 12 points in every discipline.>"The worst thing is that during my service, I always reached over 80 points to get the ribbon," she lamented, her ears drooping."Huh, I'm actually the opposite," you replied over her lamenting. "Got a lot of points everywhere, but only barely got the ribbon once before I became like this." You gestured at yourself.
>>59408218>Vanessa's ears perked back up. "Oh? Bragging aside, how many points did you get?" she asked. "I didn't really pay attention to you during the tests.""Ah crap, I didn't want to brag. Sorry!">"Nah, I'm just messing with you. I let it slide this time, Mr. Weasel~" Vanessa replied with a teasing voice. "I'm still curious about your result, though!">Dumb remark aside, you then began to tell the two turnees how your test went.>The one-legged stance was flawless and got you the full 25 points.>You were always bad at balancing yourself before, barely balancing 30 seconds for mere 7 points at times.>According to doctors, there was something wrong with you inner ear before. Not anymore, though."Anyway, I guess because I have such short legs now, that my centre point of mass is lower as well," you concluded.>Vanessa nodded. "You do look like the type of Mon that would balance itself on a summit cross just because it can, to be fair," she remarked while she scratched the base of her right ear.>She paused briefly before continuing. "Did they make you tuck in your tail as well to stop you from using it as counterbalance?" she followed up while stretching herself to try and spot your tail that was lazily resting on the ground behind you.>Her curiosity made you feel self-conscious. You tried to keep your tail out of your mind most of the time. Kinda hard to ignore it when it was addressed this directly, though.You sighted. "They did. It was more annoying to keep it in place than actually balancing myself without it, though.">Your tail began to move on its own, which prompted Vanessa to follow it intensely with her bright, yellow eyes.>This didn't help with your feeling, but it reminded you of how Colonel Benny followed your whip with his eyes.>Vanessa snapped out of her short trance. "Oh, so your tail is more vestigial than mine are, huh?""I... guess?" you replied.
>>59408223>You looked behind you and watched your tail move about. You still didn't really get how to intently move or use it, nor whether it fulfilled an important role with keeping balance.>You just could sometimes—like earlier when Benny pawed at your tail and you had to get it out of harms way.>Luckily, the Voice helped with these seemingly insignificant things when they were needed.>As much as you despised it, you were thankful that you didn't need to actively think about getting your tail out of closing doorways or thinking about keeping balance with it. If it had that function, anyway.>You looked back to Vanessa, just to see her remove a blade of grass out of one of her tails."Anyway, I guess it hindered you more than it hindered me?" you asked her to get the attention away from you.>"Hindered?" she pouted. "They screwed me over!">She let out a short chuckle. "Ever balanced a watermelon on a stick before?" she asked."Not exactly... it's probably very hard to do?">"Très bien, now imagine the stick and watermelon as my body and head," she said. "I have two tails for a reason, but try telling that to the bird-brained NCO.">Joel looked at you two and lowered his head. "Man, that sounds scummy. At least you had something to actually do. They just let me balance on increasingly smaller poles.">Vanessa's ears perked up again and there was a small spark in her eyes. "Really? That sounds way more fun! Why do you think it was boring?">"Well, it would be, if I weren't a spider that could literally walk up walls..." he replied sarcastically.>"Oh... You got full points, didn't you?">"Yep," he responded drily.>After a short and awkward pause, Vanessa began to laugh.>"Guess the military is as clueless as ever, huh? Some things just never change, despite a global disruptive event.">Her laughter was contagious, and you both laughed heartily along with her.
>>59408226"Congrats on the points, I guess. But... I've seen you topple over after a weak gust from Nick. How'd you keep balance during the exercise, then?" you asked the little tick Pokémon.>Joel looked up at you. "Yeah, about that... He caught me off guard and I didn't properly grab onto the mattress.""What do you mean with 'properly grab on'?" you asked further.>The electric type seemed in thought for a second. "It's hard to explain... just imagine a suction cup, but less cup and more hair.""Uhuh...""Oh, I get it!" Vanessa intercepted. "If it works like in spiders, you have millions of little hairs that become adhesive on a molecular level, right?" She bounced up and down in excitement.>"Yep, something like that. I need some electricity to stick to stuff, though. If my 'batteries' are spent, I can't actually stick to anything.">"That's fascinating!" she exclaimed."Is that the reason why it felt so weird when you walked over me to be on my head?" you asked, remembering how it felt when Joel climbed on you.>"I guess so, but the current shouldn't be noticeable to the average human," he replied."Don't know whether I felt the current. I just had the urge to swat you away when you climbed on me. Didn't think much of it at the time," you admitted.>Joel was silent for a moment. "...thanks for not squishing me," he eventually said."You're... uhm, welcome...?">You three sat on the lawn in silence for a few minutes. Only the birds and the rustling leaves could be heard, as well as some cars on the main road a few blocks away.>Your fur was completely dry at this point, only your bottom and your legs were still slightly wet from the damp grass.>You stood up."Care to move to dryer grounds? The fountain looks like a nice spot," you asked the two.>Both of them agreed and got up.>Together you made your way to the fountain at the far end of the courtyard.---Tomorrow, the original and rewrite will diverge a lot more than it has already.
>>59408236Poor tiny bug. I wonder if he'll miss being small if and or when he manages to evolve into a Galvantula.>>59408048Muk guy's a riot. Clever, but kind of awful. Potential karma blast indeed.
>>59406326Comparing this to the original version, adding additional emphasis to the inherent coziness of Switzerland is certainly never a bad idea.The change to Eti's little speech to Nick does seem to be an improvement. It's more words, but cutting through the bullshit requires you to be a bit verbose sometimes.It's tough to watch Nick close himself off when things are clearly troubling him (I mentioned before about how his recklessness may indicate that he's not handling his transformation as well as he pretends to) and equally as tough to watch Eti beat himself up for it. This is an instance where not over-thinking things might help, I think. Best way to be a reliable sergeant to Nick is to reliably be there for him. Not crowd him or try to force him to open up, but just be present and establish the understanding that, regardless of his own struggles, Eti's there for the rest of the unit and that Nick can come to him whenever he feels ready. Focusing on that might also help Eti to better ground himself and not feel so much like he's drowning and can't get a pawhold.Expanding on the point about Michelle was definitely a good idea. The way it is now it's intriguing for those who haven't read Retrograde and explains a lot for those who have. Eti's good awareness spared Michelle a lot of potential extra pain, but in turn condemned himself to more. That's a situation where there isn't necessarily a clear-cut right or wrong answer, but Eti's choice makes sense for who Eti is.Overall, this part didn't need THAT much work, and is really quite good now. Nick and Eti's relationship feels realistic - their problems aren't the kind to be solved in a single conversation - but not hopeless. Eti's laments strike the right balance of sympathetic without verging into frustrating self-pity party territory. You want to see the noodle figure this out, and you get the sense that he does possess the tools to do so - if only he can get his Duckletts in a row.
>>59408048>Those places usually accept all kinds of people and Pokemon"Hammers and nails, Pokés, c'mon, hammers and nails!">I'll buy all the materials needed to build myself a human-shaped container.He makes it sound so simple. There's a charming almost Mr. Bean-like simplicity to his plans and it's great.>I'll go back home and cover myself in tape.Well now he's giving Troll Physics instead. He should use magnets for easier acquiring.When your only friend is the janitor, it's clearly time to re-think your life.>He should have no problem covering me in tape and making me feel like a person again.GiggityNot wanting to get his parents involved is understandable, but probably as foolish as it was for most every other turnee ever to hold that sentiment.>Plan CWell it took a while, but bro has finally hit on a SLIGHTLY more rational approach. Great job, Mukanon, you got there in the end.It's interesting that this is two years into the phenomenon. It sorts of explains why bro's not as freaked out as one might imagine and so far I think you and Bulbanon are the only ones to go that far into the future as of yet, so that's exciting. Plans B and C didn't have me absolutely rolling the way your first two drops did, but Mukanon is still a really fun and silly character and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how he actually interacts with the world. His inner musings are a lot of fun, but it's like I told Kartanon - we want to go on your journey with you, so let's go!
>>59408236Once again increasing the coziness of the surrounds - I approve of this.Re-inserting the dialogue you'd originally relegated to narration was probably the right move. Even if the characters are just talking about relatively mundane stuff, it's all opportunities for characterization - or even just for the audience to enjoy their company.Heh. So Eti is a Woozle. Is he very confusal? (yes, yes he is)I have a feeling Eti's own discomfort about his tail is a big part of what's preventing him from discovering its true utility and learning to control it properly. Also definitely noticing the dialed up sass on Vanessa. She sounds kinda passive when complaining about not being allowed to use her tails in the original - not so anymore.Heh. Considering the drops we've gotten from ARK, the desperate scrambling and stumbling of the world's militaries is definitely becoming a bit of a theme around here.Adding in more of an opportunity for Joel to describe his experience was very welcome.Yes, no squishy Joel, plz. Learning to be comfortable with a large spider crawling over you is honestly just exposure and practice, whether you're a turnee or not.Re-write's continuing to look good. Very noodle. Much wow.
>>59408236>>59409102The thing with Joel does a great job at subtly hinting at more without being dramatic. If you were invited in to someone’s home and they later said, “yeah, my first reaction when someone knocked was to grab the shotgun and fire at whoever came through the door, but I didn’t” you’d be really scared to be around them. Joel’s new form has an implied vulnerability that is only made worse when someone points it out.
>Less than 24 hours left to live for all the Audinos in AmericaWhich other Pokémon are going to get fucked over by all of the fireworks going off?
>>59409657All the Noibats and Noiverns probably aren't having a good time here.
>>59408048Plan C looks way too boring compared to A and B, but interesting to follow none the less. It being two years after the first cases popping up makes me interested in learning how societies adapted in the meantime. Go shopping, Mukanon! If not for Plan C, then to show the voices in your head (us) how things evolved.>>59408423>I wonder if he'll miss being smallDunno. I certainly wouldn't miss being perpetually scared of being stepped on by giants who walk blindly.>>59409086>Best way to be a reliable sergeant to Nick is to reliably be there for him. Not crowd him or try to force him to open up, but just be present and establish the understanding that, regardless of his own struggles, Eti's there for the rest of the unit and that Nick can come to him whenever he feels ready.Right on the money with that one. I had leadership lessons with a doctor of psychology a few years back, and he said something pretty close to that. Basically: Always listen, never judge, don't push nor force, but be there and be approachable. I loved this guy's lessons.>Expanding on the point about Michelle was definitely a good idea.Thanks! When that other Anon remarked whether she would be a heartless bitch, I realised that I should probably clear things up. Eti's unlucky, but not straight up cursed>Eti's tail.Eti might not know what his tail is for, but I do neither. Seriously, what is that weird ribbon thing supposed to do? Other than the creator of the design going "It's based on a weasel, hence tail," I have no clue.>>59409110Thanks for the compliment! I do want our little electric tick to be a paradigm of cosiness, but I also have plans to give his character some more depth in the future.>>59409657Roggenrola is literally all ear and likely has no other senses because rocks probably don't have as sensible skin as a Zubat. Shit's gotta be disorienting.
>>59408236>Once you reached the water trough, Joel jumped up on the wide edge, while you and Vanessa leaned on the roughly hip-high granite.>You looked down onto the surface and saw the reflection of all three of you.>It still felt weird seeing yourself like that, and you wondered if the others felt the same or if it would get any less bizarre in the future."You know... it's just so fucking weird," you said half-subconsciously.>Vanessa looked at you through the reflection with a confusing look. "Hmm, what is? Seeing yourself in the reflection?""Mhm," you hummed. "Just two months ago I was an average looking dude leading a team at an IT company, preparing for a big project that would've started by now.">You paused. Joel and Vanessa just looked at you in silence."Instead... instead I now look like I escaped from a local furry convention, while sitting in line to get another round of military service.">Vanessa rested her head on her left arm on the edge and let her other paw run through the clear water.>"Well, c'est la vie... just be glad that you haven't turned into a dog or something. You can still talk, walk, and use most of human-made things." She glanced at Joel, who seemingly didn't notice.>She splashed water toward the far end of the trough before letting her arm hang limp in the fountain, watching the liquid pour from the cast-iron spout on the small pedestal beside her with a pleasant, rhythmic splash.>She was right. Considering everything, you only really lost two thumbs.>You looked back at your face in the reflection.>The ermine looked calm, content even. Then why didn't you feel like how you looked?"Guess you're right, Vani..." you said.>You didn't want to dwell on your predicament, so you thought about what to talk about next."Anyway... Joel, what did they make you do instead of the medicine ball throw?" you asked the yellow arachnid.>He just looked at you in silence, clearly hesitating whether he should say something.
>>59410373>Vanessa, seeing that he had second thoughts, spoke up. "No, please don't tell me they tried to make you throw a full size medicine ball," the cat Pokémon asked with her mouth agape.>Joel turned to face her and tried to hold back a laugh.>Vanessa then punched the water before she doubled up with laughter, making water splash all over the three of you."Ah-hahaha, of course they'd do that," you said while still chuckling and wiping the water from your face. "How embarrassed was the guy when he realised his mistake?">Joel shook himself dry. "Verily. The Lefty apologised a hundred times and scrambled to get me a better suited ball," he replied, while Vanessa recovered from her laughing fit.>She also wiped her face and arms from the splash she caused."Which was?">"First we tried a tennis ball. After I struggled to lift the thing, he found a smaller rubber ball.""Alright, I guess you threw that one and got some points?" you enquired.>"Yeah, I threw it about a metre. The Lefty then calculated my points based on the size difference between the balls, and myself compared to the average man. Got me 17 points!" He puffed himself up.>"Oha, nice work! I only managed nine points with the regular ass ball," Vanessa replied. "They didn't even bother to give me something lighter...">You could see in her big eyes that she was annoyed.>She quickly realised that you stared at her. "And you? How many points did you score?" she asked you directly."Wasn't really good at it before turning – like throwing it for five points max. It surprised me that I got 20 points this time around," you replied.>"From man with noodle arms to full al dente noodle, huh?" Vanessa remarked with a smile.>Your smile faded. Was she doing those remarks on purpose now?>She probably wasn't thinking about what she said, because she immediately followed up with "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to―".
