This is the part where Gammasect makes a Chernabog Garland story thread [The Bloody Armchair]

Since I doubt very much that Mercutio Napoleon Mateus will get a moment outside of being Chernabog's friend, barring maybe Orre to be his own trainer, I may as well theorycraft what his team would look like factoring Orre / Kanto. I've at least written about Mercutio enough that discussing what kind of team he had isn't just theorycraft alone:

/ / - Ace; he probably won't use all 3 at once unless some metaplot shenanigans ensue decreeing he has all 3 in his party (I'm not stealing the Mono-Poison run idea from @Lerioc and have thought about doing Mono-Bug at one point, but scrapped the idea knowing how my idea would likely be turned against me). When looking at PTU, I had thought of him being a Poison Ace for Roxas' Amaya campaign but decided against playing as him in it in favour of Tauradonna.
--> - I lament not knowing if there's a Lone Wolf sprite for the various Eeveelutions, but don't mind if there isn't considering that Mission A of "get a Rocket Sylveon" so Mercutio has a differently-sprited Eevee a la Chernabog's Eeveelutions is a failure regardless, and Mission B being a failure is something I anticipate.
- Rangers need a Pokemon they can ride on for mobility. Given he was implemented in the Orange Islands, and I'm still disappointed in the lack of a Mega Lapras considering the species' heavy prominence in the OI anime proper, I've decided to have Lapras be a possible mainstay of Mercutio's team on the basis of it being extremely relevant to his interests as a Ranger.
- Same as Lapras, only to be not only more appropriate to the Orange Islands, but also cover Ranger mobility on both land and air, given Lapras is great for sea mobility but not necessarily for other kinds of mobility. As per usual, I would probably prefer to have Mercutio get a Nebula Rapidare if ever something inspires me to run him as a character in the TRPG (my previous chance for this came when I had only thought up of Chernabog himself, but I traded Nebula Ponyta to Bryan in exchange for other goods).

The above 'mons/conventions are borrowed somewhat from ideas I had in the original Pokemon Tabletop Adventures game he was in, which was set in Sinnoh roughly 400 years before Diamond/Pearl/Platinum started. The main reason I wanted a snake-type ace (re: Arbok) was for Mercutio to engage in poetic irony against a Seviper-themed cult (and I had thought of Seviper as Mercutio's original main before being kindly warned by the GM of that game that choosing Seviper as a starter would get me in trouble). He also had a Totodile, and that was neat before I eventually decided against keeping Totodile as a common Pokemon for Mercutio in exchange for Lapras.

The other two Pokemon that Mercutio would have would be rotated or considered filler, based on whatever I decide to do, if I decide to do anything with him.

 

Part of my talks with @Shanderraa involved trying to discuss how to maybe build upon Mercutio, or Gideon. Since Rangers are not a thing in PTU, archiving discussion of him to here was a good idea.

I decided to do the same regarding Gideon Moonshatter Golbez. His entire gimmick/concept was being a "Token Good Team Galactic member/ex-member" and this got changed drastically in the TRPG for the better. One thing that killed making a muse for him to do stuff in Sinnoh/Unova was Gen VI changes to Chandelure, who no longer has Shadow Tag. I'm told that Shadow Tag isn't all that useful in PTU, which makes roleplaying as Gideon really hard to do while only adhering to thematics; a point of note I make is that I've been generally told to minmax in previous tabletop campaigns.

The school of Galactic thought that Gideon would belong to was the Saturn school, as he can't really be as extreme in viewpoint as Cyrus without also being a tragic, sympathetic, and relatable villain-leaning-anti-villain. I already have a track record of playing villains/anti-villains, so I tried to deliberately change Gideon for the better.

I have a better idea of his team, although a lot of it is still unclear:

/ - The first Pokemon he was going to have was a Water-type known as "Cagnazzo." In PTA Destiny, he had to settle on a Poliwag simply owing to the fact he paralyzed it, caught it, and then took it to the Pokemon Centre. The only medical itemmes around were "Grabbin' Peelz," a bad reference to Left 4 Dead which wound up being entirely a nuisance to me. My character nearly got killed from freezing the ocean with a Grabbin' Peel, from a crit Aeroblast coming out of a Level 70 Lugia.

