21 KiB
Pokemon: The Origin of Species Chapter 16
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Author: u/DaystarEld Pokémon Professor*
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URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9794740/16/Pokemon-The-Origin-of-Species
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Score: 34
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Created: 2015-01-30T23:14:01
Post:
Comments:
u/E-o_o-3 [+15] (2 hours later)
What. What.
Even knowing that he left the others to get them help quicker, not to catch a pikachu, he can't just let it get away.
Blue is darker than I realized...
u/DaystarEld [+12] Pokémon Professor (2 hours later)
It's easy to minimize the distant possibility of a negative thing that might not happen in order to go for a positive that's right in front of you :)
u/FeepingCreature [+6] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (3 hours later)
I have to agree - Blue's depiction in this chapter seemed so dark that I was genuinely surprised when he did the right thing.
u/E-o_o-3 [+8] (3 hours later)
Hmm...so you're saying he's not darker, but dumber?
I dunno...you are right in principle when it comes to seatbelts or something, but personally I think Blue is currently in a scenario that our childhood of forests and grassland ecosystems has prepared us for.
For most people leaving their friends injured in a fire surrounded by electric lions would be a screaming priority. (But maybe it's a bit of both, in this case?)
u/DaystarEld [+8] Pokémon Professor (3 hours later)
A mix of both, I'd say. The impulse to not let it get away is stronger for him than it would be for Leaf or Red, but not as a matter of intelligence so much as his drive to acquire powerful pokemon.
u/E-o_o-3 [+4] (3 hours later)
so much as his drive to acquire powerful pokemon.
Ah. So you're basically saying he's a Slytherin haha
Hmm...is it Dark = Slytherin, Psychic = Ravenclaw now? :P
It said most humans were Normal type... I wonder if there are any human Fighting, Dragon, or Fairy types (those being the 5 "abstract property" types, ghost exempt because they're not dead) , and if it correlates with personality in a similar way.
u/Anakiri [+6] (18 hours later)
Blue's kind of thick, isn't he? He really needs to clamp down on his impulsiveness, but it's good to see that when he thinks to stop and think for a moment, he does the right thing. The world will beat some maturity into him yet.
I'm curious about the straight-up magical absorbing and healing stuff Shroomish is doing. I wonder if Red thinks there's anything curious about it.
Everything about the Shiftry encounter is quite interesting. Honestly, when it first showed up, I expected it to be a fake-out. They were waiting for a pokemon to cut down a tree, here's a pokemon that can cut down a tree, time to get up, Blue. Which leads to the question: How can you tell a wild pokemon from a trainer's pokemon?
I think this is the first time we've heard of a limitation on pokeballs. They evidently have an upper limit on physical size... But then they can temporarily store pokemon above that limit? How? I'd expect the mass-energy conversion process to abort as soon as its buffer is full, and for the pokemon to never go inside at all. Of course, in the games, pokemon go in, the ball wiggles, then they pop back out, but I'm not quite sure if the science checks out. Or there may be something I don't know. I'm sure we'll learn more about how they work when our heroes start outgrowing standard pokeballs, if they do.
The shiftry's behavior suggests interesting things about pokemon intelligence. In our world, the most intellectually complicated predation is to chase the prey into an ambush. These shiftry are significantly more clever than that! They seemed to haved planned to sneak up on helpless prey in the smoke, but then the forerunner got stuck in a losing fight. It nonetheless stood its ground and actually held back, using itself as bait while the rest of its pack got into position. It was either enacting a plan B it had already thought of, or it was improvising a deception using the resources it had. Either way would require a lot of discipline to not just run away when it gets hurt. Very few real world animals could pull this off besides humans. These shiftry are primate-level at least, and I imagine that psychic types are even smarter. I wonder what Leaf would think.
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (20 hours later)
Honestly, when it first showed up, I expected it to be a fake-out. They were waiting for a pokemon to cut down a tree, here's a pokemon that can cut down a tree, time to get up, Blue. Which leads to the question: How can you tell a wild pokemon from a trainer's pokemon?
That was partly why I made sure to note the blood on its leaves ;) In normal conditions though, a trainer should be within sight of his pokemon at all times.
I'm curious about the straight-up magical absorbing and healing stuff Shroomish is doing. I wonder if Red thinks there's anything curious about it.