>>59410374You cut her off. "No, it's fine. I'm just..." You thought for a second and inhaled. "I'm still in the adjustment phase is all.">"Oh? When did you turn if I may ask?" She took a step closer to you, now standing right beside Joel, who looked a bit confused by the interaction.>Argh, not this conversation again!>You thought about trying to dodge the question, but you didn't come up with a reasonable thing to say.>Just bite the bullet, they gotta ask you that at some point anyway..."About six weeks ago. You?">Instead of pushing you to talk more about yourself, the long-eared psychic type remained silent for a short while, while she rested her head back on her arm at her old spot again.>She nodded. "Hmm, I'm not sure. Probably four to five weeks ago if I had to guess~" She glanced over to you while her paw glided into the water again.>You broke eye-contact with her and looked at the spouting fountain.>That was way lower than you expected. The way she moved, talked and had control over herself made it look like she had several months to get to that point.>"Do you have any PIPS symptoms?" Joel said out of nowhere. Perhaps he was surprised by her answer as well?>Vanessa stopped playing with the water and turned her head towards the yellow Tick.>She just looked at him for a solid five seconds, before finally answering, "Not really, no. Why do you ask?">"Just curious," Joel replied.>"Oh, okay..." she said while seemingly deep in thought.>She began to twirl her paw in the water. "If it's instincts or false memories you think about, I don't really have them," she began. "I do have sudden surges of psychic power, though. Worst migraine I ever had!">After that, she unfolded her ears to reveal two eye-shaped, red markings.>"I get headaches pretty quickly when using my powers, which sucks. I guess the universe just likes to prank me, because I'd love to use telekinesis more often," she said with a frown, before folding her ears back in again.
>>59410377>Joel looked at her ears in awe. You felt the same excitement from him when you told him about Schwingen.>"What can you do with your powers?" the electric type asked without hesitation.>Vanessa probably didn't expect that question, because she only let out a "Wha?" before shaking her head.>Oh, uhm... I guess the usual for psychic types?" she sheepishly replied. "I generally just move stuff around.">"Ooh, like what? Can you lift cars?" Joel asked emphatically.>"Aren't you a nosy one," Vanessa said, clearly getting annoyed at the prodding.>"But no, I can't. The heaviest I lifted was my dad... barely">"But have you tried, though?" Joel pressured her.>He wouldn't get an answer, because her ears unfolded again, but this time with a blue glow in her eyes and ear markings.>As if by magic, Joel was lifted up a few centimetres, and then promptly flung into the trough with a splash.>"You should stop asking so many questions, Joel. It's not a good idea if you want to stay dry," she snickered, while Joel was paddling to keep afloat.>Her snickering stopped quickly when she flinched and quickly pulled her paw out of the water, as Joel let out a small electric shock.>"First Nick, now you. Do I trigger your arachnophobia or something?" he lamented.>You lent him a paw so he could get to dry land. You didn't say anything, but Vanessa saw the glare you gave her and apologised while she rubbed her paw.>After that, it was silent for a while. Joel shook himself dry and then spread all four limbs to get drier quicker.>There was a low hum coming from the electric type as he dried himself.>Vanessa kept her distance from him. One shock was seemingly enough for her for today."What the hell got into you?" you eventually addressed Vanessa and broke the silence.>"I-I don't know..." she stuttered. "I just thought of it as mindless fun. Sorry again, Joel." Her ears drooped.>She truly seemed sorry, at least.---
>>59410378>Cat is cattySo much for no PIPS. It seems no one's coping well, not really.
>>59410373I really like this part with the reflections. Feels very PMD-adjacent. I imagine a large number of turnees would avoid mirrors once the shock of first becoming a Pokémon wears off and they’re not trying to figure out what they look like anymore.>>59410378Interesting seeing how the story is re-settling. Not exactly a fan of Vanessa in her current state. Feels bipolar or something. You don’t just throw someone into a pool! It does strike a good contrast between the controlled mental conditions of our boys vs her unaware issues. Realistically, if you were in a deluded state, you genuinely wouldn’t be able to tell, that’s the point of being deluded. Could be fun to see how this goes.
Bump
>>59411746
>>59411899>>59411746>Yeah the whole Pokémon thing was weird at first, but basically we just live with it now. Life hasn’t changed that much really.
>>59410378>"Are you sure you don't have any PIPS symptoms?" Joel drily repeated his earlier question.>"What's that supposed to mean? I already said that I don't, haven't I?" she protested.>"Meowstic's dex entry says that females are more aggressive and torment their opponents with their psychic powers when they don't get their way...">"Oh, does it now?" Her eyes widened.>"It does.">She paused. "Well, I know for a fact that I always was a bit of a spontaneous gal, but it might as well be some form of PIPS..." she replied, paw scratching her chin and a somewhat worried look on her face.>If true, it could explain that whole ordeal just now... on the other hand, a lot of military women you met were on the tomboyish side... What rank was she anyway?"What did you do in the military before turning into a Meowstic?" you asked directly.>You needed to know whether she was a Private or something higher up the chain.>Vanessa looked at you like you proposed to her out of the blue. "Fäldi of an infantry company, why do you ask?" she said.>Chief Sergeant Major, eh? Figures. Some things made a lot more sense now in you head. Most CSMs you met were direct and not hesitant to be up close and personal, as well as head-strong."Just curious.">"A Fäudi?" Joel said in disbelief. "Are Nick and I the only Privates here?">"Is it an issue?" Vanessa asked.>"No, just... weird," he replied, defeated.>With the cat – somewhat literally – out of the bag, the topic shifted back to her psychic powers.>Since you didn't have any powers, you got curious what psychic felt like to use."I gotta ask, how does it feel to use telekinesis on things?" you asked.>Vanessa thought about it for a second and tried to begin a sentence a few times, but stopped after a word or two.
>>59412463>Eventually, she spoke up properly. "It's kinda hard to explain if you don't experience it first-hand..." she began. "Think of it as an extra arm that you can move around."―she was making gestures with her arms, as if she wanted to grab something in the air―"Everything you touch is enclosed in the hand. Then you can just manipulate the object like you would with your real hands, I suppose.">Joel hesitated, before saying, "So it's like Dr Octopus, but with invisible arms?">"Why, yes!" Vanessa replied with a smile. Her tails swayed behind her.>You looked up to the edge of the flat roof, where a bird sat comfortably while watching something on the lawn.>You imagined what psychic powers could possibly feel like, and once again, you felt bad about yourself because you didn't really have any such cool powers.>Compared to the others, you really were just a misshapen, furry human.>While you thought about Vanessa's powers and your lack thereof, the conversation moved once more towards Joel and his electric powers.>Vanessa rubbed her paw again. "I have to admit, you pack a hefty punch with your electricity... How does *that* feel to do?" she asked.>Joel immediately answered. "It's honestly not that impressive. It's like when you flex your muscles, just instead of a cramp, I get to shoot electricity.">"Oh, how interesting. And it doesn't bother you?" she followed up, her ears perking with curiosity.>"I eat electricity directly from power sockets, so no." he replied.>There was a short pause again.>"And what can you do, Eti? I don't think staring holes into the air is a special power." Vanessa eventually said.>Her question snapped you out of your reverie."Nothing really. All I got are these tripping hazards." You held up your arms to show them your wrapped up whips.>Vanessa's right hear drooped after your answer. "Really? Nothing?" she questioned you.
>>59412470"Yes, what are you trying to get out of me?" you snapped back, slightly annoyed. "I don't have psychic powers, nor anything else 'unnatural'"―you made air quotes with your paws―"The only remarkable thing is that meditating has a refreshing effect on me.">"Ah, see? There is something special about you after all!" she said with a wide grin while pointing at you with her left paw.>Ugh. She had a point, but it certainly didn't feel like something special to you. In fact, you were pretty sure a regular human could do the same with enough practice.>You did pick up meditation right before you turned, and it gave you small energy boosts even then.>Joel also inserted himself into the conversation. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Mienshao supposed to be super quick and strong? Like 'pulverising boulders with kicks' kinda strong?">You had read the dex entries, but you had always dismissed them as exaggerations―they were simply too fantastical."I haven't done anything like that, nor do I honestly think that I'm that quick, considering how hard I fumbled the endurance run in the exam." You held your sore nose.>"Aww, throwing in the towel after one minor setback already?" Vanessa playfully mocked you. "Aren't ferrets supposed to be bundles of joy? Are you always that gloomy?">You didn't answer. Vanessa just nodded and replied with a monotonous and drawn out "Right...""Do both of you actually believe the crap that is written in the dex?" you asked. "I mean, the few ones I read were all just absurdly unrealistic!">You turned towards the fountain again and rested your right paw on the edge of the trough.>Your reflection greeted you on the mirroring surface.>Pulverising rocks, tsk, unrealistic and absurd!>While Vanessa just let out a nonchalant "Nah", the spider Pokémon jumped onto your paw and looked up at you.
>>59412478>"I read a lot of entries, and while some truly are bogus, a lot of them are actually pretty useful and have been proven right; like the ones for me!" he exclaimed."And what did yours say?">"That Joltiks can siphon off energy from other beings and can eat from sockets," he replied. "I would've never deliberately stuck my head in one otherwise!" he added with a chuckle."Heh, alright. What is realistic about my entries, then?" you followed up. You were curious about what he had to say now.>His weight shifted on the backside of your paw, as he made himself comfortable. His demeanour softened even more. It seemed that he liked the spot.>You were grateful that he didn't remark on your softness or whatever.>Vanessa in the meantime turned around to the fountain as well – paw slowly twirling in the water again – and waited eagerly for an answer.>"Hmm, let's see... it's been a while since I read the entries for Mienshao." He paused and closed his eyes.>You just looked at him in anticipation, not daring to move your arm for fear of toppling the tiny spider into the water again.>He then began to list a few things about the dex entries.>Quick strikes that are faster than the eye.>Same for whiplashes.>Weird wailing noises when agitated... okay.>Ripping off the whips to lighten up for combat against worthy foes. You already did that, although your "worthy foe" was your annoyance of having those whips in the first place.>And finally, kicks that can shatter massive boulders into tiny pieces. You glanced at your own feet. No way that was possible... was it?>"Have you done anything of those things before?" Joel then asked."I gnawed my whips off a lot when they got too annoying, otherwise, no," you replied.>Vanessa came over to you, hushed Joel away from your paw, and took your arm while inspecting the whip tightly wrapped around it.>"May I?" she asked and gestured at your whip."Sure?">She began to unwrap your whip, and then inspected it.---
>>59412483
>>58900365https://youtu.be/J1ZIxmidltw>She said she'd be here soon, didn't she...?>...ah, conveniently timed knocking, good.>...>Ho boy.>"Hey brat. Mind if I open the door? Mikey had some business stuff keeping him busy so I had ">where'd i leave my phone...>...voice recorder, effects, reversal, there we go...>"Yep, go ahead!" The phone translates for me.>...need to oil the door don't I...>And there she is.>" 'ello, it's... been a bit, right? Mind if I sit down?" And so, she opens the door.>She flip flops between being really good and really bad at hiding her stress on her face.>Wish it didn't result in me feeling like I'm walking on landm->"Hey, careful! Don't get yourself poked will you?!" I can only plea as she hugs me.>"...Cruz please for the love of god don't scare me like that again.">I don't even know how to reply.>"Come on, I always begged you to keep me in the loop if anything like THIS happened to you, my dumb trip could've waited..." She's... holding me a bit too tightly, her voice sounds rather muffled."...kcab ti edam uoy litnu tiaw ot detnaw I ,ti tuoba gnihtyna enod ev'dluoc uoy ekil toN ...s'tI..."<>She's... confused for a second, and lets me go.>No creases, good.>Right, right.>Hit play and...>"...It's... Not like you could've done anything about it, I wanted to wait until you made it back...">"...Oh god don't tell me you talk backwards now..." She bemoans.>I can only shrug as she...>"Do you... need me to talk backwards too?" She's already downloading the app on her phone...>"Nonono! It only goes one way, it's fine!">Soon enough, she'd stop the install.>With that d->ow>...I think I deserve a smack for this yeah...>"You still could've told me, you know?!" She scolds.>I can only nod.>"I know but what would it have done other than stress you out during your trip?"
>>59413126>"Let me figure out what proper care and support would be given you certainly don't seem the most fit to look after yourself when you've got swords for arms at least! Not like you can do animation like this so you clearly need all the help you can get..." ...And she mutters something under her breath I can't quite make out. Hm.>"But I can.">"Huh?" Seems genuinely stunned at my reply.>"I've been sending TOEI some progress the last few days, I've gotten the hang of drawing like this, even if it's... a bit more tiring than I'd like.">There's that processing frown I know too well. Just like when I worked with her and mom for a bit...>"Well then, if that's so, maybe I do get worried... too..." She trails off, before staring me down.>"Why did you get yourself into a fight instead of just getting the hell out of there, Cruz?" What a unique blend of concern, upset, and hurt on her face. Don't think I could put it to paper no matter how I tried.>"It's the best I could do at that point. The guy jumped me before I could even realize it, I... couldn't really fly away anymore, so I just tried to get him off me.">I wish I was eloquent enough to describe the way her expression shifted between processing and disbelieving what I just told her simultaneously.>...or better at expressions to be able to draw it right.>"I... I see... I still feel you should've been able to fly if you were able to fight. But... I guess it's not like I'm in your position to know which call was the right one." She seems mildy solemn after saying that...>"Not even I know if it was. I just lucked out Amaro was checking in on m-">i mean i know i'm rather pickupable now but that was kinda sudden, sis>"I'm... sorry if I worry too much, brat. Even now it's... a bit hard not just seeing you as my little brother..." >I know what you're going to say, spare me the pause...>"Scratch that, SPECIALLY now that you nearly fit in my hand.">Yep.
