Sutoratosu

I'll only bother saying two things to this: 1. Kenny, compadre, I know full well what my place and role here is and not once in the entirety of my holding that position have I ever forgotten it. I've been doing this for a good while now, my friend, I know the dynamic of things. When Grass isn't able to come on here due to time constraints and IRL matters, I'm too keep the ship running steady more or less and fix any minor problems that pop up in her absence while also preventing any major ones from occurring. I am a proxy, I know this simple fact and have not, do not, nor will ever, challenge Grass's ultimate authority as the creator and de facto host of this Roleplay. The request you so scathingly chastised is nothing more than just that- a request. I don't know about you, my friend, but I've talked about this whole thing with Grass at length, and I can understand full well if that request is not possible due to what is planned mechanics wise, and will respect whatever her decision regarding it is. In addition, for rather obvious reasons, I know she has something planned, and therefore the speculation in that reprimand you posted is honestly unnecessary. I know full well what the line between Proxyship and Usurption is, and despite what you seem to think, good sir, I can assure you that I have not crossed it. 2. Secondly, my request to swap my responsibilities for Seacrest out with Mystique castle following the merge is one that was only made after going back in the IC and reviewing the thing up and down. Perhaps the request was worded a bit funny for your eyes, but when I said: When I said "Hosting" I meant my responsibilities thereof, as Co-host and proxy, to keep a particular castle's storyline moving and not falling behind. As I've done for Tempest and Seacrest thus far. This was not intended as me making some grab for full power, as you seem to be intent on thinking that it is. This suggestion was made because I was simply trying to do my part and assist in the effort to get all the castles more or less up to the same or similiar points in the story line to make the plot going forward easier to handle and set up. Ergo, that was what was meant by the term "Overhual". I was not suggesting that Mystique castle change categories from an Exploration to a rescue; as sparks is exactly right, the merges won't be changing the actual work category of the castles themselves. and again, I will respect whatever grass's decision on the matter is and will not challenge it. That is all I have to say on the matter.

I can't really make any comments about how good it looks or otherwise since I don't really handle the sign up situations here. Anyways, hey Grass... I've been thinking it over a bit... and I've come to my decision: after the castle merges are done and we've got everything set up more or less, I think I'd like to just retain hosting for Tempest (I find that I've gotten rather attached...) but swap out Seacrest for Mystique, since... they do genuinely need a huge overhaul.

Ya know what, screw it, I'm just gonna go ahead and have him have a burning outright hate for Interpol too at this point... utterly Disgusted with both sides of the law and order spectrum... the lunatics and the people who just stood by and let the lunatics do what they wanted, cause it's only fair if both parties are thought equally poorly of in that case, right? the lunatics can't be hated if while at the same time, the guys who did nothing are more or less exonerated in comparison. or maybe I'll have him not hate Interpol in and of itself, but rather hate their policies and the things they do... or rather, that they don't do. Yeah, I think I'll go with that.

