Pokemon Moon Text LP: Part 11 (Patreon)

This is gonna be another shorter one. Not because I haven't wanted to play the game - far from it. It's mainly because there's a bit of a plot dump here, and I do want to try and summarize those instead of skipping over them and assuming that most people reading have already played the game or whatever. So what might be a 2 minute cutscene basically leads to me having to notate everything that happens and then type it up later, and it takes time away from actually getting to explore the new areas.

Before I get started, quick (and ultimately useless) note here - Aleene was taught Hidden Power Rock in the last segment and I forgot to mention this. I also took the time to receive the Meloetta being distributed to the Gen 6 games. I haven't picked it up yet (gotta reset for nature and IVs, yo), but once I do, my living dex will be finished in Y. I kinda hope to finish the Alolan Dex + Island Scan collection in this game before the Bank functionality is opened up, but at the rate I've been going through this, it's unlikely. I'm not going to use the Bank for anything anyway, so it doesn't really matter other than just setting a goal.

So back to Moon. Last time I did basically everything I wanted to on Akala Island (except one thing that I forgot about, and I'll get to that later), so it's time to take Faba's offer and check out the Aether Paradise. Hau comes with me, but Kukui stays behind and says he'll meet us at Malie Garden on Ula'ula Island. Excellent, more names I probably won't remember. While heading out, Hau says that Aether Paradise is being held up by Pokemon. I'm pretty sure he's full of crap, but I choose the "I already knew that" option just to see his reaction, and he actually seemed kinda disappointed by that, so I guess he's right? I dunno, it sounds weird. I know that Pacifidlog Town in Hoenn is apparently build on top of a Corsola reef, but not sure about this place.

Upon arriving, it's immediately obvious that this place is quite a difference from the usual setting of the game. Everything's very sterile-looking and white, and one of the first things we see is a funky triangular elevator that Pokemon ride on. Hala explains that this place is created for the conservation of Pokemon. They also develop new types of Poke Balls here, but you can't actually use them here because of a "jamming signal" that prevents them from working. I'm immediately curious if that prevents you from sending out your own Pokemon, since that seems like it could potentially be an issue in the future, but I find out later that's not the case. I guess it's just like Ghetsis's Millennium Rod from when you fight Kyurem in Black 2/White 2.

Faba seems fairly uppity from his conversation with another new character, in which he insists that she uses his proper title, "branch manager". Jeez dude, this isn't exactly a "Mr. President" type deal here, I think you need to chill a bit. The new character is Wicke, and I still don't know whether to pronounce that as "wik", "wik-eh", "wik-uh", or "wik-ee", but I usually go with "wik-uh" myself. She kinda reminds me of Shauntal from the Unova Elite 4, but looking at their character artwork side-by-side, I'm not really sure why aside from the glasses, and even those aren't similar looking. The one thing I take away from her design though is the weird choker necklace thing that seems to emphasize her chest a bit more than is really necessary.

Wicke gives us a tour of the conservation area where they care for various Pokemon that are endangered, either due to human interference like Team Skull or just natural predators. She admits that it's difficult to judge how much to interfere, since nature has its own way of balancing things out. I find that kind of an interesting thing to bring up, because I assume that sort of thing happens in real life too. It's great to try and help certain species of animals, but doing so might throw off the ecosystem in other ways, and it might be better in the long run to just let things happen. Of course, trying to make up for things like poaching or environmental destruction is a whole other story, so like she said, it's difficult to judge what to do. Not really sure why that line stood out to me as much as it did, it's just not something I expected to see in a Pokemon game. But anyway, she says that the Aether president, Lusamine, has somewhat mysterious motives and doesn't necessarily share them with everyone else.

At this point I'm given free reign to check the area out, so I go down to the other floors and see if there's anything interesting. One of the first things I notice is the fact that they have these giant open doorways that lead to staff-only areas, but instead of using like, a sign or a door or something else that would make sense, they just have guards that yell at you if you come too close. I talk to the various people and get some interesting discussion - one person says that this area is "in direct opposition" to Fuchsia City's Safari Zone, which I never really thought about before. I suppose in a way it is stocked with various Pokemon like Chansey and Kangaskhan that would be quite rare in the wild, so having them specifically brought there to be captured by trainers is a little weird. Another person says that Pokemon can stay in the PC for hundreds of years without aging, which is just weird. I always assumed they were converted to energy and just sort of put into a stasis, but the world is never shown to have this same technology for humans, so it's kind of bizarre. Also, the Poke Pelago seems to be an actual, physical location that your PC Pokemon hang out in, so I'm not sure how that ties into it. Lastly, I get a Stick (hell yeah, STICK FIND!) from someone shipping them out to other regions to help with the Farfetch'd population. What can I say, I find this world-building interesting.

