Agree with luring the J-Team out + Celestial Tower

Mm... I dunno about Pokémon Village. I guess it feels like a good place for Shadow Pokemon to get support maybe, but the other locations seem to have more of an... energy that's good for that, I guess. I'm thinking something more like Route 10 or something, if that's not the wrong feeling. Or does Pokémon Village have something like that and I just missed it?

I guess my personal feelings about that are that Shadow Pokémon are a Big Deal; purifying them is supposed to be difficult, so I'm hesitant to open more "franchises", as it were.

Divide-and-conquer sounds the most meta-manageable, as well as allowing the bosses to be better tailored to the groups fighting them.

Tangent: True, but just because it's difficult shouldn't mean that it's completely impossible elsewhere. Maybe not one in every region, but crossing entire continents shouldn't be a requirement, especially if you're in e.g. Kalos or Alola and your only other option is flying across oceans.

I'm in agreement with Bits here. "Hard/Difficult" should not mean "Impossible outside these two specific regions".

Mt Pyre, Celestic Town, Celestial Tower, the Tapu Ruins (or maybe JUST the Ruins of Hope because Tapu Fini is explicitly stated to create water that can "purify anything it touches") are all apt locations.

The only one without a seeming apt location is Kalos which... I'm kinda fine if Kalos lacks a location, maybe (I was thinking that Geosenge Town or Route 10 could potentially have purification properties - because Menhirs).

edited 22nd Jun '18 6:59:17 PM by PippingFool

I do feel like Kalos should have something, because again, it and Alola are really detached from the rest of the established world. Geosenge feels like it might work.

Hm. I don't see "general holy/peaceful sites" being sufficient, beyond just lowering the Shadow gage like any other nice thing.

The Temporal World tear at the Spear Pillar I could see, because it has the same Time association the other "natural" sites we've established have. Possibly I could see Ruins of Hope for Purification.

To me Shadowing feels like a Big Enough Deal that crossing continents to undo the final lock is reasonable to ask, narratively.

But in practice, 99% of the people who would ever need to purify a Shadow Pokémon either

• are already in Orre, or
• fight Cipher, and are thus J-Team or Interpol, and thus have contacts with inter-Region teleporters

And the remaining 1% presumably have read the Wikipedia article on Shadow Pokémon, which would mention the Lab who can accept PC Box transfers.

I could see regional Labs / Silph Co.s setting up a purification chamber if necessary, with the caveat that a plot that made that necessary would need to be heavily vetted.

This might be a bit redundant after Tangent's post, but whatever:

 My Issues 

1. Cheapens the very concept of Shadow mons, especially since they're wrapped into Cipher so heavily, so that means dragging their tone around, which I'm sure most of us don't want
2. Only new methods that make sense that aren't already established (ie. Ilex Shrine and Dekarule's forest on Hyul Island, the latter definitely being fairly inaccessible) are the Luminous Crystal (Since that actually has WAAPT canon basis) and Tapu Fini, and the latter's already kind of a stretch as it is. The rest just feel like shoehorns to me, the Menhirs in particular were used to drain life and the Ultimate Weapon has been destroyed. Also, it feels like using Tapu Fini like a farm to be constantly purifying mons
3. Our main area of importance is the OU, so the other verses shouldn't even factor into this discussion
4. If they wanted to figure out how to purify Shadow mons they'd have to ask the rest of the J-Team anyway, so that just makes it redundant
5. We still have remote access to the purification chambers, which don't require an ocean crossing, so again, redundant
6. We've got a whole bunch of inter-region teleporters on hand.

 Final Opinion 

Can add Luminous Crystal in Almia and Ruins of Hope in Alola as purification spots, maybe Spear Pillar in Sinnoh (Or a Temporal World rift) since that has to do with time, plus Tangent's suggestions, but that's really about it.

edited 22nd Jun '18 8:19:24 PM by rmctagg09

Hyul's a lot more visible now what with the Jester dead and all the great beasts shut down, but it's still way out of the way for access.

I like the ideas so far.

edited 22nd Jun '18 8:22:15 PM by EchoingSilence

I gotta agree with Tagg here.

I can't say I agree with all the reasons — I don't feel like it cheapens the concept of Shadow Pokemon at all, nor do I feel like it would be "using Tapu Fini as a farm", unless we're also using Celebi as a farm already. Plus, if the Purification Chambers can exist in the first place, that means that there doesn't necessarily have to be a divine nor time-manipulating element to the purification process, it's just the most reliable. And I mentioned non-OU worlds specifically because very recently there was a rescued Shadow Pokemon in the AU.