>>59413128>"I'm just... glad you're alright. Nearly had a heart attack when you sent me that text earlier." She says, emotions apparently settled into begrudging relief.>"Had a feeling you would. But... Yeah, I'm alright now, so... Don't worry too much will you? I can take care of myself.">Seems she brought some stuff along. Really shouldn't be surprised.>"You're not gonna let me reject your offer, are you?">"Not a chance, now listen up. You're incredibly lucky I've been keeping up with this stuff as much as I've been, specially since Amaro turned...">Wouldn't be you otherwise...>"...remind me to go visit him after this by the way. But regardless, you're very lucky I had a whole turnee-contingency pack set up in case anyone in our or Mike's family caught the bug." She says as she tried handing me the thing...>...before realizing the issue with that idea.>"I'll leave the bag open on your counter so you can take stuff out easier. It's got a few different contact lists, some easy-to-open packaged meals, some alcohol spray, though... maybe be careful with that one, I don't know if it'd damage you given you seem to be... N-nevermind, just... Take out anything you think might be useful, ok? You don't have to give us back anything, just keep it. If you need anything, I'm a phone call away, no matter what. Oh, actually! Relating to that, I bought one of those accessible stylus things, should help you with the phone, it's kinda malleable so you can fit the tip of your arm in there, but it doesn't stick to glass so it should make typing on mobile easie-">You hugged me first, time for payback.>"Trying to tell me I worry too much, huh? Kinda hard not to, you know? I was already worried about just regular diseases, but now this... It's a lot. I was really happy no one in the family'd been hit by it, but luck just has a funny way of working out..." Hard to say, but I think she muttered a "dammit" under her breath after that.
>>59413130>Dunno how noticeable being tapped by a paper sheet really is, but surely she gets the intent.>"And like all those other times you worried too much, it'll end up working out, right?">Hard mustering a smile like this but I think I've gotten the hang of it by now...>"Guess so... You're a bit too unserious sometimes, you know?" Must've done it right since she's smiling back.>"If I'm honest with you I probably would've lost my mind as soon as this happened if I didn't handle it with levity.">"I know it's a bit ironic saying this after you just turned into a Pokémon of all things, but... Please remember life is not like a show or a game, alright? You're not invincible, none of us are. And... we're not supposed to deal with that alone. If there's any way me or Mike can help you out, don't hesitate to tell us. Please. You don't need to go through this alone." Also has always been very sincere.>"I... Understand. Sorry for the stress. I just... Hope you enjoyed your trip more without having it crop up then, y'know? Was it fun?">"Y-yeah, but... If I'm honest I'm not sure I'm in the headspace to just... Talk about it. Or... the time. Oh god, I was supposed to only stop by for a few minutes... I'm sorry to cut it off, but you already know what I told you. Please, do keep it in mind, ok? Shoot I need to stop by Amaro's and then at the bookstore and... I'm getting off track. Still, it was... Nice seeing you again! If you ever need a meal or any other sort of help, please count on me and Mike. Just make sure you give us a heads up first!">And yet again, I muster the best simulacrum of a thumbs up I can manage.>With a now relieved smile on her face, she makes her way out.>...feels like I got a few months' worth of weight off my shoulders just now...It's... been a while hasn't it? Hiatus took me by surprise too, never intended for the break between updates to be this long, but hey I finally got this outta the way! I'll try and comment on stories later...
>>59413132At least some transformees are getting real support from their loved ones, that was nice.
>>59412483>"Hold still for a second," she said and walked up the bushes that decorated the walls of the courtyard.>You held your arm up again to not drag the appendage in the dirt. It felt as wrong as ever, but you were curious about what Vanessa wanted to do."What are you looking for, Vani?">"A sturdy stick.""And what would you need that for?" you asked confused.>"You'll see~" she trilled.>Joel and you observed her while exchanging confused glances at each other.>The longer you waited, the more uncomfortable you felt about your other whip, that was still all wrapped up.>So you unwrapped that one as well.>You looked like a dork holding your arms up like that, but at least you felt more comfortable now.>Vanessa paced back and forth in front of a bigger bush.>Eventually, she let out an "Aha!", as her ears unfolded and began to glow.>A thick branch moved out of the shrubbery not long after.>She and the hovering stick walked leisurely back to you.>She showed off her fangs with a big grin. "C'mon, try and swing at this stick with your whips, won't you?" she challenged you."I don't know... is it really necessary?">"It is!" she replied while dangling the stick in front of you. "I'm risking a headache just for you, you better start delivering, Sergeant Noodlearms!" she demanded. Her toothy grin gave way to a pout."Ugh, yes ma'am..." you replied with a thick layer of sarcasm.>How were you even supposed to strike with these things? All you ever did was ripping them off or dragging them behind you.>You closed your eyes and took a deep breath.>You just had to go with your gut feeling for this one. Maybe the Voice would lend you a hand?>You concentrated on the task at hand intensely. Meditation training came in handy, as you controlled your breathing and hyper-focused on the long fur extending from your wrist.>For the first time, you actually let the Voice guide you on purpose. It felt... unnervingly pleasant.
>>59414310>You opened your eyes again and found yourself in a stance you didn't know you knew.>Vanessa tried her hardest to keep it vertical and as still as possible, but it didn't matter, you intrinsically knew your aim would be true.>And then, without you giving the command, *whoosh* — *CRACK*!>Your move was fast, blindingly so, as you struck the stick with your right arm from the top right to bottom left.>Simultaneously, your left arm moved the whip in front of your face to shield it from the incoming debris without losing sight of your target. The perfect offence.>In an instant the stick tore apart, splinters flew everywhere including on your shielding appendage, and the distinct crack of a whip ‒ just deeper pitched – reverberated throughout the courtyard.>You heard a pair of wings flapping in panic behind you, while Vanessa and Joel flinched in unison. The two remains of the once sturdy stick fell onto the cobbled ground with a satisfying *tock*.>Whoa!>"I'll be damned, the dex was actually right about the blinding speed," Vanessa exclaimed while she picked a few pieces of stick out of her fur.>Joel was spared a shower of splinters. "Impressive! You looked like you trained for this very moment your whole life!" he said."I assure you I didn't. It just happened when I started focusing on the stick," you replied, trying to talk your way out of an accusation that wasn't one to begin with.>Vanessa leaned over the broken stick and inspected it. "Impressive! I hope to never be on the receiving end of that," she said with a smirk.>She then looked over to Joel. "Why do you know so much about dex entries?">Joel remained silent for a fleeting moment before sheepishly answering, "I had a lot of time for myself right before turning...">What was that supposed to mean?>His hesitation made you unsure what Joel's true deal was. His sudden mood shift at the mention of death when you first met, now that.. just what was he up to before turning?
>>59414320>The puzzled look on Vanessa's face told you she wasn't satisfied with Joel's answer either.>"Anyway, let's clean that mess up, before the janitors yell at us," she eventually said, apparently deciding not to press the issue, while pointing to the mess on the ground.>Yeah, she was right. There where pieces of wood everywhere. The mystery of Joel had to wait. For now.>"I'm probably not a real help," The tiny electric type said."Fair enough.">You wrapped your whips around your arms again, then helped Vanessa throwing the wood back into the bushes.>However, Vanessa was way quicker than you, thanks to her telekinesis. She picked up small pieces and threw them towards the wall with ease, while you had to bend over and grab them individually.>Saying you were jealous was an understatement. Even with the blinding speed of your strike, you were still just a slightly more capable human.>With the most egregious mess out of the way, the three of you made your way back to the entrance, while bantering about some boring tasks you had to do during recruitment school.>Vanessa especially seemed to love talking about her time as a Fäldi, telling you about her escapades during room inspections and some other amusing encounters with recruits and sergeants alike.>It was actually kinda interesting to hear the other side of the inspections for once.>Once you had the entrance in sight, you saw a Major finishing his cigarette by the door.>Once he saw you three, he flicked the cigarette butt into the ashtray and hurried over to you.>«Sergent-major chef Vanessa?» he asked.>Vanessa saluted. "Yes Major, what do you need?">«The Colonel wants to speak to you before you have lunch. It's about your proposal to switch functions,» he replied with a heavy French accent.>"Oh, um, yes, of course!">The Major then lead her away after you all said goodbye.>Before you headed inside too, you glanced at the tree.
>>59414328>Nick no longer sat in the branches. Maybe you'd see him in the cafeteria?>Joel and you were silent while walking towards the canteen.>You were curious about why Vanessa had requested a switch. Was she fed up with being responsible for administering a whole company? Didn't seem like it, considering how much fun she had telling you about it just the moment before.>Once you entered the canteen you saw a huge queue to the food distribution stand by the kitchen.>Before you spotted the sign with the menu, you already sniffed out what today's menu was: Pot-au-feu!>You took a tray, cutlery and a paper napkin.>Joel asked if he could hop onto the tray so he wouldn't be trampled by accident.>You complied and asked him if he needed anything else.>He declined, stating that he already charged up on the outlet and would maybe just nibble on a piece of meat from your serving.>You had a look around the room to try and spot Nick somewhere, but once again you didn't see the brightly coloured bird Pokémon anywhere.>With nothing else to do but wait in line, you told Joel about what happened to Nick.>Joel told you that he sometimes was like that and that he'd usually come around quickly.>"I'll have a chat with Feathers, if it eases your mind," he said.>You thanked him.>Then the both of you waited patiently in line to get your serving.>For military food, it smelled surprisingly delicious.>Not because it was any better or worse, the food usually tasted fine – rather good on occasion actually. Just... more refined than you were used to.>Another perk of being a Mienshao, perhaps? Hopefully only the tasty foods were amplified...>Either way, you got your serving and sat down at a free space."Bon ap'!" you wished the other recruits at the table, gave Joel a piece of meat, and dug in.---And that's it for Part 7.Rentry is up-to-date: https://rentry.org/whipping-back-into-action#part-7-soaking-in-the-sun
>>59413132Welcome back Kart!Arle seems like a great sister to have. Very over the top empathetic sister is something we didn't have before, so its nice to see this side of a story as well.The beginning reads a bit rough, though.>"Hey brat. Mind if I open the door? Mikey had some business stuff keeping him busy so I had "Is the end missing on purpose?>" 'ello, it's... been a bit, right? Mind if I sit down?" And so, she opens the door.And this one confused me even more. She hasn't even opened the door properly yet and asks already if she can sit down? She's quite in a hurry, isn't she?Otherwise I love the conversation between the two. It's just how I imagined the two converse with each other after what you hinted at in previous chapters.>>59413384I'm still hopping to get a second part of Lucarioanon meeting his parents, though. The first time was hard to read in all the right ways. I feel like we should have more family gatherings in our stories in general. It seems like a topic that could go in a million directions.
>>59413132Comfy. Glad you're back. Arle seems like a good sister.
>>59414342Our Mienshao is too hard on himself.
Well then, I think I'm all caught up by now... I assure you, even if I've been quiet here, I've been lurking all this time and keeping up with the stories, it's always a joy reading what people put up here, specially with so many new additions since I took my unintentionally extensive leave of absence, I'll give some brief thoughts on the new stories I read up on but wasn't around to comment on when they happened, and then prolly go into more detail for the ones with updates this thread.>EmolganonPure funposting imo, it's honestly just fun reading the little updates on someone's more mundane life with the whole phenomenon, brightens up my day every time I get to read one!>MiloticanonThis one hurt a bit to see go silent, very amusing shenanigans with a fabulous fish. Loved the seal feature, still bemoan the fact humanity never properly domesticated them in the past so we could have real water dogs in the present.>Belarusian BlastoiseWhat a jolly lady. Not much more input than that, just seems like someone very good at putting a good face to a rough spot.>NineanonInteresting getting all those small glimpses into the fellow's life, quite a distinct personality for sure.>Don GarbodorIf I'm to be a bit blunt, a part of me kinda wished he just gave off a mafioso air without actually being one? But he seems like a good fella despite it all, of course I do appreciate a parent caring for their kid/s. Feel a bit bad Anon had to thread the needle so much but hey it looks like it all worked out!>MimikyuGreat fun in that opening oneshot, also fun seeing a more open source character! If I weren't already juggling my own stories I can definitely picture a couple fun scenes to draw with the guy in mind, also nice seeing the followups!I think those're all the new ones without any updates in this thread, now for the fresher stuff...
