For @nyxthecolonialmewtwo

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Azoth Kingdom, Alva, part 2.

In my fic, cabinet minister Alva is a child of the not very famous, but still pretty well-known arcane researchers Ogden and Nancy.

During his childhood, young Alva was a pretty lonely boy, whose main and almost only interest was the arcane science. Because his mom and dad were too much into arcanics to pay enough attention to their son, Alva spent most of the time reading the Ogden’s and Nancy’s books, trying to study the arcane science himself. While Alva’s parents were proud of it, they still paid too little attention to the boy, so Alva had to pretty much fight tooth and nail for his social progress from the position of the simple researchers son to recognized arcane scientist to the (much later) cabinet minister. However, Alva still loved his parents very much and they loved him too, though, again, payed too little attention to him.

Both Ogden and Nancy died in the accident (one of the catwalks above the big city gears, due to metal fatigue, broke and fell down along with people on it right into the working mechanism. The results were far, far from the pretty), when Alva was 19, so, from this moment, lavender-haired boy could only count on himself. Thanks to his parents library and his own skills, he was able to quickly take a position of the arcane science student in the local technological university and earn a degree in just five years. Overall, professors thought of Alva as a very promising student, so he was able to take a position of the junior arcane researcher.

At this point, Alva started to grow dark. Seeing, how Kingdom used pretty much the same technology as in the Nikola’s times with little to no advancement (how else would you explain such hi-tech control systems in the Nikola-built and then unmodified Flying Fortress?), how safety rules were violated from the very founding of the Kingdom (his parents died because of badly-placed and undermaintained catwalk, after all), how not-very-young corporations started to slip in the traditionally Azoth-monopolistic airship market (Tunguska Technologies, SaL-12 “Charizard” Assault Ship Aerodyne, which, thanks to high resilience and durability, low price, great fuel efficiency along with ability to use pretty much any liquid, gaseous or even gelatinous fuel, wide range of modifications and very easy repairs became widely-used platform for different machines, including even the VTOL cargo fliers and passenger transport) and how royalties weren’t doing a thing about it made him angry. After understanding this, Alva chose to become at least cabinet minister to try to, in the best case, influence royalties to take actions, or, if they won’t, take over the Kingdom and do it himself. Considering his genius, it didn’t take a long time.

The true reason why Alva sympathizes Raleigh is because cabinet minister sees himself in the young prince and does not want such a childhood for this young boy. If not for this, his plan wouldn’t even included Raleigh after the Alva takes the control over the Kingdom - he would’ve simply exiled or even executed everyone from the royal family and become the sole dictator, but friendship with the prince made Alva change his plans - in the new version, after the Alva takes control over the Kingdom, current king and Kimia are stripped of their positions, but left alive, Raleigh becomes a new king and, until he reaches the adulthood, former cabinet minister takes control of the Kingdom, while continuing to teach Raleigh arcane science and, as a part of preparation to become the king, politics and economics.

On top of everything above, the reason Alva is doing all of this is because he loves Azoth Kingdom very much and wants it to become mighty and prosperous once more, even if by such a dirty means.

So, what he wanted to put in his collection this time? Had he got himself a new airship? Was he a villain in there (I so hope he wasn’t villain nor he was hero this time)? What place he had in the movie? Sorry if I’m annoying, but I just love Lawrence III that much.

I had a dream that Jiri was in a new movie but the dub didn’t know who he was and renamed him Schwager. Like “swag”.

Originally Kasumi asked Jirarudan, why he keeps birds in capturing frames instead of pokeballs (she thought birds suffer from this), and Jiri replied, that if no one can see them, that’s not a true collection.

im watching pokemon 2000 and misty is berating the collector for trying to catch the legendary 3 (which, fair) but she says “ the way you talk, pokemon are just a thing to collect!” the catchphrase of pokemon is straight up “gotta catch em all” like what message are you going for 4kids???? be consistent at least

I’ve had a similar moment not so long ago - writing a small non-action scene, set at the Sinnoh (though main fic time is currently Johto, I have notes and small drafts all the way to Ultra Beast Crisis and beginning of Alola) while listening to Dethklok. Also, Alto-Mare events (going to Latios and rescuing him) and fight with Megalith Zygarde were written while, first, watching this:

and then, listening to “Metal Fighter”

on repeat. As you can guess, they are pretty into action.

