@Holy Soldier Apologies for the delay; I haven't been able to focus on much due to a tragic loss I suffered this week. I'll try to write up a post this week.
"Magnemite and Rockruff, huh? Nice," Juana complimented.
Juana glanced at Stufful's Poké Ball. "Well, this little guy was hiding in the store displays, and while the manager's back was turned, got all up in the ice cream freezers. Stuffuls are deceptively strong, I think. Which reminds me; I never checked out Stufful's description in the dex!"
Juana opened up her Pokédex.
"Stufful. The Flailing Pokémon. Male. Brave nature. Loves to eat.
"Despite its adorable appearance, when it gets angry and flails about, its arms and legs could knock a pro wrestler sprawling."
"You shoulda seen this guy knock a Diggersby into the wall," Juana said, closing her dex.
Juana turned to see an exhausted Tora walking towards them. "You look kinda tired, amiga," Juana remarked. "Don't worry, I think you can get some rest on the train."
Speaking of which, a loud horn blared through the station, as a silver locomotive wheeled slowly up to the platform, its wheels hissing as the brakes ground them to a halt. The thump-thump of the wheels on the tracks dulled, until the train came to a complete stop.
"All aboard," the conductor called.
"So what in the world happened? It's like you ran a marathon," Juana asked, concerned for Tora.
Charlotte had decided to get some sleep before submitting her initial assessments. She slept quite soundly, but she woke up a little early; the sun hadn’t even started rising yet. Or perhaps that was a result of the sleepy atmosphere of Stillwater?
Whatever the case was, Charlotte wanted to get a little more field work in.
Stillwater was a home for Ghost-types and Psychic-types as well; Pokémon with paranormal associations and powers were widely regarded as a canard, but she might as well investigate what conditions made such a place as Stillwater so ideal for ghosts. Usually, they were found in places such as cemeteries, like the Celestial Tower in Unova, or the Lavender Tower in Kanto.
Charjabug wormed alongside Charlotte as she scanned the early morning for Ghost Pokémon. Since it was getting lighter, the nocturnal Pokémon would begin to fade away into their habitats.
A couple of Hypnos and a pack of Drowzees yawned, having eaten their fill of dreams, before shuffling off to whatever caves they slept in. Charlotte would have to document that behavior later.
Charlotte looked up to see a cloud of noxious Gastlys smother the morning. A few Haunters accompanied them on their pilgrimage to the darkness. Their ghostly hums mingled with the creaking of the floating docks.
Charlotte made note of the pack behavior of the ghosts outside of the graveyard circumstances. "In the absence of masses of corpses, where do the ghosts live?" Charlotte mused to herself, writing that question down on her notes.
Charjabug's eyes flashed, and it turned around, making an electrical whine.
"What's up, Charjabug?" Charlotte asked, turning around, only to come face to face with a Haunter.
The Haunter cackled and wiggled its fingers, its tongue hanging out. Startled, Charlotte threw her notepad at the Haunter. The Haunter caught it, made a silly face at Charlotte, and began to flee.
"Crabrawler, go! Pursuit!" Charlotte ordered, tossing Crabrawler's Poké Ball. The purple coconut crab emerged with a flash, and scuttled hurriedly down the pier, climbing up the lanterns lighting the dock, and launching itself at the Haunter.
Crabrawler raised one of its fists and punched Haunter as the ghost turned around to look. Haunter reeled back, but did not drop the notepad.
Crabrawler landed neatly on the ground and continued chasing Haunter, with Charlotte and Charjabug close behind. "One more time, Crabrawler!" Charlotte called.
Crabrawler veered off to the side as Haunter passed through the wall of a clapboard tackle shop, the notepad phasing through as well thanks to Haunter's ectoplasmic body. There were screams from within, and Charlotte could hear someone knock over a store display. Haunter emerged snickering from another side of the shop, only to get punched in the face by Crabrawler hanging from a sign.
Haunter went splat against the wall and dropped the notepad. Crabrawler scuttled up and recovered the notepad, holding it in one of its huge claws. Crabrawler came back from around the tackle shop and held the notepad up to Charlotte.