(And just as a personal thing, I feel like the Purification Chambers make the process feel too narratively impersonal for my own taste when not doing a bunch at a time, and even moreso doing so remotely, but that shouldn't be taken into the big picture since it's just my own gripe)

That said, I feel like your final opinion is reasonable. That gives us Orre, Johto, Almia, Sinnoh, Alola, and somewhere in the space between the [Japan] regions and Alola (which, admittedly, will unlikely see much use anyway). The only place that's in a significant gap is Kalos, and maybe we'll get another [European] region that will have a fitting place anyway.

(EDIT:)

Also, if abusing Tapu Fini's influence does end up being a concern, we can always keep its Ultra Moon dex entry in mind, which notes that "terrible calamities sometimes befall those who recklessly approach Tapu Fini." That's a good character plot hook right there.

edited 22nd Jun '18 8:58:16 PM by BittersweetNSour

So with the recent resurgence of RP superheroics, I noticed that there aren't a lot of costumed villains to oppose them. As such, here's a bio for a certain Salazzle-themed supervillain who could fill that niche.

Whiptail

• Name: Kahlia Mahelona, alias Whiptail
• Age: Early 20s
• Gender: Female
• Ethnicity: Native Alolan
• Appearance: Kahlia's usual attire resembles that of a Delinquent, only wearing fingerless gloves and with her long purple hair pulled into a ponytail. In her guise as Whiptail, however, she dons an elaborate costume resembling a Salazzle, complete with beaked mask, springed heels, and a controllable tail tipped with a toxin-laden stinger.
• Organisational Ties: None (as of yet)
• Region of Origin: Alola
• Backstory: Though her criminal career as the jewel thief Whiptail is still in its infancy, Kahlia has already grown used to the level of extravagance it provides her. There's a reason for this: Kahlia is an Aura Vampire, one who seeks to surround herself with valuable items and important individuals to enrapture - and drain. She wants to be admired, respected and feared by others in equal measures, and whilst she attempts to maintain a composed and charming persona to achieve this, her mood can change at the drop of a hat.

Whiptail's Pokemon

• Species: Delphox
• Nickname: Ventrue
• Gender: Female
• Ability: Blaze
• Personality: They say Pokemon take after their trainers, and Ventrue - or Rue, as she prefers to be called - is no exception. She carries herself with poise, keeping up a facade of politeness even while acting aloof and condescending to others. She is also the team's unofficial techie, using her telekinesis to manipulate delicate mechanical and electronic components.

• Species: Salazzle
• Nickname: Tzimisce
• Gender: Female
• Ability: Corrosion
• Personality: Tzimisce is an enigma to both her teammates and her trainer. While her prowess as a special attacker is undeniable, she rarely seems to be inhabiting the same reality as others, and speaks in cryptic sentence fragments often incomprehensible to listeners.

• Species: Crobat
• Nickname: Gangrel
• Gender: Female
• Ability: Inner Focus
• Personality: Gangrel suffers from the same affliction as her trainer, but is much less subtle than Whiptail when it comes to indulging her thirst. Aggressive, forceful and bordering on dangerously unstable, Gangrel's urges are nevertheless held in check by Whiptail - for now, at least.

Edited by Herbert40k on Jun 26th 2018 at 4:15:49 PM

Herb, this character was specifically designed to kill me and I thank you for it.

Hello everyone! I just thought I'd let you know that Chapter 55 of Reflecting Balance is finally up!

You can read it here, here, or here~

Hey is Discord acting up for anyone else?

I was thinking of having Lila turn out to be a heart of gold. What are people's opinions on this?

I'm fine with it. Did you have a plan in mind for her finding out though or not yet?

Not yet, but I was planning for her to go on a trip to Kanjoh sometime in the future. But for now she has trials to do.

So Meta got me this surprise commission◊ of RP!Tagg by zu-art for my birthday.

Gasp, another addition to the zu-art commission pile :P

Here's the same thing but with some corrections◊.

Also, since I forgot to mention it two days ago, Tracer decided to defictionalize an old RP joke of ours and got me Mother 3◊.

Late on the Purification post, but I pretty much agree with everything Bittie said here.

So this should already be pretty apparent but I'm kinda depressed and low on RP energy right now, so I'm not gonna be posting or in the main RP chat much, the main exception being doing stuff with newbies. I'm gonna be focusing on other things in the interim and I dunno when it will wear off, but if you need me for something specific for the RP or anything else just message me.

On a lighter note one one of the other things I'm focusing on is a team art trade event called Art Fight, and as part of it I got this illustration of Sylvestra Macraul◊ by aurora-somis/Rory! Thoughts?

Double post because I got two◊ more◊ Sylvestra attacks for Art Fight, by Lati Chubie and Mery Naito respectively!

On the subject of commissions, here's a set of Alice, Liam, Lucius and Shun than none other than my brother! (He's way more talented than I am, if that wasn't apparent already, and happens to still be taking commissions)

Edited by Herbert40k on Jul 11th 2018 at 6:41:30 PM