victory_road | Video from Indigo Plateau! [backdated to Dec 18]

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Video from Indigo Plateau! [backdated to Dec 18]

*The video starts off with a series of clips of pokemon battles strung together, all featuring Sion and his team. The first features Dusk the absol, landing a powerful Night Slash against a bronzong belonging to a masked man. The second, Valiant the gallade faces off against a ninja's toxicroak. Then Valiant is seen again, this time up against a machamp belonging to a rather strong-looking trainer. Following that, a clip of Just the lucario readying a powerful punch against a silvery-haired woman's absol.

Finally, (and perhaps most importantly) the background music changes to a battle theme few if any have heard before, the video this time showing a clip of Sion's glaceon Jina readying a blizzard against a certain caped dragon master's dragonite, as a hailstorm swirls all about the battlefield.

Then, after the montage fades out, is Sion with a smug grin, a certain dark-haired mage doing his best to avoid drawing attention in the background while Sion holds up a fancy-looking certificate.*

I suppose if anyone else wants to know what the Elite Four have on their teams without finding out first hand, Ryner and I could certainly spoil the surprise.

Ah, and I have a copy of the recordings of Ryner's battles, too, if anyone's interested.

*aaaand he's turning it off before Ryner can have a chance to protest*

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Dark chocolate and reduced sugar, then?

[He's going to bake the most acceptably not too sweet cookies ever, he swears.]

How does it feel to have prevailed over the strongest trainers in the land? Surely they make deafeating those level 100 Gym teams feel like child's play?

Perhaps we should see what Ryner would like? I've never been terribly partial to sweets, myself.

*he's more of a savory kind of guy...*

Well, it was certainly more of a challenge, to be sure, though I imagine it would have been considerably more difficult without knowing they had particular types they favored.

Is that so? Would you prefer an omelette, then? I've been told their taste is pleasant.

[That might be the Blissey egg at work, but a successful meal is a successful meal.]

Still, you had to prepare a team that could counter five different types of equal strength. That can't be easy.

*raising an eyebrow*

Should I trust something made by someone who apparently hasn't even tasted it himself?

*though really, fancy breads would probably be fine too*

And that's true, although depending on your approach it's possible to simplify your strategy a fair bit. For example, choosing a single pokemon to be your primary offense for each fight, then ensuring the rest of the team has moves that will help cover its weaknesses. Ryner and I were both able to narrow it down to about four as the main attacker between the five battles, and for the remaining two places have one with good overall attacks with no specialty, and another that could buy time if needed.

*well, he says that, but it was definitely far more straightforward to him than Ryner, since he's the one used to thinking in terms of fast-paced political and military strategy...*

My tastebuds have been influenced by the best royal chefs since I was an infant. How could I properly evaluate my own creations now?

[Cecil could bake bread. Probably. After a few tries.]

Would it be better to select pure attackers, or Pokémon with less strength but greater defense? Concentrating on one Pokémon is asking for trouble if it crumbles after the first hit, but if their teams are powerful enough to crush type-resistant opponents swiftly anyway, defense might as well be sacrificed.

So you're quite spoiled, is what you're saying.

*bread-baking is a useful skill to have, anyway, there's so many varieties and flavors, after all~*

Neither, really. It's possible to set up a team that's centered around supporting a single attacker, after all. Or in this case, one of several, with the supporting roles overlapping as needed.

Food-wise, certainly. I'd never needed to cook before this world; had I offered you my first homemade cookies, you could have considered it an assassination attempt.

[Attempt, because no one could possibly be stupid enough to have eaten them.]

With some raised stats passed on with Baton Pass, then? Or with a few team-wide defensive and status moves, set up at the beginning of the battle? Though I suppose that that would depend on the opponent's type and moveset.

Oh? That sounds almost like Ryner's cooking...

*yes, he heard that comment about the cookies >/*

A strategy like that would be more spectacular once executed, but in this case it wasn't necessary, and I thought it best not to complicate matters more than the situation called for. Simply having at least one good main attacker for each battle, with some overlap as backup, more than sufficed.

I've no doubt practice would greatly improve his efforts. It certainly worked for me.

[Mostly because there was no one else to share cooking duties at the time.]

When you put it that way, it almost sounds disappointing. I was expecting that greater creativity would be necessary, against such famed opponents.

I don't know, it may well be a lost cause.

*especially since Marian does all the cooking anyway*

Perhaps if they stopped insisting on specializing on one primary type each...

...I'd argue against such negativity, but after tasting my team's cooking...

[He's learned to accept that some people are beyond help.]

Surely they'd be allowed to do so if they wished. It works out well enough for Viridian, after all.

I suppose some simply don't have the knack for it.

*Ryner must have used his entire allotment of genius towards magic or something*

Even if it's allowed, I wonder if many simply don't wish to, regardless of how negatively it may impact their teams' strength.

Or the limbs necessary for it, but that should not be the case for him.

[Unless he's very, very good at hiding missing arms.]

Perhaps the thought of earning victories as a trainer with such a handicap pleases them. Or perhaps the fondness they feel for a particular type outweighs practical considerations.

Having the appropriate limbs and utilizing them well are two entirely different matters...

*is Sion aware of how many different ways that could be taken? it's hard to say....*

It could be either, I suppose. Or, it could possibly be intended to test a trainer's skill and knowledge. Being familiar with the types and how to use them to one's advantage, based on one primary opposing type at a time...

With the few dual-types they use serving as an additional challenge? It could be. Since the types they use are publicly known, they must expect us to come prepared with various counters for them.

Exactly. If they wanted to have a truly competitive match, their teams would need to be unusually strong, or more difficult to counter.

*or both*

As it is, it's possible to easily cover their primary weaknesses with only four pokemon, allowing for two more to act as backup depending on the situation.

*which is... quite the advantage, really*

Do you know if they might have elite teams of their own, for rematches? That would offer a good opportunity to show us exactly what they're capable of, when they've no need to give us a fighting chance.

They didn't mention anything of the sort, but I suppose it's possible. Perhaps if they do, they're waiting to unveil it until more have successfully completed their challenge as it is?

That might be it. Or they've decided to wait another six years to test our resolve and staying potential, perhaps.

I certainly hope not...

*...although he honestly might not mind staying here another six years, so long as Ryner's around, really*

...It's not how I'd choose to spend my years either, but there are worse fates.

Well, at least time spent here has no bearing on what passes back home.

*which is the only reason he's been able to, y'know, let himself enjoy any of this...*

Thankfully. Otherwise, I'd have gone mad years ago.

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Video from Indigo Plateau! [backdated to Dec 18]

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