Finally I meet up with Lusamine, who appears to have an entire hang glider for her hair. Hau immediately comments on her age, saying that it's impressive that she's the president despite not being that much older than us. Since it's kinda hard to tell the ages of anime characters, I can't say if he's actually being serious here, or if he's just trying to be flattering. Either way, she responds that she's over 40. This is where I'd link to a clip from The Brak Show where Zorak says "There's a lot you don't know about me! I'm 40 years old!", but I couldn't find the clip after about two minutes of searching, so just pretend that I did. Anyway, a bit of an awkward conversation follows where Lusamine offers to take Hau shopping for a new outfit, and he responds with "one like yours?" Yes, clearly that's what she meant. He says that basically nobody else would pull off her style aside from maybe Lillie, and upon hearing her name, Lusamine and Wicke have a visible reaction to this, but say nothing. Hm.

Then all hell breaks loose. Well maybe that's putting it a bit too harshly, but something's definitely going on. It starts with some kind of massive tremor from the lower floors, which everyone but Luna responds to the way you'd expect - fright, concern, confusion - but Luna continues to make her usual wide-eyed smile. It's almost as if she knows... oh god, it was an inside job, wasn't it.

For once, she actually does have a reaction to something though, as an Ultra Wormhole opens up a few feet away from the group and some kind of giant jellyfish comes out. The jellyfish has a bit of a human shape to it, and (although this is not my own original observation), it kinda looks like Lillie. It has the same shape as her hat and pigtails, at any rate. [Note for clarity - If it isn't obvious, I do already know what this thing is, as well as any others that will show up later. I'm not going to reveal any of this info here though for the sake of spoilers. I also don't actually know if it has any connection to Lillie or not, so I'm not counting that as spoilers.] Lusamine seems generally unshaken by the appearance of this new creature though, and asks if it came from another world. Hau on the other hand wants nothing to do with this, and wants me to "distract it" so that he can save Lusamine. Well gee, thanks. Also, obvious crush, much?

I'm surprisingly given the ability to go wherever I want at this point. Obviously I'm supposed to engage the Giant Jumbo Jellyfish (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu5kmMSvtCY), but it's not anything important, I can go wander around for a few hours or weeks if I want. But even I'm not that bad at procrastinating, so I go ahead and battle it. It has no name in the battle (just showing up as "???"), and as I found out through resetting, it doesn't matter if I actually fight it or not. Running away causes it to leave just the same. The reason I was curious is because obviously this is a Pokemon conservation place, so I wasn't sure if they'd take kindly to me fighting this thing off when it hadn't really done anything yet. But it doesn't seem like they care either way.

After it escapes through the portal again, Lusamine starts acting a bit odd, saying "I still need that Pokemon. I need to get it back", and grinning quite creepily when explaining that it must have been an Ultra Beast. "It looked like it was suffering... Like it pained it to be in this strange place... I can’t bear to see that happen! I will save it. And I will love it!". Oh lord. Just don't name it George. That aside, she sends Wicke to take Hau and I to the next island while they investigate what caused this to happen. Of course, we all know that I was the cause of it all along, so joke's on them. Before we get on the ferry, Wicke gives us some parting gifts. Hau gets some malasadas (of course he does), and I get the TM for Psychic. ... Alright, I'm fine with that. Kind of a weird choice, and I wouldn't consider those gifts equal, but Hau doesn't seem too upset about these events, so I guess that's fine. He even offers me one on the ferry, because he's just kind of awesome that way. Always giving me stuff, never getting upset about anything... oh god, is this what it's like to be a girl friendzoning a guy who likes her? I didn't even think about that. But it's my new headcanon for now at least.

After arriving at Ula'ula Island (not to be confused with "We Dem Boyz Island"), the first thing I notice is that this place is decidedly very Japanese looking. Even moreso than Konikoni City, which had fairly oriental-sounding music (yes, I'm going to use that word) and gave that sort of vibe as well. Before I get a chance to do anything, Hau challenges me to an abrupt battle, and surprisingly, it's actually somewhat difficult. Or I mean, it would be if he had more than three Pokemon, but he actually did manage to take out three of mine. His newly evolved Alolan Raichu one-shotted Aleene with Psychic (a reminder that I need to teach that TM to anything that can learn it), and his Flareon and Brionne weren't exactly slouches either. This is the first time I'm not actually overlevelled, and it's nice to actually encounter some resistance.

Checking out the Pokemon Center, the first thing I find is the now-well-known kid who claims he got a Mewtwo off Wonder Trade. I'm actually not that bothered by the fact that it's unrealistic trade, since I know stuff like that does happen once in a while. I'm more bothered by the fact that Mewtwo doesn't actually exist in the game yet (and even if you hacked one in, you wouldn't be able to trade it because the game blocks you from doing so), and also, this is freaking MEWTWO. You know, that thing that's supposed to be a one of a kind lab creation? Except there's one in Kanto and one in Kalos, so maybe they made more? And also it has Mega Stones, which are usually implied to be ancient artifacts? Ok, now I'm just confusing myself, maybe it's best not to think of these things.

