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The Quest for the Legends, now with its ILCOETH revision!

Dragonfree

Just me
XxDRAGONHIDExX said:
When Mark "died", what bout his parents?
he seems to have forgotten them just like every other train who has parents...
thats just wierd to me..
They are currently under the impression he never existed thanks to some clever memory modification by Molzapart and are trying to figure out why they have a room full of legendary Pokémon books.

Chibi Pika said:
Uber random comment of doom: Hey, the other day, I had a dream that you and I were playing Mystery Dungeon (yeah...somehow I knew you...oO) but then suddenly we were in the game. I was a Charmander and you were a Descith (Descith's MD sprite was so cute ^^), but I think halfway through I evolved into a Rayquaza that had a 3D sprite from Pokemon Ranger. oO;;;;;
o.o That's approaching my dreams on the weirdness scale... I'd want to see Descith's Mystery Dungeon sprite, though. xD

"Lubricated Action Raichu"... oh, dear, that sounds so wrong.

Anyway, you probably all want to hear fic progress... I've actually not really written anything for a while because I haven't been in the legendary battle mood (trust me, I need that to be able to write that chapter), but have instead been working on a new fic (you know, like the other umpteen chaptered fics I'm too busy writing The Quest for the Legends to write any more than a few chapters of). I'll try to get to chapter 35 sometime after I finish the first chapter of that.
 

vareki

Psycotic with RAGE
can't wait till the next chapter the suspense is killing me also i have a few things i would like to ask about.
chaletwo dont you think that when mew said no to your idea about catching all the legendarys it (i cant think of it as a he or a she either) had a reason and mark do you blame your parents for not letting you go on a pokemon journey earlier because they where scared you'd die

p.s. dragonfree can you post the pictures of leta-letal-letaligon it is really bugging me not knowing what they look like

p.p.s can you pm me when the next chapters done
 
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Dragonfree

Just me
Chaletwo: Mew gave a reason, which was something about how we shouldn't try to interfere with fate. That's utter crap if you ask me. I prefer to think we decide our own lives, not that it's all somehow decided beforehand. Seriously, I don't get how Mew can live with that kind of view on life. Probably because he's old and tired and just wants to die.

Mark: ...I guess I can't really blame them for being worried about me, can I? But they still should have told me the truth. I'm sure I'd have understood if they'd just told me they didn't want me to see Chaletwo because he'd kill me... I think.

Leta, Letal and Letaligon sprites (alternate Letaligon pose)

And you're on the PM list now.

Chapter 35 is inching along. Meanwhile, you can read Morphic.
 
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Dragonfree

Just me
Yay, chapter 35. You'll find out who dies, gasp! =o I like chapter 33's battle a lot more (I was in a REALLY good battle mood then, after all), but I love the end.

Unfortunately I lost my PM list when my site went down, so I can't send out the notification PMs yet.






Chapter 35: Suicune

And with the northern wind, he came.

Mark shivered as an icy chill blew past them with the wind and a being of unimaginable grace dashed by through the forest, eerily close to where he was hidden. He watched the slender blue creature slow down and walk calmly towards the lake, tossing his head so that the billowing purple cape streaming out from his neck swished back in a peculiar, rippling motion.

He was gripped by a weird feeling of immense respect, something he had not felt for Thunderyu since he was not one of the creatures he had been reading about since he was a kid. Something about seeing Suicune so close gave him a sensation of thrill and, in some bizarre way, honour. He bowed his head as the legendary Pokémon approached the bank of the lake, feeling somehow that it was wrong to watch Suicune perform the purification while sneaking up on him.

“Look at him, damn it!” Chaletwo hissed in his mind. “Remember you’re seeing for two!”

Mark forced himself to look up as Suicune bent down on the bank of the lake, extended his paw and touched the surface.

“NOW!” Chaletwo’s voice shouted and all of a sudden, Spirit and Vicky popped into existence on either side of Suicune. The legendary looked quickly up, but both of their eyes were already glowing with an eerie red color. As Suicune attempted to dash back into the forest where he had come from, it was as if he were hit by an invisible wall in mid-air and thrown backwards from the impact. Blood red ripples formed momentarily in the seemingly empty space where the Pokémon had rebounded.

“Go send out your Pokémon! Quick!” Chaletwo ordered frantically. Mark sprang up from his hiding place; he saw Suicune look at him in surprise and then at May and Alan who were sending out their Pokémon on the other side.

“I’m sorry, Suicune,” Mark whispered. Somehow he felt slightly better having said it, even knowing Suicune couldn’t hear him. He took a deep breath, grabbed his Pokéballs (at first he took Gyarados’s as well but realized the mistake at the last moment and hurriedly replaced it on his belt) and threw them.

“Everybody, go!”

The Pokémon’s cries filled the air as eleven Pokémon materialized on the ground. Dragonair and Charizard immediately took off into the air to make it more difficult for the earthbound Suicune to attack them; meanwhile, the legendary crouched down in a defensive position and shook his cape. Suddenly dark clouds gathered in the air above them and with a roar of thunder, it began to rain heavily.

“Spirit, assume the weak spirit form and keep it up as long as you can!” May ordered quickly through the sound of the raindrops falling onto the leaves of the trees. “Pupitar, Rock Slide! Raichu, Thunderbolt! Damn, why didn’t I teach you Thunder sometime?”

Spirit began to fade slowly away while Raichu started charging up electricity in his cheeks. Meanwhile, however, Suicune picked Pupitar out as the easiest target, and while large rocks were heaving themselves up from the lake, the legendary Pokémon fired a high-pressure jet of water at the pupa, who was immediately blasted into a tree. The rocks dropped back into the lake with a splash of water that sprinkled all over the Pokémon in addition to the rain as May recalled the fainted Pupitar.

“Raaiiiichu!” Raichu cried as he crouched down on all fours and released a bolt of electricity that flew straight at Suciune. The legendary only shuddered slightly as he was struck by the blast of electricity, but seemed otherwise dismayingly unharmed.

“Just being offensive won’t get you anywhere!” Chaletwo shouted irritably. “Confuse him! Paralyze him! Put him to sleep! Strategy, guys, strategy!”

Lapras let out a loud cry and released a small light from her mouth that started dancing around Suicune to distract him, but the legendary Pokémon forced his eyes away from it.

“Thunder Wave, Raichu!” May yelled. The mouse Pokémon quickly crouched down and began to sparkle with electricity

“Racko, Leaf Blade!” Alan shouted. “Diamond, Stomp! Slash, Pamela!”

“Raiii!”

Raichu fired a wave of paralyzing electricity at Suicune. The legendary howled in pain as his body stiffened up; meanwhile the Grovyle leapt at him with a screech, the leaves on his wrists glowing, and slashed across Suicune’s body just as Pamela raked her claws across his other side.

