I'd say that given how Kim just got over feeling out of place with her lack of powers, I'd think the other two would be better choices for this. I know I shouldn't be one to talk because I just did the same thing with Star, but there was a buffer of several years before I did that. Also, I don't know if you have enough seniority, I'll leave that part to someone else.

...Yeah, that's fair.

I'll leave it just to Braker and Axis, then. If I have enough seniority, that is. The last I read, it said 3 months, and it's been far more than 3 months, but maybe the rules have changed.

Edited by OPALGARNET16 on Aug 28th 2021 at 11:46:18 AM

I'd second what Star said. Kim's arc seems to go in the direction of "I don't need to have special powers to be great!" and her suddenly being in the auric spectrum is gonna derail that. Braker and Axis are newer, relatively underdeveloped characters and giving them powers could give you new ways to explore them.

Announcement

A bit later than I planned to post it since I couldn't get the spoons to make the copy but here's the sheet for the WAAPT 2020/2021 Census, same rules as always, it'll close two weeks from now at midnight-3AM September 22nd EDT, for more info please check this segment of the WAAPT FAQ.

Edited by rmctagg09 on Sep 6th 2021 at 3:26:25 PM

Questions on the Mon census:

If a Pokemon has not been introduced into the RP, but is a part of a character's backstory as a former Pokemon they had, should I include them?

Specific example: My character Suzie had a Fearow that she released upon retirement. It was her Starter mon, very important to her (her old nickname having been the "Wild Fearow" and the guy being big enough to ride), and Will's Spearow, Zoomer, is one of his hatchlings.

Does this fall under "They are important enough to your character that they warrant notice and representation of the species as a whole."

On the flipside, should I include a Pokemon as one character's even though they officially belong to another, whom I haven't really used yet in RP. (Sami the Garchomp, who's acting as Suzie's caretaker but belongs to her husband)

Also, what if a character has a Cubone I haven't decided which Marowak, fi either, to evolve it to? Do I just put it on regular Marowak?

Edited by sgamer82 on Sep 6th 2021 at 11:57:23 AM

I would.

That's up to you really.

Where'd they get the Cubone? If from Alola or otherwise derived from Alolan stock, it would be under the Alolan Cubone category, otherwise it's just a Kantonian Cubone.

Story-wise, it'd be in Kanto or Johto, so that would be regular Marowak. Though I have thought the Alolan Marowak might be better suited to the Cubone's personality as something of a Large Ham. Still, I'll put him in Kantonian Cubone for now, since I'm not planning on evolution for him either way anytime soon, so it's probably a moot point.

Unrelated to the census but:

This guy wasn't supposed to be a CHARACTER character but then things kept happening

Name: Maurice The Acceptable

Age: ???, biologically early twenties

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White

Appearance: picture!◊

Organization Ties: The School

Region of origin: ???

Backstory: A Templar grown and assembled for The School, Maurice was assigned to rank and file status and given the title "The Acceptable" due to meeting the bare minimum for Templar quality standards. This eventually led him to be assigned to Victor Moreau, and he's been his toady ever since.

Maurice alternates between nervous and timid with exasperated and snarky, and resents The School's treatment of him but feels he has no choice but to stay with them. His sole source of comfort is his Clauncher Bubba Gump, who is basically his only real friend.

Mons:

Species: Clauncher

Nickname: Bubba Gump

Gender: Male

Ability: Mega Launcher

Personality/Bio: On constant snark mode, more than even his trainer. However he deeply cares for Maurice.

Thank you for waiting, the introduction is about to begin.

Introducing...

Name: Ingrid Anderson (spelled with only one S)

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Straight

Ethnicity: White, Sinnohian

Region of Origin: Sinnoh, specifically Snowpoint City

Appearance: This.◊

Hasslemon handle: None as of yet, as she does not yet have Hasslemon; though when she does get it it will be europhilicVisionary (EV).