“I’ll watch some light gameplay while I write stuff”

Somehow this ended up with me listening to Yahtzee Croshaw reading The Eye of Argon. I can’t write a tense scene with this going on.

ISF 9 Chronicles, part 1

Compulink system active.

Please, enter login and password.

Login and password correct. Access granted.

Accessing “NB-CHRN-1″ datafile...

READ ONLY

Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

12.04.419 AFE

Hm... This is my first personal log entry, and I don’t even know, what to write... Okay, I’ll... Ah!

Anyway, today, I was finally transferred into the Imperial Science Facility 9, as a member of a Operative Computer System Service Team. In short, sysadmin, maintenance man and programmer. At least planned salary makes it worth it.

13.04.419 AFE

Got to meet my new team. Still not sure what to think about them. On one hand, they’re pretty professional guys. On other... I’m not sure I’ll be ever able to become a part of that chaos.

14.04.419 AFE

Studying new equipment. It’s really awesome. Like, my new laptop has a huge flat multi-color screen instead of old small monochrome one one and has several orders more of power and memory! The only downside is that I have to learn a new version of an Universal Programming Language to stop being a mere “anykey-er”. Well, it could’ve been much worse. Also, transferred my log onto it.

16.04.419 AFE

The IDE is pretty cool. Graphic user interface, a lot of tools, automated version control, error detection system... Whoever has created it was a genius.

20.04.419 AFE

Today I saw a six-limbed walker MTU-2 robot fixing a some kind of a hazardous material leak in the Production Division sector, sumberged at least half-meter deep in the dangerous liquid. I swear, one of the arcanists (someone, named Izya), said something about how his team can create something much better and smarter with the help of arcane science. Whatever, I guess.

01.05.419 AFE

The first real work week is over. Worked with control systems of the nuclear reactor №3, which is still undergoing construction. Worked in the Surface Complex, helping bioscientists with automated climate-control systems for their above-ground labs. How can they stand so much Pokemon near them? Brr... Still, those “goggled” Alolan Dragon-Bugs (if I recall correctly, they are called “Flygons”) are cute... as cute as a 2 meter-long Pokemon can get. Ew.

04.05.419 AFE

Was working in the Physics Division sector today, fixing their local. Found guys using industrial microwave emitters, normally used for material processing, for heating up their lunches, as well as using autoclaves for pressure cooking. They also, apparently, use high-power vacuum chamber for drying their laundry. Weird. I’m scared to see, what the Production Division sector will hold...

05.05.419 AFE

My fears weren’t totally unjustified. In the Production Division sector, I’ve witnessed brawling MTU-2 robots (and those are 2-3 tons heavy!), using laser cutters to secretly engrave obscene words and phallus’ images into prototype devices, as well as, again, putting autoclaves, microwave emitters and some other devices to mundane use.

08.05.419 AFE

Worked in the Chemistry Division sector. I’m sure guys from the Lab 12 are up to something, since some of them often mention “distillation” and something, which is to be soon delivered to them from the Bioscience. How did I hear all that? Sometimes it’s great to be a simple maintenance man, who is just checking their computing equipment.

...

Compulink connection failure.

Restart?

Restart sequence initiated.

Connection re-established.

Continue from the last point?

Ancient empire with nuclear-powered magitech, which disappeared several thousands of years ago, suddenly and surprisingly for everyone (even themselves) appears back, then massive nuclear-powered space exploration ensues, while the old sports die out.

The worse the explanation, the better.

Yeah. By the way (I know that games came before the anime, but hey, I can dream!), I think, that it would’ve been cool, if she said “You’re such a kid!” if she’ve defeated you with two or more of her Pokemon remaining conscious.

HIMESAMMAAAAAAA

beh all ive been spamming is pokemanz because my head is all pokemanz

First two - when I’ve heard, that there’ll be a SM anime.