Yeah, being a Blue chapter means I was more reluctant to get into technical aspects of things :)
So here was how I approached the absorption stuff:
In the games, absorb looks like literally drawing green light away from them, which somehow is supposed to hurt them and heal you: literally, "life energy." In the anime, they shoot a BEAM of light out, which turns red once it connects to them and again, drains their "life energy."
Neither of these struck me as particularly usable in my fiction. I'm okay with having some near-mystical abilities, but am trying to limit them by type, and perhaps some very specific pokemon.
So first, the idea of extracting something through a creature's skin so that it traveled through the air toward you would require some sort of psychic or magic powers, so I dropped that and made moves like Absorb require skin-to-skin contact.
Second, the glow is bio-luminescence on the plant pokemon's part, of particular cells that glow when they work to repair the body. They use biomatter as fuel/basic parts, and can either gain it through contact (basically eating the skin and flesh from something they're touching) or from nutrients Shroomish takes in.
The leech seeds feed on blood to grow, and the plant matter inside the shell is full of the nutrients from the host's blood, converted into the best type of food to fuel the pokemon's regenerative cells.
Does all that make sense?
I think this is the first time we've heard of a limitation on pokeballs. They evidently have an upper limit on physical size... But then they can temporarily store pokemon above that limit? How? I'd expect the mass-energy conversion process to abort as soon as its buffer is full, and for the pokemon to never go inside at all. Of course, in the games, pokemon go in, the ball wiggles, then they pop back out, but I'm not quite sure if the science checks out. Or there may be something I don't know. I'm sure we'll learn more about how they work when our heroes start outgrowing standard pokeballs, if they do.
This is something I struggled with a lot too.
So, the main issue with the way the game and anime treats this is it makes no sense (as usual) for a pokemon to "fight" its way out while it's nothing but a ball of energy inside. Furthermore, "damaging" a pokemon so it can get caught is also weird: does how "tired" or "hurt" it is translate to having "less energy" somehow?
So I scrapped the idea that any ball can hold any pokemon, and decided to put technical limits on them. The difficulty is in locking on and hitting the pokemon, which requires wearing it down or immobilizing it first. The only way hurting a pokemon can legitimately help you catch one is if it loses so much blood or so many body parts that its mass becomes low enough for the ball to contain it.
The way I see the tech working, they can hold virtually anything, but it wears out the internal matrix that safely suspends the energy the more energy it's containing. If you catch something too big, it overloads it very quickly. Kind of like how you can run X volts through a lightbulb for months, but if you try to shove 3x volts through it, you'll blow it out.
Does that make sense?
u/Anakiri [+1] (22 hours later)
Bioluminescent repair cells make as much sense as anything. I'd be inclined to ask why they glow, but then I'd have to ask why almost everything has a face. I can accept that they do.
I don't understand what mechanism would cause Absorb to manifest as "motes of green light [that] travel between the pikachu and his pokemon's skin". Did the Shroomish throw its regenerative cells at the Pikachu or something, and they crawled back somehow? If it were bioluminescence, I'd expect it to just glow where the contact point is, with no visible motion.
Of course, I'm also quite fond of the Pokemon Adventures manga, where Absorb looks like this.
I don't think that pokeball explanation quite works. If you pump too much water through a hose, the hose will burst. But the bucket that safely contains the water once it's stopped moving doesn't really care about that. If you have a big enough bucket, then you should be able to just turn down the hose, and dematerialize slower. That might make the pokemon move or something, and cause disasterous read errors - but that again means the pokeball shouldn't be able to take the pokemon in at all. Your analogy would only hold if pokeballs have to do something active to suppress the pokemon - which would mean that pokeballs eventually run out of power and release whatever they're holding. (Or release 20 megatons of TNT per kilogram.) Which, on reflection, would be a good reason to store pokemon remotely and beam them to the pokeball when they're needed, which I complained about before...
Okay, maybe it does work.
In the games, it's pretty clear the pokeballs don't work by matter-energy conversion. I'd guess that they hogtie a pokemon with its own magic, which has the effect of turning them into a little glowball. Pokeballs only work on things with magic (pokemon) and only those that are not magically exhausted (fainted). Since it is the pokemon's magic, they can undo the binding and free themselves. It feels like being pinned but not hurt, as if in a dominance contest, so you will only catch pokemon who choose to submit. Obviously, that's a bit more magic than you want in your story, but that's how I'd explain the behavior in the games.