"Well... this just got way deeper..." Mareek thought to himself as Danielle explained everything her peers had failed to. "So apparently that guy who had the broken ankle on the trip was Ryan, and him and that blind guy Kage...well, that explains them being all huggy back during the trip..." Nemo stood up from the cold ground, slapping his club against his palm like a base ball bat as he stared up at his trainer, thinking about the same story they'd been told. "This right here has gone beyond just some student possibly being influenced by some organization... the stakes have been uped- someone might actually go and commit murder here... that is, of course, if all of them knowing about this hasn't already rerouted the future in and of itself..." "If you don't mind me asking, why are you and Henry interested in this organization? And, why keep it a secret from us?" "huh, what? Oh, that..." He said, returning his attention to Danielle. "I don't speak for Baldwin, but I've got a few..." He paused. "you could call them personal reasons... aside from that, I just think it's kinda shitty how over the past few years all those damn lunatics in jumpsuits and ridiculous outfits were able to go around and terrorize entire regions, and the people whose god damn jobs it was to get up off their lazy asses and stop them just sat there and never did anything, or at most took the most minimum amount of action possible, like putting a freaking band-aid over a bullet wound makes it any better." Nemo gave sharp nod and cry in agreement, still smacking his club against his hand like a would-be mobster. "As for why keep it a secret... too many people snooping around will end up screwing everything in the end. Though, seeing as all of you obviously knew a hell of a lot more almost from the very start than either of us did, there's really no point in trying to hide it now. And about Reeves..." He glanced up at the monitor. "Trust me, murder's not something to be thrown around lightly as an accusation. So until I see something concrete, like him drafting up an actual plan or something to off Ryan, I'm just gonna go ahead and give the guy the complete benefit of the doubt on that particular front... that and the fact that the vision just raises alot more questions than it actually does answers, not to mention..." He looked around the room first at Erce in particular... then moving on to the other students milling around the place, paying special attention to any and all who had any pokemon capable of slashing an opponent... "Skarmory ain't exactly the only pokemon that's notorious for a razor edge... there's a lot of them. like Erce here, or Bisharp's evolutionary family, or Samurott's, Aegislash's, Empoleon's, Kriketune's, Sceptile's, a Gallade, a Kabutops... and I'm just naming a very breif few here; this list could go on and on for a good while if we were to include every species capable of making slashing attacks period but just isn't that well known for it. Truth is, nothing about the vision can directly tie Evan into it, so for all you could know, what you heard from this elderly fortune teller could've just been a fire in the sky; that if you want to solve and stop whatevers going on, you'll need to pay attention to those two in order to find the answer..." "And apparently so will I; so much for thinking Evan wasn't the crucial puzzle piece... though, I guess I'll just let Claude and you all handle it all and keep an eye out from afar for now...see where your way goes, just sit and observe and take notes... Eh hell, not like I'm not used to it..."

*Checks bulbapedia* well damn... apparently not... how strange, as a kid playing ruby and sapphire, I could sworn those little bastards had Bide as a level up move... just couldn't remember how the hell it worked with truant... either way, guess I was wrong... and also... you really sure you want him to get a slakoth this year? something will be figured out how to use it, I can already think of a few ways...

Does truant interfere with Bide or moves like it? I'm just curious...

Oracle. Unless I decide to change it to delphi or find something better. Why do you ask? Anyways...if we gotta nail down six who will be obtained during the first year, then I guess the list would likely be... -Scizor -Porygon2 -Marowak -Xatu ... ... ... screw it, Swiss gets upgraded to Senior membership... -Maganium/ something in the meganium line ... uh...damn it...makin' me choose... ... well, the last slot of the six is a toss up between either the florges line or the Slaking line... or I might just stop at Meganium and only have him get five for year one instead of six...and don't don't bother making any comment about the triple ice weakness, like I said, I have oh so many wonderfully, wonderfully mind altering tricks up my sleeves... And I came up with a few more shows: Breaking Bad, Last Week Tonight, and possibly the big bang theory... I'm honestly considering have 'Rare Candy' be the major focus of the breaking bad parody.

What, are we coming up with main teams of six now? I was just gonna have Mareek more or less just always carry around the "Senior" members of the team (Scizor, Marowak, Porygon-Z, Xatu) and then swap out the last two slots with whoever's needed. And I heard someone mention aegislash and knights... which reminds me... I've been thinking up of all the shows I could make Mon versions of for this to use as references and allusions and such, kinda like the whole ashes to ashes soap opera thing- So far I've got... (Original on the left, parody on the right) (AMC) "The Walking Dead"- "Snake Wood" Would probably follow the basic plot and premise of the TV series walking dead, just setting it up with mons and such. I'm thinking that Occupied Pokeballs dropped by panicking people as they fled would likely replace the majority the guns and actual weaponry (HBO) "Game of Thrones"- "Game of Aegislash" freaking epic... When you play the game of Aegislash, you win, or you die. There is no middle ground. And that's it so far...

Well, grass will ultimately have to approve you, but go ahead. posting up a character sheet for her to inspect when she gets around to it can't hurt.

Oh hey, compadre, look what I found lying around... Neat, huh? Anyways...enough with show and tell- I guess we'll get back to the types. though I've got a bunch of other stuff going on right now, oh so many interesting little things the Sarge just left behind... so yeah, it might take a bit of time. don't worry though, I won't forget, so don't bug me about it... of course... one of you could always take the initiative and start the conversation about the next type in line yourself, just saying, compadres... Juuuust sayin'...

sometimes... the price for redemption is death itself... God, if this were an anime right now though...