"Thanks, Crabrawler," Charlotte said, putting the notepad in her white bag. “Since this town has little to no electricity and therefore no lights connected to a grid, it looks like Ghosts are able to flourish quite well here. I suppose that gives them a bolder disposition when in contact with humans. Fascinating.”
Crabrawler flexed its arms, boasting about how it punched a Haunter into a wall.
After a bit of rest at the Pokémon Center (stopping a curious Stufful was hard work), Juana made her way back to the station to meet Cillian and Tora, with Togepi in her arms and Steenee by her side. “¡Hola, muchachos! Caught a little bear causing some trouble in one of the shops,” she declared, holding up the Poké Ball containing Stufful.
She nearly dropped Togepi, but Steenee’s nimble motions kept Togepi from landing on its rump.
“Oops! Sorry, Steenee! Sorry, Togepi!” Juana put Stufful’s ball away. “Hmm.. maybe I should transfer a couple of Pokémon into the storage system. It’s getting hard to carry them all at once,” she mused, rubbing her chin. “Boxes are getting pretty high-tech nowadays, especially with the system that sends them to some kind of island paradise run by a bean farmer.”
Juana shrugged. “So what have you all been up to?”
Question about the calcs! For Pokémon that evolve via methods other than level up, such as with a Sun Stone, Dusk Stone, via trade, leveling up with a move, etc., how should I calculate them?
For example, Steenee, I assumed that because it learns Stomp at Lv. 29, that would typically be the level it would evolve into Tsareena, so I inserted that value into the level calc (though I assume Steenee wouldn't be able to evolve to Tsareena despite having the move Stomp until Juana becomes an expert trainer).
What would I do for, say, Charlotte's Petilil, who evolves via Sun Stone, or her Crabrawler, which evolves into Crabominable when leveled up in an icy mountain? Or Pokémon that evolve via friendship and then via Shiny Stone, such as Juana's Togepi?
@DusksongHad an essay that I just turned in this morning... generally when I'm not around that means I'm focusing all my writing energy towards getting papers done. Sorry about the silence! I'm a busy college boi.
To no one’s surprise, General Brigan once again turned upon the heroes. The brute’s cravenness seemed to know no bounds, didn’t it? But that wasn’t Hapu’s primary concern at the moment.
She had managed to knock out two of the Valkyries by throwing a horse at one, but at the same time, she also managed to piss of the third, who was now soaring towards her, spear in hand and ready to turn her into a shish kebab. Hapu scrambled back, sweating as the Valkyrie hacked and slashed in her general direction. Her short stature was doing her no favors as the Valkyrie was quickly catching up. She dove off to the side and tucked and rolled when she caught James responding to her request for help. Hapu rolled back, stood up, and whistled for her horse.
Mudsdale galloped over, but stopped, snorted, and whinnied, rearing as the Phozons from the fallen Valkyries began to gravitate towards the Demon Lord Odin. Hapu turned, and with a twitch of slight frustration watched Odin double, triple in mass. Hapu coughed; the air was getting thicker, and the subsequent deluge of fireballs from Odin’s attack.
Hapu looked up just in time to see the fireball barrage homing in on her. “Mudsdale, return!” she ordered, whipping out her Poké Ball and scrambling out of the way as the fire the ground where she was.
It was a rock and a hard place for our heroes. Hapu looked around at the flaming scene; she wouldn’t dare be so bold as to make an attempt on the Demon Lord in her state. However, she could try to stave off some of the fire in the areas that it hasn’t yet reached.
But urgent as that was, that would have to wait, for Fox McCloud, readying his reflector, told everyone to get to cover. She dashed behind Fox as he attempted to deflect the deluge of flame. Meanwhile, she looked behind her at the burning brush and wood that resulted from the fiery potshots that Odin had made. She glanced at a particularly wide swath of brush that would soon catch fire.
“Mudsdale. Level the bushes and tear into the ground. Throw soil onto the incoming flames,” Hapu ordered, opening her Poké Ball once more. “We need to do what we can to keep the fire from spreading too quickly.