“Sui…” growled the deep voice of the legendary Pokémon as Suicune lowered his head, closing his eyes in concentration.

“Calm Mind…” May muttered to herself. Then: “Physical attacks, everybody! Quick! You too, Charizard, since it can’t break its concentration by attacking you!”

Charizard glanced once doubtfully at her, his mortal fear of the water shining clearly through, but then dived. Wow, Mark thought with a bitterness that made him feel slightly mad at himself. Even my Pokémon are willing to bet their lives that she’s always right.

Charizard smacked his wing powerfully into Suicune’s head, but the legendary Pokémon didn’t defend himself; he let the blow push him harshly to the side so that he only barely stayed on his feet. Meanwhile, Jolteon jumped at him with a cry and sank his fangs into Suicune’s slender paw. Eerily, he didn’t even wince: the legendary’s eyes were still closed in deep concentration.

The other Pokémon attacked Suicune more or less all at the same time, using whatever physical measures they had for inflicting damage. Suicune’s eyes snapped open and he appeared to be trying to move, but the paralysis kept him rooted on the spot.


“Ice Beam, Lapras, quick, before it can move again!” May yelled. “Spirit, try a Shadow Ball! Thunderbolt, Raichu!”

“Jolteon, help Raichu!” Mark called and then figured he might as well give some other orders to his Pokémon. “Try another Wing Attack, Charizard,” he added. “Slam, Dragonair! Sandslash, Slash him! And Letal, use Take Down!”

Meanwhile, Alan ordered his Pokémon some as well, and all the Pokémon sprang into action during those few seconds when Suicune was fully paralyzed. Charizard and Dragonair dived down together and Charizard beating Suicune with his wing while Dragonair smashed his tail orbs into the legendary’s head. Letal rammed her body powerfully into Suicune’s side just before Jolteon and Raichu sent a joint Thunderbolt and a beam of ice from Lapras struck the crystal formation on Suicune’s head. Meanwhile Racko kept slashing his leaves, and Spirit and Vicky both turned to material form as they together charged an orb of shadow energy. Diamond stabbed her horn into Suicune’s side, creating a bleeding wound, while Pamela and Sandslash ran up and slashed him.

Finally Suicune regained the ability to move. He wrestled away from his attackers, leaping gracefully over their heads to the bank of the lake where he faced them. Suicune’s crystal glowed and a tidal wave rose up from the surface of the lake behind him, rushing towards the bank.

“Look out!” Alan shouted stupidly while the Pokémon scattered. They tried desperately to get out of the way, but the wall of water quickly crashed down upon them and submerged the area completely but neatly avoiding the trees.

“How does Suicune know Surf?” Mark called, directing his question at May. “Isn’t it an HM move?”

“I don’t know,” she just answered, shaking her head while staring fixedly at the scene of the battle. “It is a legendary Pokémon…”

The water flowed back into the lake and the Pokémon scrambled to their feet – all except Sandslash and Diamond, which the water seemed to have gotten the better of. Mark and Alan silently recalled them while May continued to shout orders to the Pokémon. Mark watched with worry how Vicky flickered in and out of visibility, clearly getting too tired and hurt to keep it up. Spirit had apparently managed to escape it entirely by staying in her spirit form.

“Dragonair, try a Dragon Rage,” Mark quickly told his Pokémon, who was now circling above the scene with Charizard. Dragonair nodded, took a deep breath and breathed crimson fire down towards Suicune, but the legendary Pokémon had heard Mark’s command and already looked up. He watched, stunned, as the crystal formation on Suicune’s head apparently absorbed all the fire and then, after a moment’s pause, sent a blue, somehow liquid-looking mirror image of the attack right back at Dragonair. The dragon squealed in pain as he was hit by the blast, but managed to recover his position in the air.

“Don’t use special attacks unless Suicune is immobile!” May reminded him.

Suicune growled, raising his head, and then blasted a rainbow-colored beam of ice crystals up towards the dragon, who was still regaining his composure. Hit by the super-effective blast, Dragonair was thrown a few feet backwards and then hung still in the air momentarily before dropping down into the lake.

“No!” Mark quickly ran towards the lakeside with Dragonair’s Pokéball. It was lucky the lake was so clear; he could see the light blue, snakelike body even as it sank. He hoped the beam would reach as he pointed the Pokéball towards it and pressed the button. A red beam of light penetrated the water’s surface, hit Dragonair’s body and zapped back towards the Pokéball in a zigzag motion.

“Look at Suicune!” Chaletwo hissed.

He quickly looked around and realized that Suicune was looking silently straight at him, the legendary’s expression inscrutable. Again, he was overcome by guilt over what he was doing to the creature. He heard May command his Pokémon as if they were her own and the thought to just stand back and watch rather than participate in this dreadful battle seriously occurred to him.

“No, you don’t,” Chaletwo said coldly. “You’re who I picked out from that crowd. Don’t disappoint me by standing there being useless while letting those two nobodies do all the work.”

A hateful thought flashed across Mark’s mind; he hopelessly realized that Chaletwo would be able to detect it, even if he didn’t say it aloud.

“You self-absorbed moron,” he found himself suddenly having the courage to mutter. “I’ll do it, but for the sake of preventing the War of the Legends, not to make your idiotic method of picking people to help you with it look good.”

He clenched his fist until it hurt, not getting any answer, and then looked back at Suicune.

“Jolteon, Thunderbolt!” he shouted. “Another Take Down, Letal! Charizard, use Slash!” He looked at the legendary and added in a whisper, “I’m sorry, Suicune, but I’m hoping some good will come out of this.”

For a moment he thought he saw Suicune nod, but then realized that he was just preparing for another Calm Mind. Jolteon released a bolt of lightning but it didn’t seem to harm the legendary Pokémon as much as it should have.

Charizard used the opportunity while Suicune was concentrating to dive down and rake his claws across the legendary’s body, and he narrowly managed to escape to a greater height before Suicune’s eyes opened again. The legendary Pokémon eyed Racko darting at him with the leaves on his wrists glowing and turned towards him. Suddenly the air around Suicune’s mouth filled with vapour before he fired another, and considerably more powerful-looking, rainbow-colored beam of ice crystals. It hit the Grovyle squarely in his chest; the reptile staggered backwards, gasping for air, and then collapsed on the ground.

“Return!” Alan shouted and recalled his Pokémon into the Pokéball.

“Mark! Look at the lake!” May yelled. He quickly looked around to see that Suicune was raising another tidal wave on the water’s surface, dangerously close to his own rather stupid location right at the bank. He stood there panicking stupidly for a second, but then ran for it towards the forest. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the wave was rising much, much higher than the one before…

“Lapras, Ice Beam it!” May shouted.