"Oh, so you wanna go out first!" Robby said, turning his attention to the challenge, tail beginning to take on a harsh, metallic Glow as he glared at the fox. "Fine, I'll be more than happy to take you apart!" With that said, he made a step towards Sparks... and then simply vanished in a blur of motion, mud and grass being thrown up and out to the side as the heaven's continued to weep... Draidon "He's doing it again... why... Here I am, half dead, and he's still trying to save me, to be a hero..." His ruminations were cut short when he saw the metallic flash angling for Sparks neck, the orange and brown of the assailant's fur, the blaze of his cheeks. Closer and closer... the kid's head would be rolling pretty soon... "No... I'm already gone...I'M ALREADY GONE!" * * * * * * * A thick, Draconic roar was all Sparks heard as Robby appeared before him, whipping his body around and swinging his tail like a guillotine, aiming right for the jugular. The attack drew closer and closer, the heavens peeling with thunder as the face of his would-be killer glowered at him, eyes like smoldering black coals fresh from the pits of hell. Time seemed to slow, the rain's beat grew dreary, long, each drop dragging out for what seemed to be an eternity. The Air tingled and burned as the length of hardened tail edged closer to his throat, like he was being choked, suffocated by the very prospect of death itself...and then it all picked up again. and before he knew it, a force was slamming into him, and he was being hurtled like a ragdoll, spiraling through the air and plopping down in the wet grass a few feet away. Draidon stood where the fox once had, arms up, hand blazing oh so blindingly blue and fierce he'd ever seen as he grasped the steel tail like a sword master, holding it strong and steady in place despite his injuries... Robby simply stared at the spectacle, jaw agape as he tried to free his tail, rain still pelting hard off of both of them. The more and more Robby struggled, the stronger and stronger the glorified star that was Driadon's fist glowed. Then without warning, the drake reached up with his other hand... and the Raichu found himself smacking face first into the rough bark of a nearby tree, force so great a BOOM emanated out all around as he slid to the soaked earth. And Draidon was down to a single knee again, glaring at the attacker as he slowly got up... "You said you wanted me, right..." He snarled, eyes gleaming a deep, fiery hue as flecks of blood sprang forth like pigeons in a ceremony and made land full all across the Electric Type's face. The Dragon's entire chest and neck was covered in the rich, ominous scarlet as he glanced over at Sparks. "Then fine, take me, I'll fight you, to the death, here and now...my life's already forfeit... you can get whatever revenge you want, but only on one condition..." He pointed to the boy, eyes flaring as he returned his gaze to Robby. "He goes free. You don't pursue him after he leaves here, you got me!? The kid goes FREE!" Robby took a step back, surprised by the ferocity... then the glare from before came back. "Hell no," He spat, whipping Draidon's blood off his face, fur stained a dark scarlet. "I don't get you, dragon... you were hauling off with a bunch of slurs when you came for us at dawn... and now here you are trying to save a member of the very type you were so hateful for just hours ago... you want mercy for him, but I didn't see you showing any mercy when you struck down my sister!! You want me to spar your friend here, but you didn't seem to have any problem trying to kill Thames! How the hell does that work!? How!? Why should I give you wretches anything!?" The air again began to crackle with lightning. A bolt from the blue erupted near by, toppling a tree into the clearing like a top heavy giant of ancient lore, struck dead by the Lord's judgement, mud and earth flying up as everything shook and the thunder peeled. And Robby was more than capable of creating another fierce one like it... "A little sister...all of this... Riley, what have I done? All I wanted, was to make them pay, make them all for what they did to you... and in the end I just became the same type of monster they were..." Draidon's glare softened, a brief memory flashing before his mind.. "Is this what it's all about then?" He asked. "Is this all just because you're a brother looking out for his sister...? Is this because you're only doing what's needed to avenge the people you loved? To strike out at the monster who took them from you?" He rose to his feet shakily, arms by his side...shaking his head in shame "What was her name?" "Thames..." Robby answered, honestly vexed by what the hell was going on now... "And the right question is what IS her name...thankfully she pulled through with some help, but still...she came damn close to the abyss thanks to you... too close..." ... ... ... Silence. The rain kept falling. the peels of thunder stopped. The heavens kept up their incessant weeping. Draidon's eyes stayed fixed to the earth... "How much have I changed, since then, before they came and stole your life? I used to not like fighting, used to value peace, but now... I used to use words, now it's all claws and fangs... Riley... how far have I fallen, little one? Can i ever climb back? The things I've let myself do, all for a vendetta... how many people did I hurt who didn't deserve it? I called myself a rouge, but I was just a thug... after you went, that's all I was afterwards..." "Sparks..." He said, using the boy's name for the first time, not looking back at him. "Leave, now. Run away, just go... Go to town, get the others, go up and report to the castle..." He reached for something on his person.. and tossed it to the Electric type...It was the Team Leader Badge. "You're in charge now. Tell them Draidon ran away if they ask about me, tell em he's never coming back... cause I'm not. I'm not coming back to anyone...It's time I answer for everything..." He turned his attention to Robby yet again, eyes still gleaming in the rainfall. "You're gonna let him go." He said simply. "Because I'm forfeiting my life. I'm the one who almost killed your sister, I'm the one who attacked your home and brow beat your friends like ragdolls, snarling hate left and right... but he's innocent here. You kill me, and it's vengeance, but you dare kill him, and it's murder." Robby looked at him a bit longer, brows furrowed. "Alright... now I'm really fucking confused, but... fine, damn it..." He looked over to Sparks. "You're safe, I guess... get out of here." "Go..." Draidon seconded, not daring to take his eyes off his soon-to-be-executioner. "Don't worry about me, as jacked up as I am, I was gonna keel over before we reached town anyway... even if I walk away with you, I'm sentenced to death either way here... so I might as well make it so that that death can count for something... to make up for who I've been and what I've done these past few years..."