Regular chat handle: 1221snowpoint

Biography: Ingrid Anderson was born and raised in Snowpoint City and for most of her life was a bit of a wallflower. Okay, scratch that— she was a total wallflower. She was extremely shy around other people, and usually preferred to seclude herself in her room rather than play with other kids. There she learned everything she could about Pokemon and listened to a ton of music, which was the only real thing she could turn to. Eventually, however, two major things happened to her that changed her life forever. The first thing was her discovery of the Eurovision Song Contest, and subsequently ABBA, a band which she would soon grow to absolutely love. The second thing, however, was meeting a Shiny Swablu that enjoyed singing and the theatre on her tenth birthday; said Swablu encouraged Ingrid to come out of her shell and leave her house. That day, she not only saw [1] for the first time (thus cementing ABBA as her favorite band of all time), but she also ended up catching the Shiny Swablu, which she named Annafrid. From there, she steadily gained the confidence to leave her house and go off on her Pokemon journey, and from there ran into a group of evil Beeheeyem who were taking an Elgyem hostage. With the help of Frida, Ingrid gained the confidence to tell off the Beeheeyem, and eventually decided to rescue the Elgyem. But it wasn't truly over— in order for the Elgyem to be truly free, he had to be caught. A battle promptly ensued, and Ingrid ultimately won and caught the grateful Elgyem, who she named Bjorn. Bjorn has remained loyal to her ever since.

Soon afterwards, she caught two more Pokemon: Benny, a serious, no-nonsense Shroomish, and Agnetha, a shy yet kindhearted Audino that acted almost exactly like Ingrid did before she went off on her journey. The four Pokemon proceeded to go up against the Sinnoh League, and Ingrid proceeded to beat Roark with Benny, Gardenia with Frida, Fantina with Agnetha, and Maylene with Bjorn. Along the way, Benny evolved into a Breloom and then proceeded to beat Crasher Wake and Byron with the help of Bjorn and Frida. However, trouble emerged when she went back home to Snowpoint and battled Candice, because Benny kept getting beat by her Ice-types due to him being part Grass. After multiple defeats at the hands of Candice, Ingrid felt like giving up— until she ran into a quirky Galvantula who acted very much like a Pikachu (and a dog) and knew only Electric and Flying type moves (plus Agility). She soon caught him and named him Ananpi, deciding to continue with the A-B-B-A naming trend, and he turned out to be key in her finally defeating Candice with the help of Benny and Bjorn (who somehow was able to learn Steel Wing). At the end of that battle, Bjorn finally evolved into a Beeheeyem, and from there, it was on to Volkner. Conveniently, just before that battle, she met a naive simple-minded Trapinch with a mass love of food. She named him Bitey (or, rather, he named himself Bitey; it just so happened to fit in with the A-B-B-A naming trend) and then proceeded to sweep Volkner with him thanks to him not knowing his own strength. At all.

From there, it was on to the League, where she swept the entire Elite Four: Aaron with Frida, Bertha with Benny, Flint with Bitey, and Lucien with Ananpi and Bjorn. During the first battle, Frida finally evolved into a Shiny Altaria, much to her absolute delight— and giving her technically a fully-evolved team of 6, since Bitey had found an Everstone. Ultimately, it was on to Cynthia, and thanks to Frida's new Dragon-typing, she was able to easily sweep Garchomp. Agnetha took down Spiritomb, Frida took down Roserade, Ananpi took down Togekiss, Bjorn and Bitey took down Lucario, and Benny took down Milotic, thus entering Ingrid into the Sinnoh Hall of Fame. Ingrid, absolutely delighted by this, decided to travel to other regions, catch more Pokemon, and take down their leagues, with her next stop, of course, being Galar. She is currently in the Galar region, willing and ready to take the League on... and maybe meet some new friends along the way, all the while still having an absolute love for the original Anna-Frid, Bjorn, Benny, and Agnetha— and their music that changed her life forever.