Mudsdale emerged with a whinny, and began pawing at the ground with its powerful back hooves, digging into the dirt and throwing it onto the incoming flames in swaths. Mudsdale turned and snorted, stomping on the stray fires, unbothered by the embers thanks to its mud-caked legs.
Hapu threw a glance towards Naija, who had attempted to talk down Brigan; the amphibious girl would likely be threatened the most by the flames due to the prospect of dehydration.
“Naija, come over here if you can,” Hapu called. “There are fewer flames. I do not wish for you to dry out.” Hapu looked grimly towards Odin, then towards Brigan threatening Gwendolyn. “Hopefully Oswald or his beloved will have time to realize Brigan’s latest act of treachery.”
Juana shrugged. "Tefan Village sounds very interesting, actually," she said. "I'll bet there are tons of cool dragon Pokémon to find!"
She checked her Pokédex for train schedules. "Next train doesn't leave for an hour and a half, though; I think I'll check out some of the other shops, if that's alright."
The statue of Regigigas was quite intriguing, yes. Eventually time came to leave, and Juana and Steenee split off to look at a souvenir shop. Lined up in rows were cans, books, dolls... Even those Stufful toys that move, that young women love so much.
Juana carried Togepi in her arms, as Steenee excitedly walked alongside her. Steenee stopped as one of its sepals twitched. The grass Pokémon turned around and saw one of the Stufful "toys" crawl slowly off the display and flop to the ground.
"Mrowr?" the teddy bear-like creature purred. Stufful stood up and started crawling towards the fridges in the back of the shop, hungrily eyeing the pint-sized ice cream containers stored there.
Juana, in the meantime, spotted a slightly larger sketchbook than the pocket-sized notepad she carried around. Thankfully, because she carried around a backpack now, she could indeed stand to carry a larger pad.
Picking up a basket and tossing the book in, Juana's thoughts about what kinds of travel snack to pack were interrupted by a loud clatter from the back of the store.
As it turned out, the Stufful had accidentally tipped over the shelves containing the ice cream, and spilled the frozen treat all over itself. The Stufful licked its lips and paws, unmindful of the damage it had caused--holy MILTANK did it break the shelves?!
A mustached janitor with a Diggersby saw the commotion, sighed, and started wheeling his bucket over to the mess. The Diggersby grunted and followed.
"Okay, little buddy, let's get you out of there," the janitor grumbled, grabbing his mop and sweeping the spilled, melting ice cream. Stufful, however, did not budge.
Diggersby sighed and reached down with its arm-ears to pick up the Stufful.
Diggersby could not anticipate what came next.
The Stufful, with a Brutal Swing, knocked itself out of Diggersby's grasp, comically sending the rabbit sprawling across the floor. Diggersby groaned, its eyes swirling. Stufful scrambled away, shoving Steenee aside and blowing it into the snack foods. An apple fell on Steenee's head.
"Oh gosh, Steenee, are you okay?" Juana asked, running into the aisle. Steenee stood up and rubbed its head. It stood up indignantly and pointed after the panicking Stufful, who was knocking displays down left and right.
"C'mon," Juana said to Steenee. Steenee nodded. Juana, Steenee, and Togepi went out to the entrance of the store, where the messy Stufful had run off to.
The Stufful turned around and rammed into Steenee, sending it crashing into a magazine display. Steenee rubbed its head and huffed indignantly.
"Double Slap!" Juana called.
Steenee rushed forth and slapped Stufful repeatedly with its sepals.
"We have to take this outside," Juana muttered. "Togepi, use Yawn!"
Togepi just yawned. A little puff of smoke came out of its mouth and dissipated on Stufful. Stufful blinked.
"MROWR--ZZZZZZZZ"
Stufful fell flat on its face, snoozing away.
Juana pulled out a Poké Ball and tossed it at Stufful, encapsulating the pink teddy bear. The ball shook thrice, and with a satisfying click, Stufful was caught.