"So... he didn't then... alright..." "Well, what a great job of that he did then..." Mareek said sarcastically. "He didn't say anything about a fifth pokeball under Reeves belt- all they wanted from me was speculation on whether or not the organization was Team Rocket or something. After that things took a bit of turn south in the conversation and I just said screw it and left for here." He glanced over at the screen briefly as the next match was announced, turning back to Danielle after a few seconds "Well... Kenny and Reeves... wonder how this might go..." "By the way- what do you mean 'You found out from a vision'? And how does this Ryan guy have anything to do with the situation?"

I know... but no one loves Pidove's line all that much. It's a just pidgeon, afterall... ain't got nothing really too special to set it apart from his cousin Swellow in terms of having some impressive, awe inspiring trait that brings all the fan boys to barn. Hence, Murica bird is more deserving of his place, would've been better if they'd lowered the Evo level for him and swapped those two's places in the games.

One baths himself in the fiery wrath of Smogon, striking down victims in hellfire and gale force winds, and the other has the strength to carry cars in his claws and backs down from no challengers, fighting to the last man to defend those he cares about... All Staraptor really does is just look badass and be Aloof most of the time...and has determination that his cousin 'Murica Bird could arguably dwarf in comparison so little love...

Ah... how sad and lonely must be Talonflame and 'Murica bird here, I wonder...for their Aloof cousin from Sinnoh to be receiving so much attention. Eh, whatever, those two will get over it.

So yeah, after this scene is done, that's more or less gonna be it for the day for tempest- I'll move you back up the mountain (Very few encounters, since... everyone and everyone's mother has already gotten whipped by the team the first run up for the donuts, and have had enough beatings for the day, thank you very much) I just wanted to tie up a few loose ends and change a few character motivations given that this was a rather nice opportunity... plus, couldn't just have the walk back be too easy and uneventful for ya :3