Character theme: "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room"- ABBA

Ingrid's Pokemon

Species: Altaria (Shiny)

• Nickname: Annafrid ("Frida" for short)

• Gender: Female

• Ability: Natural Cure

• Nature: Adamant

• Hasslemon handle: dancingQueen (DQ)

• Personality: Frida is, in every sense of the word, a diva. She is extremely theatrical and dramatic, a bit of a ham, and loves to sing and dance at every opportunity. Due to the fact that she is Ingrid's starter Pokemon, she tends to have a bit of a sense of superiority around herself, believing that she is the most important Pokemon on the team and tending to hog the limelight a bit. However, she is willing to protect her friends and Trainer whenever necessary, and is very supportive of their pursuits. And, of course, she is the biggest ABBA fan on the team besides Ingrid herself.

• Moveset: Disarming Voice, Sing, Round, Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, Safeguard, Cotton Guard

• Character theme: "Thank You For the Music"- ABBA

Species: Beheeyem

• Nickname: Bjorn

• Gender: Male

• Ability: Telepathy

• Nature: Jolly

• Hasslemon handle: visitingVoyager (VV)

• Personality: Bjorn is, for the most part, jovial and enthusiastic. He enjoys seeing new places and new regions, and is eager to meet new Pokemon and people. However, despite his extremely extroverted personality, Bjorn is mostly a Terse Talker, albeit a long-winded one, with a speech pattern almost identical to that of Mordin Solus. He is extremely devoted to the Vow and has an immense Undying Loyalty towards Ingrid, due to the circumstances surrounding his capture (he was rescued from a group of evil Beheeyem as an Elgyem, and then had a capture battle with Ingrid in front of the evil Beheeyem, which Ingrid won, therefore making him hers).

• Moveset: Teleport, Psybeam, Zen Headbutt, Energy Ball, Shadow Ball, Tri Attack, Rock Slide, Steel Wing

• Character theme: "Waterloo"- ABBA

Species: Breloom

• Nickname: Benny

• Gender: Male

• Ability: Effect Spore

• Nature: Serious

• Hasslemon handle: superTrooper (ST)

• Personality: Benny wants to be taken as seriously as possible. Everything about his personality is serious, stern, and unflinching. He acts very much like a military leader, using military abbreviations and referring to his friends by military titles akin to Silas. The only problem, of course, is that no one takes him seriously. It's not his fault, of course— he's a Breloom, so he has a naturally cute face and stretchy arms— but many, many Pokemon fall victim to his cuteness before they fall victim to his actual battle prowess. While he can sometimes get annoyed by the antics of some of his friends, mostly Bjorn and Ananpi, he does care about them, and sometimes shows that he's not as above it all as he thinks he is- much to his embarassment.

• Moveset: Mach Punch, Stun Spore, Leech Seed, Force Palm, Sky Uppercut, Sludge Bomb, Mega Drain

• Character theme: "The Piper"- ABBA

Species: Audino

• Nickname: Agnetha

• Gender: Female

• Ability: Healer

• Nature: Lonely

• Hasslemon handle: angelEyes (AE)

• Personality: In direct contrast to Frida, you're not going to find Agnetha on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of people anytime soon. She is everything that Ingrid was before setting off on her journey— a shy, timid, lonely wallflower who only prefers to sing in front of people if her Trainer and close friends are in the room with her. She prefers to avoid the limelight whenever possible, and dislikes drama and confrontation, often going into panic attacks at the very sight of it. She is, however, nothing if not a healer, serving as a kindhearted motherly figure to the rest of the group, and often getting involved in battles, mainly by healing her allies.

• Moveset: Life Dew, Heal Pulse, Draining Kiss, After You, Last Resort

• Character theme: "Super Trouper"- guess

Species: Galvantula (Shiny)

• Nickname: Ananpi

• Gender: Male

• Ability: Compound Eyes

• Nature: Quirky

• Hasslemon handle: pikaPika (PP)

• Personality: Ananpi is... a very odd Galvantula, to say the least. He's a bit of a Cloudcuckoolander, and often goes on tangents that make no sense— but that's only the least of his odd quirks. Ananpi often goes around acting like a Pikachu, doing things such as riding on Ingrid's shoulder, shocking Berries, refusing to use any Bug-type moves, refusing to go inside of a PokeBall, and even going so far as to dress up like a Pikachu complete with a fake "tail" and painted-on cheek sacs. He ends some of his sentences with "chu~" noises, too. However, despite his odd quirks, Ananpi's personality is more akin to that of a dog: exciteable, energetic, and a bit of a derp. He is also very much a capable battler, and won't hesitate to strike down anyone who is hurting his friends or his Trainer.