The wall of water froze in place just as Mark got behind the trees. He couldn’t help looking at Suicune and finding it rather bizarre that he had been standing in the same place taking all the other Pokémon’s attacks for the whole battle and he still didn’t look hurt at all. He had, of course, read about Suicune’s amazing defensive powers, but never realized he could be this hard to take down.

Suddenly, Suicune lifted his head and blasted a jet of water towards Charizard.

“Look out!” Mark cried as the dragon dived, but the Hydro Pump followed just behind his tail flame. Mark could see the fear in his first Pokémon’s eyes as he tried desperately to go faster and swing his tail flame out of the way, but Suicune’s attack followed. Mark wondered with dread whether Suicune was just going to kill one of them to make the others leave.

He saw that underneath the frozen wall of water, both Spirit and Vicky seemed to be too tired to keep up their immaterial forms. And even while Jolteon, Letal, Raichu and Pamela were still joining their efforts to attack him, Suicune ignored it almost completely, only wincing slightly when Pamela’s claws tore into his flesh and Letal rammed into his body – in fact, Letal was just now collapsing from exhaustion after her futile efforts with the multiple recoil attacks. Mark recalled her, still focusing on Charizard who was already becoming tired out by flying as fast as he could muster. He was flying very low now and looked at Mark as if to ask to be recalled just as he was approaching where the frozen wave still stuck up into the air.

Suddenly, Mark realized what Suicune was trying to do.

As Charizard was just in front of the giant wall of ice, the legendary Pokémon turned his head suddenly and a moment later the jet of high-pressure water hit the Fire Pokémon’s body and threw him straight at the ice.

It took only second of Charizard roaring in pain for the heat of his body combined with the pressure to make the base of the ice wall melt halfway through. During that second, Mark managed to take out Charizard’s Pokéball and recall him before he would be fatally pushed into the lake, but during that second the ice wall collapsed straight onto Lapras.

“Return!” May shouted, recalling the Pokémon through the block of ice as Suicune began to raise yet another tidal wave from the water. “Spirit, try to get back into spirit form, quick! And Vicky too!”

They tried. Spirit gritted her teeth as she tried to summon the energy to make herself insubstantial and Vicky flickered.

But the Surf came crashing down first.

The water enveloped the whole lakeside, running smoothly past the trees as if there were an invisible wall in front of them. The clarity of the water allowed Mark to see plainly how the water enveloped Spirit and flurries of bubbles rose up from her thick fur, how Vicky floated around like a piece of cloth, how Jolteon, Pamela and Raichu were floating upwards but Letal sank to the bottom thanks to her armor. All of them had fallen unconscious from the sheer force of the wave when it crashed down on them. He saw the others recall their fainted Pokémon and did so too while the water began to flow back into the lake. They had lost.

“All right,” said Chaletwo, speaking for the first time since Mark had snapped at him. “Remember what I said… just get away now…”

May and Alan were already getting ready to run for it. All that stopped Mark was a momentary desire to have a look at Suicune one more time a little closer. It was an extremely stupid desire, he realized, but he wasn’t obsessed with legendary Pokémon for nothing.

The water cleared away and he ran a few meters towards the lake, staring at Suicune. The legendary’s eyes met his, and Mark wondered momentarily why Suicune wasn’t either attacking them or running away.

Then he realized that one of his Pokéballs had popped open.

“What the…”

May and Alan looked back to see what was going on and all three of them stared as the red beam of the Pokéball materialized into the looming shape of Gyarados. He faced Suicune with a twisted smile.

“Finally,” he growled in his language. Mark realized it was the first time he had heard Gyarados speak Pokémonish. He saw Suicune take a step backwards.

“Scared of me, are you?” Gyarados snarled. “I knew they would lose if I didn’t take part and then I’d be able to face you alone.”

Suicune just looked at him, the legendary’s expression as inscrutable as ever.

“Why do you do it?” Gyarados spat. “Why do you go around ‘choosing’ random Pokémon for some selfish purposes of your own? What do you want with us? Were you hoping I’d be as brainwashed as that dumb Ninetales and become overjoyed at the news, prancing around and thinking I’m special? You don’t even tell us what you want with us, goddamn it! What if I don’t want to be ‘chosen’ and would prefer not to have been put through your idiot ‘test’? Why do you do it?”

Suicune looked up at Gyarados, straight into his eyes, but said nothing and kept up the same inscrutable expression as he had had when he had looked at Mark.

Gyarados started to laugh. “You’re not going to tell me, are you? There is probably no reason. You’re probably just doing it to feel like a high and mighty legendary Pokémon, then, aren’t you? Or is it just something so grand and secret that I can’t be in on it?”

Suicune didn’t move.

“Answer me, damn it!”

The two Pokémon looked into each other’s eyes for a few seconds. Then Suicune looked down and seemed to ever-so-slightly shake his head.

“Fine,” Gyarados replied, closed his eyes and began to turn gray. “Fine!”

Mark quickly reached for Gyarados’s Pokéball.

“Don’t,” said Chaletwo quickly. “If he weakens Suicune, you have a chance to be able to try to go for the capture. Wait.”

Gyarados opened his eyes and blasted a bright red Dragon Beam straight at Suicune. He didn’t even try to dodge; it hit straight into the crystal on Suicune’s head, causing the legendary to stagger backwards slightly. Suicune closed his eyes in concentration.

Thin blue bands of what appeared to be electricity suddenly began shooting from Suicune to Gyarados. For a moment Mark thought Gyarados would surely be done for, but then realized that he didn’t appear to be in any pain. In fact, if anything, his attack was powering up.

“What’s going on…?” Alan whispered as more and more of those strange blue lightning bolts connected the two Pokémon. Gyarados’s beam was steadily growing brighter and brighter and blue sparks began to circle all around Gyarados, enveloping him completely in blue and white until it looked almost like he was evolving. Mark shielded his eyes from the brightness, still wondering what on earth was happening; he could see Suicune, with his eyes closed, straining against the power of the now-white Dragon Beam. It was first now that Suicune showed any signs of being in pain.

Then it stopped. Suicune staggered backwards a couple of steps before collapsing on the ground.

“Yes! Throw the ball!”

Mark didn’t want to obey. He looked at Gyarados, who was still enveloped by white energy although it was fading away, and wanted to see if he would be all right. But he grabbed an Ultra Ball anyway and threw it at the fallen legendary Pokémon.

It bounced off as if he’d just thrown it onto the ground. As if Suicune weren’t even alive.

Mark’s mind went completely numb. All he could do was stare as Alan ran towards Suicune and touched him, first carefully and then pushing him roughly. He checked for a pulse at Suicune’s neck and looked up, horrified, shaking his head slowly.

Suicune is dead. Gyarados murdered Suicune. Oh, God. Oh, God.

He looked quickly back towards Gyarados and watched as the white faded away, but something was wrong.