Sparks The sun dragged as the two trekked through the dense underbrush, as ungraceful as Donphan in the field, their constant stumbling and twig snappin' causing a ruckus that could've woken up every ghost type for a mile around. Draidon, though he'd been blessed again with the gift on consciousness, gave no words as the duo walked endlessly through the woods, skirting the base of the mountains. All he did was walk, one step in front of the other, rinse, wash, and repeat. They feel into a monotonous motion, the Dragon and the Fox. Set a pace till the sun hung high in the cloudless sky, till the skies darkened with clouds and the heavens grew heavy with their sorrow, though for what, no mortal besides a Xatu could know... It started soft at first, peltin' off a leaf here, a blade of grass there. Then it hardened, came down quicker, quicker, till they found themselves in a downpour. Mist hung heavy in the air, and in the blink of an eye, the town disappeared in the distance beyond the white shroud. The ground grew loose and murky as pools doth formed from the deluge sent from the lord Arceus above, each step threatening to display one of the travelers in the thick, earthen mess... Draidon's foot did just that, slipping on a particularly slick patch, goin' down to a knee, taking Sparks on down with him, what with his larger stature and weight to the Electric Fennec. And the Dragon made no attempt to get up, to keep moving. He just knelt there, eyes dim as he stared into the dirt... And sparks could hear the labored breath and see the blood streaking down his chin and chest for the first time now, mouth coated in the stuff, hard as it was to see given his face... Draidon "Why'd I jump?" He'd thought to himself as they kept trucking on through the morning. "Why... why'd I do something so stupid for him? what the hell made me go and try to save him when I should've just turned right around and started climbing back up the pit...? And... why the hell did he save me... took me with him when that damn firebreather went down? Why didn't he just leave me- I'm just slowin' him down anyway, a piece of dead weight... it'll be night by the time we get to town like this..." All morning, he hadn't gotten a single answer for any of those questions. The only thing he'd gotten was the searing pain everywhere from his spat with the other wyrm... that fire in his lungs, that sting everytime he breathed, that metallic in his throat... that throbbing in his legs and tail, that numbness in his already useless wings... and that slow, awful beating in his chest, wanting to go in a steady rhythm one minute, and then break it off and go crazy like a crowd during a bull charge the next. How much blood had he been spitting out as they went? He couldn't even keep track... couldn't even spit it, to be honest, just had let it all well up and leak out over his tongue. Then the rain had started, ground started sloshing up around their feet as Sparks half assisted- half carried him. "Screw it..." He finally thought as both of them went down on a slick patch, Draidon just barely managing to get his leg up to keep em from going out fully. "I'm dead... or close enough to it, after all that back there..." The mud began to settle again as he stared into the mossen earth, drop upon drop of the deluge falling on the grass and mixing with the crimson slowly washing off his person. "But was I wrong, Riley? Was I wrong about them all bein' bad, after they hurt you like that...? All this time... have I been wrong?" In the distance, a few electrical flashes could be seen faintly... though they weren't from the storm... Nearby... "Haha, see brother?" A young pikachu cried in joy as yet another of her small electric blasts nailed the tree before her, the smell of burnt ozone and oak hanging heavily in the air, smoke wafting up and joining the rain swept tendrils of mist overhead. "See? I can use sky fire now, just like you, Robby!" "Yeah, you can," the Raichu standing not far away smiled. Someday soon, I'm gonna have to tell her it's called thunder, not sky fire... ah well though, that's not important right now. "I'm glad to see you're all better though, Thames," He said. "You had me a bit scared for a while there... but the bad man who hurt you will be even more scared when I'm done with him..." Thames stopped her rejoicing in the rain at the mention of the Dragon who'd attacked their home early this morning. She turned to Robby, head cocked to the side and brow furrowed. "But Robby..." "What is it?" Robby asked, eyebrows furrowed himself now at seeing the sudden change. "I..." She turned her back to him, gazing up at the tree. The memory of those fiery, heavy set orange eyes peering at her coming back... "I... don't think the dragon was really a bad person. I think he was just hurting deep down inside, that he was sad... when he hit me with his blue claw, he didn't look like he was having fun...I don't think he was hurting people just because he could hurt people- he's not bad, not like the guys you used to read me stories about at bedtime, Robby..." "Thames... what the hell are you talking about?" Robby demanded. "Not bad! Not Bad!? He almost killed you! How is he not bad!?" "Because... you're not bad, big brother..." The child said simply. "And... his eyes had the same thing in them that yours do... his eyes looked just like... just like yours always do." Silence. He just stood there, looking at his kid of a sister, shaking his head. "Arceus... the kid's too sweet for her own good...But I'm not gonna let crap like this go, I can't... when some lunatic breaks into your home and hurts your family, your don't just let them go. No... you kill them as sure as the sun rises... someday..." It was then however, that the sound of sloshing mud came from nearby. Robbi walked over to the shrubs, peaking over the folliage and finding... "Speak of the damn devil..." He said, lowering himself back down and looking at Thames. "Hey Thames, stay here, alright? I'll be right back, promise." "Uhm... okay, brother..." She said as he scurried away under the bushes... Sparks and Draidon "HEY!!" Sparks heard a voice call out in the distance. A few more flashes, stronger than those before, eminated from the fog as the sound of mud sloshing grew closer and closer... twin circles of gold greeted the Fox as he looked up. Before long the owner of the shout broke the mist, teeth bared as he glared at Driadon's defeated and bloodied form on the ground. "Well, what does this make it, the third time today I've seen you?" Robby asked. "Three times, it must be some type of sign from Arceus himself, a sign that you really do need to fall by my hands, that is!" He huddled down, beginning to build an electric charge in his cheeks, the blaze of light intensifying as the air grew heavy with static... he glared back and forth between Sparks and the Dragon. "Oh, and don't worry, I'll be sure to take care of whoever your little friend here is too when I'm done with you!" ((And no, sparks, I'm not forcing you into another boss fight here or anything... cause he's actually a hellavua lot worse than the arcanine was...))

