PIRATES Retrospective

Melanie Ipu - Spastic Witch, Temporary Goddess, and Living Dumpster Fire
played by Kraken

Trainer Classes: They changed a lot throughout the builds, but for the endgame they were Ouroboros (Dancer/Hex Maniac gestalt), Ghost Ace, Arcanist, Glitch Bender

Mel started the game as an occult-obsessed socially stunted 4chan-esque shitposting hikikomori who despite her appearances actually was very capable regarding the supernatural. With little to do at home in Snowpoint, she took an offer to join PIRATES in Wakino, where she quickly learned how to become a near constant ball of stress. With the help of her allies (who had an unreasonable amount of patience), she opened up throughout the campaign and ended up remarkably well-adjusted given the path it took her to get there: she had a psychic awakening (and consequent breakdown), researched black magic, did some supernatural drugs and broke her first girlfriend's heart, killed some pokemon to gain their power, got briefly possessed by a Missingno before letting it merge with her to become a fledgling goddess of the region, somehow managed to get another girlfriend who she also tried to dump unsuccessfully, encountered an alternate reality version of herself who she nearly let sacrifice her, got beat up by her allies when they went to stop the alternate reality version of her, studied glitch magic in blatant opposition to their extradimensional patron and mysterious ally Mother Swanna, worked to establish her divine presence, freaked out and passed her divinity on to her current girlfriend, faced betrayal alongside the rest of the party from one of their old allies, unsuspectingly consented to join a gestalt goddess triumvirate her girlfriend created at the end of the campaign to betray the whole team and remake the world as she desired, got beat up by her allies AGAIN, freaked out, and then the world ended. And despite all of this, she came out the other side with more love and trust for her allies than ever before, she became the new ghost gym leader in the Wakino region, and she eventually would have a few kids, fathered by Knox.

Melanie's build revolved around support in general, whether it be to aid allies, hinder foes, or just provide utility. By the end of the game, she also ended up fairly defensive, being able to intercept attacks with punishing reactions. Because her Glitched Existence (geddit, like the Edge) was resolved with the new reality, her post game build swaps Glitch Bender for Attack Ace for her place as a Gym Leader. As a result, most of her pokemon tended to end up as weapons of mass destruction. Speaking of which, as a collector of ghosts, she had entirely too many and a lot of them were constantly cycled in and out, so these are some of the more notable ones.

Main Pokemon Team
-Reeve the Type Wonky Gyarados - Reeve had a complicated history, beginning as a ghost/dragon, then merging with Melanie as a god, then popping back out later as a glitch/dragon, then reverting to a ghost/dragon when their glitchiness was cured in the reality rewrite.
-Sleight the Zoroark - One of her two starters, which was eventually ritualistically ghost-shifted. He liked soap operas and could actually illusion himself and speak as one of the characters.
-Po the Gengar - One of the first shadow pokemon we encountered and definitely one of the most dangerous.
-Cole the Hydreigon - As Reeve was still a glitch at the time, Cole was ghost shifted and raised to be a flying mount/siege engine of destruction.
-Adorbweaver the Ariados - Her second starter. Despite being a standard Ariados, he saw some of the most consistent usage early game, because as it turns out spiders can be really, really useful in a party lacking in flying mons. He eventually got a mega stone, and while he didn't get to see much use by then, his post-game stats are horrifying.
-Nezhako the Celoopa - Celebi/Hoopa hybrid. While it was simply something I obtained shortly before endgame while misusing powerful relics I wasn't supposed to be screwing with, it is so much fun to use.

Memorable Moments/Misc Bullshit/Whatever
Kraken: My favorite thing about the game has less to do with any individual thing that happened within the game and pertains more to the game itself. I really liked how well we played together. Everyone seems to have had a lot of fun playing their characters, and once our roster settled, we definitely bonded over the course of the campaign. Things definitely got heated every now and then, but we generally had enough respect for one another to take a breather and figure out our differences. And it was really cool to see that OOC synergy trickle IC, making it easier for us to keep up with and interact with the other PCs, which then rebounded back OOC to make us (or me at least) more emotionally invested in the game. This campaign definitely got me through some tough times, and long story short, playing Melanie let me realize I'd be happier transitioning gender. Everyone involved has been fantastically supportive since I started, and I can't overstate how grateful I am. So, to everyone who ever had any involvement with PIRATES, thank you.