>>59404534Always a treat reading up on mr. protag himself! Man I really like how you handle the aura, I think it's a fascinating angle even if on the surface you'd think it'd brush up against psy-stuff more often but you've got a very tactful grasp on it. Love the whole fight choreograhpy with the spiders too! I'm usually more visual about those sorts of things, so I'm in genuine awe at the absurdly vivid image you manage to paint through words. Being a hero in a more realistic life ain't easy, but damn the guy's got the principles for it if I've seen them (collateral nonwithstanding).>>59391581I've wanted to comment on your stuff from frame 1 of reading them, god damn the presentation and themeing of it all is top notch! Making me feel my image spam is quaint by comparison. As for the actual stories, I'm very much a fan of Saffron and Civic so far (Shaymin being one of my favorite mythicals may play a role in that admittedly), I really like how varied all the different stories we have set within different branches of law enforcement have been, everyone manages to have a very distinct flavor to them. What a killer way to open with that first post still, stand out job!>>59390369Pretty interesting one so far, I enjoy the way his whole state of affairs has been knocking him out of his comfort zone. Also nice seeing another set of fairly supportive parents, feels the thread is striking a nice balance with the family dynamics so far. As for the latest stuff, definitely wonder how much of the officer's demeanor is a conscequence of PIPS, and how much is just... the guy being naturally abrassive. Also really like the use of Elgyem with the light communication, pretty interesting seeing such accommodations being more standardized, it's refreshing having a story set a bit later in the timeline of all this. Good stuff so far!Cont. in a bit...
>>59408048>Hope this fits in nicelySo far so good I'd say! Very fun seeing someone who's actively trying to think of ways to adjust being stuck in this state of affairs into something more... workable, even if some ideas are more farfetched than others. I'm a fan of seeing into people's thought processes, so it has been quite a good time! Also really enjoy all the mental images of the possible results of each plan, pretty good show so far!>>59414342WBIA's definitely a personal favorite with how the main cast has been handled, it's nice having so many different points of reference for how people would come to terms with their situation all coming to a head. I also like how... naturally, Vanessa integrated into the group so far. Sometimes you just meet people and end up hitting it off more than you'd expect. All the physical tests are a fun look into working the Pokemon physiques into something more... workable. I worry lightly for Nick, but I'm sure he'll end up alright. Very solid rewrite, great stuff as always!Oh and I almost forgot>ChurchanonAlso a personal favorite, man I feel bad for the Typhlosion getting dumped out into the literal middle of nowhere, god bless Isaac's heart in more than one sense. Stephen's a real one too, very glad Kayden has someone to help look after him while Isaac is dealing with... everything else that comes up in his life.>that part 15 endingPure "hell yeah". Very glad for the Typhlosion fellow. Hopefully things'll continue being this easy for him going forward.And with that, I think I'm (mostly) caught up! Glad to be (relatively) back, hope I'll be able to do updates more often, even if not daily like I used to. Though before I forget...>>59402777>Cruz is a super-smart guy who's somewhat wasting his potentialReading this hit me like a sack of bricks, was that the impression I gave off with him? Honestly didn't expect a reading like this, though, I think I can kinda see where it's coming from? A lot to think about...
>”Good News Everyone! Using Artificial Intelligence trained on the social media posts and personal recollections of people after they’ve been turned into Pokémon, I’ve developed a training system for police, fire, medical, congressional, psychological, psychiatric, botanical, and metaphysical experts to determine how to react to situations with the recently turned. It can generate infinite possibilities for them to react to and build up their knowledge.”>”Allow me to demonstrate, roleplaying as a police officer responding to a noise complaint from a neighbor”>[YOU OPEN THE DOOR AND GO INTO THE BEDROOM. INSIDE YOU FIND A …]>https://youtube.com/watch?v=dEHqgEjNsms>[ happiny . THEY APPEAR TO BE DOING…]>https://youtube.com/watch?v=dEHqgEjNsms>[ rejected . YOU ASK THEM FOR THEIR NAME, AGE, AND OCCUPATION. THEY ARE …]>https://youtube.com/watch?v=f_vdMeAskik>[andre , AGE 67 , AND EMPLOYED AS A unemployed . HOW DO YOU RESOLVE THIS SITUATION? YOU HAVE 30 SECONDS TO RESPOND.]
>>59415336>was that the impression I gave off with him?Yeaaaah, that's on me, not you. I think I'm having trouble keeping proper track of this many stories. Between this and the criticism someone else levelled against another part of it, praise for Mukanon aside (which is obviously still valid), I'm just gonna go ahead and disown the entirety of the >>59402777 post. Shame it's trips (and lucky 7s at that), because it's REALLY not my finest work. Apologies.>>59404534>This was still a trap.Like I said, he's both predator and prey.>A wraithlike chill.I still love how different your conception of aura is from mine.>Pads brushed over a hairline fracture.Ah shit... Okay, maybe this isn't the best time to be revealing yourself to the world after all... Hope the homeowner's got some good fuckin' insurance! Lucarioanon used Pool Explosion! Despite being a water type move, it was still Super Effective!>It was a routThis feels appropriate alongside Lucarioanon bursting out of the pool with a swell of triumphant music.https://youtu.be/Konzrb1Cmxc?t=130>Each pounding hit had to end it quick, ruthless as it may be.If you're fighting fair, you didn't plan the attack properly. Bro is on an absolute tear, especially with that flail move. That's just plain disrespectful right there.>soaring high enough to land unconscious on the roof.Three points!Ooof, Ariados got ROMPED... The chunk of concrete on her horn is fairly comical, though... Desperation spit, by contrast, wasn't very effective. If we needed any further proof that this Ariados either wasn't human or is at the very least intractably feral, the fact that she doesn't attempt to surrender after her entire brood gets taken out and she just tanked an explosion to the face should seal it. The contrast of the brute simplicity of the spikes to the grace and sophistication of the rest of the Lucario has always been a fantastic element of its design.
>>59415621>recycling bin.There is DEFINITLY a joke in there somewhere, I'm just too dumb to figure it out. Gee, how kind to place the most injured ones at the top, as if any vet in the world is gonna wanna even ATTEMPT to sort this shit out... Granted with the natural resilience of Pokemon, most of them will probably survive anyway.I wonder how much of the battle the mother and son saw. That's certainly not gonna be a memory that ever leaves ya.>Something you definitely could not afford.Seems like you can't even afford basic essentials at this point, mate. What'cha been living on?>But you doubted you could explain your fantastical powers faster than actually checking.Or alternatively you just don't want to. :^)Heheh, that is quite the change of tune from the mother. Think she'd treat Lucarioanon to tea and cake if he stayed?>“Might be more in the woods.” You frankly explained. “Big nest.”It's both the truth AND a convenient excuse. Best of both worlds!>They waved back.Pure capeshit vibes.>And this was a job only a lucario could do.I mean probably there's some psychic types that could also pull it off, but I get what you're saying.>Didn't think this bit would go on for so long, but I think it turned out well.It was definitely worth the extra effort. Lucarioanon truly coming into his own as a full-blown "beats up legions of bad guys and doesn't afraid of anything" hero is a fantastic culmination of everything he's done and experienced thus far. The action was thrilling and innovative and his character feels on point for someone who's tantalizingly close to unlocking complete, stable, and balanced integration of human and Pokemon, but still has room for a few more bumps and surprises along the way. It makes you so incredibly eager to see where this town's hero's life is gonna go next.You went above and beyond with this one. Outstanding work.
>>59410378Another turnee with a far more blasé attitude toward their transformation than Eti. Time will tell if this one's genuine or if it's put on like it seems to be with Nick. Being an intrinsically calm, focused Pokemon certainly has its privileges for those in a position of authority...Heheh. Tiny spooder does tiny ball yeet. Absolutely adorable. Probably should've tested Vani's distance with psychic powers as well as without them, but, again, everyone's flying by the seat of their pants here. At least they're being less pretentious about it than the guy's in ARK's leaks.>20 pointsStronk noodle! Does not soften when wet noodle! (except when wet from the tears, but that's different)>Was she doing those remarks on purpose now?Yep. Better get used to it fast, noodle! This is your life now - not a chungus life, but a noodle life.>not this conversation again!In fairness, I CAN see that getting repetitive. I'm wondering if Vani can to some degree sense Eti's discomfort in addition to just seeing it written all over his face. The intrinsic calmness his species lends to his face clearly only gets you so far.Well Eti seems to think Vani's casualness is genuine, anyway, at least at a casual inspection...Joel being a kinda innocent and wide-eyed curiosity guy matches up entirely too well with him being a smol bug. Vani is quite similar to Emma in some respects, just (seemingly) more put-together. Probably need to get used to being asked about your powers, though... Hmm, maybe she IS hiding something like Nick...Joltik doggy paddles! Yeaaah, that was probably a much better idea than Eti having a panic attack. Clearly Joel is the idea butt-monkey for all your cute shenanigan needs. Just remember to let him do things OTHER than being the butt-monkey at times. And speaking of, ooh, HIS turn to cut through the bullshit, huh? Nice. Her behaviour could definitely be from a mixture of pre-disposition and Pokemon instincts.
>>59411746Probably my favourite Pokemon copypasta of all time, honestly.>>59412483Heh. Dig that Sgt. Frog energy. Kululu in that series wasn't even in charge, yet was a Sgt. Major for absolutely no reason. Guess you've got even further to climb than you did before, huh Joel? Aheh... apologies, I'll stop bullying the tiny spooder... eventually.It's fantastic to finally meet our mysterious psychic type and discover that, to a large, she's much like the rest of them, mild PIPS symptoms included. It's nice when characters can just shoot the shit and learn more about one-another. If it seems like I've had no real criticisms for this section, that's because I don't, really. It's honestly been pretty great. Maybe I would've liked Eti's fighting type instincts to twinge watching Vani use her powers as a "tip of the hat" to the original version, but that's not strictly necessary.>So it's like Dr Octopus, but with invisible arms?DOCTOROCTAGONAPUS!Oh c'mon, Eti, Mienshao can perform exceptional feats of strength and agility. You already got a taste of it when you threw the medicine ball - you just gotta train yourself appropriately. Y'know, training? Fighting types? Ringing any bells?Y'know said meditation MIGHT just be your new instincts trying to tell you something, Eti. Just a thought. Ah, and there we go, Joel once again being a real one. Spooder is rapidly turning into the GOAT. Spoodergoat?>unrealisticBruh...But in all seriousness, I like the implication that Eti has a bit of a psychological block from trying anything he considers to be "unrealistic"... despite the fact that Vanessa literally just used telekenesis right in front of him... There is such a thing as being TOO down-to-earth, and it fits nicely with his existing laments about what a freak he's become. Bro just wants to be normal, and has yet to come to terms with the fact that he's been given a new normal.
>>59415648Eti needs to learn to let go and embrace the absurdity. Not necessarily completely, but just enough that he can tap into the chaotic power of a Pokemon and harness it for his own decidedly non-chaotic ends. And hey, what better 'mon to accomplish that with than one that's all about intense focus and that eastern inner perfection stuff? Heh. Looks like everybody's gonna get to take a turn at cutting through the bullshit today. Your pity party clearly ain't impressing the gal who's a higher rank than you, silly noodle.>>59414342Haha! YES! Vani exercising her authority to force Eti out of his comfort zome, and in so doing acting as a model for how he himself should be acting as a Poke-sergeant. While this scene has gotten lengthy, it was totally worth it in my book. This is an important moment of character development for Eti after his freakout - some food for thought that helps to ground him in his moment of feeling adrift and plants the seed of future acceptance of what he's become. It's great to see him dare to embrace the instinct, even if just a little and just for a moment. Eventually, that pleasant feeling won't seem so unnerving, friend.All this could easily lead to a vignette (since I know you wanted to shift to a more anthology-like format after this) later where Eti is starring at his whips and reflecting that though he didn't think much of it at the time (perhaps forced himself not to), he ultimately can't deny what he was able to do to that stick and... well, y'know maybe... just maybe... he should try pushing his new body a bit, just to see... >You heard a pair of wings flapping in panic behind youWould it be too much to hope for that that's Nick?>Whoa!Yeah, Eti, "whoa". Amazing how a single word can be so incredibly satisfying. Even more satisfying than the actual strike itself.>trying to talk your way out of an accusation that wasn't one to begin with.Heh. Mood.
>>59415664I guess it was inevitable that Joel would also be hiding something. Everyone else seems to be. Smol bean, big ol' murky depths.>Even with the blinding speed of your strike, you were still just a slightly more capable human.Goddamnit, Eti. Ah well, he'll get there.>Was she fed up with being responsible for administering a whole company?Could be she's just more interested in working with fellow Affligés.I think this is the first time I've seen human food seem better to a someone after they transform rather than worse. That's appealingly novel. Joel is fucking adorable in this scene. Definitely interested to see if he has any better luck getting through to Nick.As with Lucarioanon's latest, you knocked it out of the park with this re-write, Miensha. You've done bloody well, and I just hope the two of you aren't TOO burnt out after all of this. You've truly spoiled us beyond any reasonable measure. Both of you are certified legends.
I knew in my heart exactly where I was going.I had tried to go there the first time before I accidentally dashed my consciousness into dust by teleporting or rather more likely shearing my atoms across the lunar surface.It would have been zip SPLAT as I reenacted the Iris on the Stargate.Nope I know this time I am heading straight to the only person I know that A . Won't freak out too much about me B. Will probably be a little bit high on edibles.C. FamilyThe Abra mind was in complete agreement, family is safe, Family for Abras is rare.I got glimpses in my mind of a Female Kadabra holding her egg, then placing it in a safe place, teleporting away before a pack of very mean looking hellhound like Pokemon came near by.I'll unpack that non-memory later. Right now I was zooming through the sky propelled with my own telekinesis.Look at me I am a flying fox with no bat wings, weeehehehe.Sure was breathtaking blasting through the sky just under the speed of sound.Just high enough that no one who would be staring at the sky would see me as anything but a smear of yellow.And just low enough that I wouldn't get a sense of vertigo looking at fluffy clouds the size of mini malls.I needed someone who remembered me before all this — someone who could remind me I was still Linnea.Yeah, I had the funeral for the body, but as they say, the spirit is still with us or whatever Still though, he's gonna flip his flops.The sky was full of the fair weather clouds. but since my flight wasn't aerodynamic as much as making gravity and space kinda fuzzy about my placement, So whatever thermal energy would have tried to yeet me to their fluffy wet embrace was like walking into a warm room and that was about it.The Abra was worried, just a hair about being this exposed. but honestly, I was too enthralled with supermaning through the blue as the city vanished below me into the green and grey patchwork of modern Suburbia.Ah ha! My target in sight.