I don't really care about the names of the randoms npcs. though in the future, it would be wise not to go naming them yourself unless you're the one who made them, since that could easily lead to a situation where Rule 4 is infringed upon. As for the second character, if we go on a good bit longer here and no new people have shown any interests in joining up, then I may consider it and contact you if you're still interested at that time. No promises though. But in the case that I might authorize it, just now that said character would have a higher risk of death compared to normal (Primary) PCs.

whoa there, compadre, whoa, hold ya horses before you go judging those there moves. There's more ways than one to use Sandstorm. And the anime has proven that it can be put towards applications which do not necessarily have to cause the weather effect itself (Jasmine v. Ash, . I can think of more than a few mechanics that it uses that could prove very useful with enough creativity. Erce's sandstorm will hardly ever be used for the purpose of effecting the weather. You may believe now that you could easily take advantage of, and there curbstomp, erce from what traditional applications of the move are often portrayed in various mediums, however it might or might not be the same case once I eventually unveil my own methods for using them. I've got my own little bag of tricks already planned out. compadre, I emplore thee, don't go thinking you know exactly how I'm gonna use a move before I even use it. And the same principle goes for vacuum wave- but first, let me say that one, physical moves are not the end all and be all for primarily physical inclined mons, there will come times when you go up against walls that will absorb the very category that is your fighter's main forte in combat, and what is one to do then if one has totally invested in moves relying on direct physical contact? My best example of this is Mareek's battle against Lana, Nemo was more or less useless against Rhydon aside from keeping it relatively occupied while Erce got her hands dirty, his attacks got licked up like it was nothing because he was attacking a physical tank. If Erce hadn't have known Vacuum Wave, and therefore not have to rely on getting in close solely and using only physical attacks, that whole bout would've ended right then and there with very different results. And the same goes for special attackers, what happens when big bad Chansey shows up, or one of it's spec.defensive cousins that lick up special attacks like their melted ice cream on hot summer's day? In general, I personally embrace the philosophy that a move is not bound to one specific application or method of execution, that just because it appears so in the anime or the games, where everyone and everyone's mother keeps using it for the same cliche way, that it must by definition be locked into one method of use or portrayal. Chimchain himself said in the basic battle rules that Offensive moves could be use defensively, like with Rapid Spin, somewhat granting a bit of support to this general idea's basis, that just because an attack is used by so many people to do one common, specific think, means that it can't be used in a diferent way by someone who's clever enough to think outside the box and tear the move apart and look at it's most basic mechanics, and from there determine how it might be applied for other purposes in battle. It's like the old proverb, Don't fear the man who practices one thousand kicks, fear the man who practices one kick a thousand times. (Well... in this case, it's more like "Fear the man who practices one kick a thousand different ways" or something to that effect). And Vacuum wave doesn't make the user a sitting duck. Erce used it in Mareek's and Lana's battle while strafing in the air, and I heard no one protesting "You're breaking the rules of the move!" with that. And even if it appears that Erce must stop all movement in order to fire in how I've written and portrayed it in the few situations it's even been used, such as during Mareek and Slade's battle in which she launched dual VWs at Ti-101, or when she used it in his last battle against the shellos and again fired off two in quick succession while blitzing, while notably being stopped very briefly to do so, that is more out of an early practice habit than an actual requirement for proper execution. Regarding the strategy of Vacuum shield itself, again, calling it a "Sitting Duck" strategy is from the assumption of how it's base move Vacuum Wave is so often portrayed- I only ever used it once, and that was during the trip for the initial escalation stages of the Torkoal battle scene involving Claude and Mareek, and even then, I gave no description of the strategy, just more or less stated "Erce saved Java