paladinlost | 80th moon [video]

Well, I would hope it's only this landmass. I'm sure agriculture would be an absolute nightmare otherwise, as you'd probably get a horrible famine every winter if you couldn't stockpile enough food to last until the next growing season.

Considering the limited amount of land allotted to farmers in this land, I'm surprised famine is not already a problem. I've no doubt their agricultural technology is more advanced than anything I'm familiar with, but considering the size of the local population...

Honestly, I think the majority of the agriculture takes place somewhere we're not allowed access to, given that they don't seem to have a problem sustaining the population. They have to be getting that meat from somewhere, as it certainly doesn't seem like they're getting it from Pokemon.

Or at least they refuse to admit it, if it's the case. Yet I've never seen any other animals. If their claims are the truth, either their meat is human flesh or it's not truly meat.

[He's sincerely hoping for the second option.]

...there are far less morbid conclusions to draw from that, aren't there...? Surely there could be more traditional animals or edible Pokemon somewhere we don't have access to.

Considering the usual sentience and awareness of Pokémon, it's not that less morbid... Though if there is a region out there with normal fish, I'd be quite happy to hear of it.

Hmm... I suppose not. Though, I have come across several references to Pokemon eating other Pokemon within the Pokedex, which is disturbing in and of itself if you think about it too much... or assume it's true to begin with in the first place. I've seen plenty of entries that seem highly improbable.

And yes, I agree wholeheartedly. Though, if they've made some sort of extremely close substitute, they've done a quite impressive job of it.

Such as Yamask being the soul of a diseased human, or Gardevoir creating black holes. When I asked the girls to try it, they started laughing.

The taste is quite the same, I admit it. But can we be certain that it's just as healthy as the original?

Didn't something happen around last October that confirmed some Yamask may be the souls of deceased humans, though? While I was a bit busy attempting to catch as many different kinds of Ghost Pokemon as I could, I seem to remember seeing some instances of possession over the network. Though, things like Gardevoir being able to create black holes and Slugma being hotter than the surface of the sun is laughable.

If it was lacking in some way, I'm sure we would have noticed by now. After all, there have been people who have been living off of it for, what, three years now? Though, it's definitely something to look into.

Some may; in fact, it's quite probable at this point. But the Pokédex implies that it's the case for them all, and yet they can be bred by anyone with a compatible partner. Barring some terrifying implications about the local afterlife, those should be human soul-free. Though there's always the possibility that they were merely exaggerating slightly...

A few of us have been here about that long, yes, but I can hardly use my own health as a guideline. My lifestyle is extremely different from the one I have at home, and I've been eating fresh Blissey eggs daily for over half that time.

Oh, yes, of course. Granted, none of us have ever actually seen someone here truly die, so it really makes me wonder where they're getting those human souls in the first place.

Oh, mine certainly is as well, though I can't say my health has changed for the worse. I've been attempting to eat roughly the same way I did at home, though with... allowances for budget.

[...though, as much as he'd loathe to admit it, having to travel everywhere on foot for over a year has actually done wonders for him. ...not miracles, but he's not quite as much of a skinny squishy wizard as he was last April.]

There is always the possibility of deaths by old age; as far as I know, none of us have observed the local elders over the years. If they were brought back to the Pokémon Centers after "death", at some point they'd do nothing but reappear there over and over.

[Which doesn't sound like a very pleasant fate.]

And allowances for products that are simply not available in any shape or form, I assume. I know I've not seen some of my favorites here.

[Johto: the best fitness camp there is.]

Which I would hope doesn't happen, of course. At the same time, this world shows now signs of overpopulation-if anything, the population here actually seems to be less dense than I would imagine of a modern society.

Things... actually match up to my world fairly well in that regard. Which is odd, given that it's different in so many other respects-many berries I've seen seem to resemble fruit from my world with some strange twist to them, but they're completely inedible unless you're a Pokemon. The only kinds of fruit that actually are edible are fruits that also exist in my world.