>>59415673A single wide home absolutely surrounded by maple, oak, and poplar, trees.A back yard that is never mowed with his large rock garden in the shape of concentric spirals.Seeing it from above really does capture the precise look of this tiny lithic structure. that you just don't see standing on the ground staring at a bunch of white and red-stained rocks with an occasional point of clear crystal.Now... how to do this, was he even home I asked my self as I descended to the center of this spiral.I alit on a cushion of air like a graceful dove above the center stone made of some dark colored mineral I didn't know, a Gabby-something or other.Reaching out with my mind ignoring the absolutely heinous amount of insects everywhere and passed his dilapidated back porch, his tattered back screen door and shaggy rug he used to keep the holes covered, I felt Him.A Curious spark of thought with a faint hint of fuzz like a static-covered balloon.Gareth. And he was absolutely in dream mode as he sat on the floor.Should I go all ghost projection... no I don't know how to do that.Teleport? no no no even for how blazed he was right now, that'd scare him stupid.I guess good as any time to see if humans can hear me, or if I can only speak my pokemon name like the Anime... which would suck.Wooooo Gareth I am the Ghost of Christmas In July.Okay quit goofing...Let's do this.I extended my though sphere to his immediately I am hit with an emotion of calm, serenity, I'd dare say empty.One quick thought just enough to get his attention during his meditation."Hey, um, What's up Brother dearest"What happened next was probably the fastest I have ever seen him move.He jolted up with such a snap i could practically hear his bones pop."Lin is that you?"His eyes stayed closed doubled in concentration. His emotions colored in confusion and elation.
>>59415675"Have I done it have I finally been able to Astroproject?Are you a 5th-dimensional being talking through the voice of a familiar?""Well you are half right" I dryly responded, it is your Sister."Now don't panic but I need you to go outside to your garden, and most importantly do not freak out""I might well teleport into a wall or tree." He rose like a zombie still keeping his eyes closed his mind awash in ideas both outlandish and loud.Stuff like angels, demons, and other such things swirling around.That was until he smacked face first into the screen door."You dork open your eyes" I mentally chided him."You're not in a trance or a dream walk, your still home""I do as you say guiding spirit" he said in a dreamy voice.And opened the door with a very noisy creaking sound.Oh god lord... he was only wearing his blue ratty robe and his red patterned boxers, his dirty blond hair long and springy knotted in places, his scraggly blond beard jutting at odd angles, he had yet to viking braid them today it seems.His body skinny, with a hint of a beer belly despite his healthy living.Gareth, a twenty-eight-year-old man with the brain of a sugar high kid, and the knobbly knees of a 50-year-old retiree, his white chest with dark yellow hair trying to hide a very unimpressive ectomorphic form.Then there was his dirty green eyes only slightly bleary in both the canabiodds and the late afternoon sun.stood at agasp at the being floating in his garden.Me, and yet also to him definitely not me, I must be some kind of cosmic vision, said his brain almost in a slurring way.He walked with purpose through the tall grass toward me.I could see exactly what he saw in his mind.And he saw a floating yellow thing wearing sunglasses like a soft drink Mascot.
>>59415683He stopped short of the stone I was perched above like a mysterious wisp.He just looked down at me.I interrupted his next thought, "yes I am real."The Abra brain was in two directions A. Big tall human.B. Family.But as he reached out to try and touch my bulbus fuzzy head, it screamed to teleport.Nope, hush Abra Brain, family, safe.Actually the touch was quite pleasant and while I was human I hated being touched, what a bizarre turn of events.He was kind of petting my head and ears."I can't believe this"."You are so cute for a hyperdimensional dream god".I crossed my arms in indignation."No..." I whined in his head."I am your sister""Ya know that whole crazy thing with people becoming those technicolored animals from that cartoon? Well...?""Wait. You mean the Pokemon?" "Wait."I could hear the gears in his head turn forcing through the grime of his slight intoxication. Trying to figure out which one I was."You mean...And you...Uh...""Let me stop you there. I am one called an Abra, they are like, well..." I gestured to my form."Yellow, fox, possum, things.""And no not a Pikachu" I interrupted his sluggish brain again, Pikachu don't have pyschic powers and can speak brain to brain.He just looked at me some more and just uttered a single word."Cool.""So you aren't scared of me? You don't think it's weird your sister is one now?"You don't think I am diseased or anything?"The gears finally clicked in him."Of course not, this Pokémon thing has been one of the most amazing things to ever happen to our hum-drum human realm."
>>59415684"As for that whole you are diseased thing. It's bullshit. the Fed is just freaked to the moon is all.""Sure i don't actually really know why, or why, or; he blinked. like I really Frigging don't know why.""But ya know this sure will change everything.""So. Can I come inside, it's hard to explain right now, but I have this inner voice and it REALLY doesn't like being outside exposed like this." I pointed at his ratty door with my hand."Oh sure, yeah, I mean, that's kinda normal for you, isn't it?"He turned and left to the door, opening it a bit like he was expecting a stray cat to come in."Well, come on in. ".
>>59415685Okay time for me to dissappear again.But I hope you enjoyed.
>>59415712Truly like an Abra. Amazing and wonderful to see, only to disappear immediately after.
>>59415712It's nice to read from you again. I hope you're doing better since last time?The update was a joy to read as always. The Abra side of her just being way too skittish and Lin trying to suppress that feeling is such a good quirk. Her Brother seems like he has his heart in the right, yet dazed place. I just posted a few days ago, that we need more family scenes, and here you come and give us one immediately. Just lovely!
>>59415712I did enjoy, neat and thanks for the update, Digi
>>59415728Can't help it I was out on the feild till 1.I just got home it was 105 base temp in the air and 122 radiation in the pit.>>59416321I figured people were getting tired of just Abra and her thoughts expect more characters soon.>>59416540I write when I can. Life in the mine is about time and money, and I tend to have neither.
>Yeah, just illusion your body back to your human form and go about your life like normal, that will surely fix your mental health issues
>>59412470>"So it's like Dr Octopus, but with invisible arms?"Ah, that must be a mis-translation or localization. In the US, the character is named Doctor Octogonapus.
>>59412483Sorry little Monk Mustelid, when trying to design a physical fighter, it’s pretty common for their only power to be “punch hard” or “punch fast”.Still nervous about the lady, but I wonder how much of this could be connected to type attributes and a slightly unreliable narrator? I almost feel like I should keep track of how she reacts to everything.>>59414320Great to see him trying more of a move. I wonder if the pleasantness he’s feeling is more psychological euphoria from the Pokémon, or just plain old “runner’s high”>>59414342Just double checking my memory, the rest of the cafeteria is entirely humans right?
>>59413126Nice color pallet. It sure would be a shame if she turned into an Ice type>>59413132Her flip flopping between handling it all really well and struggling with everything is very realistic. Feels genuinely like when people were doing their best with the limited information available during early COVID. Interesting she calls it a bug, but we don’t really have a term for a random shift in reality, localized entirely to one person do we?
>>59415673Is the lack of family in the Pokédex and I’m not remembering it? If not, that’s a nice creation. It makes the reunion that much more touching. It’s great that she’s able to make a connection and do some human-ish things despite her very mental state. I guess approaching a stoner is a good first stepping stone to sober people. Reminds me of Dee Dee from Limmy Show in a good way.
Remember to take care of your friends when they turn into pokemon. You'll want the support in case you ever turn.
>>59415302>GarbodorI would have liked to save the reveal for later or the last chapter and just have been coy about how dangerous he is or isn’t, but I didn’t have any other ideas to build up to it.
>Is a quiet afternoon today.>Is also helpful that I do not need to go through decompression like others. >Makes dives safer in case of emergency, like this morning.>Was on way up from deep below, one of the drills had gotten stuck.>Cannot send team back down, they were just fresh from decompression.>So I grab my kit and simply jump down below.>Is scary falling that far, hitting surface of water like landing on cement. >Not fun. Is sudden stop that kills. Unless of having bad heart, then it hurt whole way down.>I learned to throw toolbag on lanyard and then land on that. Much easier, especially when landing shellside down, >Can watch the surface light get dimmer, almost like dream.>Sadly, this nightmare.>Drill got stuck, why was drill stuck?>School of Wishiwashi decided to be offended.>Neat for Swolla though! Free Sushi.>By third bite, they got message. they also may have decided to leave because I jammed a connon into the bite hole and made the jet teeny.>Like cutting laser, but of water. Moved it around a few times, Spent next hour repairing drill.>Had to radio to surface for them to drop cage, so much sushi, figure everyone would enjoy free meal.>Chef was mildly amused, because I cannot cook, stubby arms are not of much use in kitchen.>Such is life.>Taking nap on top deck railing however is quite nice.
>>59417325>Pipe maze and structural reinforcement look believable>Text is all gobbledygookGenerative AI is a fuckin' trip, man.Good compliment to the story, and a fine addition to the story of Blastoise the offshoreMon.
>>59395531Considering even in the games people remark that wild Pokemon make it unsafe to go out without your own, it shouldn't be a surprise that certain places would literally be a death trap if you ran into an aggressive Pokemon that didn't care for humans. I can already see various governments permitting use of flamethrowers to try to stop the spread of some species, particularly grass and bug types, but even that isn't going to stop a lot, especially if any of them learned a water move. Lots of species are also not averse to living with other similar types, which is something humans aren't used to dealing with, animals actually communicating with each other and cooperating. Rather then just mutalisim. Beaches would become the number one kill zone as suddenly everyone has to deal with invisible fucking Vaporeon, Tentacruel wrapping everything up and drowning them and Sharpedo hitting people so quick it rips them in half. It is a wonder that humans in the Pokemon world survive as well as they do.
>>59417329Can blame the text on lax safety standards. We're talking non-US so... 'whats OSHA?' And in my 12 years of country hopping in the army, some oil rigs LOOK like a damned pipe maze and the text oddly enough seems on point of all the bullshit you'd expect.Shoulda named the photo 'zen and the art of oil rig maintenance' I do apologize for the AI use for Belarusian Blastoise, Paycheck hits the first of the month, and it evaporates by the 5th of the month due to bills.
>>59417340>I do apologize for the AI use for Belarusian Blastoise, Paycheck hits the first of the month, and it evaporates by the 5th of the month due to bills.Don't apologize for it, you did nothing wrong by employing it for this kind of thing.
>>59413132>>59415685>>59417325First Lucario and Miensha mega-drops, some new blood, and now three wayward souls find their way home back-to-back-to-back? This is the best thread we've had yet!>>59414342>...ah, conveniently timed knocking, good.You sound so very enthusiastic, Cruz.Between the image and her opening with "hey brat", does anyone else get immediate tomboy vibes from Arle? Is that just me?>"Do you... need me to talk backwards too?""Talk to Data backwards!"You know what they say about asses and mumptions, Arle. It's easy to make proclamations about what someone else should've done in a situation when you're not the one being savagely beaten to death for the high crime of existing. Is this perhaps a note of projection I sense? Is the true upset at yourself for not being there to protect Cruz? I wouldn't be surprised. Although let's be honest, Cruz is in a better position to project you now rather than t'other way 'round.>A few days of food and some phone numbers.Awesome contingency kit, Arle. Might as well have given him socks and a chain wallet. Heh, jests aside though, I'd be curious to see if any of those numbers lead to anything interesting. Maybe fledgling Pokemon services being assembled within the city, or some kind of guru who's made their trade helping turnees manage their PIPS. There's lots of possibilities there for Cruz to expand his horizons a bit and get into shenanigans. >I was already worried about just regular diseases>And like all those other times you worried too muchSo she was always a worrywart. That figures, and definitely makes Cruz's decision to wait until after she got back to tell her very understandable.Heh. You either learn to laugh or you go insane, right Cruz?The ironic thing about all this was that Cruz WASN'T going through it alone. He'd just gotten done with him and Amaro mutually supporting each other and was just unlucky to get jumped by a crazy person.
>>59417590>If I'm honest I'm not sure I'm in the headspace to just... Talk about it. Hmm. I wonder if that's just because of the conflicting emotions that she doesn't feel able to hold down a normal conversation right now or if something actually happened on the trip as well. It would be an amusing reversal if Cruz wound up having to take care of HER because she stressed herself out too much.>please count on me and MikeVery Japanese of you, Arle.As someone else said, it's an appealingly grounded conversation. Arle's a good bean, but her hangups have the potential to lead to interesting circumstances, moreso than we've seen from your other human characters. Hopefully now that you're over this hump we can see Cruz's story head in a new direction. More stuff like the Oxxo scene where we colour in more of his community might be fun.>>59417325For what it's worth, given how little AI content is used in this thread, it's a novelty when you show up with a pic like this. I'd sing a different tune if the thread was flooded with it, but as it is? You're fine.Anyways, it's good to see Swolla's not being COMPLETELY reckless in her seemingly invulnerable new shell, but man I would LOVE to see a Blastoise cannonball from the deck of an oil rig. I dunno enough about this sort of thing to know how nightmarish a stuck drill truly is, but Swolla sure seems unhappy, so git outta there, smol fishes! Shouldn't you be school formeing and not hiding inside a drill?>connonConnainum.Honestly, Swolla's exact actions are slightly hard to follow in this one, but I get the general gist. With her fishing for the boys, this rig'll soon have the smallest food budget on the seas. It'd be fun to have an inspector come around and be VERY unhappy they're keeping a giant cannon turtle on the rig, but if you want to stick to Swolla's underwater zen stuff and not really worry about having other characters in the story too much, having her mess with a passing submarine could be fun.
