Erik Rest, Not that kind of hybrid

Model for Candid International

[erik-candidinternational]

Intro post time!

Hey everyone I'm Erik! I work as a model alongside my partner pokemon Keo, one of those ice type vulpixes everyone was talking about a few years ago! (I'm using a picture a friend drew of him as my icon currently, the only photos of him I have he'd actually be willing to let me use as an icon are all owned by the agency still)

Because I get this a lot:

Yes I took the gym challenge years ago when I first got Keo

No I never really had any particular interest in sport despite giving battling a try (it's just all my friends were doing it)

Yes working as a model actually was my first choice in career

Yes even though I'm a boy

No Keo has never caused problems on set (This one really annoys both of us)

Yes the way our gym challenge ended was embarrassing

Nice to meet you all!

(This post made using @worldrouter protocol)

[erik-candidinternational]

Hey if anyone has any information on "mega evolution" please let me know, I don't even know where to start looking regarding the subject, in part because I can't find anything about it off this site

I'm interested in information on how it effects the pokemon, how the change happens and is reverted, as well as any other information about the physical things happening, but I am even more interested in possible causes, ways of triggering it, as well as anything that might make a Pokemon more or less likely to be able to undergo such a temporary form change

[victoria-vd]

how’d you fare in the battle subway? how far did you get?

Ah, it seems that in my excitement, l'd completely forgotten to answer this ask. It went quite well, much better than our last attempt. For someone who has so completely invested herself in Pokemon battling, it is easy for me to forget that the average person may find the idea of 49 consecutive battles extremely exhausting. In hindsight, I probably should not have immediately jumped to the Super Multi Train for Esper's first experience with the Battle Subway.

This past weekend, we instead opted to board the regular Multi Train, which is much less demanding than its higher-level counterpart. This time, we did manage to reach the Subway Masters after 20 consecutive wins, and victory was sweet and satisfying.

Of course, I decided to also try my hand at the Super Double Train on my own the next day, where I fought 48 battles to reach Subway Boss Emmet. He was quite strong, I'll give him that. I nearly lost. Nearly.

In all honesty, I still feel the rush of adrenaline just thinking about it. I'd like to go again and again and again. Alas, I suppose I will just have to settle for sparring my peers in Blueberry Academy to satiate my hunger for battle. For the time being, at least.

[wishmaker-astra]

What kind of endurance training do you even put your team through to be able to do 49 consecutive battles without anyone dropping from exhaustion?

[pockett-monsters]

I'm more familiar with Lumiose street battling and free for alls than the more traditional and structured battles they do in most battle facilities, including the Battle Subway, but large amounts of battles in a night is kind of expected here so I can half answer the question.

It's not just endurance training. Most pokémon have a lot of endurance, way more than trainers, and can handle a surprising amount in one sitting with limited endurance training as long as they aren't expected to pull the same feats without some good rest afterwards. The real key to hitting 20, 30, 40, or more battles in a day/night is keeping battles quick and avoiding having a pokémon knocked out at all, as well as swapping who you're using frequently.

This is easier when you can surprise your opponent and defeat their pokémon before they even know you're fighting than in a more traditional setting but it still applies so?

Pokémon use way more energy recovering from being knocked out or taking a hard blow than they do using a powerful move. Hardcore battlers in the Infinite Royale will retire early for the night if they lose more than 2 or 3 battles or have even just one of their pokémon faint more than once. Otherwise, some of these people are hitting around 30 wins a night. You swap your pokémon around, use different team members, and even swap moves and items around in between fights if you have to.

Winning lets you win longer, basically.

Some people in the Infinite Royale have hit more than 70 wins in a night, but that required switching between 2 full teams and careful planning and everyone coming together specifically to battle that person over and over so... My record is 36 but usually I hit maybe 25-28 wins? If you're grinding out wins, especially if you're aiming for anything significantly over 35 in a night, it's expected you sit out every other night though.

I'd assume similar strategies of quitting early if your teams already been taking a beating and not pushing for high consecutive win counts every single day would be employed in battle facilities.

[wishmaker-astra]

My girlfriend is, quite literally, champion ranked. I'm familiar with the basics.

The rule of thumb she's explained to me is that each pokemon should really be participating in an absolute maximum of five battles per day if you want to avoid decent risk of injuries that put them out for months, and that's at peak of training.

What the fuck kind of endurance monsters have you got over there? Like, both of you.

Like, I don't feel lactic acid buildup, and am made of metal, so like... I could probably do an assload if needed if I ever tried to figure out if I was legally allowed to participate as a battler, but I very much am NOT representative there.

[pockett-monsters]

Well here it depends. If your entire team is fighting every battle, lots of switching and lots of knock outs, you can get maybe 10 if you're pushing it, and that's if you've come in with prepping before hand/a good rest day.