using her Vacuum Shield technique." Ergo, no one here actually has seen how it works in action. While I may have said that it was more or less based off of Riolu's use of the move VW, that was just to give a general idea of the basic mechanics of some kind of vacuum being created via the manipulation of wind in some way. It's not the exact same way that it's used, it's just a mechanic I was using to try to explain the basic functioning of the technique. in all honestly, simply being shown a video and having a basic explanation of the base mechanics isn't really enough to go pegging the whole strategem as being eventually useless when it hasn't even been genuinely used in the actual writing yet. My point is, because it is driven and refined from a move, the technique is like a move in itself, it's not bound explicitly to only one form of portrayal or use, so long as it sticks true to the mechanics of it's basic functioning. Vacuum Shield has both a stationary and a mobile method of execution, it is not bound to any one method, because each one stays true to the basic mechanics of forming some type of vacuum force, etc. but because no other appropriate instance for them being pulled out and actually used have popped up yet, no one's seen them. Anyways... I see I've typed a long rant when I'm supposed to be asleep, so... TL:DR- Please don't judge a book, or a move, just by it's cover, Fear guys who have too much time on their hands and are obsessed with kicking techniques, Mechanics are more important in how moves can be used than the flashiness or mundaness of their portrayal, and all moves are more or less just generic bases that anyone and anyone's mother could use in their most straight forward manners (IE, what's explicitly stated in the flavor tex, etc.etc.), but those who take a look further and examine what makes the move tick can make it into a technique truly all their own. In closing- Moves are like swords. Anyone can pick them up and wave em around, but until some deeper connection, some form of understanding and actually thinking of the sword as an extension of one's own self, "Swinging them around" is all one will ever truly do, not wield it as their own. Anyone can pick up moves, anyone can use moves, but those who can look beyond the surface of what they are will be able to make even the weakest move have a few more applications than it originally appeared. And that, my friends... is how Mareek Akira Sisto and his team fights and has been fighting for the majority of the time I have been writing them. all this above, this philosophy that you can use one move a thousand different ways if you think hard enough, that it's the man that makes the move, not the move that makes the man, that is more or less the basis of his entire style in a nutshell: looking beyond the surface, beyond the obvious and cliche, and finding the "Power that's inside" every move. In battle, his team does not simply "Use Moves", no, they use Techniques that are derived and refined from the basic templates that are "Moves". then there's also another few components to his style, but that's not terribly important right now... plus, I've said more than enough already and I need some damn sleep. I am very surprised I'm even this coherent this late at night...

"Tch, not surprising," Mareek said. "Baldwin isn't exactly someone who can be pegged as a pushover, from what I've seen... speaking of which..." The memory of the waiting room flashed through his mind. He rotated the chair, agitating an already pissed Nemo as he faced Daniel and forced the Jedi to have to move along with it. "While we're on the subject of Baldwin, I wanna ask you something: Before you left the waiting room, you stopped me and told me that the thing Jacob wanted to talk about was Evan Reeves. Now, as far as I knew, Baldwin and I were apparently the only ones who were privy to anything about that, and I Know I myself didn't say anything until it became obvious it was pointless to try to keep it under wraps there... So I'm just wondering if the guy happened to do something like... oh, I don't know, just happened to tell any of you about this. Cause see, thing is, he stopped me in the hall and told me not to disclose anything to anyone. So... if he did tell any of you, that violates his own advisement, and that would make for some shady implications..." "Of course, if he did, he could've also done something like make you all promise not to tell me he was there..."

The man you once referred to as sir took off in a Biplane a few days ago like his name was the Red Baron. If I recall correctly, he had a raichu in the gunner's seat... it was kinda cool to see, actually. ahem, anyways... guess I'm in charge here since he left the door wide open. So... what were you guys working on here?