>>59417325For all the guff about AI images, I must admit it does a decent job of threading the needle between “official_artwork.png” and “THIS WILL BE GRAPHICS IN 2012”The story itself is cute in a way. We should all be as happy and willing to help others as he is.
>>59417590>The ironic thing about all this was that Cruz WASN'T going through it alone. He'd just gotten done with him and Amaro mutually supporting each other and was just unlucky to get jumped by a crazy person.Come to think of it, he told his internet friends in the group chat fairly quickly
>>59416873Abra used to be rare in Red, Blue, and yellow, so it made sense that they would have small families
>>59414342>The dorm room was dead silent.>The only thing you heard was the hum of the socket you plugged yourself into.>You felt the alternating current flow and nourish your body, the weak push and pull was pleasant and reminded you of a massage.>However, you could intrinsically sense that it was ever so slightly below 50hz.>You weren't sure how, but it felt different to what you perceived this morning, right before Nick tried to jostle you awake.>Not unpleasant in any way, it was still the same meal, just that it had an additional pinch of salt added.>You were already stuffed, but you enjoyed the experience ever since turning.>You became quite the electricity gourmet, actually. Depending on the installed power distribution board, there was a different flavour. Your home tasted different from your grandma's place, which was different from the hospital.>The latter still gave you the creeps. Who knew that electricity could have the gusto of death itself...>Too be fair, it was probably a bad idea to siphon off from the heart rate monitor right after turning. You never saw a nurse sprint into your room so fast.>All right, you indulged yourself enough — time to do something more productive before your examination began in around thirty minutes.>You unplugged yourself from the socket and let yourself plop onto the plateau that was the night stand.>You stretched and looked into the room.>The two towering bunk beds occupied most of your view.>Etienne already left, probably to have some alone time.>He did look rather shocked after he shattered that stick into a million pieces―believably a lot to process.>Anyway, what should you do for the time being?>...>Oh, how about strolling through the building and see if anything interesting was going on? Maybe find some unexplored nook or cranny or just enjoy watching people go by?>The thought brought you joy.>There was nothing more to consider; you jumped on the ground and walked up to the closed door.
>>59419356>Wait... closed door?>Well, shit... Etienne probably shut the door behind him when he left. Presumably out of habit.>Maybe he forgot that you couldn't open doors too?>You inspected the threshold.>As you expected, it was a fireproof design with a sealed entry. There was no way you squeezed under that...>You looked upwards to try and see any other gap in the frame. However, from your perspective the behemoth of a door looked airtight.>Just to make sure, you climbed your way around the frame.>No luck. You were trapped.>It looked like a security feature became your downfall...>Unless?>You went over to the closest leg of the skyscraper-like bed.>You grabbed onto the pole and started to climb.>With every step you felt a bit of current flow into your leg to make it sticky. >Your front left leg touched the pole and electrified itself.>You right hind leg stopped being sticky and you lifted it up the metal pipe.>Then you moved the right front leg upwards.>Then the left hind leg.>Repeat with the front left.>And the best part? It all just worked without thinking about it!>The bed was around thirty times taller than you, so you had quite a climb ahead of you.>What was that in human comparison anyway? A twenty-story building or something?>Ugh... The thought sent a current down your carapace.>You were afraid of heights before turning, and thinking about climbing such a tall building didn't sit well with you.>You were probably light enough so terminal velocity wouldn't kill you, but still.>This was fine, though. You were confident in your little Joltik self.>You reached the top not long after.>Sitting on the perch and glancing down, it really didn't feel like you scaled the equivalent of a high rise building just now... might be the human side of you still recognising that it's just a bed in a room. How fortunate indeed.>You began to look around the place from your vantage point.>First, you looked for a grille of a ventilation shaft.
>>59419359>...>...hold on, that wouldn't work. If the doors were fireproof, then the vents would certainly be as well.>Besides, there was no vent anywhere, this wasn't a video game after all. That was silly.>At just that moment you saw that the window on the other side of the bed hall was tilted open ever so slightly. Etienne must have forgotten to close it properly before leaving.>That was it, your way out of your prison!>You turned around, hopped onto the top mattress, and moved towards the wall opposite of the window.>You then climbed up the wallpaper and continued along the ceiling towards the canted glass pane.>Seeing the room upside-down gave you slight vertigo.>You tried to avoid ceilings most of the time, but this was the quickest way to the window, so eh...>It was interesting to see the room like that though.>It reminded you of the many music videos where the bands played their song hanging from the ceiling.>Hmmm...>You stopped the current in your front legs to hang upside-down and played an impressive guitar solo to the non-existent crowd.>You missed playing the guitar... maybe some company will make small ones for people like you someday – that would be absolutely delightful!>You hung from the ceiling for a few more seconds, imagining a band of only Pokémon, doing cool and intense music videos, before getting all four legs back on the ground—well, ceiling.>You strolled towards the slightly open window and weighted your chances of pushing it open further.>By the looks of it, you nearly fit through the gap already.>No better way to find out than actually trying.>You moved backwards to the edge of the window frame and held on with your front legs, while you stood on the window with your hind legs. >You squeezed yourself into the gap, to give yourself the best lever to push the window open.>One, two, and one is three!
>>59419362>With all your bug might, you gave the window a good push. At first it didn't budge, but after trying again, the window finally swung open.>You let go with your hind legs just in time to not tumble out of the opening and into the courtyard three stories below.>You let out a relieved sigh. That wasn't too hard.>Now you just needed to walk up and over the roof to get to the entrance on the other side. Sounds easy enough!>And so you crawled outside and up the concrete wall.>Halfway up, you turned around and looked down into the courtyard.>The slight feeling of vertigo came back, but you tried to ignore it. There was nothing to worry about.>You could see the fountain, bushes, and tree from before lunch. The ground around the fountain was still wet and had chunks of wood lying around.>It was fascinating to see how Etienne decimated that stick.>Too be quite honest with yourself, you didn't believe that he would've gone along with it. Not after seeing him be so negative about himself.>You turned around again and continued to climb the last metre.>That Meowstic was something else, though.>You liked her, but she was way to impulsive and your surprise bath was unaccounted for.>It lined up with the Pokédex just too well.>The fact she told you that she always was a bit mischievous before turning came off like a white lie to you.>You never heard of people turning into a Mon that reflected their character before. Nick, Etienne and you were a good example for that.>Otherwise you'd probably be a Varoom or Cyclizar, not some four-legged arachnid.>Although, on second thought, it might've been for the better that you didn't turn into one of those two.>You swore to never drive again if you came out of your accident alive after all―would've been kinda hard to keep that promise if you became the vehicle yourself...>One close call was enough; tempting fate again would certainly end in you pushing up daisies.
>>59419365>You shuddered at the thought and promptly put your mind someplace else.>Throwing away your second chance at life would be foolish.>You finally reached the top of the roof. It was flat, and filled with grasses and gravel, with parts of it being a rooftop terrace.>It looked rather nice, actually. Perfect for a summer grill party.>Even lovelier was the fact that you spotted a familiar bird atop the railing of the terrace.>You hurried over to the Fletchinder."Hey Feathers!" you called out to the bird, who turned his head towards you.---https://rentry.co/whipping-back-into-action#part-8-a-shift-in-perspectiveI'm trying out a new method for planing and writing stuff, which means you all get more frequent updates of scenes, instead of waiting a month for a twenty-post behemoth. Isn't that nice!With that new method, I'm also gonna restructure the Rentry soon, so the link above might break – or point to somewhere else – once I'm done with the edits.
>>59419375Good chapter. I liked this glimpse into the life and experience of our Joltik friend.
>>59415685I presume she's talking about the dream when she says she splattered against the moon. I hope so, at any rate...>I'll unpack that non-memory later.Fair, honestly. Plenty of time to work on reconciling your PIPS later - bebeh's first flying experience takes a SLIGHTLY higher priority. With that speed, Abragirl again shows off exceptional power and potential - they're almost certainly our most powerful protag by a wide margin. Quite understand the urge to have a power fantasy given her writer's grueling line of work.So Linnea's thought better of discarding her name, and is shifting to a more circumspect approach with regards the humanity that still dwells within her. Kinda makes her previous action look in hindsight like that thing you do in negotiation where you give the most extreme version of your terms first and then walk them back to something more reasonable. Hopefully we can take this as a sign that she'll gradually settle into a healthy balance. The fact that she's exercising such power while the human urges remain firmly in the driver's seat, again much like VetPhox, is probably a good sign.>flip his flopsI chuckledNever mowed, huh? Given what we know of the brother so far, it makes sense he'd avoid HOA neighbourhoods. Granted everybody should do that. Not the most salubrious spread, but, hey, given how some of our protags' interactions with family can gone, take what you can get.Hey, I'm down to take the excuse to test the extents your abilities where you can get them. Although this guy's probably the only guy in existence who'd be excited to suddenly hear his sibling's voice in his head. A win for sure there.>the Ghost of Christmas In July.Damnit, you got me againAt this point I wouldn't be surprised if Lin DID find her way into the 5th dimension, Gareth. Whilst telling him immediately you got turned into a psychic type Pokemon would probably've been helpful, I definitely get the urge to mess just a LITTLE with a guy like this...
>>59419902Oof. I appreciate the vivid description, but you might need to use your powers to clean this guy up a bit, Lin. Hopefully he'll defer to your judgement now that you have all the abilities he dearly wishes he could have.>Then there was his dirty green eyes only slightly bleary in both the canabiodds and the late afternoon sun.Think you messed this sentence up a little bit.The mental image of Gareth's mental image of Lin is hilarious. This line can DEFINITELY rock a pair of shades, so I support the fashion choice. Hmm, maybe I should keep a tally of which of our protagonists have been pet and which have yet to be petted...I love how this guy is so baked that he almost forgot the phenomenon was happening. "Ohhh, right, yeaaaah... the, like, most incredible shit, like, ever is happening... Tight, bro." And then he almost literally says the preceding. This guy's gold. Definitely right there on board with ya that this makes our world that little bit more interesting, buddy.>fox possumI'm stealing that>the Fed is just freaked to the moon is allI mean if ARK's stuff is any indication...>that's kinda normal for you, isn't it?This guy gets it. That's the paradoxically counter-intuitive and yet very intuitive nature of an experienced stoner for ya.Ho boy, time to flop down on Gareth's ratty, weed-scorched couch. Can't wait!>>59416672I've said many times that I think Linnea's analytical approach and thought processes are fantastic, but I'm always down to see our protags expand their horizons and go on progressively bigger adventures. It's a treat to see you update in any event.
>>59419362I love his video game instincts. Realistically, that’s the only place where your average person would think about things in this way. Taking a step back, that would be really scary if you were trapped and had no way of leaving a room. Good on him for keeping a level head.
I managed to decrypt another file today, albeit from the 007inoone cache. For some reason this one has its data corrupted... these seem to be inlaid mp3s I can't remove without compromising the entire file. A security measure, perhaps? I don't know, I just hope it's not used to identify the leaker.Anyways, here's the file.>https://rentry.co/007dreamI'm sure the public will figure out what to do with this. I anticipate cracking the last of these Saffron files relatively soon, I hope, so stay tuned and good luck out there.
>>59421220Waiting for ARK-anon to accidentally open a canary token while rummaging through files and get doxed.
>>59421220I love this all so much. >I’M STILLL IN A SNAAAAKKE>DREAM EATER!Inception references? Am I back in 2010? I think you did a better job explaining it than some people at the time.>inb4 agent 007 investigates a cult of Dialga and lives through TENETThe berry having a striking resemblance to the totem really adds to the story.I do have one final question, however. How would a Magnemite eat the berry without a mouth?
>>59421499(As much as I love Nolan & Zimmer I never actually watched TENET.)(Also crap it was in the original draft and I guess I removed it; he's supposed to "dissolve" it with his magnets)
>>59421508Its okay with or without it. In some way, it’s a tragic addition to the story that works.
>>59419375The idea that different electrical outlets have different flavours is amusing, but now I'm wondering how one infuses a hospital's technology with essence of the reaper. There's a horror film in there somewhere...Huh, so it sounds like Joel is familiar with hospitals and was in hospital when he turned. The plot thickens.Little spooder instincts make you inclined to find a hiding spot and observe? Say it ain't so!Oof. Yeah, little miscommunications like that can be an issue for turnees. At least Joel ain't afraid to climb walls. He seems content to let the instincts do their thing while his human mind occupies itself with other musings. Not the worst way to do it, honestly.>A twenty-story building or something?Not quite, unless the bed is like five meters tall. But the scale of things also makes a big difference - a being with 10% of the walking speed of a human walking 10% of the distance might SEEM equivalent, but physiologically it's really not.I like how his immediate thought is to start ventmaxxing. I'll skip the dated reference and just say that he's a resourceful little dude. Adorable, too. I absolutely wanna see him play a tiny spooder guitar. I like the subtle Fake reference.Hey, nice! Spooder stronk!Yeah, Vani did a good job getting Eti out of his comfort zone. It's clear they both have work to do in order to ideally balance human and Pokemon, but that was a start.>never heard of people turning into a Mon that reflected their character.While it's very possible Vani was lying, this feels like confirmation bias.Aah, so THAT'S what Joel's been hiding. Sounds like he might've been badly mangled and the transformation effectively restored him. The trauma lingers, however. I like to see more transformees dealing with their past human trauma as a Pokemon, so this is a neat reveal. It's an understandable sore spot for Joel, but feels very grounded. Also, Joel crawling up onto the terrace only to find Nick is a great image. Good stuff.