“Was…” May hesitated. “Was Gyarados this light-colored before?”

It was as if the white had left its traces on him. Instead of his previous unusually dark color, his scales were now unusually light for his species.

But what had caught Mark’s attention were the three gems, two smaller and one bigger, that now seemed to have embedded themselves into one of the sea monster’s upper segments to form a pattern.

Gyarados, after taking a quick look at Suicune’s body, looked at them. “What do you mean, light-colored?” he asked sharply.

Mark just pointed, and Gyarados looked down to see the gems.

“It’s the same pattern as on Spirit’s necklace,” May muttered, and Gyarados seemed to have realized the same. He raised his head hatefully towards the dark night sky and roared. Suicune had placed the mark on him, taken him to the next step of ‘chosenhood’ – as if it had all been planned. As if Gyarados had killed Suicune for nothing.

“Well,” Chaletwo said finally after a long silence, “I never liked him that much anyway… I suppose we’re one step closer either way.”

His telepathic voice was shaking, but Mark hardly noticed it. There was no joy of victory, no feeling of triumph or relief. There was only dull silence as he recalled Gyarados and they dragged Suicune’s body into the forest where it hopefully wouldn’t be found.
 
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Suicune was killed? That was REALLY unexpected. Really! But I think it was less of Gyarados murdering Suicune and more of Suicune sacrificing itself to give Gyarados powers for a 'higher purpose'. But I could just be horribly wrong.

BTW Can I be on the PM list?
 

Psychic

Really and truly
Yup, I definitely didn't review the last chapter. =P


Anyways, last two chapters were certainly interesting. Lots of death, nice character work, some interesting events and...yeah, they're finally doing it! Language over the past two chapters wasn't at its best, and though I tried to Beta it as well as I could the writing itself feels almost lackluster, and I feel like you've written better. Description certainly wasn't at its peak, and I think that there were certain times when you could have given another sentence or just a few more words of description, such as when the gang first entered the huge chamber in the cave (the eerie glow, the vastness, etc.) and when it started raining during the battle (the rain splatting against the ground and surface of the lake, etc.) and especially during the whole bit between Gyarados and Suicune and then perhaps telling us just what the ‘pattern’ the jewels formed was and exactly where they were located, but it otherwise got the job done.

In any case, I liked these chapters. Quite realistic (the Alan-Electrike bit was very good, as was that entire scene) and interesting to read, and we’re still left with the gnawing question: WHY did the beats choose to create ‘chosen ones’? Also makes us think more because of the way Gyarados phrased it, such as the “did you do it just to make yourself feel all high and might?” bit- and it’s extremely refreshing to see a “chosen one” who isn’t happy or even accepting of it.


As always, looking forward to more!

~Psychic
 

Sike Saner

Peace to the Mountain
HOLY CRAP. :D I had hoped that the Suicune battle would end that way, had hoped that it’d be him who kicked the bucket. X3 Not only is there something I just find seriously satisfying about a battle won but not at all in the way they wanted, a hollow pseudo-victory that leaves this awesome, stunned silence hanging over the scene, but it was also just a very appropriate way for things to turn out. Of course Gyarados would do that. And as much as I do like Suicune (in terms of which legendaries have always been high on my list of favorite legendaries), I’m glad that Gyarados did that. X3

I loved that Gyarados and Suicune scene, everything about it. Gyarados’s emotions and dialogue were pulled off excellently. And Gyarados’s just pouring that intensifying Dragon Beam into Suicune, while Suicune bestows that mark upon Gyarados with all those bolts and sparks flying… that conjured up some awesome visuals in my mind. o_o

And the battle preceding that was pretty sweet, too. ^^ I’m always impressed to see someone write a battle scene with that many participating Pokémon and successfully keep track of them all like that. Also, there were some moves that were depicted in very cool ways; two that stand out in particular are Spirit and Vicky’s Mean Look against Suicune and Suicune’s Mirror Coat against Dragonair.

Great chapter, that, with an outcome that I just love to pieces. (Wanted to say “love to death”, but realized that could constitute a pun. XD; ) I’ll conclude this post with my favorite excerpts:

“NOW!” Chaletwo’s voice shouted and all of a sudden, Spirit and Vicky popped into existence on either side of Suicune. The legendary looked quickly up, but both of their eyes were already glowing with an eerie red color. As Suicune attempted to dash back into the forest where he had come from, it was as if he were hit by an invisible wall in mid-air and thrown backwards from the impact. Blood red ripples formed momentarily in the seemingly empty space where the Pokémon had rebounded.

“Dragonair, try a Dragon Rage,” Mark quickly told his Pokémon, who was now circling above the scene with Charizard. Dragonair nodded, took a deep breath and breathed crimson fire down towards Suicune, but the legendary Pokémon had heard Mark’s command and already looked up. He watched, stunned, as the crystal formation on Suicune’s head apparently absorbed all the fire and then, after a moment’s pause, sent a blue, somehow liquid-looking mirror image of the attack right back at Dragonair. The dragon squealed in pain as he was hit by the blast, but managed to recover his position in the air.

Again, really great depictions of moves, both of those. ^^

“Spirit, assume the weak spirit form and keep it up as long as you can!” May ordered quickly through the sound of the raindrops falling onto the leaves of the trees. “Pupitar, Rock Slide! Raichu, Thunderbolt! Damn, why didn’t I teach you Thunder sometime?”

XD

“Calm Mind…” May muttered to herself. Then: “Physical attacks, everybody! Quick! You too, Charizard, since it can’t break its concentration by attacking you!”

Charizard glanced once doubtfully at her, his mortal fear of the water shining clearly through, but then dived. Wow, Mark thought with a bitterness that made him feel slightly mad at himself. Even my Pokémon are willing to bet their lives that she’s always right.

Love Mark’s thoughts there. XD

Gyarados opened his eyes and blasted a bright red Dragon Beam straight at Suicune. He didn’t even try to dodge; it hit straight into the crystal on Suicune’s head, causing the legendary to stagger backwards slightly. Suicune closed his eyes in concentration.

Thin blue bands of what appeared to be electricity suddenly began shooting from Suicune to Gyarados. For a moment Mark thought Gyarados would surely be done for, but then realized that he didn’t appear to be in any pain. In fact, if anything, his attack was powering up.

“What’s going on…?” Alan whispered as more and more of those strange blue lightning bolts connected the two Pokémon. Gyarados’s beam was steadily growing brighter and brighter and blue sparks began to circle all around Gyarados, enveloping him completely in blue and white until it looked almost like he was evolving. Mark shielded his eyes from the brightness, still wondering what on earth was happening; he could see Suicune, with his eyes closed, straining against the power of the now-white Dragon Beam. It was first now that Suicune showed any signs of being in pain.