The other point of interest in this Pokemon Center is the TM Shop, so I can say goodbye to even more of my money. I teach the Psychic TM to Aleene, deleting Hidden Power Rock (I told you it was pointless to mention that earlier), and buy a few new ones. Laylee gets Steel Wing and Swords Dance (by the way, gotta mention that this thing sure is getting a lot of physical moves for something with a much higher special attack, but that'll change eventually), El Grapadura also gets Swords Dance, and Ratzenberger gets U-Turn. I also re-teach Hidden Power Fighting to Skeeter, since I thought at first that Leech Life was a special move. No point in having both that and Bug Bite if they're both physical, so I got rid of Bug Bite.

Along the road a bit, I see the entrance to the Maile Gardens that I'm supposed to visit, and Lillie (who I didn't expect to be here) is arbitrarily blocking my way towards the rest of the city. Well fine then, I actually have business back on Akala Island anyway. Remember how I got to battle Ilima after completing the Grand Trial on that island? I can do the same with the Trial Captains on Akala, and I had forgotten about that until now, so I fly back. Now apparently two of them are actually version exclusives, so I won't get to fight Kiawe in Moon. But I can still challenge the other two, so I head to what is apparently Lana's house in Konikoni. There I find her two younger twin sisters, who challenge me to a "moldy battle" (a Rugrats-ism of "multi battle"), and Lana shows up after doing this. They pressure her into a match against me, so we magically warp to Brooklet Hill.

Lana starts out with a Chinchou, and I send out Malone. I'm hoping to start off with a Power-Up Punch strategy like the battle against Olivia, but it paralyzes me early on and some bad luck causes me to only get one hit in. I switch to Skeeter and take it out with a few Leech Lifes. Her next Pokemon is also an Araquanid, and it seems to be a fair bit stronger than mine despite them being at the same level. It outspeeds me and also seems to take hits quite a bit better, so I'm thinking this thing is EV trained. I try to get lucky and burn it with Scald, but I actually forgot that its ability prevents that, so it was a bit of a waste and Skeeter goes down.

Next out is Lena, who beats the Araquanid with an Acrobatics followed by an Aqua Jet to finish it off. This led to a levelup where she tried to learn Sing, which put me into a bit of a hard choice to make. Water Pledge is a good STAB move, Disarming Voice is good for coverage (no other Fairy moves on my team), Acrobatics is pretty strong and also provides coverage, and Aqua Jet is redundant, but a priority move that comes in handy at times. I eventually decide to drop Acrobatics, under the logic that I can just re-teach the TM if I change my mind. Lana's next Pokemon is a Shellder, which I try to sing to sleep and fail at FOUR TIMES in a row. I'm kinda already regretting that decision, but I'll give it a bit longer. After it finally goes to sleep, I switch to Laylee and beat it with a few Air Cutters. Got a Muscle Band from the battle, which I'm not going to use right now but might give it to something in the future.

Mallow's a bit different. To challenge her, I first find her on the second floor of the Konikoni restaurant, and she eagerly agrees to go "play" in the Lush Jungle. Pretty much immediately after leaving, a chef who is apparently her brother shows up and needs her to do something, so I'm given the task to go tell her to come back. At the jungle, there's just kind of a Wimpod hanging around, which she recalls (I guess it was her brother's? Not sure why it was there, though, it might have been collecting some toing or something) and then the battle starts. Kind of a weird way to start that, but sure.

I lead off with Laylee and use Swords Dance, hoping to Baton Pass it off at some point in the battle. Her first Pokemon, a Phantump, uses Confuse Ray. Since it's not a good idea to be confused with an attack buff, I heal that immediately with one of the many "tea biscuits" I've gotten from the Pokecenter cafes. I beat the Phantump with a few Air Cutters (non-boosted, since it's a special move), but not before getting Leech Seeded and also confused a second time. As she sends out her next Pokemon, a Shiinotic, I decide to Baton Pass off to El Grapadura, who unfortunately also gets passed the confusion and seeds. Luckily for me though, the confusion heals itself immediately and I get in a pretty strong Fire Fang. But unluckily for me, I also get paralyzed from its Effect Spore ability. Bleh. I finish off the Shiinotic, but the combination of various status afflictions proves to be too much and El Grapadura faints before damaging her last Pokemon, a Steenee. I sent out Malone to try and make up for his poor performance in the last battle, and with a Power-Up Punch followed by the Z-move All-Out Pummeling, it doesn't stand a chance. After the battle's over, Mallow heads back to the restaurant, and as far as I can tell, I didn't actually get any sort of item for beating her. I will mention that both she and Lana triggered that same "The way that so-and-so looked in that battle seems to linger in your mind..." text, which I'm still curious about.

Abrupt ending. Next time, exploring the first part of Ula'ula Island.

Current status:

http://i.imgur.com/SbfmmNJ.png