/ - Shand suggested I replace the idea of Shadow Tag Chandelure, now that it's gone and Rubicante the Chandelure can't be obsessed with fair play and be a Shadow Tag Pokemon barring thematical mascot shenanigans (as Shadow Tag Chandelure doesn't exist outside of Gideon's Chandelure, who'd probably be considered a mutated Chandelure).

- The other Pokemon from PTA that Gideon managed to keep alive was a Dratini, whose only reason for not being killed by bullshit was because it had Thunder Wave. I'd probably try to run a Multiscale Dragonite set with Leftovers, Substitute, Hurricane, and Roost.

Much like Chernabog I, Gideon's team at-first would have looked like a standard Gen V Dream World OU team with Drizzle Politoed, Shadow Tag Chandelure, and Multiscale Dragonite; alas, it was not meant to be in the TRPG and roleplaying him is still incredibly hard given my thematics for him don't 100% fit into PTU if I'm remembering correctly.

 

Nergal Seymour was an Auri Society character who was another attempt at an Amaya character, whom Chernabog encountered on Pinkan Island so I can reference the Deal or No Deal 2014 in which I earned a very powerful Pokemon whilst trying to get something out of it that was actually RP-appropriate so that I could progress Chernabog's character. He was to give the prize out, and it turned out to be a Snow Warning shiny Snover that came with an Abomasite. I remember enough of DOND 2014 that it was definitely IHOX-able (and IHOX'd), as it was considered a crowning moment for me as a person that I was stubborn enough to take a Deal only at the last minute of it.

Nergal Seymour's team is incredibly easy to make, owing to the fact he was additionally made for a Team Mission:





Those are the 'mons that any Auri Visitor is guaranteed to have. Nergal Seymour, therefore, qualifies to have these three 'mons at any given time. As for the rest of his team? I did not foresee him being RP'd outside of being a sponsor/care-package-giver of Chernabog's outright. Other Auri Society mons generally will do the trick, although I have no idea what that necessarily entails.

 

There are specific Pokemon I have noted that are off-limits to Chernabog Garland IV, for respectively relevant reasons:

-types in general: Chernabog is pyrophobic. For the express purposes of getting a particular ICON (and for character development), I've made a mental note of two exceptions (Fercoa line, Grivolution) specifically because if it evolves into a Fire-type later on, he will have to come to terms with having a Fire-type in his party. Until this happens, Fire-types in general seem to make him remember his parents burning to death by the hands of Team Plasma.

/ - The Psibian line has the distinction of being Professor Ivy's ace, and in-RP Chernabog got fed up with Professor Ivy's careless plans of "kicking" him "upstairs" specifically to send him to his presumed demise via the Pokemon League. As Professor Ivy and her triplets are douchebags in the anime canon at least, there exists precedent for Ivy's appalling behavior. My team initially had a supreme weakness to Grass-and-Psychic types as well, so I had written off Ivy as having drunk herself to death via alcohol poisoning after failing to keep Chernabog in Valencia Island to explain why he was being kicked upstairs.

/ - I didn't write anything specifically for this in-RP, but my memories of Pokemon Tabletop Adventures' Temp game, and the inherent shittiness of it, are what ban me from giving Chernabog a Heracross. Specifically, it goes against the fact I improved myself enough as a person when making Chernabog for the TRPG.

 

While not specific to Chernabog, there are general 'mons I try to avoid getting when RPing as anyone:

---> - I hate the Top Percentage "meme" with every fiber of my being.

- Crystal Onix doesn't really bode well with me in general. Typically, I try to get normal Onix to trade them to evolve into Steelix, although the Onix line is not one of my favourite lines.

- I genuinely prefer Vileplume over Bellossom 10 times out of 10.

---> - I want to like this line somewhat badly, but playing in Pokemon B2W2 RU and seeing people use Ambipom suicide leads, as well as seeing them being done wrong, do not lend a good impression to me. I'm just unimpressed with this line otherwise, and see little motivation to make a character with an Ambipom in it.