I loved this part. Again, the visual element here, the way their actions are portrayed as looking, kicks serious ***. ^^

It bounced off as if he’d just thrown it onto the ground. As if Suicune weren’t even alive.

The moment at which I thought, Oh snap, is what I hoped would happen actually happening? O.O

Mark’s mind went completely numb. All he could do was stare as Alan ran towards Suicune and touched him, first carefully and then pushing him roughly. He checked for a pulse at Suicune’s neck and looked up, horrified, shaking his head slowly.

Suicune is dead. Gyarados murdered Suicune. Oh, God. Oh, God.

And there is the point at which I thought, Holy crap, it did happen… WOO-HOO! *pumps fist into the air* X3
 
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jirachiman876

The King of Kirby
Great Job Dragonfree. Loved the chap. At first I had no idea who was going to kick the bucket and as soon as that thing near the end happened I knew who it was. ^^ You did a great job with the battle. I find it really hard to pull those types of things off and you did it very well. i guess i shouldn't expect anything less from you anyway. Description was pretty good. i agree with psychic there were some places where it seems kind of for lack of trying to not steal psychic's word, lackluster. On the other hand there were places where it was your usual great description. It was still a great chapter anyway and I love reading your works. Just one little like I wanna quote.

“Well,” Chaletwo said finally after a long silence, “I never liked him that much anyway… I suppose we’re one step closer either way.”

Comedy gold. I literally laughed out loud when i saw that. ^^; And it's 2 30AM here and it's not too good to do that with parents sleeping in the next room.

Anyway great chap, Can't wait for the next one. Where to next ey???
jirachiman out ;385;
 

Kaizer

A Shadow of Darkness
While I'd say the last chapter was probably a little more moving, this one was superb in it's own way.

I, like Sike, am amazed at how well you keep track of 18 different pokemon in the span of one battle. Of course, it makes for a much better battle than just one-on-one rounds against the legends.

Anyways, I'd say that this battle held up quite well to the Thunderyu battle, though perhaps that one was a little more active. This one was almost serene, with Suicune just standing there peacefully and launching a few attacks. Methinks that Suicune was almost waiting for Gyrados to come out the entire time and otherwise wasn't really going all-out.

I do have one question though, where was Razor? If Mark wasn't intending to use Gyrados (in an attempt to avoid what ended up occuring) why didn't he just use Razor instead? Plot reasons alone?

So, while I shall mourn the passing of my favorite pokemon, twas a great chapter anyways. I look forward to the next one.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
~*Mudkip Fantastic*~ said:
Suicune was killed? That was REALLY unexpected. Really! But I think it was less of Gyarados murdering Suicune and more of Suicune sacrificing itself to give Gyarados powers for a 'higher purpose'.
Well, that's still a mystery, isn't it? Was Suicune planning it all along, or did he just make a spur-of-the-moment decision to hurry up with the second gift once he realized he was about to die? Did Suicune even die because of Gyarados's Dragon Beam, or did he engineer his own death somehow behind the scenes? Why did Entei and Suicune choose two Pokémon, anyway, and why does Suicune insist on it being Gyarados even with how much he hates it? You will find out one day...

Sike Saner said:
I’m always impressed to see someone write a battle scene with that many participating Pokémon and successfully keep track of them all like that.
Heh, it is one of the hardest parts of writing these legendary battles. Obviously it wouldn't make a lot of sense for them to send out one Pokémon at a time, so I really don't have a choice. Actually I do always lose track of them, certain Pokémon end up just standing there doing nothing while I'm describing what some of the others are doing... I just try to make it as unnoticeable as I can.

Sike Saner said:
I loved this part. Again, the visual element here, the way their actions are portrayed as looking, kicks serious ***. ^^
I actually wasn't that happy with that part. I had a very clear and awesome image in my head of how it was supposed to look, but I thought the wording didn't really sound right. If it got the point across well to you, though, I'm happy.

Kaizer said:
I do have one question though, where was Razor? If Mark wasn't intending to use Gyrados (in an attempt to avoid what ended up occuring) why didn't he just use Razor instead? Plot reasons alone?
Scyther is recovering at the Stormy Town Pokémon Center, remember? Well, it was at the beginning of chapter 34 so it's no wonder you'd forget, but quite a few of their Pokémon were so badly beaten in the Thunderyu battle that they had to be left at the Pokémon Center for treatment:

Chapter 34 said:
Alan sprang up immediately. “Are they all okay?”

“Not quite,” Nurse Joy admitted. “The Scyther and one of the Charizard are in quite a serious state – they seem to have fallen down from a great height after major electric shocks from what I can see, which is a nasty combination – and Butterfree is of course a frail Pokémon and is in a pretty bad state after similar levels of electric shock although she seems not to have fallen from such a great height or to have been recalled while still in the air. I think the Vaporeon is just barely conscious; I wouldn’t really advise her to battle very seriously for a couple of days. And God, that Skarmory is pretty bad off – half of him seems slightly melted and the other half bent. I think the Sandslash broke a bone, but you know how Pokémon are – it heals at absolutely amazing speed, so he is technically okay although he’s going to have a bit of a limp today. Oh, and that Jolteon seems to be in slight shock, but physically he’s all right. I think that’s all.”

Alan stared at her in horror.

“I’ve seen much worse than that,” Joy said helpfully. “And as I said, you know how Pokémon are – they’ll all be fine by tomorrow, I should think.”

Kaizer said:
So, while I shall mourn the passing of my favorite pokemon, twas a great chapter anyways.
Heh, a lot of people have been going "Nuuu, why did you kill Suicune? ;_;", and I figured they would. It's all in the service of the plot. Gyarados had to kill him. My sympathies to all Suicune fans.

Anyway, chapter 36... I haven't started actually typing it up, but I planned the beginning yesterday and I've had the main point of the chapter (which is seriously one of my favorite parts of this fic ever) in my head for quite a while, so this is going to be fun. :3
 
Why did Entei and Suicune choose two Pokémon, anyway, and why does Suicune insist on it being Gyarados even with how much he hates it? You will find out one day...
Entei? I don't remember any mention of Entei outside of the library book.
Was Spirit chosen by Entei? Because I was sure that Suicune chose her as well?
 

Psychic

Really and truly
No, Entei did choose Spirit, just like Suicue did Gyarados. The only thing that's unknown is if Raikou also chose a Pokémon. :p


Anyways, you're making me excited for the next chapter. XD "favorite parts of this fic ever" just made my ears perk up like a dog when it hears its master pouring food into its bowl.

And I did disagree with Sike in saying that all Pokémon seemed to be included during the entire battle because some, like Diamond weren't mention more than twice and other times I was just thinking "what's Spirit doing?" but then I forgot about it because the battle was so cool. XD
Which reminds me that I need to go look up Mind Reader on the Attackdex as I have no idea what it is...