Edited 2013-07-16 05:35 (UTC)

Is it, really? There are more people here than in most of my world put together, so I've never paid attention to the population density, but I guess you'd know better.

The berries do often reference normal fruits, though I cannot recognize them all. It surprises that we can find both coexisting here, considering that all animals were apparently replaced.

Hm, is that so...? I suppose this place's population is denser than some rural areas of my world, but given that there are numerous cities that aren't too far apart, it's less dense than I'd expect it to be-especially with the apparently nonexistent death rate.

Yes, I definitely agree. Though... berries and normal fruit seem to occupy different niches, given that normal fruit exists primarily for nutrition while berries seem to have different kinds of positive effects when Pokemon eat them. It's different from how Pokemon and regular animals would interact, I think-many of them seem like they would occupy the same niches as their equivalents, and I honestly can't imagine a scenario where the Pokemon wouldn't outcompete its animal equivalent.

Could it be that the population was denser as befitting the closeness of their cities, but that their numbers have dropped recently? We were taken from our worlds and brought here; the opposite could also have happened.

The ability to poison regular animals or set them on fire would give Pokémon an undeniable advantage, but that means little. My world has both powerful magical monsters and normal animals, and all thrive easily enough. Then again, as their habits and roles are not the same, they are less likely to compete in the first place.

I'm sure we would have heard something about residents of this world disappearing all of a sudden... perhaps not if it was only one or two people, but if it was enough of a problem to make a dent into the actual population density then most certainly.

Yes, it's more about competition than anything... if normal cows, pigs, sheep, fish, and whatnot exist somewhere in a domesticated form, it's not too surprising that they're still around. They have a niche in the agricultural sector that things like Tauros, Mareep, and Miltank can't really compete with, given that they're inedible.

However... well, I can't really claim to know what the ecological balance is in your world, but in this world, it seems as though the majority of Pokemon serve as actual replacements for regular animals, which complicates things. It would be one thing if there were powerful magical monsters here existing alongside regular animals, but it seems more like they are one and the same here.

Considering we've heard nothing about their government, I'd not underestimate their ability to keep important information hidden from us.

...If Pokémon caused most regular animals to die out simply by being better at the same tasks, that would explain why we cannot find any sources of meat. The cows and fish would not merely be domesticated; they'd also be heavily protected perhaps even kept away from any wild or trained Pokémon.

Do they even have one, I wonder...?

Precisely. Even with the only competition being Miltank and Tauros, domesticated cattle are less resilient and would have a difficult enough time fending off a regular wolf, much less one that can breathe fire. Though, I have to wonder where in this world wouldn't even have trained Pokemon, given how ubiquitous they are...

I would say that someone needs to approve the construction of new streets and bridges, but it's not as if we see any.

There's always the possibility that a particularly superstitious group reacted badly to their existence centuries or millenia ago and refused to train them, but they'd have to be extremely isolated from every other society here to not have changed their minds.

Perhaps it's all local? ...Though, I doubt that we'd be able to find out if it were.

Well, I'm sure that only allowing Pokemon that are fairly gentle like... say... Chansey and Audino wouldn't hurt, though both do seem to be rare enough that it might be impractical.

You'd think the Jennies would be willing to tell us more about it, considering that they'd have to be working for the government in the first place.

It would also offer a source of both emergency healing and eggs, in Chansey's case, but they do learn a few attack moves. That could be a strike against them.

True, but they're a bit... strange themselves.

Well, unless they had a temperament completely unfitting their species, that would probably just make them better assets as guards. Chansey and Audino don't seem like the sorts that would go around wantonly attacking regular animals and their attacking power isn't particularly strong to begin with, so I doubt that would be much of a liability.

But exactly would be considered an unfitting temperament? The Pokédex mentions certain traits that are supposedly universal to certain species, yet I see exceptions to those more often than not.

That's what I mean, I suppose-something you'd assume of a Pokemon from a first glance and from the Dex entry but isn't necessarily true. I'm sure you'd need some sort of screening process to make sure they fit the sort of personality people assume Audino and Chansey have, of course, but if that could be ensured, they might make decent guardians.