>>59422342>I'm wondering how one infuses a hospital's technology with essence of the reaperWait a minute, if you can feel the electricity provided by an outlet, then you can probably feel the devices connected to it too because they would be in parallel. Imagine if someone elsewhere in the hospital was kept alive by being connected to a life support machine. By nuzzling the outlet, you would indirectly (through the power filtering and regulating circuits) be connected to an otherwise dead body. Whoa.
What does it mean if a Zoroark flashes you with their true form?
>>59423685It's either a prank or flirting. Even with full blown PIPS, they're just as bad at signals as any human.
>>59424098>>59423685>No anon, everyone around you hasn’t been replaced by Zoroarks, you’re just being paranoid>If anything, maybe that just means you’re going to turn into a Zoroark and your PIPS is setting in early
>>59424874>See? That's a ditto over there! I told you not everyone was a zoroark!
>Influencer thot makes it her mission to travel the world and kiss one of every single Pokémon>Media treats it like a modern version of Princess Diana touching AIDS patients
GoFest is tomorrow and Palworld just went 1.0 live today.I think folks might be busy this weekend.
>Get real
>>59425542I don't really care about either of those games. I'll work on something in everyone else's absence.
>>59426374Yeah same hereI finally have some free time to start working on my rewrites
Alright, I said I would this morning but then I got busy and distracted. Still wanted to release something today but I only spent a few hours on this. Just like the first few parts. Please pick this apart and suggest changes. I think I still have some I need to do for part 15.https://rentry.org/cb24k1tiPic unrelated. Just liked the art.
>>59427741>Freaking out about turning yourself and being judged for itI can't believe none of us hit on what should have been such an obvious and all too human concern. Good update dude.
>>59421220ARK drop lessgoooo!Okay, THIS feels like we're finally reaching the juicy stuff. Being able to use Pokemon powers to engage in conflict within a dream, with strong "you die in the game, you die in real life" implications, not only aligns well with some of AbraGirl's experiences, but is exactly the sort of thing I could see a government department wanting to keep secret. Unlike conventional warfare, this is a field where no capabilities otherwise exist, and while they're still niche in their applications, it still behooves one to develop said capabilities before your geopolitical rivals do. I buy it. You think Noone's colleagues will need therapy for their fictional deaths?>so he can stop the bombSo someone set up them the bomb? Makes sense for spyshit. Heh, and of COURSE Noone is a hit with the ladies. Why wouldn't he be? Between Larson and now this, I guess there's just something about them Espeons, huh? Speaking of Emma, we've now met both the tailor and the spy, meaning we just need a tinker Espeon and a soldier Espeon to complete the set.Makes sense the humans in the dream would gradually dissolve into Pokemon, since there's no dreamscape without Pokemon abilities in the first place. I'm wondering if Noone is just very well-trained to operate on his hind legs, or if he's legitimately more anthropomorphic in the dream than he is in real life.>I couldn't have a second incident where my composure could be compromised by my newfound bodyI still maintain that wasn't really your fault, mate. Hope you caught the mole. Maybe it was a literal mole. Wibble. (out of character; nice continuity with the previous Linoone story)>DrowzeeQuelle surprise. Threatening a Magnemite with a gun is an... interesting choice... I guess here the engineer only has to BELIEVE the bullets will hurt him, but IRL you'd probably at the very least need something with a bit more punch to penetrate one.
>>59428292Funny how the engineer transforming into something that resists psychic made him easier to manipulate. I guess because becoming a floating magnet robot thing completely obliterated his sense of identity and he PIPSed the fuck out, or something like that.>Put the whole world to sleep-Record scratch.wav-...shit, now I have thoughts again. Just gonna take a deep breath here and clap my hands together...Hokay. Doc. Can I call you Doc? Whilst I'll give you credit for not going with the most stereotypically Drowzee plan possible, you... DO understand how VAST our planet is, right...? The idea that you could extract enough sleep powder to put the entire world to sleep isn't merely impossible, it's downright laughable, like saying you could fart your way to space or train wallpaper how to tap dance. Of all the Bond films you could've aped the villain's scheme from, did it REALLY have the be Moonraker? And Noone doesn't question this at all... like putting the entire world to sleep is a completely expected and plausible thing for a bad actor to try and do...I'll leave aside the Earth-shattering implications if it actually WAS possible and simply point out that even if you COULD somehow get enough powder, that wouldn't account for passenger jets in flight that are pressurized against the outside atmosphere, or submarine crews, or climate-controlled military bases or nuclear bunkers... or the fucking ISS... Moreover, any Pokemon fan can tell you that sleep-inducing moves do NOT last for very long. With only a single bomb, the powder is going to take time to disperse around the entire globe, meaning people will be falling asleep and then waking up in waves, meaning your dream of having every person asleep simultaneously also won't be realized for that reason.
>>59428307There's so many completely insurmountable logistical problems with this that it really makes me to start to wonder... is this all bullshit...? Did the weirdness of the dreamscape turn Noone into an unreliable narrator? Did DAW write a completely fanciful story and leave it out as a honeypot for the leaker to find? It definitely seems suspicious that that ARK just happened to be able to retrieve a second report from the supposedly much more locked down Linoone files, one that he himself says was corrupted and embedded with additional files that shouldn't be there...Hmm. Well, moving on in any case, I guess this Limbo place where you go if you die in the dream isn't INSTANT death, but still incredibly dangerous. Not sure if Noone is being literal about "old souls" or not, but if so that certainly has some... interesting implications...>I guess that's what made me submit this report at all...you were considering NOT submitting this report? What? Yeah, it's only literally the most important thing ever, no big deal or anything... Also, I feel like you're skipping the very details that are pertinent and would've supported your argument, mate...Err. Okay, nevermind! Dude going SO cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs that he tries to The End is Nigh himself some new friends out of scrap metal is PRETTY pertinent, I'll give you that one. Guess Noone's gonna need him some therapy too...Not much of a diplomat, are you, Noone? Guess I can't blame you under the circumstances, but I wouldn't be surprised if there WAS actually a way to snap Aimant out of this. You said yourself that time is essentially meaningless here, so you could've at least TRIED to establish a rapport with him, rather than going the brute force route. Well RIP bozo, I guess, but, hey, at least we saved L̶A̶ the world? I must admit I remain unconvinced...Yeah, I dunno about this one, ARK. You MIGHT wanna watch your back...
Fox bump.
>>59391581Incredibly written so far, hits all the spots I like to see in a transformation story. Can't wait to read more.
>ALIENS WITH PSYONIC POWERE ARE REAL AND THEY LIVE AMONG THE POPULOUS!>I HAVE UNDENIABLE PROOF!>THIS ONE WAS LEFT BEHIND AFTER IT ABDUCTED MY WIFE>Slightly blurry photo of a shiny Espeon tangled up in a women’s negligée>THEY MUST BE EXPERIMENTING ON HER BECAUSE I CAN STILL HEAR HER VOICE THROUGH TELEPATHY>I WILL FIND YOU NANCY AND I WILL RESCUE YOU
>>59430503I hope the denial doesn't last too long, it's funny for like a minute, and then it becomes tragic.
>>59427741Honestly pretty interesting bit of introspection, though now it makes me wonder if you'll actually have his luck land him a rough morning with him turned into a mon... Guy's been through a lot but everyone he's met is definitely lucky he's a standup lad.
>Let’s run through this one more time miss before I make my update. ‘eye’ for yes, ‘decid’ for no>>”Eye!”>You don’t remember your name, but you recognize what you think it used to be.>>”Eye”>Thats because you still have your wallet, and understand the meaning of everything inside.>>”Eye”>Are you afraid of what might happen if you ever lost your wallet?>>”Decid”>>She pulled it out of the feathers in her wings to display it, then returned it>Okay, have you eaten anything today and was it clean and not spoiled or rotten?>>”Eye!”>Do you know for sure where you’ll get your next meal?>>”Eye”>>She stretched out her bow and arrow and took aim at something on the ground>How about clean, fresh water? Do you have a supply that won’t run out so you can drink and bathe?>>”Eye!”>>She pointed in the direction of the main park where you knew a fountain was>Okay. Thank you again for welcoming me up into your tree. If it rains, gets too cold or too hot, are you sure this gives you with enough shelter?>>”Eye!”>Have you tested it and had an okay time?>>…>>”…decid”>Okay, don’t feel bad about that. Do you know about the shelters available nearby if you ever need a place to rest?>>”Decid”>On the other side of the park clearing, look for the community center across from the church. They have resources available and can even connect you with a place to sleep and basic first aid or hygiene supplies if you ever need them.>Take my card as well, if you need to contact me, or anyone else at my department, that’s a 24 hour line.>Are you sure there’s no one I could contact for you? Even if you don’t know a name or phone number, I can do some research if you have any hints.>>”de-decid.”>Okay. I’m going to go then.>>”cidue cidue!”>>She motioned for you to wait before pulling a small rat from her wings and seemingly offering it to you with an expectant gaze.>>It lashed out from her beak
>>59431720>”Kelly Parker - Overall Condition: Orange”>”Not a candidate for complete relocation. Living similar to transient/homeless and appears to be surviving but not without some difficulty. Recommend mental health support when available. Severe PIPS symptoms to the point of being unable or unwilling to converse in English. Appears to still be sociable and non-aggressive.”>Now, over to the marina to check in on reports of a Klawf harassing localsSuch is the difficult life of Social Worker Zoroark checking on his “special cases”.
>>59431739>Such is the difficult life of Social Worker Zoroark checking on his “special cases”.Good one shot. Being homeless and turned into a Pokemon, but not adapted to natural environments, is a tough case. If nothing else, a social worker Zoroark has unparalleled powers of observation.
>>59431720Then you learn the rat is also a former human
>Your neighbor turned into a Marowak>If someone had asked, you'd have sworn upward and downward that was the weirdest thing you'd see all day>Then your rosebush went missing>Then you found what you can only presume was your rose bush relaxing in the neighbor's water feature>You need a fucking drink
>>59427741>just whenShould be "just what".PFFT! Isaac learns what PIPS in and just immediately nopes the fuck out. He's a good bean, but not QUITE so good as to sacrifice himself trying to convince the bitch girlfriend to let Hyphlosion in. Your last couple of adventures have ended with nobody getting hurt - let's hope the hot streak continues. Ha! Uber bro is such a bro.Isaac doesn't like ice cream? Is he even human? No, not like that. Although, MAYBE...>I immediately understood why God's divine plan had entrusted me with it.Hahahaha! That's gold.This is what they mean by "soul food", huh Isaac?Not sure what they'd even test Kayden for. Not like his DNA's gonna match his parents anymore.Hmm. Sounds like you might want to consider looking into a therapist as well, mate. You sound a bit hypervigilant after all your experiences.Okay, yeah, no, bro DEFINITELY needs a therapist, although I have a funny feeling his faith may get in the way of that. This is one of those "tough to read in a good way" moments. It's a very realistic reaction to having all this dropped on his head and not having had time to properly process any of it. It's respectable how many burdens he's managed to shoulder, but being a hero is taxing - just ask anyone in the emergency services. Perhaps he needs to take some time for himself, away from constantly having to be the stable and helpful one. Do you think perhaps he was being slowly drained by that even before all of this started? I wouldn't be surprised.>Or a kaiju monsterLuckily most Pokemon aren't that big.>I was normal. Thank the lord.Telling.Short but sweet this one. Good update, man.>>59427867At least the minister seems to be coming around on Pokemon, even if the congregation at large hasn't yet. I suspect Isaac might be better able to handle being a transformee that he himself suspects that he would, however. That's more often the case with those "I could never do what you do" type thoughts than you'd think.
>>59432697>Your rosebush is kind of just doing its own thing now>It really likes your lawn, and it hops over to the neighbor's whenever it's feeling thirsty>The plants getting up and walking around honestly freaked you out, but it's not bothering anyone>You're content to return the favor.>At least it smells nice and takes care of itself.>...You should probably warn your neighbor about that thing.
>>59433888If you think about it, you were already taking care of another living thing, it’s just suddenly a lot more anthropomorphic than you’re used to.My first reaction was “you should get your own water feature” but caught myself and wondered “why?”.
>>59421220James Bond meets Inception. Wild take.
I could swear there is something about these inlaid files. I don't know. I've not really much to say right now except that I decrypted another of Saffron's files.>https://rentry.co/Saffron-3I am nearing decrypting the next one, though this one seems harder than usual. As always, be safe and vigilant, anons.(On another note out of character, pic rel is art done by Kartanon. I love it so much! I should have the next Saffron story posted by the beginning of next thread too! Thank you all for reading and I do hope you enjoy these fun little stores :))>>59433944(Sometimes inspiration strikes at the wildest of times, or just when listening to the Inception soundtrack lol.)
>>59411899very cute
>>59434456Aw damn, that is a brutal cliffhanger.
>>59434456Calling it now: The duo will wake up just fine because Froslass saved them. Civic's arm will be healed because of Shaymin healing shenanigans or Civic will turn while they are passed out, healing his arm this way. Species' gonna be anything but Sawsbuck, unless fate went the boring route. Afterwards Froslass will be all like "uwu, I'm sowwy I twied to huwt you :(" and they make up on the spot.Great leak, ARK, let's hope you can decrypt that last half of the message without issues.