Also, random question: did you edit the shading on the Mew in your sig? Because now it's not...damn, I forget the word...checkerboard-like. Looks kinda weird. oO

~Psychic
 

Dragonfree

Just me
It has been clearly established that Entei came to Spirit and explained about her role. Check chapter 31 again.

Psychic said:
Anyways, you're making me excited for the next chapter. XD "favorite parts of this fic ever" just made my ears perk up like a dog when it hears its master pouring food into its bowl.
Well, I wouldn't know whether you'd love it as much as I do. I don't love it for being something extremely awesome and plot-twisty, but because it's finally some character development for Mark, some Chaletwo, some plotty stuff, humour and setting, all at the same time. If I pull it off right, anyway. And I really hope I will.

And yes, I edited the shading on the Mew. The main thing I did was shorten the neck (which was previously disturbingly long), but I also changed the shading because a lot of people had been complaining and I hated the way I originally shaded it anyway.
 

R_N

Well-Known Member
HOLYCRAPIFICATIONISM!!!

I ussually check teh fic every month or so, and to my surprise there were TWO new chapters. ANd they were GREAT! And sad...

Battles were nice, yah for development of May and ALan, blah, balh, blah.

I swear, I almost cried during the Manetirc death scene. Adn then the pup came out...god itr pulledm y heartstrings...poor thing. Understandable that it wouldn't join...but I woudl like to see the thing again...not with any of hte trainers, but just....see if it survived at all.....I can only think bad things about what could happen(like getting eaten by a large Trapinch)....

Speaking of Trapinch, I relized/quesitong a couple of things....
1.If you seriously harm a pokemon, but in self defense, what are the consiquences, if any....
2.I guess May will have another pokemon that'll most likely dis-like her. Maybe not as much as Lapras, but still. I mean, I don't think I'd like being kicked up against a wall. Repeadetly. 'Course, he/she WAS the one to bite May...

Anyways, I ahd a feeling Gyarados would kill Suicune...though it seemed more of assisted suicide(hey, the first 4 letters of suicide and suicune match), if you think about it.

And, I'm glad Mark, uh, "stood up"(I don't think I'm using the right phrase...) to Chaletoo. He was gettign on my nerves...and not killing my shiny black boot! HE dang near killed Charizard! I think...

Also, when Gyarados mentioned that whole prancing with joy, I couldn't help but think of him prancing through teh water with a doupie expresion on his face. And it was all like a crayon drawing.

Oh, and you mentioned the 4th gen legends earlier, and that got me to thinking on how/if they'll be applied to the fic. Sure, I guess most are probably already caught(and some would need to stay in Sinnoh-Heatran for example leaves in Stark Mountain), but I don't see pokemon like, say, Arcues, Palkia, and Dialga being so "easily" captured-or at all. Well, I guess there woudl be Cyrus...now hows THAT for a twist. Cyrus being a chosen one and him going al lpower mad, but still doing it...

Am I answereing my on quesitons?

This confuddling post was brought to you by:
The "Noob's Guide to Misspelling Things, Volume 1 "
And the punction, elipses(...)
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Snowyarticuno said:
I swear, I almost cried during the Manetirc death scene. Adn then the pup came out...god itr pulledm y heartstrings...poor thing. Understandable that it wouldn't join...but I woudl like to see the thing again...not with any of hte trainers, but just....see if it survived at all.....I can only think bad things about what could happen(like getting eaten by a large Trapinch)....
We'll see.

Snowyarticuno said:
Speaking of Trapinch, I relized/quesitong a couple of things....
1.If you seriously harm a pokemon, but in self defense, what are the consiquences, if any....
2.I guess May will have another pokemon that'll most likely dis-like her. Maybe not as much as Lapras, but still. I mean, I don't think I'd like being kicked up against a wall. Repeadetly. 'Course, he/she WAS the one to bite May...
She didn't exactly seriously harm Trapinch - it has a hard shell after all, and can take being kicked into a wall a few times by a human girl. As for what this does for Trapinch's feelings towards her, you'll see...

Snowyarticuno said:
Anyways, I ahd a feeling Gyarados would kill Suicune...though it seemed more of assisted suicide(hey, the first 4 letters of suicide and suicune match), if you think about it.
When I mean to write "Suicide", I start writing "Suicune". Always. Unless I specifically have my mind on not doing it.

Snowyarticuno said:
And, I'm glad Mark, uh, "stood up"(I don't think I'm using the right phrase...) to Chaletoo.
THANK YOU. I was starting to be afraid nobody at all would comment on that. It was one of my favorite parts about the chapter, and a very important turning point for Mark, who has up until now just been letting Chaletwo push him around, refusing to argue with him and doing everything he tells him, more or less without question:

Chapter 25 said:
“We just need help here,” Chaletwo said. “If you do it, we’re probably still all going to die. But if you don’t do it, we are all going to die.”

“I guess,” Mark replied doubtfully.

Chapter 33 said:
“What do you think I am, omnipotent?” Chaletwo replied, suddenly annoyed. “Non-psychics have such faint psychic signals that unless you previously know what location to concentrate on as I’m doing for you, you can’t read their minds or communicate telepathically with them. Enjoy your privacy.”

“Oh, right,” Mark said quickly to avoid arguing. “I didn’t know.”

Chapter 33 said:
“Watch Thunderyu!” Chaletwo hissed into his mind, and Mark quickly looked back at the dragon.

Finally, in chapter 34, he starts being slightly more critical of it in his mind, but not enough to start actually arguing:

Chapter 34 said:
Mark was taken aback. But we can’t battle another legendary now! he protested. At least four of our Pokémon are seriously injured!

“No matter,” Chaletwo replied. “You can still try. Suicune is different. He won’t kill you if you don’t beat him. He’ll just run for it and return the next evening as usual. I know what he’s like.”

Mark was a little sceptical, but did not reply.

Chapter 34 said:
So Mark had no choice but to say what they were probably all thinking himself: “Eh, just how sure are you of that?”

“Absolutely sure!” Chaletwo replied, irritated. “Suicune is one of the traditionalist legendaries. He follows Mew like a sheep. As far as he’s concerned, cleaning the lake is what he is ‘meant’ to do, and if it is his ‘fate’ to be caught while doing so, so be it. Suicune isn’t the type to kill anybody.”

Gyarados would beg to differ, Mark couldn’t help thinking.

“Well, he doesn’t look dead to me, does he?” Chaletwo snapped. “Just do it! You already agreed to take part in it. Now trust me and do as I say. Go through Thunderclap Cave; it’s a shortcut.”

Mark couldn’t help thinking he hadn’t really agreed to do anything and Chaletwo had never presented this as a choice of any kind, but if Chaletwo picked that up from his mind at all, he didn’t respond.

