Nuzlocke Day 13

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red
The Character: Vera
The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Zatanna

Day 13

Today my team and I ventured into Celadon City. We stopped by the Celadon Department Store to stock up on supplies before heading over to the Rocket Game Corner. We played a couple rounds of slots before I decided it was time to venture into the Rocket Hideout.

While going through the Rocket Hideout, we made many trips between it and the Pokemon Center. On one of these trips I ran out to the house with the Tea Lady, except up the back way. I picked up an Eevee, named him Denny, and then used my Thunderstone to evolve him into Jolteon.

Ivy was killed a few battles later by a very annoying Koffing and its very annoying Selfdestruct. I am extremely pissed that that stupid attack killed my favorite Pokemon!

R.I.P. Ivy

We made our way to Giovanni's lair and pretty handily defeated both his Onix and his Rhyhorn with Frankie's Water Gun. However, while we were battling Giovanni's Kangaskhan, both Denny the Jolteon and Salazar the Arbok were killed by it. We defeated Giovanni and received the Silph Scope before heading back upstairs.

R.I.P. Salazar

R.I.P. Denny

I'm not sure if it's against the rules or not, considering I'd already grabbed an Eevee in Celadon City, but I went ahead and used some of my winnings to buy an Abra. Her name is Zatanna. I just felt weird about going up against Erika later with only three Pokemon... Hell, I might just up and decide to play slots for a while until I earn enough coins to buy a Dratini and whatever else is in the prize shop. Call them rule exceptions or something, since they aren't traded. *shrug* I just don't know.

Love ya, Jessie.

Second Summoning - Review

Intro

Though I haven't had a chance in the last couple of days to sit down and play some Pokemon, I did have a little niggle in regards to a book review I haven't done. According to my update on Goodreads, I finished The Second Summoning at the beginning of this month. It's long overdue for a review, so that's what I've got for you today.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not read Summon the Keeper or The Second Summoning by Tanya Huff, please leave the blog and return later. I'm lousy at keeping my reviews spoiler free.

The Second Summoning by Tanya Huff - Review

The Second Summoning is, in my estimation, mostly a world building book. It's the second book in the Keeper's Chronicles trilogy and, as such, is very much the middle book. We continue to follow the journey, and mishaps, of Claire Hansen, Austin, and Dean McIssac. We are reintroduced to Claire's family, most notably her little sister, Diana. We are then introduced to the world around Diana, which has been made both better and worse through her high school career.

The main drive of The Second Summoning is an accidental creation of an angel who isn't exactly an angel, Samuel, and his demonic counterpart, Byleth. The creation of the angel is caused by a combined effort of Diana, Claire, and Dean. They then must track him down and deal with whatever problems were caused by the demonic counterpart. Of course, the angelic and demonic entities appear to be teenagers and hijinks ensue.

What I found really interesting about The Second Summoning was the way things like angels and demons were dealt with. They are, ultimately, pieces of the "light" and the "dark" with no actual personality ascribed to them. This, of course, changes when it turns out that someone messed up while Samuel was being formed and so he ends up essentially being a teenager. And, as dark and light must be balanced, Byleth ends up as a female teenager. The way the pair are dealt with by Claire and Diana is much more interesting than the moral dilemma they bring up in the book itself. Sam ends up as Diana's cat and Byleth gets sent off to live with an elderly couple she'd terrorized earlier in the book.

As always with this series, there are tons of pop culture references and Keeper/Bystander arguments. We get a much better look at what a Keeper actually does while seeing Diana in school and Claire on the road. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that we got a lot more Austin quipping about various things along the way, because he's a cat and not to mention it would be disrespectful to cats.

I also feel like I do a horrible job reviewing these books. My recommendation is to go out and read them for yourself. They're a lot of fun, even on second or third read-through.

Don't forget to feed the cat.

Love ya, Jessie.

Nuzlocke Challenge - Day 12

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red
The Character: Vera
The Rival: Master
The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Salazar

Ivy

Day 12

Instead of heading straight for Pokemon Tower, my team and I headed back up to the Rock Tunnel. The plan was to battle a couple trainers we avoided while running for the Pokemon Center and pick up a few items we skipped in the Rock Tunnel itself. Some of those trainers were Hikers. I hate Hikers. They exclusively have Geodudes, Gravellers, and/or Onix. Do these Hikers not know that I'm trying to train Pokemon other than Frankie?! Yes, I could totally defeat them with my other Pokemon, but it's just quicker to do with Frankie.

Of course once I actually got into the Rock Tunnel, I remembered I'd taught Flash to my deceased Voltorb, Tinman. I decided not to teach Flash to Rimmer, my Gloom, because he's much to useful to be saddled with Flash. So... there went the plan to collect a couple more items from the Rock Tunnel.