---> / ---> - I don't mind the gimmicks involved with Plus/Minus, but I remember Haas saying that Double Battle trainers were frowned upon in updates a few years back, and having a gimmick duo combination seems like more trouble than it's worth; this is true not just for Chernabog but for any other muse I make with OIs in mind. There are likely other Double Battle gimmicks that I'll need to keep track of in order to avoid.

- I'm not fond of Luvdisc's thematics and can generally do without.

- I'm reminded of the Sinnoh anime when I see Pachirisu, and the only characters I like from it are Brock's Croagunk, Tobias, and Reggie - they have all one thing in common and that is that they are genuinely and unironically awesome. I can maybe tolerate Paul and Paul's Pokemon, but only on a good day since he's a worse-written version of G/S/C/HG/SS Rival.

- Not fond of these Electric-types' aesthetics, to be honest. The only "Electric rodent" Pokemon I like is Raichu, and I am dismayed by the fact I have to train a Pichu to evolve it into a Pikachu beforehand. I fondly remember Lieutenant Surge's Raichu, if we went with "Gamma hates most of the Pokemon anime if not all of it; not even Advanced Generation is safe."

That's about it.

 

The idea of multiple Rivals is a neat novelty that seemed to originate first in Pokemon Adventures/Pokemon Special. Of course, it extended to everywhere else. While I don't like the Pokemon anime, I can give it some credit for giving various Rivals personalities, especially during the Hoenn and Unova arcs. If the anime didn't fall apart really quickly during early Kalos in terms of story integrity, I would have probably found that amenable as well (I have caught up on Kalos via seeing memes of it not only on Tumblr but elsewhere, as well as through plot synopses and other things that tell me that I was not missing anything special, and my rooting for Team Rocket {Jesse/James/Meowth - all other Team Rocket personalities are just plain boring/unwatchable} in Kalos would have led to the same ennui that was prevalent in Sinnoh).

The first attempt at a "Rival who has the starter that I'm good against" was Scott Cecil. He was an alright trainer and more or less ran a similar backstory profile to Chernabog, only he picked Pyroo and quit IvyLabs (Professor Ivy's science firm in Valencia Island) much sooner than him. He also got an Ion from his girlfriend in Kalos/"girlfriend in Canada" (I hate that trope, by the way). Other than those two Pokemon, no mod has deemed it necessarily fit to give him any other 'mons except early on, when he used to have a Phantern.

As of now, his roster would just be:

---> {Note: as of this writing, my Plattail is Level 35, and will be evolving to Tsunamic if I decide to play around with trainer averages post-Alyssa in Millsweet}



The second attempt at this was not done by me, but rather by @Haas . He wrote an excellent "dimensional parallel" of Chernabog known as Cherrymaco Soleanna IV (I came up with her last name, Haas did pretty much everything else). Touching up on her roster after I make it farther along in the TRPG than just Millsweet Island would also be nice. As of now, she had a direct parallel of Chernabog's "main" squad:

---> {Same as for Scott Cecil's Fire-type starter} {It knows Lava Plume, given my Plattail's primary move of note is/was Muddy Water; named Harmonica, otherwise}

---> ---> {Named Trainer X - at the time, it was basically a direct parallel to my Spirik, named Novoni}

{Named Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib-Qwib - direct parallel to my Karama, named Shepard}

---> {Named Malzahar - direct parallel to my Crystal Shieldon, named Kassadin}

{Named Momo IV - direct parallel to my Butterfree, Lulu II} {It knows Hidden Power Electric, 'cause that's what Haas put down}

---> ---> {Named Urdnot Wreav - direct parallel to my Fercoa, Urdnot Wrex}

Maybe someday Cherrymaco will return to the story, as I also wrote a Lawrence Soleanna III for the Pearl Peril mission during Chernabog's time in Ishmadal Castle as the Kingslayer. With King Armedias dead and Lawrence III's Sarah Sarashon 4.0 beta robot dismantled, I wonder how things in Cherrymaco's world look, to be frank.

 

I once tried making a Cooltrainer Shiorno. His full name was originally Cooltrainer Shiorno "Uka Uka" Strickland, and he was going to be the Mack Daddy of Pro-Pain.