Chapter 34 said:
“Chaletwo,” Mark moaned when they had signed into their rooms at the hotel and were all resting in Mark’s room with a few packages of fast food, “are you sure we can’t just do this tomorrow?”

“You can try again tomorrow if necessary! There’s no need to delay the battle before even trying it. You beat Thunderyu, and Suicune can’t fly. Of course you can do this.”
...and then it is Alan who momentarily picks up Mark's case, while he himself just drops it. Alan is always more willing to be critical of Chaletwo, despite having been the one back in Green Town to insist Chaletwo was a good guy, because he nonetheless had a more neutral initial opinion of him that was pretty quickly converted to a disliking. Mark, on the other hand, is torn between his own thoughts on matters and what he feels to be an obligation to respect anything and everything legendary. It is only in chapter 35, where Chaletwo makes him battle one of the Pokémon he's been reading about and practically worshipping since he was a kid, that it becomes too much for him:

Chapter 35 said:
He was gripped by a weird feeling of immense respect, something he had not felt for Thunderyu since he was not one of the creatures he had been reading about since he was a kid. Something about seeing Suicune so close gave him a sensation of thrill and, in some bizarre way, honour. He bowed his head as the legendary Pokémon approached the bank of the lake, feeling somehow that it was wrong to watch Suicune perform the purification while sneaking up on him.

“Look at him, damn it!” Chaletwo hissed in his mind. “Remember you’re seeing for two!”

Mark forced himself to look up as Suicune bent down on the bank of the lake, extended his paw and touched the surface.

Chapter 35 said:
“Go send out your Pokémon! Quick!” Chaletwo ordered frantically. Mark sprang up from his hiding place; he saw Suicune look at him in surprise and then at May and Alan who were sending out their Pokémon on the other side.

“I’m sorry, Suicune,” Mark whispered.

Until finally...

Chapter 35 said:
“Look at Suicune!” Chaletwo hissed.

He quickly looked around and realized that Suicune was looking silently straight at him, the legendary’s expression inscrutable. Again, he was overcome by guilt over what he was doing to the creature. He heard May command his Pokémon as if they were her own and the thought to just stand back and watch rather than participate in this dreadful battle seriously occurred to him.

“No, you don’t,” Chaletwo said coldly. “You’re who I picked out from that crowd. Don’t disappoint me by standing there being useless while letting those two nobodies do all the work.”
And this is where it initially strikes him, but he doesn't actually go and lash out until he realizes that he's already committed the thoughtcrime and he really just might as well try to stand up for himself at last:

Chapter 35 said:
A hateful thought flashed across Mark’s mind; he hopelessly realized that Chaletwo would be able to detect it, even if he didn’t say it aloud.

“You self-absorbed moron,” he found himself suddenly having the courage to mutter. “I’ll do it, but for the sake of preventing the War of the Legends, not to make your idiotic method of picking people to help you with it look good.”

So this is one of Mark's most important moments in the entire fic, and not a single person mentioned it until you did now. Needless to say I was pretty disappointed, because actually I think I pulled that part off dramatically better than the Gyarados part which everybody was too obsessed with to notice this. I do love that part, don't get me wrong, but I was a little disappointed with the way the execution of that ended up. Meanwhile, I was really hoping people would comment on the Mark-development, but nobody did. Until now. :3 So now I'm a happy Dragonfree. Well, somewhat. It is still disappointing nobody commented on it before.

Now I'll stop rambling about that.

Snowyarticuno said:
He was gettign on my nerves...and not killing my shiny black boot! HE dang near killed Charizard! I think...
o.o Huh?

Snowyarticuno said:
Also, when Gyarados mentioned that whole prancing with joy, I couldn't help but think of him prancing through teh water with a doupie expresion on his face. And it was all like a crayon drawing.
XD Gyarados prancing around and thinking he's special is indeed an amusing image, yes.

Snowyarticuno said:
Oh, and you mentioned the 4th gen legends earlier, and that got me to thinking on how/if they'll be applied to the fic. Sure, I guess most are probably already caught(and some would need to stay in Sinnoh-Heatran for example leaves in Stark Mountain), but I don't see pokemon like, say, Arcues, Palkia, and Dialga being so "easily" captured-or at all.
Well, the way I see it, Arceus resides outside the universe and doesn't interfere with it. He is basically irrelevant to the War of the Legends; his power is not being drained, he would not go insane if the War were to happen, and not catching him will not affect the War.

Dialga and Palkia, on the other hand, do interfere and we may see them, although I have yet to decide whether the Sinnoh legendaries will actually appear in the ILCOE. Maybe they'll just be ignored (since after all, I've already stated multiple times how many legendaries Mark has to catch) and then added in in the IALCOTN. It is likely, however, that after the League they will visit other regions to catch their legendaries, as it does not make much sense for a lot of Kanto/Johto/Hoenn/Sinnoh legendaries to suddenly be located in Ouen. Suicune has a reason for being there, and perhaps Entei is still there after coming to Spirit, but not the others.

Snowyarticuno said:
Well, I guess there woudl be Cyrus...now hows THAT for a twist. Cyrus being a chosen one and him going al lpower mad, but still doing it...
Hmm, Cyrus chosen? He is a human, and in both the case of Spirit and Gyarados, the chosen was a Pokémon of the legendary's type. Doesn't seem very likely.
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
THANK YOU. I was starting to be afraid nobody at all would comment on that. It was one of my favorite parts about the chapter, and a very important turning point for Mark, who has up until now just been letting Chaletwo push him around, refusing to argue with him and doing everything he tells him, more or less without question:
Gwah, I was gonna comment on that too! o_o; Alright, so maybe I didn't notice the entire progress of his development the past few chapters, but I loved that part. ^^ (I also love the word moron, which I use every day to describe my sister, and people on the Global Trading System).

Actually, I barely read the Gyarados scene at all. Y'see, when I'm in a hurry, big descripty paragraphs are the first thing to go, no matter how cool they are.

Oh, that's right~! I didn't tell you the conditions under which I read the chappie! xD Okay, gather round, this is a new one!

You know how I usually read your fics past 12 on school nights? Well, on Wednesday, I had to wake up at 4 am. I had a huge Power Point project that I reaaaaaly needed to turn in before it got even later. But unfortunately, I needed the Internet to look up info for it, and I'm grounded. So earlier the previous night, I had tried to grab some info and copy it down onto Word real fast, but my mom caught me. Realizing I had only one choice, I stole my wireless Internet receptor so I could do it in my room at my leisure.

So, it was 4am, and I decided to take advange of SPPf's quick early-morning loading, just to see what new stuff there was. And then I suddenly remembered that you had posted Chapter 35 earlier in the week. (dundundun) Slowly I scrolled to the top of the page and stared at it, willing myself not to read it.

Of course, my willpower folded at usual. xP Curse you, QftL!