Lumiose street fights are short and tend to come down to who hits who's pokémon first. They're often either a clean sweep or trades after trades. Some can take longer, but powerful plus moves and frequent mega evolution cause anything that isn't known for being insanely tanky often go down after taking just one or two blows. You can't really stall here. Like I said, winning keeps you winning. Even just a few losses or an unlucky moment where a team member gets knocked out can cut off your win streak prematurely in a night. Happens even to the top battlers in the royale.

I grind medals, which means I'm usually carrying challenge cards asking me to catch opponents by surprise, hit super effective attacks or get clean one hit knockouts. Just finishing those challenges makes battles far quicker and way less work. A 25 or more battle night usually involves my team taking as few hits as possible, and only having to really use one or two moves per opponent's pokémon, and then we skip the next night unless we're low on cash or it's a late season rank push.

[wishmaker-astra]

Frequent mega-evo? Are your events like... you're only allowed to participate once a month or less or something? That has GOT to be rough on them. Sure is a skill determining how long you can or should keep going if it's often or potentially even repeat in the same night.

Regardless, surprised that environment isn't dealing with frequent minor-ish injuries that need to drop out just so doesn't get worse by aggravating it.

Also, challenge cards? Like, I can gather from context, but... is it for side pots? How do those get tracked? Or do you have to be recording the whole night and submit it for any payouts or something?

Still, I know that many battles would... not be viable here. Like. For example, the reason why it's an elite four and then champion fight is that it's the max number of battles generally agreed on as reasonable to participate in for any one pokemon. Some leagues require the champ match after qualifying from the elite four to be on another day or another week even. Even if you somehow were to eliminate every opposing pokemon super quick.

[pockett-monsters]

The Infinite Royale runs basically every night, with ranks being reset with a new season every 4 months. You participate in the fights as much or as little as you want, so some people are battling almost every night, but most only make time for it once or twice a week or so. Every night 3 battle zones open up around the city (although depending on holidays or whatever, there may be more or less) and trainers registered compete inside. Winning a battle gets you points, which can be used to rise up in the ranks, and medals, which are converted into money and transferred into your account at the end of the night. People who finish the season at higher ranks get extra rewards (mostly monetary but sometimes battle items and things like mega stones are given out) and achievements on the Infinite Royale app. During the event, extra medals and challenge cards are scattered around the battle zone. Challenge cards give you a challenge that can be viewed on your app, and award extra medals and points when completed. Everything in the battle zones is set up with holograms and other technology created by Quasartico, so there's nothing left behind in the morning. There are cameras set up to watch and keep track of everyone in the zones and everything also interacts with the required app so everything updates live. It can be quite lucrative, so it's really popular even if there isn't a whole getting a wish at A rank promise anymore.

Typically I don't mega evolve Fleur more than once or twice on a night when I compete (although part of that is because of waiting for the mega energy to recharge), and usually only do so when I think I need the extra power or have a challenge card asking for it. Mega evolutions just get stretched out with careful planning so I can use the same amount of mega energy in more than one battle. Usually people use plus moves instead. You use mega power to power up your pokémon for a short time without mega evolving them, meaning even pokémon without mega evolutions can hit as hard as one for an attack or two, without risking the same long term exhaustion.

Most people participating in large amounts of battles frequenting are those consistently ranking in the top 6ish ranks every season. Their teams are used to the push and they've trained and strategized around it, with some even pulling pokémon out of the box in the middle of the night, but injuries do still happen. You typically get a warning for battling with a pokémon too injured or exhausted for it, and if you end up with enough warnings you get kicked from the Infinite Royale and can't win any rewards from it anymore. Sure, you can still show up to a battle zone and pick fights if you're determined enough, but even if you win you can't earn points or medals since your account would be suspended, so no prize money, and people will probably stop fighting you once they realize they aren't getting any points either.

[wishmaker-astra]

... did a jirachi sponsor the event or something in the past?

That said. Plus moves?

Regardless... keep hearing references to mega energy on here in various places. Really wild to hear about, since that... isn't a thing here. Would be interesting to study however, even if it's got to be some sort of emergent phenomenon. As far as I'm aware, and I'm not exactly an expert but what I know of biology here should be enough to say, nothing like... energy infusions like that. Not in a literal sense.

At least there's some controls there to prevent battle sports long term injuries. Those can be... bad... to say the least. Disabling and similar potentially.

Regardless, it still seems like whatever is going on over there, pokemon have way more endurance than over here on average.

[pockett-monsters]

Forgot to respond! Whoops!

No, not an actual wish? More like whoever got to A rank first would get to make a wish that Quasartico would try and make happen. The wish ended up being to continue the ZA Royale, so it's still going now. Personally I would have wished for them to take the bars off the anti-homeless benches or something but I can't complain considering the reward money is how I pay rent.