Unfortunately, he never really got far in any thinktanking I tried to do for Johto. Doing either Kanto or Johto for the TRPG proper will require a lot more effort on my part.

I at least have his Dream Team pegged, based on the 8 Robot Masters of MegaMan: Powered Up.

- Oil Man
- Fire Man / Bomb Man

- Ice Man

/ - Cut Man

- Guts Man

- Elec Man / Time Man

 

With some more thinking (and some sleep), I decided to divulge a little bit more about Cooltrainer Shiorno.

His name is basically if I mixed Xion {pronounced "Shii-ohwn"} and Giorno {the protagonist of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part V - Vento Aureo, and arguably the best Gang-star}. Xiorno would be a neat alternate spelling.

The primary concepts I had in mind, when originally making Cooltrainer Shiorno, were:
1) Come up with a likable Cooltrainer, since Bret (the kayfabe) is incorrigible and other attempts at Cooltrainers (Wayne) were underwhelming for Chernabog to fight, let alone watch die via being eaten by Millenio.
2) Kitsu had an Organization XIII-esque theme for her Johto run, and seeing as Org. XIII wound up being one of the only groups of people I liked and actively rooted for (Namine/Kairi/Aqua notwithstanding) regarding the Kingdom Hearts series for a very long time, I noticed there was a lack of a Xion-type character that I felt sad about. This Cooltrainer would be a Xion-type, or as close to one as I could muster.

I could probably just rename him Cooltrainer Xiorno later.

I decided on a MegaMan: Powered Up-themed team recently, when trying to not go into "Gamma reminds himself of his exile from the Kingdom Hearts fandom and failure to be un-exiled" and instead opting for "let's try to make Xiorno stand on his own two feet, even though he and Noxigar Bellinski do so already." Thinktanking for it was relatively easy, though I only wound up finalizing two Pokemon for it:

- The "Oil Man" of the team, and consequently Xiorno's ace.

If I wasn't genuinely confused by Kanto's (and Johto's) TRPG plots involving the Watchers and Shades (as well as a stark lack of direct events), I'd probably have run into Kanto with Cooltrainer Xiorno (whilst "continuing" Chernabog elsewhere as I saw fit - he has no real reason to go to Kanto or Johto barring termination of people on a hit-and-run list and abducting a Gym Leader whom Roxas wants as a Christmas/birthday gift). I'm also told that the Watchers/Shades plot in "canon R2R" is incomplete, which is somewhat tragic to hear.

/ / - The "Time Man" of the team, and I credit @Kalinius for inspiration on this front.

It would largely depend on whether I want to turn Xiorno's whole team into a Trick Room team via Invertigo, or just try to stick as close to "normal Kanto/Johto Pokemon" as far as giving my not-Chernabog character concept a boundary that won't be crossed. I probably would, if Xiorno ever made it into PTU instead, try to get an Abra as a starter (like I'd want, actually; sticking to Chernabog himself in the TRPG proper gives me alternate limitations, which allow me to keep the amount of things I try to do to a reasonable threshold).

 

I guess I have a problem with timeline shenanigans, that hasn't been rectified. The sole means offered by a Global (at the time, Leon Vane) was that Chernabog be frozen in time for a few years to catch up with where OI canon actually was, relative to his current (would-be-previous) frame of time. I began trying to make his timeline more fluid.

A majority of this is recap anyway, so I'm not afraid to divulge a bit more on it:

When Chernabog was 8, Team Plasma killed both of his parents in a fire, which subsequently destroyed most of the Garland ranch property, though most of Chernabog III's Pokemon could handle fire. Watching both of his parents burn to death while being carried out of town by Professor Juniper has given Chernabog IV a deeply-rooted fear of Fire, thus his general aversion to Fire-types on the whole. Since he was 8, he has sworn to kill N (then-King) and destroy Plasma completely. Juniper and Colress (the latter having been Juniper's apprentice before joining Plasma on account of being batshit insane - note, Neutral Good characters can be (and have proven to be) antagonistic entirely due to insanity, and Chernabog registers a majority of Unovans as being downright insane) tried to steer Chernabog IV away from swearing revenge on an entire group of people. Juniper eventually sent him away to Professor Ivy in the Orange Islands, in the hopes that Chernabog IV's hunger for vengeance would be gone.