• Moveset: Electroweb, Thunder Wave, Electro Ball, Agility, Discharge, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Bounce

• Character theme: "Electric"- Katy Perry (fittingly, the only song that is not by ABBA)

Species: Trapinch

• Nickname: Bitey

• Gender: Male

• Ability: Hyper Cutter

• Nature: Naive

• Held item: Everstone

• Hasslemon handle: gluttonousWaterloo (GW)

• Personality: Bitey, as his name suggests, has a very simple mind— and an absolute love of food. He will eat just about everything under the sun, and will sometimes affectionately bite his Trainer's head. He has a very naive view of things, often being a bit airheaded and not knowing what certain things are. Bitey often finds himself distracted by food in the midst of battle, and while he tries his best to get it off his mind, he can't help himself. He is very sweet and energetic otherwise, but often doesn't know his own strength, and will often accidentally end up using Bulldoze or Earthquake when jumping up and down in the air. This, naturally, annoys his friends sometimes, which in turn confuses and saddens Bitey. He keeps an Everstone around with him, because 1) he thought it was food and 2) he wants to prove that he can be just as good of a battler as everyone else on the team, even without evolving.

• Moveset: Bulldoze, Mud Slap, Dig, Bite, Crunch, Earth Power, Earthquake, Mud Shot

• Character theme: "Mamma Mia" (here I go again!)

Edited by OPALGARNET16 on Sep 15th 2021 at 9:21:24 AM

I'm back and I'm getting something ready for October.

I'm looking forward to seeing who wants to join, and who wants to help me run this to make sure it's lots of fun.

On the matter of Ingrid's Hasslemon Handle

I'd reconsider using the word "eurocentric" in a handle as it has specific connotations (i.e. a world view that revolves excessively around White European perspectives) that are markedly different from what you're going for ("Lover of all things Europop").

I'd suggest something more like "Europhile" or similar as a substitute that indicates a love and appreciation for European culture without the Unfortunate Implications.

Hasslemon Handle

Oh! I didn't know that.

Sorry about that. Would "europhilic" work better in that case?

Edited by OPALGARNET16 on Sep 15th 2021 at 9:35:21 AM

Yeah, that would work better.

Schoolkid Naming Convention - A Debugging Clarification

So, some questions regarding the Whys and Hows of the Schoolkid naming convention have been brought to my attention, which I would like to Defog the situation in a more permanent format than before - so here we are!

Let's start with how the naming convention came about. You see, the School, being the organization that it is, gave every member of its "test groups" a numerical designation based on the order in which they were created. From One to Whatever They Decided The Class Size Should Be. It's never been a hard or fast rule how many kids are in each class, but they've been making them at maximum capacity for a few decades now.

Now, the Schoolkids would be given these numbers and absolutely nothing else. But, like any young kids, they would certainly feel the urge to make something more intuitive and unique to refer to each other as. This is how the current naming convention came about - The Periodic Table of Elements.

However.

This is not the only naming pattern they could pick. In fact, almost every deterministic list of options from one to whatever the maximum is could work as well. Is there a class with less than forty or fifty students? Then naming each other after US Presidents would be an equally valid option. Or Chinese emperors, or the member states of the Holy Roman Empire based on founding date, or what have you. It just so happens that the Periodic Table happens to fit the absolute immensity of size of the recent classes very well - also, having been made "Unofficially official" by the School's scientists, who are already very familiar with the periodic table and probably find repeating the same numerical designations over and over immensely boring.

Now, doubling back for a second, later members of a School's "batch" aren't necessarily older, they were just constructed later. Yes, this is a massively important designation.

You see, for those who weren't around during the big revelation, Schoolkids are NOT created in test tubes. They are not clones. They are not brought up from fetus to mostly grown kid over the course of a week, month, year, what have you.