Plus moves are, like I said, just powered up moves that bring a regular pokémon up to the same level of a mega evolved one. Takes Mega Energy to do, so you still need a keystone for it.

Mega energy is like... a leftover radiation energy thing from The Prism Tower and The Ultimate Weapon I think? I'm not an expert on it, that's like an oversimplified version of how I understand it. Builds up in your keystone and lets pokémon mega evolve. Too much and they can mega evolve without a trainer, which was like a whole thing a few years ago.

[wishmaker-astra]

Oh, yeah, gotcha. Sorry, jirachi. So, like... you know how it is when that specific word comes up. Ok, you don't, but you get the idea.

Regardless... yeah, could have picked something a lot better. Still, it is what it is I guess.

Also, derp, misread the plus move explanation and the temp powerup thing as SEPARATE things somehow. The power of ADHD to induce brainfarts even when trying to carefully read I guess.

Still fucking weird to hear stuff implying that the "ultimate weapon" was REAL. That. Uh. Backed up by actual archeology? Or like... one of several potential explanations of where background radiation came from?

Also, yeah, here mega evolution is a response to specific irritants and the like to trigger biological cascades essentially. Trainers have to be super careful to not let exposure to the stuff go on too long.

[erik-candidinternational]

So I've read this twice and I still don't know what a mega evolution is

[wishmaker-astra]

Temporary metamorphosis. Think what in the common parlance would be called an evolution (even if it isn't ACTUALLY that. Fucking... unfortunately ship has sailed on that. Metamorphosis and life stages everyone, come on), but is temporary.

[erik-candidinternational]

I've never heard of anything like that, that's fascinating. The closest I've encountered is people claiming their pokemon ended up in earlier stages after traveling back in time.

Which. Fuck I thought they were all full of shit and I hadn't thought about it since but Keo literally is in his first form again because that happened to us

Anyway yeah that sounds unpleasant, how's that even supposed to happen? How does the for lack of a better term reversion work?

[wishmaker-astra]

You'd have to ask Lils for more details for here. I'm not a biologist. But it's basically return to normal after stress/"stress" inducing stimulus is removed here.

[erik-candidinternational]

That sounds really interesting? I searched the conspiracy boards and I can't find anything on this there at all, not even those that claim to have gotten here through wormholes have mentioned anything like this near as I can tell (fallers I think they're called on here?) so I don't really have any other threads to pull on aside from asking people here about it I guess

[erik-candidinternational]

I'm trying to remain skeptical of what I read on conspiracy sites, but this place is making it harder what with all the historical figures saying stuff that's verifiable

[victoria-vd]

how’d you fare in the battle subway? how far did you get?

Ah, it seems that in my excitement, l'd completely forgotten to answer this ask. It went quite well, much better than our last attempt. For someone who has so completely invested herself in Pokemon battling, it is easy for me to forget that the average person may find the idea of 49 consecutive battles extremely exhausting. In hindsight, I probably should not have immediately jumped to the Super Multi Train for Esper's first experience with the Battle Subway.

This past weekend, we instead opted to board the regular Multi Train, which is much less demanding than its higher-level counterpart. This time, we did manage to reach the Subway Masters after 20 consecutive wins, and victory was sweet and satisfying.

Of course, I decided to also try my hand at the Super Double Train on my own the next day, where I fought 48 battles to reach Subway Boss Emmet. He was quite strong, I'll give him that. I nearly lost. Nearly.

In all honesty, I still feel the rush of adrenaline just thinking about it. I'd like to go again and again and again. Alas, I suppose I will just have to settle for sparring my peers in Blueberry Academy to satiate my hunger for battle. For the time being, at least.

[wishmaker-astra]

What kind of endurance training do you even put your team through to be able to do 49 consecutive battles without anyone dropping from exhaustion?

[pockett-monsters]

I'm more familiar with Lumiose street battling and free for alls than the more traditional and structured battles they do in most battle facilities, including the Battle Subway, but large amounts of battles in a night is kind of expected here so I can half answer the question.

It's not just endurance training. Most pokémon have a lot of endurance, way more than trainers, and can handle a surprising amount in one sitting with limited endurance training as long as they aren't expected to pull the same feats without some good rest afterwards. The real key to hitting 20, 30, 40, or more battles in a day/night is keeping battles quick and avoiding having a pokémon knocked out at all, as well as swapping who you're using frequently.

This is easier when you can surprise your opponent and defeat their pokémon before they even know you're fighting than in a more traditional setting but it still applies so?

Pokémon use way more energy recovering from being knocked out or taking a hard blow than they do using a powerful move. Hardcore battlers in the Infinite Royale will retire early for the night if they lose more than 2 or 3 battles or have even just one of their pokémon faint more than once. Otherwise, some of these people are hitting around 30 wins a night. You swap your pokémon around, use different team members, and even swap moves and items around in between fights if you have to.

Winning lets you win longer, basically.