Fifth - me looking at the preview pictures.

Third - me reading the plot previews.

Fourth - overall impression.

Which face accurately represents your thoughts on the new Pokémon Sun and Moon anime?

Survival (mini-fic)

Even before she has broken the protective shell of her egg, she could feel something wrong in the world around her. Unlike what it was supposed to be, environmental Aura streams were heavily distorted and plain wrong. Still, she knew that she couldn’t remain here anymore, so, a single strike of organic-metal spike broke a thick calcium shell, allowing small Emmanation Pokemon to enter the outside world.

She looked at herself. Not that she was completely sure, but wasn’t it supposed to be three fingers on her hand, not a four and a fifth opposed one? Could the Aura of this place do something to her? And... why she was thinking so clear for something barely hatched?

Suddenly, her “dreadlocks” felt something angry. Something, that was very interested in freshly broken eggshell and sure, that, whatever has hatched from it, wasn’t far away and would make a pretty good snack. She tried to “fade out” her Aura and took a refuge in ruins, full of sharp metal parts and unsure floors, made of concrete (she was still not sure, where from she knew all that, not nothing of it mattered right now).

She passively Aura-”looked” at her previous resting place and saw a big Pokemon, which radiated hunger and agression, take a look at all sides (literally, because it had three big compound eyes) and then, angry, devour what little was left of eggshell and small flying Pokemon, which has just happened to get near at the wrong moment, while cutting the second one in half with a short swing of razor-barbed tongue. When he left, she carefully returned and, feeling very hungry, finished the agony of what was left of the flying Pokemon and made sure the body won’t go to waste.

At this moment, she couldn’t guess it, but it’ll become her style of life for several next years - find the nearly- or freshly dead Pokemon, cut some of them with self-invented Aura attack and quickly consume it, before real predators or scavengers come nearby. While she had fur color far from being camouflage one, she has managed to make up for it with Aura - she could let world’s streams flow right through her, preventing anyone, who relied on Aura in receiving what was happening around, from detecting her, while also silently using her inner Aura to distort the light, silence the sounds and nullify the smells. She became the stealthiest being in this part of world.

Today was the day she got busted.

Despite all her Aura-based cloaking, despite all of her stealth attemps, one of the local Pokemon has managed to find out about her and, what was the worst, find her.

Now it was chasing her.

Her left leg hurt really bad from getting chemical burn from one of the spits. Because how it wasn’t coagulating, it was, probably, base, instead of acid (she never bothered to think about where from she was getting all of this knowledge - it sorta just happened to somehow get into her head in the least apropriate times). She knew she would be able to use Aura to heal it later, but right now, she couldn’t do a thing about it.

Now, she has managed to drive this to unfinished abandoned building, complete with metal sticks sticking out of walls and just laying here and there.

Suddenly, she tripped on one of those sticks and fell over, quickly trying to get back standing. She succeeded, but situation had already got from “bad” to “really bad”. 

Riolu saw, how a big, angry and strong Pokemon leaps at her, opening a huge maw with lots of sharp teeth, and, not understanding, what she’s doing, rose a big metal stick above her head, while closing eyes and cutting herself from Aura reception.

A monstrous squeak and dying roar of pain nearly destroyed her ears, but, somehow, she was still alive. After waiting for several more seconds, she slowly opened her eyes and looked at what have just happened.

The Pokemon, which wanted to eat her, jumped straight at the thin metal stick and got skewered on it. From what she could tell, he jumped just right to get his heart pierced, so it was of no wonder he died so quickly.

She could feel something strange, something building up in her. The death of this monster - the same one which has nearly killed her several years ago - made her feel some sort of a relieve and... Pride, for what she has done?

On this thought, she felt suddenly getting overwhelmed with some sort of a light, her body getting warped and changed. When it was over, she looked herself over, noticing the dense yellow fur and bio-metallic spike on chest, muzzle getting sharper, feeling the second set of Aura sensors, more power... and a huge hunger. The food was right here, impaled on the metal stick. After so many years of scavenging, she simply couldn’t let such a great fresh carcass go to waste.