Schoolkids are constructions of a mysterious, irreplaceable piece of machinery that builds them atom by atom, glycol by glycol, protein bond by protein bond, using a much larger, impossibly advanced and specialized device to map out a perfectly sustainable (within the parameters given, that being the length of the average experiment) gene sequence from given samples to create a human being who has been born midway through their life. The settings on the machine can technically go as low as "Toddler", but almost every Schoolkid is "Construct-born" at a MINIMUM of Age 6, to a maximum of 14. Within these parameters, the first Schoolkid, the "Hydrogen" or "Qin Shi Huang" or "Washington" or "Delaware" or what have you, can be constructed at age 13. The second could be 15, the third, 9, the fourth 12, and so on.

This is how you have Ludmilla, who was created at 13, being the 73rd member of her class, but is of greater physical age than Bromine, number 35, who was constructed at 11.

Hope this clears things up a lot!

Edited by DuneTheWanderer on Sep 16th 2021 at 11:50:41 AM

New Character Who Dis

Name: Xaster De Mille

Age: 19

Pronouns: He/They

Organizational Ties: International Contests Association

Ethnicity: Sinnohan

Appearance: About average height, pale skin, green eyes, blond hair that comes to about neck length, under a white flat cap. Usually wears a light jacket with baggy trousers, and a long blue scarf.

Bio: Xaster was born in Camphrier Town, technically being the descendant of the local nobility in that diluted bloodline kind of way to the point that it doesn't actually matter. As a kid, he spent a lot of time hanging out at the nearby Day Care, where he had an uncanny ability to discover pokemon eggs when they mysteriously appeared. Due to this, he came into a number of these unclaimed eggs as thanks for helping out.

Xaster was always into theatre and muscic, and from the age of eight had basically decided that his entire life would be dedicated to being a coordinator, which he saw as the greatest shows ever. When he was sixteen he left home with several pokemon that hatched from the eggs and began to take part in contests, never actually winning, but gradually improving from making a fool of himself to actually being a strong competitor. He hopes that he'll finally win his first ribbon in the next few contests he enters.

Name: Ri Ri

Species: Azurill

Pronouns: He/Him

Personality: The first of Xaster's pokemon to hatch, and the one that has been with him the longest. A bit of a crybaby sometimes as a result of still being young, but he usually comes through.

Name: Bu Bu

Species: Budew

Pronouns: She/Her

Personality: Bu Bu is very positive and high energy, and wants to spend all of her time outdoors - except for when it rains, because it's best when the sky is clear.

Name: Chuchu

Species: Pichu

Pronouns: He/Him

Personality: Chu Chu is pretty much afraid of everything, up to and including his own shadow, though he denies that he once screamed at turning around and seeing it against the wall.

Name: To To

Species: Togepi

Pronouns: She/Her

Personality: To To is the most recent hatch, and therefore acts the most like a baby, as her moves often don't work and she's still mastering walking. Nevertheless she really wants to help the others.

Also four eggs.

Changes to Legendary Assignments

Before, or at least for a period of time, we had assigned new Legendaries to specific people to be written for as their "main" writers, to help make sure control of something that setting important stayed in the hands of experienced players. After some consideration the mod team has decided this is probably mostly unsustainable - people come and go, there are a LOT of Legendaries at this point, and sometimes claims can come in opposition of one another.

The proposition is that going forward most Legendaries are public domain (Apart from the ones that've been controlled by a particular person for so long they're basically their NP Cs) and that asking "does anyone have any plans involving this legendary" is the new standard over claiming them as their "main" writer outright. Individuals would still have to ask permission to use Legendaries, and Legendaries are still off-limits to people who have been in the RP for less than three months. People are still free to use the Legendaries they have claimed, just more loosely.

Edited by Umbramatic on Sep 17th 2021 at 2:49:13 PM

Danger! Danger! Powerful Enemy Approaching!