>>59434456Yep, Froslass, called it. Although, something's not right here, is it? I could believe she was responsible for the state of the village if she'd attacked immediately, but given her behaviour and given his obsession with the topic, Civic of all people should be able to twig that burning and/or exsanguinating people doesn't fit within a wild Froslass' MO (which would raise the obvious question of who DID do it if not the Froslass, but one problem at a time). I'm not sure if his decision to fire reflects a failure of appropriate threat assessment severe enough to warrant a court martial, but it doesn't seem to reflect well on him more generally, put it that way. This also seems to only strengthen my earlier suppositions about his and Saffron's organization and why the DAW would have wanted these reports buried.And then after taking that decision he proceeds to bicker with Saffron instead of, oh, I don't know... confirming the kill...? Immediately retreating from the death village with nary a backwards glance? Anything at all that would make some degree of tactical sense under the circumstances, rather than just standing around like a big, stupid lemon with a targeted painted on him? I get the dude's not an infantryman and thus doesn't have the same level of training for this sort of thing as someone in the army would, but use some common sense, man!So I guess not all the buildings are on fire. Handy for our boys. Too bad Civic wastes the reprieve on making excuses instead of even trying to formulate a plan. Why did anybody let someone this jumpy and panicky behind the controls of a fighter jet again?
>>59434940>You're fine, Civic. It's okay.It really isn't, but sure. I'm not actually gonna give Saffron any stick for his reactions, seeing as he's literally helpless in this situation. And I think TECHNICALLY Civic is Saffron's superior now, even though the reverse used to be true? So that wouldn't've been an option either. The chain of command seems pretty tangled up after the phenomenon, but it's hard to envision someone being assigned to be a transformee's "trainer", only for them to wind up saluting said transformee and calling them "sir".Why yes, Civic, shockingly enough, small grass types don't tend to fare well in blizzards. You know, the whole reason you had to carry him up here in the first place? The moment between them here would be touching if it wasn't so astonishingly unprofessional. You're about to be Big Bad Wolfed by an enraged Froslaas and appear to be every bit as screwed as I predicted, gun or no gun - is now REALLY the time for this heart-to-heart?Oh hey, Saffron's instincts are finally waking up! Only took ya a near-death experience. Glad to have you finally join us! (The grammar of the paragraph it happens in is sadly a LITTLE bit messed up, though. I'm also noticing some tense snarls)Good to know Civic's training and quick-thinking only kick in by reflex. That sure is useful to have long after your chickens have already come home to roost. Him becoming crippled sucks, but it KINDA feels like the consequences of his own actions. I find myself neither laughing at the man's arguably self-inflicted misery, 'nor aghast at the horror of it all, but moreso just faintly depressed...(the first paragraph after the second music link is also a little messed up)
>>59434959The moment your powers unlock in a time of crisis is always a triumphant one, but it's kinda funny how Saffron both didn't know the callsign was Civic's idea and somehow figured it out that very moment.Anyways, Saffron's always come across as a very normal guy - quite inoffensive and even a tad non-descript. A little bit too nice and too milquetoast for the military, perhaps. His fall into existential despair at being useless in his new form certainly didn't help with that impression. But with this we finally get to see perhaps just a hint of what brought this man to this place - the warrior's spirit that often lays dormant within nice, inoffensive humans until the chips are truly down. Granted the Pokemon instincts are obviously helping, but I'd certainly like to think there was always more to Saffron than what he displays on the surface.>it was ineffectiveGrass type moves are neutral against Froslass actually, but I get what you mean. Realistically this was always going to be too little, too late, but I can't fault you for fighting for your mate's life... even if he WAS arguably the one that got you into this mess in the first place...>the floor was a thoroughly grassy terrain.Aheh. Well-played, sir. (both Saffron and you the writer)"Fire hot, ow." - ice types, probably. I'm not sure if a tiny, dim lantern would really be able to ignite an entire tavern, even if is sprawling with magically summoned grass, but it's certainly handy for Saffron in that "set off the sprinklers to make Brock's Onyx weak to electric" kind of way. Saffron, at least, understands the principle that if you're fighting fair, you didn't plan the attack properly. All of a sudden his military acumen feels far more reputable than Civic's, compassion and all (forcing the enemy combatant to die with you accomplishes nothing in this situation, after all). Not sure the contractor that built this tavern was reputable, though...
>>59434993Yeah. Yeaah... you did everything you could, Saffron... Civic may be a chucklefuck, but you comported yourself admirably. Even if you'd died here, which you obviously didn't since you wouldn't've been around to write this report then, you would've had nothing to be ashamed of. Let yourself rest, soldier. Leave it up to the Froslass now. If she has even a skerrick of your compassion, there's still a chance, however slight, that something positive may yet be able to be wrung from Civic's downright Burnsidian first contact with a Pokemon other than yourself. It's a good thing you've got a free therapist to ready and immediate hand because I have a feeling you're both going to need it...(out of character, Saffron finally unlocking his powers was pretty cool, but we do at some point start to wonder why Saffron even likes this guy in the first place, beyond just the military having paired them up. Civic seems to spend an alarming amount of his time making Saffron's life actively harder...)
>>59434456Holy shit this is FUBARWhat an awful mission all around.
>>59434456It's been pretty cool to catch up with all these stories. My only real issue with this was the complex grass manipulation going on here because that's not how grassy terrain works at all. I kind of wish Saffron could've had something pollution related, but the story isn't over I guess.>>59434993>Saffron both didn't know the callsign was Civic's idea and somehow figured it out that very moment.He obviously knew Civic gave him the callsign because, well, he got the fucking callsign. He just had a moment to recognize how important the event was to him now that Civic is dying
I really wish you guys would use spoiler text when talking about plot details of stories
https://charcole.kyrio.net/Here's an ancient TF comic for y'allThe tufts and designs are a bit bleh but the story is good.
Did you guys see the Pokemon Japanese soccer league partnership?It’s got me thinking about what would happen if a professional athlete was turned into a Pokémon. Some sports would be a lot harder than others to adapt to. (Soccer vs Motorsports)
>>59436311>Some sports would be a lot harder than others to adapt to. (Soccer vs Motorsports)
>>59436376>All turnees have to retake their driver's exam to see if they are capable of operating a motor vehicle
>>59436386They already want to make the elderly have to take driver's tests but they can't afford to be lost as a voting bloc so it never goes anywhere. PIPS sufferers will be much more urgent and won't enjoy anywhere near the same preferential electoral status, so they definitely will be made to retake those kinds of skill exams.>Someone in the middle of getting Forklift Certified turns into a <random Pokemon generator> Kilowattrel>The hard part was learning how to steer with wings
Potential newbie here - this thread seems really cool as a concept, and super chill. Would I just show up and start RPing/chatting or is there anything else I should know beforehand?
Will update the archives in a few hours.
>>59436436Welcome! Really everything you need to know is in the FAQ in the OP, there's not really a mountain of lore to catch up on.
>>59436446Thanks a bunch! Honestly,I'll admit, my first thought went instantly to larger 'mons, because I think it'd be funny to just wake up as something colossal and your house no longer exists. Imagine waking up as a Wailord. Your entire house is just GONE, dude.
>>59436436>Would I just show up and start RPing/chatting or is there anything else I should know beforehand?Don't RP here. There are a few stories (Emolganon and Ninetailanon) that are from a first person perspective, but it's not like the stuff you'd see over on /trash/. We write stories, not interactions between each other in-character–within reason of course.>>59436454Keep in mind that we try to keep things relatively realistic, so fish mons only really survive in the water and so on. Feel free to prove us wrong on that sentiment, though! I could see some poor fella transforming into a Wailord on a house boat or something. Just don't make it fetishy, yeah?
>>59436612>Just don't make it fetishy, yeah?What this guy said. This thread, in principle, is about people going through something unprecedented and learning to cope with their lives being turned upside-down and taking each day as it comes. If someone's getting off to it, you're doing it wrong and have come to the wrong place.
>>59436454There's been a sort of gentlemen's agreement among the writers that the phenomenon doesn't (usually) turn transformees into things that place them in immediate danger. At the same time, however, a confused chucklefuck sticking out of the ruins of their home with the roof either collapsed on top of them or about to do so would make for a killer cold open for a story. So if you wanna write that you should absolutely go for it.Anyways...Ongoing Stories:>Transformed Into a Lucariohttps://pastebin.com/dNfCG4se>Copanon the PokeWhisperer by Copanonhttps://rentry.co/PolicemanPokemonStory>Digigirl the Abrahttps://pastebin.com/rvUJh1Vd>Professor Decidueye by ProfDhttps://rentry.co/ProfD>VetPhox by Phoxanonhttps://rentry.co/DelphoxStory>Kartanimator by Kartanonhttps://rentry.co/kartanimator>The Pokemon Pit by ProfDhttps://rentry.co/r7aa9bzy>Churchanon by Churchanonhttps://rentry.org/cb24k1ti>Swiss Army Mienshao by Mienshanonhttps://rentry.co/whipping-back-into-action/>No Memories Umbreon by Churchanonhttps://rentry.org/ua24k1ti>Emolganonhttps://pastebin.com/EWkUN7zD>Belarusian Blastoise by Phoxanonhttps://pastebin.com/WAh6Wnkm>Nineanon and Other Nineshttps://pastebin.com/7ngT3v07>Don Garbodor by ProfDhttps://rentry.co/DonGarbodor>Mimikyu Misadventures by multiple anons (open source)https://rentry.co/MimikyuStory>The DAW Reportshttps://rentry.co/ARK-SIP>Bulbanon by Bulbanonhttps://rentry.org/bulbanon>Mukanonhttps://pastebin.com/fftk32tC>Copanon's side storieshttps://rentry.co/PolicemanPokemonSideStories>Kartanon's side storieshttps://rentry.co/kartanimator-disc-b>Mienshanon's one-shotshttps://rentry.org/miensha-oneshots>ProfD's one-shotshttps://rentry.org/ProfDOneShots>Bulbanon's one-shots (open source)https://pastebin.com/yCaEfNP9>Other one-shotshttps://pastebin.com/UtXMsyyD>One-shots that were too spicy for pastebinhttps://rentry.co/SoImOneShots>April Fool's Storieshttps://pastebin.com/dP9nGavs
>>59436654Archived stories:>Herding Catshttps://rentry.org/HerdingCats>Super Macho Monhttps://rentry.co/MachampStory>0332https://pastebin.com/WMdqhP8H>Tinkanonhttps://rentry.co/TinkatonStory>Not a Pikachuhttps://rentry.co/notapikachu>Lopunanonhttps://pastebin.com/ecBem3sz>Serpent and Wyrm by Snivyanonhttps://rentry.co/SerpentAndWyrm>A Loser and a Lost Snowpix by Drifteranonhttps://rentry.org/tcab223e>The New Police Animals by Snivyanonhttps://rentry.co/larsonkurt>The Human Wimpod Evolvedhttps://rentry.co/GolisopodStory>Sandslash and Ms. Gemstonehttps://rentry.co/h62h6eh7e>Mareanieanonhttps://rentry.co/MareanieStory>Miloticanonhttps://rentry.co/MiloticStory>Drifteranon's one-shotshttps://pastebin.com/4K9M6uJ2Statistics and thread list:https://rentry.org/fd9ise4ohttps://rentry.org/sip-down-memory-lane-Changelog:- Updated archive with Bulbanon and Mukanon and changed DAW Reports to the new link.- Updated Digigirl and Swolla pastebins- Updated one-shot paste with the Fucking PIPS, Poke-nnection, and Espeon stories.- Updated spicy one-shot rentry with the Noctowl and LLM-kun stories.- Updated ProfD one-shot rentry with the Decidueye story.- Moved Miloticanon to archived stories.
>>59436655Whoops. Forgot to put the Roselia story in the changelog. It's also in the one-shot pastebin.
>>59436655Correction: Turns out most of the one-shots in this thread (all except Fucking PIPS 2 and Roselia, in fact) were by ProfD. They've been moved over accordingly.
>>59436612Ah, I meant RP like telling the role... sorry.Understood, realism is what I was gonna go for. No fetish stuff, of course.Thanks!>>59436643Appreciated.>>59436654And got it, thank you very much. With all thoughts in mind, I have a fun idea, I think. There might be a little bit of danger, but, more like.. confusion? We'll see what I start.
I've also never really used Rentry, so, sorry if this is wrong. How does it work so far?https://rentry.co/Onixnonalso a vague sketch
>>59437006I've been hoping someone would do an onix story!Seeing how someone struggles as a massive creature in this world is interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing more!
Consider the Following:>In this world, once people establish the connection between people waking up and turning into pokemon, furry weirdos dedicate themselves to “Pokémaxxing”and start trying to wake up from sleeping as many times as possible in a day in an attempt to turn into a Pokémon.>Some people turn it into livestreams, others develop an entire culture around it with big name characters like looksmaxxing, >Others debate ideas of light sleep vs deep REM sleep with absolutely zero data whatsoever on either side
New thread's up. Managed to get Onixnon into there too!>>59437126>>59437126>>59437126
>>59437125This thought has occurred to me as wellI bet there would be a lot of scam artists selling necklaces or bracelets or other trinkets that are "guaranteed" to increase the likelihood of you turning into your preferred pokemon overnight
>>59437125>After several years of study, a paper was published on whether or not this changed the odds of turning>The error margins were large, so people could not be entirely sure of the results>As far as anyone could tell, there was no change in the turning rate from spending more time entering and exiting sleep
Was trying to think of a slur for the pokemon turnees, and all I could think of was "poggers"
>>59401635What's up with all these people's first thought being "oh god what would my boss think??". Who cares just eat the boss.