Now then, even though I didn't pay much mind to the cooly uber union attack lightning thing (fear my eloquent naming of it xP) between Gyarados and Suicune, I loved the conversation between them. When all of Mark, May, and Alan's Pokemon were KOed, it just left such a perfect "Oh sh*t" moment, even though Chaletwo insisted that Suicune wouldn't attack them. Probably my favorite aspect, however, was how Gyarados tricked Mark (and the reader) in order to get a private showdown with Suicune. And the fact that Suicune said nothing throughout all of it, loved that too.

I'm also interested to see how the Chosen impact the future plot...


(Oh yeah, and by the way, I would've reviewed sooner, but as I said before, SPPf only properly loads for me early in the morning (I'm sure you're much better off because of the time difference). Plus, I've also got time now since my school got delayed due to bomb threat. ^^;;; That's twice in three years! (still have never had teachers on stirke, though *wink nudge.*)

All of this is proof that I have been reading this fic for way too long. xP
They are currently under the impression he never existed thanks to some clever memory modification by Molzapart and are trying to figure out why they have a room full of legendary Pokémon books.
Wait, wait...huh? But I thought that...Chaletwo...didn't he say something like "your parents will cry their eyes out, everyone will print more stories about how awful I am, and you can go about unnocied" or something of that sort (too lazy to check)? And you also said once, a long time ago that Mark would realize Pokemon Training wasn't the sport for him and would go home. How would that be possible if his parents didn't remember him?

Also, what are the limits of memory modification in your fic (I'm asking because I've had issues with it in mine) I know it's canonical, but I'm pretty close to doing away with it in my fic, since it seems like any Psychic Legendary could just erase the memory of anyone they didn't want coming to close to them (and since Legendary captures run rampant in my fic, this is a problem. Any advice?

~Chibi~;249;;448;
 
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Dragonfree

Just me
The basic idea was that the memory modification didn't happen until two weeks after Mark's death, i.e. when he was returned to the world.

Nonetheless, if his parents actually got a good look at him, they would recognize him because they knew him too well to completely forget about him - even May and Alan could recognize him when they saw him up close, without even knowing him that well. The basic description of the memory modification was that Molzapart had "buried everybody's memories of [Mark] a little bit deeper"; people read about him getting killed in the papers and stuff, after all, and this prevents people on the street from going "Hey, isn't this the kid Chaletwo killed?" when they see him. (They might find him distantly familiar, but be unable to make out where they'd seen him before.)

On second thought, it doesn't make much sense for his parents to be able to overlook all the evidence of Mark's existence that has to exist in their house without it bringing back those memories, so they probably do remember who he is and all, but have just forgotten that he's the kid Chaletwo killed. So I'll correct myself on that: they're most likely at home, thinking that he is on a Pokémon journey having too much fun to call them.

In general the limits of memory modification as I've been using them are roughly that you can't erase completely all traces of personal knowledge of somebody. You can just bury it deep into the long-term memory where fishing it back out will be difficult, but nonetheless possible with the right hook. So if people who had read about Mark's death in the paper saw him and then for some reason read the paper again, it would all come back to them (although they'd need to be able to get a good look at him and read the article within a fairly small timespan to make sure it all remains fresh enough in the memory).

Also, because now I finally remember this.

The original Word document into which I first wrote the words "Mark lived in a very small village" was created on June 19th 2002.

This means that The Quest for the Legends is turning five years old in just over a week.

I want to do something special for the occasion, but I'm not sure what. I thought of doing a kind of 'ultimate character questionnaire' thing which would basically allow readers to PM questions they'd like to ask the characters to me and I'd pick some good ones to have them answer very thoroughly in a narrative format. The main problem with this plan is getting enough good questions to make it worth it. Then I could also write some sort of a fifth anniversary special, but I don't know what it would be about.

Any suggestions?
 

Chibi Pika

Stay positive
Ah okay, that clears up the memory thing, thanks.

W00tz! QftL's 5th anniversary. ^^ I'm amazed that you've kept the MSWord document all this time. Seriously, I have to recreate my files every few months or so because they get screwed up and takes three hours to repaginate, among other random annoyances. Also, whenever I update the filee on my USB disk, the creation dates gets overwritten. >< Bleh... I know that I first started handwriting it on either December 13th or 14th 2001... Crap, I missed my fic's 5th anniversary--I must have been grounded or something. xP

Feh, now I'm remembering all the crappiness of it. >< I think the first sentence had something to do with an alarm clock, which was replaced with a "today is finally the day!" type thing in the godawful Revision 1.

Eh heh...back on topic now. ^^;;;;

Not so sure on the suggestions part, though. ^^; I actually very much like the questionaire thing, but you're right in that it would be hard to get enough good ones.

...
Gwah, I've been thinking on it since last night and I seriously have no ideas. ><

~Chibi~;249;;448;
 

Dragonfree

Just me
Heh, I don't actually write it into that Word document anymore - it currently contains the UMR and the first couple of chapters of the HMMRCIG before I decided I wanted to make a new file so I could keep the UMR. Then I made a Word document called tqftlhmmrcig.doc, which is what I've been writing the HMMRCIG-derived versions (HMMRCIG, YAR, ILCOE and ILCOTEM) into, and later tqftlialcotn.doc, which holds the IALCOTN, APO and WTHAIRTSTA.

...yeah, I'll stop confusing you all with my version acronyms now.

I've had a number of suggestions on what I could do. A few people are insisting I draw something, but the problem with that is that I can't draw, so that won't really work. Some have suggested I finish the revamp of the Ouen legendaries that I'm planning to use in the IALCOTN, but that would make ILCOE readers feel left out. Some people want me to make a Chalenor style for my site. Some just want me to try to finish chapter 36, but that is both rather unlikely to be possible in such a short time and not particularly "special" (I mean, it would be if it were a really important, plotty chapter or something, but it isn't). Then some of my friends and I have been speculating on a possible new title for the fic at last, although (like with the legendary revamp, actually) it seems more appropriate to celebrate the old on the fic's fifth anniversary than to change it. Then I also thought of rewriting the humourous UMR extra "Lost in Ruxido", but that wouldn't be much of a fifth anniversary special since it would just be a rehash of something I wrote long ago.

I also thought I'd probably make a new layout for the fic minipage at my site, but of course all the people who don't read the fic there wouldn't benefit from that at all.
 

R_N

Well-Known Member
Just how many revisions have you done?
I've lsot track, the acronyms conduzzled me(yes, conduzzeled-the point past confusion). Well, as long as us ILOCETH readers aren't left out of things...

As for a suggestion...how about a look back on things? You know see how much the fic has, uh, "changed"(couldn't find the right word, thus the quotes) over the years. How far the fic has come. What stuff you hope to see in teh near future. That kidna stuff.
 
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