Some people in the Infinite Royale have hit more than 70 wins in a night, but that required switching between 2 full teams and careful planning and everyone coming together specifically to battle that person over and over so... My record is 36 but usually I hit maybe 25-28 wins? If you're grinding out wins, especially if you're aiming for anything significantly over 35 in a night, it's expected you sit out every other night though.

I'd assume similar strategies of quitting early if your teams already been taking a beating and not pushing for high consecutive win counts every single day would be employed in battle facilities.

[wishmaker-astra]

My girlfriend is, quite literally, champion ranked. I'm familiar with the basics.

The rule of thumb she's explained to me is that each pokemon should really be participating in an absolute maximum of five battles per day if you want to avoid decent risk of injuries that put them out for months, and that's at peak of training.

What the fuck kind of endurance monsters have you got over there? Like, both of you.

Like, I don't feel lactic acid buildup, and am made of metal, so like... I could probably do an assload if needed if I ever tried to figure out if I was legally allowed to participate as a battler, but I very much am NOT representative there.

[pockett-monsters]

Well here it depends. If your entire team is fighting every battle, lots of switching and lots of knock outs, you can get maybe 10 if you're pushing it, and that's if you've come in with prepping before hand/a good rest day.

Lumiose street fights are short and tend to come down to who hits who's pokémon first. They're often either a clean sweep or trades after trades. Some can take longer, but powerful plus moves and frequent mega evolution cause anything that isn't known for being insanely tanky often go down after taking just one or two blows. You can't really stall here. Like I said, winning keeps you winning. Even just a few losses or an unlucky moment where a team member gets knocked out can cut off your win streak prematurely in a night. Happens even to the top battlers in the royale.

I grind medals, which means I'm usually carrying challenge cards asking me to catch opponents by surprise, hit super effective attacks or get clean one hit knockouts. Just finishing those challenges makes battles far quicker and way less work. A 25 or more battle night usually involves my team taking as few hits as possible, and only having to really use one or two moves per opponent's pokémon, and then we skip the next night unless we're low on cash or it's a late season rank push.

[wishmaker-astra]

Frequent mega-evo? Are your events like... you're only allowed to participate once a month or less or something? That has GOT to be rough on them. Sure is a skill determining how long you can or should keep going if it's often or potentially even repeat in the same night.

Regardless, surprised that environment isn't dealing with frequent minor-ish injuries that need to drop out just so doesn't get worse by aggravating it.

Also, challenge cards? Like, I can gather from context, but... is it for side pots? How do those get tracked? Or do you have to be recording the whole night and submit it for any payouts or something?

Still, I know that many battles would... not be viable here. Like. For example, the reason why it's an elite four and then champion fight is that it's the max number of battles generally agreed on as reasonable to participate in for any one pokemon. Some leagues require the champ match after qualifying from the elite four to be on another day or another week even. Even if you somehow were to eliminate every opposing pokemon super quick.

[pockett-monsters]

The Infinite Royale runs basically every night, with ranks being reset with a new season every 4 months. You participate in the fights as much or as little as you want, so some people are battling almost every night, but most only make time for it once or twice a week or so. Every night 3 battle zones open up around the city (although depending on holidays or whatever, there may be more or less) and trainers registered compete inside. Winning a battle gets you points, which can be used to rise up in the ranks, and medals, which are converted into money and transferred into your account at the end of the night. People who finish the season at higher ranks get extra rewards (mostly monetary but sometimes battle items and things like mega stones are given out) and achievements on the Infinite Royale app. During the event, extra medals and challenge cards are scattered around the battle zone. Challenge cards give you a challenge that can be viewed on your app, and award extra medals and points when completed. Everything in the battle zones is set up with holograms and other technology created by Quasartico, so there's nothing left behind in the morning. There are cameras set up to watch and keep track of everyone in the zones and everything also interacts with the required app so everything updates live. It can be quite lucrative, so it's really popular even if there isn't a whole getting a wish at A rank promise anymore.

Typically I don't mega evolve Fleur more than once or twice on a night when I compete (although part of that is because of waiting for the mega energy to recharge), and usually only do so when I think I need the extra power or have a challenge card asking for it. Mega evolutions just get stretched out with careful planning so I can use the same amount of mega energy in more than one battle. Usually people use plus moves instead. You use mega power to power up your pokémon for a short time without mega evolving them, meaning even pokémon without mega evolutions can hit as hard as one for an attack or two, without risking the same long term exhaustion.

Most people participating in large amounts of battles frequenting are those consistently ranking in the top 6ish ranks every season. Their teams are used to the push and they've trained and strategized around it, with some even pulling pokémon out of the box in the middle of the night, but injuries do still happen. You typically get a warning for battling with a pokémon too injured or exhausted for it, and if you end up with enough warnings you get kicked from the Infinite Royale and can't win any rewards from it anymore. Sure, you can still show up to a battle zone and pick fights if you're determined enough, but even if you win you can't earn points or medals since your account would be suspended, so no prize money, and people will probably stop fighting you once they realize they aren't getting any points either.