Spoilers, it wasn't gone.

As such, when Chernabog IV was 17, he was asked to start his journey. Having remembered distinctly that all of the other Chernabogs in the Garland family (his father, father's father, and father's father's father) died after becoming Unova Champions, he tries to pick a career that will not get him killed, rather than make the same mistake his parents did. This doesn't work, as Contest Halls were closed in the Orange Islands by the in-region Pokemon League. However, I do plan for him to move elsewhere to actually start his career as a Coordinator, but the OIs are getting killed in a slow, painful death as is befitting of the majority running the League.

This leaves him with a 9-year interim, and though things would have ideally changed, I mark X/Y/OR/AS to be a separate timeline altogether. Anything could happen in those 9 years, including the Tajiro Incident and other variables left unaccounted for by my initial writings of Chernabog (back when I wrote him, the present continuity was Pokemon B1W1). On the other hand, if he does move to the alternate timeline established by ORAS (at minimum), then most of this is still accounted for without needing to cryogenically freeze him for another 3 years or so (though it might make for a good later plot point, as I know at least two Gym Leaders who'd try to kill Chernabog because he's the Kingslayer regardless of the continuity I adopt).

 

I guess I can update on specific plans; the only reason I'm posting it here is for transparency/so that any Admin/Mod who updates me can essentially "counter-plan" since Kingslayer arc went pretty much unopposed by Grail members' action updates, and was added with Ishmadal Castle sinking to the bottom of the ground (which I never planned, but am thankful for the Castle's blowing up since it helps me remember something happy about OI-2013 aside from decapitating a tyrant basically with impunity).

OIs - Either I cap OIs at Danny's Gym Badge and eventual destruction, or cap OIs at Chernabog Garland meeting Actual-OI-Champion Tobias Garland whenever (presumably, at Pummelo Island). Regardless of outcome, Chernabog's story has to end regarding OIs as he no longer serves a purpose outside of just doing Flora Missions in this region.

• Professor Ivy drank herself to death, since she had no importance to his OIs plot outside of Valencia Island, and is never planned to show up again anyway.
• The Orange Islands League is genuinely and deliberately disrespectful to Chernabog outside of one Gym Leader (a fellow Unovan expat who feels the same way about Plasma scum as Chernabog - General Lex). Chernabog and the OI League will never get along, as the latter is genuinely villainous in my supreme canon.
• I had plans to kill off 'Boggle's rival, December Sapphire Birch, in Zeralis back when Amaya was FreshStart-only. With Zeralis gone/revamped, it's curtains for a good half of Chernabog's "destroy the Pokemon Leagues as an act of revenge while being a Grand Festival Lich-Coordinator-Kingslayer" plans.
• Chernabog being frozen for a couple years won't work since I've realized that, as of November 18, 2016, I'll never be able to resolve the chronology issues that plagued him three years ago and that I'm screwed no matter what I do for a timeskip. I've since changed this plan to a "make Chernabog a Lich at some point before he leaves the OIs" schematic that has a hard time failing, what with him having killed King Armedias and having blown up Ishmadal Castle and causing the Pokemon League to actively want his death.

Holon - I like the concept of Delta Pokemon. Of those I'd want from Holon, however, it boils down to wanting:

1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 

Is it worth doing a region for want of only 4 Pokemon and specific Delta type combos just to roleplay Mercutio Mateus somewhere where he can properly be a Ranger and not intrusive in my "user/character profile combo?"

Orre -

• I already have a foul-mouthed, chain-smoking Rocket Umbreon. If I wanted a second Rocket Eeveelution, I'd probably choose Rocket Jolteon just from looks alone.
• If someone dropped a Rocket Nidoking as a prize in a future event that I don't miss, any reason to roleplay Mercutio Mateus in that region disappears since I still only run one muse that actually fits the TRPG otherwise (Chernabog Garland IV).
• Most Glitchmons/Rocketmons could be gotten on a "visit" to elsewhere, if I truly wanted them; otherwise, I only really need Silver (Sandswipe) and Zaeed (Rocket Umbreon).