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (22 hours later)
I don't understand what mechanism would cause Absorb to manifest as "motes of green light [that] travel between the pikachu and his pokemon's skin". Did the Shroomish throw its regenerative cells at the Pikachu or something, and they crawled back somehow? If it were bioluminescence, I'd expect it to just glow where the contact point is, with no visible motion.
That was my original idea to try and keep some semblance of the game's visual, but yeah, fuck it. Scrapped that and made the glow stay at the site of the wound.
Of course, I'm also quite fond of the Pokemon Adventures manga, where Absorb looks like this.
Huh. Is that Tangela about to literally absorb the shroomish into its viney mass? Or is it just absorbing its life through the vines? Still good to see a contact-based one.
which would mean that pokeballs eventually run out of power and release whatever they're holding.
This is in fact the case :) Pokeballs are recharged at Pokecenters, as referenced briefly back in chapter 5.
Pokeballs only work on things with magic (pokemon) and only those that are not magically exhausted (fainted)
Actually, the games show pokeballs used to store items that you find on the ground XD Why the pokeball itself isn't included in the item you find is never really explained... Maybe it's "locked" to the item it stored, but that just seems like a waste for a single potion.
u/Anakiri [+1] (23 hours later)
The shellder's fine, more or less. This absorb is just like your leech seed, I think, but with tangela using its own body. It lets it go after it passes out.
Actually, the games show pokeballs used to store items that you find on the ground
I choose to believe that that is a gameplay abstraction. The overworld pokeball is a generic item, just like the amorphous shadow of a surfing pokemon. In the first 3D RPGs, Colosseum and XD, they use pokeball-colored chests instead, so either it's an abstraction, or the people of Orre just decided not to use pokeballs to hold items for some reason. And why would people leave items lying around in pokeballs anyway? It makes sense to drop a potion or something, but not to keep everything in your pack in balls.
On the other hand, a game-verse pokeball costs ¥200, about $2. Maybe they are meant to be just ridiculously disposable. But I won't let a little inconvenient fact get in the way of my beautiful theory.
u/DaystarEld [+1] Pokémon Professor (23 hours later)
I choose to believe that that is a gameplay abstraction.
Completely understandable: Arceus knows I've treated enough other details that way :)
u/Rouninscholar [+1] (3 days later)
Hey, I'm a little slow in showing up, but as a note: there are pokemon that look like a pokeball being encountered this way.
u/Anakiri [+1] (3 days later)
Some, but not all, of the items on the ground are indeed pokeballs. But using the pokeball graphic is unrelated to whether or not it is actually a pokeball.
u/Ulmaxes [+4] (a day later)
I liked the Blue vs. Pikachu scene a lot. I'm mainly glad it didn't involve laser-guided karma. A lot of writers would have had his less-than-altruistic decision instantly result in something terrible happening. Yeah, it didn't pan out for him as a trainer wanting a pikachu, but that's enough to drive the point home. I was bracing for the inevitable "AND THAT'S WHY SELFISHNESS IS BAD, MMMK?" moment, but it never came; that was nice.
Loving this story so far, keep it up!
u/DaystarEld [+4] Pokémon Professor (a day later)
Yeah, that always irritates me in books and movies too ;) Glad you're enjoying it!
u/DaystarEld [+4] Pokémon Professor (45 seconds later)
Welcome back everyone! To clarify, "simulations" in this world are basically our world's "Pokemon" games, from the handhelds to far more advanced versions that we don't have access to due to lack of technology and Game Freak's strange aversion to all of my money. This world has video games too of course, but we often use the word "simulation" for a game that mimics something you can do in the real world with an intent toward teaching, so why wouldn't they?
As always, feedback of any kind is welcome. Enjoy!
u/FeepingCreature [+5] GCV Literally The Entire Culture (3 minutes later)
far more advanced versions that we don't have access to due to lack of technology and Game Freak's strange aversion to all of my money
Clear evidence that companies really aren't all that ruthlessly profit-focused.
It's like they haven't fully realized yet that their fans have grown up and now own gaming PCs with more than 4MB of graphics RAM.