[wishmaker-astra]

... did a jirachi sponsor the event or something in the past?

That said. Plus moves?

Regardless... keep hearing references to mega energy on here in various places. Really wild to hear about, since that... isn't a thing here. Would be interesting to study however, even if it's got to be some sort of emergent phenomenon. As far as I'm aware, and I'm not exactly an expert but what I know of biology here should be enough to say, nothing like... energy infusions like that. Not in a literal sense.

At least there's some controls there to prevent battle sports long term injuries. Those can be... bad... to say the least. Disabling and similar potentially.

Regardless, it still seems like whatever is going on over there, pokemon have way more endurance than over here on average.

[pockett-monsters]

Forgot to respond! Whoops!

No, not an actual wish? More like whoever got to A rank first would get to make a wish that Quasartico would try and make happen. The wish ended up being to continue the ZA Royale, so it's still going now. Personally I would have wished for them to take the bars off the anti-homeless benches or something but I can't complain considering the reward money is how I pay rent.

Plus moves are, like I said, just powered up moves that bring a regular pokémon up to the same level of a mega evolved one. Takes Mega Energy to do, so you still need a keystone for it.

Mega energy is like... a leftover radiation energy thing from The Prism Tower and The Ultimate Weapon I think? I'm not an expert on it, that's like an oversimplified version of how I understand it. Builds up in your keystone and lets pokémon mega evolve. Too much and they can mega evolve without a trainer, which was like a whole thing a few years ago.

[wishmaker-astra]

Oh, yeah, gotcha. Sorry, jirachi. So, like... you know how it is when that specific word comes up. Ok, you don't, but you get the idea.

Regardless... yeah, could have picked something a lot better. Still, it is what it is I guess.

Also, derp, misread the plus move explanation and the temp powerup thing as SEPARATE things somehow. The power of ADHD to induce brainfarts even when trying to carefully read I guess.

Still fucking weird to hear stuff implying that the "ultimate weapon" was REAL. That. Uh. Backed up by actual archeology? Or like... one of several potential explanations of where background radiation came from?

Also, yeah, here mega evolution is a response to specific irritants and the like to trigger biological cascades essentially. Trainers have to be super careful to not let exposure to the stuff go on too long.

[erik-candidinternational]

So I've read this twice and I still don't know what a mega evolution is

[wishmaker-astra]

Temporary metamorphosis. Think what in the common parlance would be called an evolution (even if it isn't ACTUALLY that. Fucking... unfortunately ship has sailed on that. Metamorphosis and life stages everyone, come on), but is temporary.

[erik-candidinternational]

I've never heard of anything like that, that's fascinating. The closest I've encountered is people claiming their pokemon ended up in earlier stages after traveling back in time.

Which. Fuck I thought they were all full of shit and I hadn't thought about it since but Keo literally is in his first form again because that happened to us

Anyway yeah that sounds unpleasant, how's that even supposed to happen? How does the for lack of a better term reversion work?

[coffeedragonart]

Its flower sniffing weather 🌻

[wishmaker-astra]

Kinda wild I reliably get breakfast menu preview each day thanks to visions. You'd think that wouldn't be coming up TOO often given everything could get visions about. But. Nope. Here's what the cafeteria will have

[erik-candidinternational]

Maybe its because it's something you think about in an indirect way? Do you tend to have visions about stuff you're not actively thinking about but is kinda lingering in the back of your mind?

[werefeathers]

i love this image so much. his hand

(source)

[wishmaker-astra]

DO YOU KNOW WHAT A QUASI-STAR (BLACK HOLE STAR) IS?

YES

NO

UNCERTAIN

Voting ended onJul 29

[ominous-whispers]

The Mews have a lot of stories about avoiding the bendy stars...

[wishmaker-astra]

Alright, you got me curious. Lay it on me.

[ominous-whispers]

s-SO! the Mews are spacefarers right? They're the main source of our scientists' information on space and how that all works, and have been for I think all of history. They're a pretty nomadic species, and rely on oral tradition and storytelling to keep historical events and information moving around.

the "bendy stars" in the stories are little areas in space where the stars don't look right, as if they were being stretched out or bent in weird ways around what looks like nothing. I'll have to look around in some books to get the full story but!!! The main message in all of them is to stay away, that it's not a good idea to try and investigate it even if it looks really pretty or cool.

Later on they were identified and described and named as that! Black holes, as you call them or "astral lenses" as a more direct translation :3

[wishmaker-astra]

Yeah, I figured that were black holes. But, was curious about other space phenomena you got stories of. I'm an astrophysicist after all.