Ah, well. To Lavender Town and Pokemon Tower!

You would think, given the nature of the Nuzlocke Challenge and all the Pokemon tombstones I've been drawing, that Pokemon Tower would be more significant. Yeah... not so much. It's another building I can't get through quickly because Running Shoes don't work in there.

Master showed up as we reached the second floor of Pokemon Tower. He had a God Damned Gyarados! I'm incredibly jealous! A liberal application of Poison Powder and Gyarados' confusion thanks to Thrash too care of it quicker than I thought it would. Ms.Feather and Kors did most of the heavy lifting with the rest of Master's team. True to form, Master's Raticate was nowhere to be found and therefore assumed dead.

On the third level of Pokemon Tower, my team and I ran into Channeler Hope. He Ghastly went a murdered Rimmer! OOOOOOOHHHHH! I'm so mad about that! I went ahead and left Pokemon Tower and Lavender Town after that. I decided we'd try Route 8 instead. We need a Silph Scope to complete the Pokemon Tower thing anyway so... off to Celadon City we went.

R.I.P. Rimmer

On Route 8, we added a level 17 Ekans to the team. I named him Salazar. I was slightly disappointed because I'd been hoping to run into a Growlithe.

Kors has become increasingly annoying with his lack of Accuracy. Even when he doesn't have any hits to his Accuracy level, he misses. Make the damn hits already!

Salazar has so far survived to evolve into an Arbok, so that's heartening. Also, once we reached Route 7, we caught a Growlithe! Her name is Ivy and she's just the fluffiest little thing! I'm so excited!

Love ya, Jessie.

Nuzlocke Day Eleven

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red
The Character: Vera
The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Rimmer

Day Eleven

Back in the Rock Tunnel, my team and I set out to find the exit. Pretty much right off the bat, both Selene and Tinman were killed. One hit from a Geodude and Mankey respectively. I am extremely disappointed.

R.I.P. Tinman

R.I.P. Selene

We finally made it to Lavender Town after that. Not much else to report this time around. Selene and Tinman's tombstones will be up on my deviantART tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

Annabelle Nuzlocke

Intro

Instead of going for my usual episodes of Batman Beyond last night, I decided to watch Loving Annabelle. I figured I'd review it for you today, in addition to my Nuzlocke Challenge update. Also, please forgive any rambling, I've had a tough evening babysitting my nephew.

Spoiler Warning

If you have not seen Loving Annabelle, please leave the blog and return later. Though I try to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible, I mostly fail at this task. Be assured that I won't tell you exactly what happened, but I will more than likely spoil a few bits and bobs here and there.

Loving Annabelle - Review

Loving Annabelle is one of those infamous lesbian movies that gets bandied about whenever one goes to look for a lesbian movie. I personally found out about it approximately six years ago. I refrained from watching it, however, because I'd heard it was also one of those lesbian movies where there's not a happy ending. I'm here to report that Loving Annabelle does not, indeed, have a happy ending. However, since I'm a sucker for these boarding school lesbian romances, I liked it.

Annabelle Tillman is the daughter of a senator who is sent to a Catholic boarding school because she caused too much trouble out on her own and got kicked out of two other schools. Simone Bradley is Annabelle's repressed English teacher and dorm-mother. The pair have a torrid, takes the entire film to actually get anywhere, romance. We are also introduced to Kat, Christen, and Collins, who share a room with Annabelle.

Annabelle is your typical rebel student. She has rather 90's streaked hair, a tattoo, tons of necklaces and bracelets, and a special string of Buddhist prayer beads. It's obvious from the outset that Annabelle has a thing for Ms. Bradley. It's also obvious that Annabelle is persistent and will end up getting what she wants.

Ms. Bradley is one of those boarding school teachers who went to school where they teach and just never left. Except that, it's later revealed, Ms. Bradley did leave the school for a while. She had a partner who was decidedly not male. Also, in the movie, she's attempting to date a male teacher from a different school. Something ended up happening with Ms. Bradley's partner that sent her back to the school. I won't say what, as that would spoil it, but that bit doesn't remain a mystery.

A few random things stood out to me in Loving Annabelle. First, Annabelle's prayer beads. At first glance, they looked to me like a rosary. It's later revealed that they're not and she's punished for wearing them. I didn't really understand why that was. They look exactly like a rosary, in fact, Annabelle is made to wear some giant hideous rosaries as punishment. It bugged me.