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (23 minutes later)
Or maybe they're just listening to the wrong people ;)
But yeah, they seem really intent on keeping the "this is a kids' game" demographic. It's not going to change as long as adults keep buying them, because why spend a ton of money making a pokemon version of, say, Monster Hunter, when that's likely to draw a lot of their customers from the handheld titles?
I don't think they're giving enough weight to the thought that they might actually appeal to new types of gamers if they release a pokemon game that's NOT cutesy and turn-based.
Which I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't so ruthlessly issue takedowns against independent designers who make amazing looking games like this one.
u/elevul [+2] Cyoria Observer (5 months later)
Man, a pokemon game with Assassin's Creed parkour and Crysis' graphics...
u/DaystarEld [+1] Pokémon Professor (5 months later)
One thing I can't decide on is whether I'd prefer such an action-oriented pokemon game to let you control the pokemon directly, or just control yourself and give commands for the pokemon to follow. The first Digimon World game for the Playstation did the latter well, and I've wanted a Pokemon version ever since I played it.
u/xkcd_transcriber [+2] (3 minutes later)
Title: The Economic Argument
Title-text: Not to be confused with 'making money selling this stuff to OTHER people who think it works', which corporate accountants and actuaries have zero problems with.
Stats: This comic has been referenced 81 times, representing 0.1622% of referenced xkcds.
^xkcd.com ^| ^xkcd sub ^| ^Problems/Bugs? ^| ^Statistics ^| ^Stop Replying ^| ^Delete
u/Anderkent [+3] (41 minutes later)
Typos? Maybe?
He sees a few pikachu and raichu in the distance as he travels, but get close enough to be a threat.
but none get close enough to be a threat, I assume
just incase
just in case
"Here, takes this"
Here, take this.
He pulls the lightning rod out where it's wedged
out from where it's wedged, I think?
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Good chapter, damn cliffhanger :P
u/DaystarEld [+4] Pokémon Professor (2 hours later)
Fixed, thanks!
And glad you liked it :)
u/think_once_more [+2] (4 hours later)
Great chapter! I read 15 for the first time today, and much to my delight, this chapter was released the same day. Very impressive, keep up the amazing work!
u/DaystarEld [+1] Pokémon Professor (5 hours later)
Thank you very much, and I'll try!
u/4t0m [+2] Chaos Legion (5 hours later)
Great chapter! Keep up the good work!
The firebreak is often enough to break it when it goes too far in any direction, but that means it sometimes winds straight against the fire in some areas.
This sentence struck me as sort of clumsy. The first "it" is referring to "the fire" I think, but this isn't really clear. Also, "sometimes... in some areas" could maybe be phrased better.
He doesn't know what sense alerted him to its presence
And this one is backwards I think. Should be "it to his presence" maybe?
Do you have a sense of what length story this will be?
u/DaystarEld [+1] Pokémon Professor (5 hours later)
Fixed, thanks a lot!
If you mean a rough chapter count, sadly not. I have checkpoints in mind that the story has to hit, and know where it's going to end, but from a chapter to chapter basis, I'm almost as along for the ride as the rest of you. At a rough estimate though, judging from how far along we are now, at least a hundred, easily.
I know that seems daunting considering the publishing schedule (believe me I do, as the one writing it) but at the moment I just don't have the time to write more. Maybe someday if one of my other projects that I can actually make money off of gets finished I'll have more free time to devote to this, but for now a chapter a month seems to be my limit, and only barely at that :)
u/4t0m [+1] Chaos Legion (18 hours later)
Honestly that's a reassuring answer. I'm really enjoying the story, but it moves sort of slowly. I'm glad to hear that there will be room for it to develop.
u/4t0m [+1] Chaos Legion (21 hours later)
By the way, I was rereading 15 and I saw this:
She clears her throat as she watches more pikach
u/DaystarEld [+1] Pokémon Professor (21 hours later)
Fixed, thanks!
u/MadScientist14159 [+1] WIP: Sodium Hypochlorite (Rational Bleach) Eventually. Maybe. (a day later)
Hmm.
Could have let him catch the pikachu, then had Red and Leaf be all "Wtf, you selfish prick!" when he showed it to them later, but having it die was satisfying too.
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (a day later)
Hey, for all they'd know he caught one that attacked him :P Which would technically be true: he just wouldn't mention that he chased it through the forest after it ran.