Also... huh. Spacefaring. Unexpected. And. Uh. Truly ABSURD teleport distances there or something.

[ominous-whispers]

No they fly around they're just really old

ok, no, yeah they do teleport too, I just think it's really funny to imagine them flying the entire distance

[wishmaker-astra]

I'm not sure you fully grasp the distances involved when it comes to space. Like. The standard yardstick is how far light goes in a year.

[ominous-whispers]

Well... they're like, really really old... They don't die or anything and they can get to go pretty fast too...

[wishmaker-astra]

Nearest star to here besides the one we're orbiting is 4.25 lightyears. It takes an absurd amount of energy to get up to even a notable fraction of the speed of light, and anything with any mass cannot reach light speed.

Our galaxy is approximately 87.4 kilo-lightyears in diameter. So sure, they could travel space given those things you've said... but most things they're going to be alone in the void for thousands of years, drifting. By themselves.

Unless they teleport of course. Which is some truly batshit range and would start to bring WEIRD impacts from being able to see thing notably in the past and the like.

[ominous-whispers]

Uhm... Uh.... um...

I'm... n-not really a scientist... I don't know how this all goes :<

But some of them are a lot older than that... It's probable that any given Mew that comes around hasn't been to this planet in several thousand maybe hundred thousand years if at all :<

[wishmaker-astra]

Hrm. That lines up with the claims but... is pretty damn wild. How do they meet up? Space is absurdly vast.

[ominous-whispers]

I... guess I don't really know? Maybe they have a way of navigating I don't know about... enough of them come here that they probably have a way of telling that this place has something in it...

[wishmaker-astra]

Something to ask one sometime I guess?

[ominous-whispers]

If one shows up again while I'm still around I guess... ' 3'

[wishmaker-astra]

How commonly do they visit your planet then anyways?

[erik-candidinternational]

Suddenly realizing how weird it is that there's almost no mention of meeting mew on the conspiracy boards. Or they like, get bullied off for being "religious"

Like people claim meeting all sorts of other Pokemon, but I guess that one's just too "boring" or something?

[galarpokeomclinic]

Could you write a Pokemon guide about Absol plz?

Absolutely!

Absol Species Guide

These Pokemon very common and are easily found in high altitudes across Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and Lumiose City.

-> Absol, “The Disaster Pokemon” (dex# 359)

Despite its unfortunate nickname, this pokemon does not cause disaster, but often tries to prevent them. Through the horn sprouting from its head, this Pokemon has the ability to sense a wide range of natural disasters.

This long, curved horn is embedded with sensitive nerves that detect changes in atmospheric pressure, and is hollow enough that it can feel low-frequency sounds preceding earthquakes as tectonic plates grind against one another. Beyond this, Absols are also sensitive to the planet’s electromagnetic and magnetic fields which can also be disrupted by earthquakes and volcanic activity.

But their horns are not the only way these Pokemon can anticipate disasters. Absol also have a powerful sense of smell as they possess 300 million sent receptors in their noses and have an additional sensory organ (the vomeronasal organ) on the roof their mouth that allow them to “taste” pheromones released by other creatures from emotions, moods, and health conditions.

In the wild, despite tending to be solitary adults, these Pokemon are cared for by both their parents and often have multiple siblings with strong ties to both throughout their lifetimes.

Their distinctive horn grows continuously throughout their lifetime. Newborn Absol start with a small nub that will grow quickly within the first few years of their lives before slowing down at around 4 years. These horns average at around 1ft 5in but can reach anywhere from 8in to 2ft. The longest Absol horn on record was discovered in an archaeological sight in Unova belonging to an Absol who lived approximately 740-780 years ago, its horn a staggering 3ft 4in.

They tend to have shy but protective personalities and are highly observant. Their unique senses and calm demeanors make these Pokemon ideal candidates as service Pokemon.

[ryflezia]

[verdant-lightning]

unsafe working environment

[victoria-vd]

how’d you fare in the battle subway? how far did you get?

Ah, it seems that in my excitement, l'd completely forgotten to answer this ask. It went quite well, much better than our last attempt. For someone who has so completely invested herself in Pokemon battling, it is easy for me to forget that the average person may find the idea of 49 consecutive battles extremely exhausting. In hindsight, I probably should not have immediately jumped to the Super Multi Train for Esper's first experience with the Battle Subway.

This past weekend, we instead opted to board the regular Multi Train, which is much less demanding than its higher-level counterpart. This time, we did manage to reach the Subway Masters after 20 consecutive wins, and victory was sweet and satisfying.

Of course, I decided to also try my hand at the Super Double Train on my own the next day, where I fought 48 battles to reach Subway Boss Emmet. He was quite strong, I'll give him that. I nearly lost. Nearly.

In all honesty, I still feel the rush of adrenaline just thinking about it. I'd like to go again and again and again. Alas, I suppose I will just have to settle for sparring my peers in Blueberry Academy to satiate my hunger for battle. For the time being, at least.