After the meal time was over, she noticed something strange in herself. A strange emmanation, which have been present in her since her hatching here, has finally made it’s presence clear. It was dark, cruel, calculative, remorseless... but it was exactly what she needed to survive here, so, she completely embraced it.

Before finally leaving this place, she used several of her “Aura Cut” attacks to chop herself a decent part of this metal stick (”rebar”, as the name for it has suddenly appeared in her mind) and sharpen one of the ends of it. She couldn’t explain, but she felt it’ll help her great time in the future. She couldn’t help but wonder, why does it fit in her five-fingered hand so well.

A quick Aura-accelerated charge with rebar set before her - and prey’s heart gets pierced, ending the fight before it had ever began. A second decisive strike - and it’s mate dies with severed spinal cord. Since she has become Lucario, she finally stopped being a mere scavenger and became quite a death player here herself. While she still was not an apex predator here, she haven’t lost her stealth skills (in fact, she has continued at ever-enhancing them) and always knew when to fold her plans. However, she still never risked approaching groups of humans with firearms. While human bodies were fragile and could be destroyed with aa single maxed-out Aura Sphere or similar attack, their guns, loaded with something they called “Ripper rounds”, could quickly (and very painfully) kill most of the local Pokemon. Attacking humans was just not worth it, especially after how they’ve firebombed a place from air, after one of the mightiest Pokemon here had killed fifty humans.

She knew it was a trap.

Somehow, whoever stood behind those Pokemon and co-ordinated their doings, has lured her into this very narrow valley and locked her in it.

She stood proud, clenching the sharpened rebar in her left hand. Lucario knew, that it may be not of much use here, but she wanted to be ready to give her all.

Suddenly, she felt a human presence getting stronger behind them. It definitely was a woman, which, for some strange reason, wanted to see the fight with her own eyes (not without backing herself up with some Protects, several additional Pokemon guards and a firearm, of course).

She concentrated her Aura sense on this human woman... and saw something very dark in her soul. This darkness, while different from the one which gave the Lucario her power, was still somewhat familiar. This darkness brought understanding. There was no use in fight, because like has no need to fight like.

- I surrender, - sent a peaceful Aura message Lucario, while slowly lowering the rebar. - I sense no need in fight.

- Why is that? - asked human woman in somewhat defiant voice, but deep inside, the dark power in her soul became interested.

- Because you bear darkness, as do I. Even if they are different, like does not need to fight like. I think we can achieve something greater if we allow our darknesses to work together.

- Hm. You tell truth. Readings of my sensors tell me, that you are different from the normal Lucarios and your abilities are almost on par of those of the low-level Legendaries. Do you know, why is that?

- The darkness of this land has touched me. Changed me. Gave me the bliss of power, - replied Lucario, feeling some strange pride rising in herself.

- Yeah, you are the only introduced Pokemon I know who has managed to survive on border between Tunguska and real Soris, - said the human woman. - So, to Pokeball stage we go?

- I do not know what do you mean, but I’m ready, - replied Lucario, seeing, how human tosses the small spherical device with strange markings towards her, how this device opens, how her body slowly, but painlessly, gets warped and twisted in all ways possible and some, that are essentially impossible, then everything settles down and calms, then disturbance arises again - and she stands before human once more.

- Absolutely no resistance! - wondered human, looking at Lucario.

- Why should I resist something, that will allow me to unite my path with other bearer of darkness and help me achieve something greater? - calmly asked her Aura Pokemon.

- I’m happy about it, actually. So, do you understand, that from now onwards, you will obey all of my orders?

- I most certainly do.

- So the darkness in our souls will become one and open a path to something greater?

- Absolutely.

-... You’re the strangest Pokemon I’ve ever met. Anyway, nice to get you in my team. I assign you tactical designation “Blue Rapier”.

- I thank you for that. And... how should I call you? Mist...

- No, not this crap! - objected human, then gave the Lucario an evil twisted smirk. - Simpy “K” or “Commander” would suffice.

I can try to help you.

So uh…would anyone mind going over Obsession with me and helping me write this chapter?