The second thing that caught my attention was the ending. I've watched several lesbian boarding school movies and not a one seems to have a happy ending. It's like the writers just can conceive of a lesbian couple having a relationship that lasts out side of the narrative... or something. Like lesbians aren't allowed to have happy endings or something. Mind you, this one is slightly different given the teacher/student relationship, but still.

That's essentially all I have to say about Loving Annabelle. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below.

Nuzlocke Challenge

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red

The Character: Vera

The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Rimmer

Tinman

Selene

Day Ten

My team and I finished battling the trainers on Route 11 before finding Route 12 blocked by a mysterious sleeping Pokemon. *cough* Snorlax *cough* Though our way was blocked, we journeyed back up to Cerulean City in order to take the detour along Route 9 and 10 and through the Rock Tunnel.

On Route 9 we added an Ekans named Severus to our team. Due to the way I try to keep my Pokemon at the same level and therefore feel the need to build up the levels of any team Pokemon, Severus was killed by a Rattata during training. I honestly didn't want Severus to die this way, it just happened.

R.I.P. Severus

After Severus's death, my team and I battled out way to Route 10. There we met a Voltorb and added it to our team. I've decided that Tinman is a male, though Voltorb are actually genderless. He will be the first to hopefully benefit from a revised training program.

The Rock Tunnel proved to be filled with more Onix that you could shake a stick at. However, the first Pokemon we ran into was a Zubat. Her name is Selene. I only hope she fares better than Tanya did. We ended today's journey just outside the Rock Tunnel, rather than inside it, due to my propensity for Pokemon Centers.

Housekeeping

Due to the current state of a baby sleeping in my bedroom, Severus will not be getting a tombstone posted until tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

Nuzlocke - Day 9

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red
The Character: Vera
The Rival: Master
The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Rimmer

Day 9

Continuing our perusing of the S.S. Anne, my team and I were ambushed quite unexpectedly by Master. We took a bit of strategic time beating the crap out of his Pokemon, rather than doing it quickly like we normally would. After defeating Master, we went and obtained Cut from the captain of the S.S. Anne. Kors is my current Cutting Pokemon.

Angelo, my Magikarp, finally reached level 15 and learned Tackle. He became just slightly more useful than we was before, but not by much.

My team and I then went and battled through the Vermilion City Gym. We trounced Lt. Surge and earned ourselves a Thunder Badge.

After defeating Lt. Surge, we decided to take a run through Diglett's Cave. This turned out to be a colossal mistake, at least as far as my team goes. Angelo the Magikarp died fighting the first Diglett we came across. Emmett the Mankey then killed that Diglett. Emmett was killed a few Digletts later. On our way back through Diglett's Cave after obtaining Flash, Ms.Feather just narrowly avoided being killed by a Dugtrio. If she hadn't known Whirlwind, Ms.Feather would have been toast!

R.I.P. Angelo

R.I.P. Emmett

On Route 11, I added a Spearow female to the team. Her name was Izzy. While training her/battling another trainer, Izzy was killed by a Magnemite. So... that was annoying. I'm back to just four Pokemon and kind of pissed off about it.

R.I.P. Izzy

I sincerely hope tomorrow goes better.

Love ya, Jessie.

Nuzlocke - Day 8

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red
The Character: Vera
The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Emmett

Rimmer

Angelo

Day 8

I've never really spent a heck of a lot of time running around Route 6 before. Today though, in order to train Hodgens, my Meowth, my team and I spent a ton of time running from Route 6 back to Cerulean City and then back to Route 6... over and over and over. Route Six yielded nothing except Meowths, Pidgeys, and Oddishes.

Once I decided I was bored of Route 6, we headed to Vermillion City. We obtained an Old Rod from the Fishing Guru and headed back to Route 6. I went fishing and caught a Magikarp. Hodgens killed the Magikarp before I had a chance to throw a Pokeball. Darn...

We then went back to Vermillion City and went fishing just off the coast. Again, I caught a Magikarp. This time, I got him in a Pokeball. His name is Angelo. My notes from today say this: "Kind of hoping I never have to use him. Ever."

Sadly, while battling on the S.S. Anne, Hodgens was killed due to the Poison Point of a Nidoran.

R.I.P. Hodgens

Ugh! I knew I'd jinxed it yesterday! So now Angelo has had to join my team. I'm doing my best to train him as quickly as I can. Lord knows a Gyarados is much more... everything than a Magikarp. Angelo hasn't even learned Tackle at this point!

On the bright side, Rimmer evolved into a Gloom today. We're still working our way through the S.S. Anne. Hopefully... no. Not going there today. We'll just leave it at that.

Oh, and Hodgens' tombstone will be up on my deviantArt shortly.

Love ya, Jessie.