[wishmaker-astra]

What kind of endurance training do you even put your team through to be able to do 49 consecutive battles without anyone dropping from exhaustion?

[pockett-monsters]

I'm more familiar with Lumiose street battling and free for alls than the more traditional and structured battles they do in most battle facilities, including the Battle Subway, but large amounts of battles in a night is kind of expected here so I can half answer the question.

It's not just endurance training. Most pokémon have a lot of endurance, way more than trainers, and can handle a surprising amount in one sitting with limited endurance training as long as they aren't expected to pull the same feats without some good rest afterwards. The real key to hitting 20, 30, 40, or more battles in a day/night is keeping battles quick and avoiding having a pokémon knocked out at all, as well as swapping who you're using frequently.

This is easier when you can surprise your opponent and defeat their pokémon before they even know you're fighting than in a more traditional setting but it still applies so?

Pokémon use way more energy recovering from being knocked out or taking a hard blow than they do using a powerful move. Hardcore battlers in the Infinite Royale will retire early for the night if they lose more than 2 or 3 battles or have even just one of their pokémon faint more than once. Otherwise, some of these people are hitting around 30 wins a night. You swap your pokémon around, use different team members, and even swap moves and items around in between fights if you have to.

Winning lets you win longer, basically.

Some people in the Infinite Royale have hit more than 70 wins in a night, but that required switching between 2 full teams and careful planning and everyone coming together specifically to battle that person over and over so... My record is 36 but usually I hit maybe 25-28 wins? If you're grinding out wins, especially if you're aiming for anything significantly over 35 in a night, it's expected you sit out every other night though.

I'd assume similar strategies of quitting early if your teams already been taking a beating and not pushing for high consecutive win counts every single day would be employed in battle facilities.

[wishmaker-astra]

My girlfriend is, quite literally, champion ranked. I'm familiar with the basics.

The rule of thumb she's explained to me is that each pokemon should really be participating in an absolute maximum of five battles per day if you want to avoid decent risk of injuries that put them out for months, and that's at peak of training.

What the fuck kind of endurance monsters have you got over there? Like, both of you.

Like, I don't feel lactic acid buildup, and am made of metal, so like... I could probably do an assload if needed if I ever tried to figure out if I was legally allowed to participate as a battler, but I very much am NOT representative there.

[pockett-monsters]

Well here it depends. If your entire team is fighting every battle, lots of switching and lots of knock outs, you can get maybe 10 if you're pushing it, and that's if you've come in with prepping before hand/a good rest day.

Lumiose street fights are short and tend to come down to who hits who's pokémon first. They're often either a clean sweep or trades after trades. Some can take longer, but powerful plus moves and frequent mega evolution cause anything that isn't known for being insanely tanky often go down after taking just one or two blows. You can't really stall here. Like I said, winning keeps you winning. Even just a few losses or an unlucky moment where a team member gets knocked out can cut off your win streak prematurely in a night. Happens even to the top battlers in the royale.

I grind medals, which means I'm usually carrying challenge cards asking me to catch opponents by surprise, hit super effective attacks or get clean one hit knockouts. Just finishing those challenges makes battles far quicker and way less work. A 25 or more battle night usually involves my team taking as few hits as possible, and only having to really use one or two moves per opponent's pokémon, and then we skip the next night unless we're low on cash or it's a late season rank push.

[wishmaker-astra]

Frequent mega-evo? Are your events like... you're only allowed to participate once a month or less or something? That has GOT to be rough on them. Sure is a skill determining how long you can or should keep going if it's often or potentially even repeat in the same night.

Regardless, surprised that environment isn't dealing with frequent minor-ish injuries that need to drop out just so doesn't get worse by aggravating it.

Also, challenge cards? Like, I can gather from context, but... is it for side pots? How do those get tracked? Or do you have to be recording the whole night and submit it for any payouts or something?

Still, I know that many battles would... not be viable here. Like. For example, the reason why it's an elite four and then champion fight is that it's the max number of battles generally agreed on as reasonable to participate in for any one pokemon. Some leagues require the champ match after qualifying from the elite four to be on another day or another week even. Even if you somehow were to eliminate every opposing pokemon super quick.

[pockett-monsters]

The Infinite Royale runs basically every night, with ranks being reset with a new season every 4 months. You participate in the fights as much or as little as you want, so some people are battling almost every night, but most only make time for it once or twice a week or so. Every night 3 battle zones open up around the city (although depending on holidays or whatever, there may be more or less) and trainers registered compete inside. Winning a battle gets you points, which can be used to rise up in the ranks, and medals, which are converted into money and transferred into your account at the end of the night. People who finish the season at higher ranks get extra rewards (mostly monetary but sometimes battle items and things like mega stones are given out) and achievements on the Infinite Royale app. During the event, extra medals and challenge cards are scattered around the battle zone. Challenge cards give you a challenge that can be viewed on your app, and award extra medals and points when completed. Everything in the battle zones is set up with holograms and other technology created by Quasartico, so there's nothing left behind in the morning. There are cameras set up to watch and keep track of everyone in the zones and everything also interacts with the required app so everything updates live. It can be quite lucrative, so it's really popular even if there isn't a whole getting a wish at A rank promise anymore.