Amaya -

• Are Contests active by the time I get done with OIs?
• If they are, would it be wise to just do a Continued Adventure with Coordinator Ribbons being the only "Fresh Start" I need to roleplay?
• If they aren't, would I be able to do a Continued Adventure and just make a Stall team to laugh in the Elite Four's face? A note to make is that I cannot do Hyper Offense, and pretending to just handicaps me.

Sinnoh -

• Same as Amaya, only with the added bonus of maybe avenging Kitsune Klein by taking down Cynthia after the Grand Festivals if Contests are a yes. Out-of-character: I don't want to kill Cynthia. In-character: "I have no qualm if Cynthia becomes a corpse once this farce is over."

 

An aspect I kept in my RP is the notion of City Nicknames for the various Orange Islands. I didn't always do that for the varying Islands, though.

1. Tangelo Island = Tangelo Towne
2. Valencia Island = Valencia City
3. Millsweet Island = Millsweet Port
4. Pummelo Island = Pummelo City

I had, from first glance, thought that City and Island nicknames were supposed to be identical (and had been near-convinced to abandon the quirk early on). Unfortunately, I read other people's adventures and found that some Island names were either botched in spelling or people confused Mikan and Pinkan Islands' spellings with one another. I found that unacceptable.

I also discovered Nicknames were official for some of the Islands, so why not most of them? Here's the ones I actually came up with, barring two that already had Nicknames (and were incidentally what sparked my interest in continuing the trend).

1. Tarroco Island = Shadesdale City {Gym Leader is Dark-type, and was the leader of a cult known as the Dragon Priests of Solipsus, but I had been advised not to off Dimitri from the story until such time he stopped being useful to me - he stopped being useful right at the end of the arc, but instead of killing him I wound up having him arrested and his Gym Leader status replaced (in-story) by a Dragon-type trainer named Bahamut}
2. Mikan Island = Splashtacia City {Gym Leader is Water-type, but not only was that the case but near everything about Mikan Island screamed "Ocean port" so, natch, coming up with a water-based pun for a city nickname was fitting above all else}
3. Pinkan Island = Roseus Village {Roseus is Latin for "Pink," so in effect I kept the city name near-the-same but chose a different Language 'cause screw calling it "Pinkan City" when that sounds objectively awful}
4. Regalia Island = Banax City {done as an homage to TMM while in the Solstice Vacation Isles, and it makes sense to place Regalia Island under a pseudonym because of the Tajiro Incident}
5. Route 203 = Beast of the Sea {Nicknames are OI canon}
6. Navel Island = Montropique City {Based off the tropical mountain that causes this Island and a corresponding Route to have wintry atmosphere sometimes, I also presumed Navel Island was closest to being a Montreal (Quebec) equivalent of the Pokemon series}
7. Abscorbia Island = Featherfist City {Most standard "Cooltrainers" use Talonite, and such had been the case for both the Fighting Dojo and the Flying-type Gym Leader; I kept the city nickname because it reminds me of one of the few "not-terrible" times with BryanVIII, which is when I did trades with him that amounted to good RP posts}
8. Murcott Island = The Orange Islands Safari Zone {Nicknames are OI canon}

Not only can I not care about spelling "Tarroco" wrong as "Tarocco," but the spellings of "Mikan" and "Pinkan" are kept intact without me making the same mistakes as older RPs (both Island Names also are pronounced near-identically, and that just throws my immersion off for days).

 

I normally keep Noxigar Bellinski as a character for Geist: the Sin-Eaters (only way to get a Namine-based spirit companion and not feel like I'm going to punch myself in the face). Geist: the Sin-Eaters has yet to send out its 2nd Edition core, so he's in a state of limbo until such time that can come out. In the meantime, I may as well theorycraft what kind of team I'd run him for:

Given his backstory was written as a deliberate middle finger to my exile from the Kingdom Hearts fandom (scientist who loses his heart after an experiment gone horribly wrong, comes back as a cthonid nightmarish entity), I think he'd fit most in Sinnoh (given Team Galactic is my favourite team, with only Team Skull as a second that's remotely close given I don't really like any of the other teams). Most of my characters normally fit in Sinnoh as a default (Mercutio and Chernabog were played in respective PTA campaigns which took place in Sinnoh), so that alone isn't enough to roleplay him anywhere.