Designation: 36, Krypton

Name: Jordan Elliot

Age: 12

Gender: ♂

Ethnicity: White, [Irish]/Unovan

Appearance:

Height: 4'7"

Organization Ties: School, Freshman Class

Region of origin: Unova

Backstory: Dr. Azala, after having created Nitrogen, does a little reading one day. What they had read inspired them to create a new Schoolkid, so they set the copy of [Action Comics] #1 down on the end table and got to work. So, after extracting a sample of their OWN DNA, as well as other samples, Dr. Azala succeeded in creating Number 36: Krypton. A Schoolkid who was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Seemed to Dr. Azala like just the kid the School could use to make the world a better place.

Personality: Jordan is a calm, level-headed individual who is aware of what he is capable of. He enjoys interaction with other Schoolkids like him, and is very hard-working.

Abilities: Telepathy
Telekinesis
Super-Speed
Super-Strength
The ability to leap an eighth of a mile^* Not a psychic power, but still impressive, and a bit more down-to-earth.
Enhanced skills acquisition

Jordan's Pokémon

Species: Clefairy

Nickname: Pip

Gender: ♀

Ability: Friend Guard

Personality/Bio: Upon Krypton's creation, Pip was given to him by Dr. Azala as a companion for him. She is a rather energetic Fairy Pokémon that is there when Jordan needs a Helping Hand. She can also be impetuous and incredibly silly.

Moves: Sing, Charm, Copycat, Metronome, Meteor Mash, Moonlight, Moonblast, Life Dew, Defense Curl, Cosmic Power, Drain Punch (TM), Thunderbolt (TM), Ice Beam (TM), Flamethrower (TM), Magical Leaf, Shadow Ball (TM), Helping Hand (TM)

Edited by AnimeboyIanpower on Sep 18th 2021 at 7:46:30 AM

So I'm doing dumb backstory shit for Merlin and of course a character formed to fill a vacant ecological niche in said story. Every time.

On second thought, let's not go to Galarlot, tis a silly place

Name: Ser Luise Trindigard

Age: ??? (Fate unknown, probably deceased)

Gender: Transmasc (he/they)

Ethnicity: White-Arabic

Appearance: Pic!◊

Organization Ties: Knights of Galar, Aura Guardians

Region of origin: Galar

Backstory: Luise was a noted knight in Galar's age of myths, being there for the Darkest Day and other major events. He had many accomplishments across his career, especially since in addition to being a mundane knight he was also secretly an Aura Guardian, and was "good friends" with famous not-so-secretly-a-Diancie mage and alchemist Merlin. However, one day, with little warning, he vanished, and Merlin was unable to investigate before being sealed away.

Mons:

Species: Kommo-o

Nickname: Goliath

Gender: Male

Ability: Bulletproof

Personality/Bio: So named for his unusually large size for his species, Goliath was rescued by Luise as a hatchling when more dubious knights "slew" his parents. Due to this, he was gruff but immensely loyal to Luise and never left his side.

Species: Crawdaunt

Nickname: Grendel

Gender: Male

Ability: Adaptability

Personality/Bio: Grendel was skittish, eccentric, and covetous. He still genuinely respected his Trainer but had to be kept on a short leash.

Species: Nihilego

Nickname: Orbulon

Gender: Nonbinary

Ability: Beast Boost

Personality/Bio: A Faller Luise defeated then befriended in the Max Den. Totally wanted to conquer this dimension, wasn't just studying its culture, what are you talking about?

Yeah so since I'm aware there's still stragglers amongst the active players Census-wise I'm gonna give it another week before closing, either add it yourselves or ask a mod to do it for you.

What would the protocol be if I wanted to have a character be a former champion? Like, not acting champion obviously but sometime in the range of like forty or so years ago.

Only gets weirdly funky if we're talking about the Galar League since unlike other Leagues we have at least three people known to have sat in the chair at some point.

Multimom was a former Galar champion but Other than that and what Tagg said there should be SOME leeway

That works out for me, the character isn't planned to have been from Galar.

Kai's mom was a Sinnoh champion back in the day! So there's precedence, just as long as the timeline works out.

I never depicted it but I covered the Angelan Champion, so long as it's not a recent league, you should be able to.

Edited by EchoingSilence on Sep 26th 2021 at 3:58:35 AM