Typically I don't mega evolve Fleur more than once or twice on a night when I compete (although part of that is because of waiting for the mega energy to recharge), and usually only do so when I think I need the extra power or have a challenge card asking for it. Mega evolutions just get stretched out with careful planning so I can use the same amount of mega energy in more than one battle. Usually people use plus moves instead. You use mega power to power up your pokémon for a short time without mega evolving them, meaning even pokémon without mega evolutions can hit as hard as one for an attack or two, without risking the same long term exhaustion.

Most people participating in large amounts of battles frequenting are those consistently ranking in the top 6ish ranks every season. Their teams are used to the push and they've trained and strategized around it, with some even pulling pokémon out of the box in the middle of the night, but injuries do still happen. You typically get a warning for battling with a pokémon too injured or exhausted for it, and if you end up with enough warnings you get kicked from the Infinite Royale and can't win any rewards from it anymore. Sure, you can still show up to a battle zone and pick fights if you're determined enough, but even if you win you can't earn points or medals since your account would be suspended, so no prize money, and people will probably stop fighting you once they realize they aren't getting any points either.

[wishmaker-astra]

... did a jirachi sponsor the event or something in the past?

That said. Plus moves?

Regardless... keep hearing references to mega energy on here in various places. Really wild to hear about, since that... isn't a thing here. Would be interesting to study however, even if it's got to be some sort of emergent phenomenon. As far as I'm aware, and I'm not exactly an expert but what I know of biology here should be enough to say, nothing like... energy infusions like that. Not in a literal sense.

At least there's some controls there to prevent battle sports long term injuries. Those can be... bad... to say the least. Disabling and similar potentially.

Regardless, it still seems like whatever is going on over there, pokemon have way more endurance than over here on average.

[pockett-monsters]

Forgot to respond! Whoops!

No, not an actual wish? More like whoever got to A rank first would get to make a wish that Quasartico would try and make happen. The wish ended up being to continue the ZA Royale, so it's still going now. Personally I would have wished for them to take the bars off the anti-homeless benches or something but I can't complain considering the reward money is how I pay rent.

Plus moves are, like I said, just powered up moves that bring a regular pokémon up to the same level of a mega evolved one. Takes Mega Energy to do, so you still need a keystone for it.

Mega energy is like... a leftover radiation energy thing from The Prism Tower and The Ultimate Weapon I think? I'm not an expert on it, that's like an oversimplified version of how I understand it. Builds up in your keystone and lets pokémon mega evolve. Too much and they can mega evolve without a trainer, which was like a whole thing a few years ago.

[wishmaker-astra]

Oh, yeah, gotcha. Sorry, jirachi. So, like... you know how it is when that specific word comes up. Ok, you don't, but you get the idea.

Regardless... yeah, could have picked something a lot better. Still, it is what it is I guess.

Also, derp, misread the plus move explanation and the temp powerup thing as SEPARATE things somehow. The power of ADHD to induce brainfarts even when trying to carefully read I guess.

Still fucking weird to hear stuff implying that the "ultimate weapon" was REAL. That. Uh. Backed up by actual archeology? Or like... one of several potential explanations of where background radiation came from?

Also, yeah, here mega evolution is a response to specific irritants and the like to trigger biological cascades essentially. Trainers have to be super careful to not let exposure to the stuff go on too long.

[erik-candidinternational]

So I've read this twice and I still don't know what a mega evolution is

[galarpokeomclinic]

Haven’t been able to post as much as I would’ve liked this week, we’re kinda in the middle of nowhere rn :):):)

Babies’ first geode hunt!! :D

[wishmaker-astra]

Good morning Unova

Got doctor's shit later today, so that's going to be a bit annoying. Also, a couple of the canines in the dorm got into a barking contest at 3AM. It was stopped quickly, but, well, you know.

[erik-candidinternational]

Physically holding back from asking who won the contest

Hope doctor stuff goes well!

[wishmaker-astra]

The louder barker. Obviously.

That said, thanks

[wishmaker-astra]

Good morning Unova

Got doctor's shit later today, so that's going to be a bit annoying. Also, a couple of the canines in the dorm got into a barking contest at 3AM. It was stopped quickly, but, well, you know.

[erik-candidinternational]

Physically holding back from asking who won the contest

Hope doctor stuff goes well!

[peridot-the-photographer]

she only needs one popcorn