-->
-->
--> {The Fly-er of the group and the token "Namine" emblem}

His main attribute as a former KH OC was Poison. He'd have probably run a different attribute, but for now those are the main four Pokemon that Noxigar Bellinski would employ. Given how Pokemon's adapted as a science in-universe, he'd probably run, outside of an Empoleon for starter, Pokemon with a trend of Mega-Evolution for a gimmick.

I've tried writing for Noxigar Bellinski elsewhere and one of my former acquaintances was responsible for the inspiration of playing him in Geist on the onset. However, my friendships with a few people (as well as one douchebag) were strained and I wound up dropping multiple muses (Eozerus Largo'thog Ikezawa-Lelouch was sadly also dropped) as a result of occurrences in 2016 from these strained friendships.

 

I normally keep Kurloz Hakamichi as a character for Vampire: the Requiem, although I have tried making a competitive Stall/Semi-stall team based around Sun & Moon's OU meta. For the TRPG, I'd obviously try to do something for Unova that isn't "Kill all of Team Plasma as Chernabog" (hence why Unova is currently off-limits for Coordinator-Lich).

I'll see what canon regions have (I've thought about him travelling to non-Unova under orders from Alder-Baronness Pearl Chastain):

--> Kurloz's Vampire Clan is Gangrel. Clan Gangrel's signature discipline is Protean. There aren't many Protean-users that I would run in the TRPG (I thought of running Aureon, but Aureon is not a Dark-type and isn't a Pokemon that would fit Kurloz Hakamichi). Greninja would probably be named after the Kogoaion of New Orleans, since Greninja reminds me of Clan Mekhet outside of its hidden ability under normal circumstances.

--> Kurloz had friends who were Nosferatu. Instead of thinking they were ugly, he had been convinced by a Nosferatu friend's clever usage of Protean that they were all beautiful butterflies on the inside who have yet to all grow their wings. He often called Nosferatu "Butterflies" as an intended compliment, but he mostly weirded some people out. A Venomoth to be named after Josue Vendredi, one of Kurloz's friends who unfortunately perished, would be rather touching.

/ --> Kurloz's primary convenant was Invictus. They're typically a "knight-errant"-type meritocracy where you earn a lot of wealth and prestige by being good at things. Kurloz was also part of other covenants, at least indirectly in some context because his former coterie was primarily influential in one of the ones he became a part of. Still, I thought of running a Gallade named after a detective who was part of the Invictus, named Peter Lebeaux. In spite of Lebeaux's Lawful Neutral conflicting with Kurloz's Neutral-leaning-Neutral-Good, they were good friends and I miss the Detective sometimes.

--> There aren't many Pokemon who can be represented by a member of the Lancea et Sanctum. Solomon Birch was known as "The Bishop" in some circles, and Bisharp is thematically a chess piece: the Bishop. It's otherwise not a particularly great thematical connection to my previous Vampire campaign, but I'm sure good ol' Birch'd laugh his heart out if Kurloz caught one. Bisharp seem like they'd make decent Lancea et-Sanctum-type Pokemon.

/ --> I thought of running this once, but other than in relation to Mambou Bridgitte or Lidia Kendall (other Ordo Dracul members), I wasn't sure what running a Dragon-type in Kurloz's party would really do in terms of benefit. I could name it after the only fellow PC who didn't unjustifiably wrong Kurloz - Madeleine Gore, a one-of-a-kind Ventrue Malkovian.

There aren't many other choices available, and I still have Kurloz set mostly for Vampire. If an invitation extends for him to be playable in PTU ever (which I sincerely doubt), I might consider playing him there whilst getting tutelage from other trainers on how to not suck in Pokemon Tabletop.

 

@5Cent updated Scott Cecil's team to be:

(---> later)



(was a until Level 21, apparently)

(--> later?)

 

I recently came up with a character sheet for Meulin Pendragon. She's my Mage: the Awakening character, and I had waited for 2nd Edition to come around March 2016 before finalizing her stats.

I don't really think she'd have a team for Pokemon, as she doesn't fit the setting of it well. I could see her using a or , but not much else fits her.

 

Unsurprisingly, the addition of a Cadombra to my party doesn't really change my agenda or goals. I've also come to the realization, during OI Anniversary, that I'll never be OI Canon. I don't consider this a bad thing, but it does dismotivate me from doing much here.

 

What I've noticed during most of my time in the OIs is that, since none of the NPCs are used for Canon events barring a few, that I have to write their actual personalities. They otherwise have none to speak of.

Cissy, for instance, would just be "diet Misty" if I wrote straight up what the OI Forums details for her. "Diet Misty" is not a personality in of itself. I instead wrote her as a complete foil to Misty, which became its own personality over time. The general gist is that Cissy is exemplary of the kind of villainy one would expect from the Orange Islands Pokemon League: "We're the closest thing to an organized government in this hellhole, and we're going to keep it that way no matter the cost." Cissy's girlfriend winds up taking a lot of the rap for actions Cissy herself enforces through Gym Disciples as proxies.

Cissy being a foil is not in of itself a personality either, hence the need to actually detail something which allows her to exist beyond "bad plot device." She's completely unreasonable in her demands for Athletes and Ace Trainers to be above others in the grand scheme of things (given they already are as far as OOC and IC sanctions indicate), but she's not thick-headed and can be bargained with. Chernabog makes a deal with her that, if he can defeat her, she will go to Pummelo Island and get Contest Halls reinstated in the Orange Islands region. He fails the first time, with Cissy's girlfriend making him black out through use of a jetski.

She's merely an example out of the many characters I've had to extrapolate on whom did not have an actual personality. Rare is it ever the case that I don't need to extrapolate on someone's character to give them a proper personality, as far as NPCs go. When it comes to translating PCs for RPing trades, it's much, much easier (since I just ask the PC's mun for guidance).

 

A while ago, I tried making a Plot Trainer for Tarroco Island who was supposed to be a "3rd Rival" after December Sapphire Birch and Scott Cecil. Discussions with @Haas had me backtracking to previous RP threads I made, and digging up Dave Yrp Xanne.

Dave Yrp Xanne was a teenager who held stock in the MoxieKrow Hotel that Chernabog had to stay in after the pizza party with Cooltrainer Sonia, Profesor Zanzio, and other NPCs ended. His main gimmick was being a part of the same series of characters whose surnames, and overall aesthetic consequently, were named after Final Fantasy villains in sequential order from 1 to I think around 12, given I made Chernabog and others right around the time of the first Dissidia game for Pokemon Tabletop Adventures with this in mind.

Dave Yrp Xanne was originally going to be a Psychic Trainer named Neuron Cloud, which was me playing with words and additionally noting that "Cloud of Darkness" was the final boss for Final Fantasy 3. Ultimately, I dropped that idea once it was clear that I could not justify the name as more than a pun on the surface level, with the overall reference not being gotten when I made the character. I additionally renamed him "Dave" in order to stave off Chernabog getting more dumb bullshit in his RP, what with Wapah being more-or-less shoehorned in when I not only did not ask for it, but asked for it not to be there numerous times in the CBox. The end results of Wapah being in my RP are akin to a Robin Thicke song (aka the results were unforgivably awful).

Dave Yrp Xanne's team would've looked something like this:



{ @Beardoof and @Roxas are to credit for this addition to the Plot Trainer team}

{Token Psychic-type}

Because my thread for Tarroco got cut partway through in no small part thanks to XenForo, I cannot remember what other Pokemon I had intended to give Dave Yrp Xanne. Those are the main three I remember, based on conversations I recall from the CBox.

 

Draft III of The Sinnoh Shades (what I'm calling them since those Shades guys are phonies):



{Once @TheMusicMan and I do the trade we talked about in Discord...}

{Toki wa tomare}