U – Undaunted

A high level of nostalgia means that this year my chosen theme for the 2016 A to Z challenge is Pokemon. Whether you yourself have a similar level of sentimentality or you’ve never really gotten into it, I hope that you enjoy this month of posts as I indulge myself.

Playing around with letters a bit today, as U was slightly awkward. U is for Undaunted, Undaunted is the third main expansion of the Pokemon Soul Silver and Heart Gold series of Pokemon Trading Cards, and that brings us to the actual topic today – The Pokemon Trading Card Game. Success!

Often abbreviated to Pokemon TCG, it’s a tabletop game that involves collecting, trading, and then playing cards against opponents, mostly 1 versus 1, much the same as you would in a Pokemon battle. All your favourite Pokemon are in there, and the rules are somewhat derived out of the rules of the games and anime, but obviously, as a card game, it has it’s own set of rules and mechanics, and is very, very different to the video games.

I’ll admit, I never really played much of the card game. I collected the cards, and somewhere around here I still have my original Team Rocket folder with most of my cards in them (my brother stole some of my shiny cards and then lot them, the fiend) so I’m more talking about the game today in an abstract, it exists and there are still loads of people who play it because they release new expansions for it fairly regularly. My local gaming store has a very active card game community, and they do indeed have players of Pokemon. Quite a lot, if I remember the last time I spotted games happening.

So, with card games, you have your cards and you build a deck with 60 cards in it. There are energy cards, which will be one of the Pokemon types, Pokemon cards, and then trainer/items cards. The aim to to get your Pokemon out, evolve them up (potentially, depends on the Pokemon), power them up, and then hit your opponent and make all their Pokemon faint. You win when your opponent runs out of cards in their deck, take all six prize cards (ah ha! I remembered a thing, there are six prize cards you place to one side at the start of the game, and you get one when you knock out an opponents Pokemon), or when your opponent can’t field any more Pokemon. It’s probably more complicated than that, with rules for how you get Pokemon out, evolving them, attaching energy to power moves, but like I said, I haven’t played in forever, I was always more of a collector.

 

Pokemon of the Day

U is for Umbreon

Counterpart to Espeon, Umbreon is the Dark evolution of Eevee, who will evolve after attaining high friendship with Eevee and levelling up during the night. Or it can be exposed to a Moon Shard. It is a black furred mammalian Pokemon, with four legs and a bushy tail, but has yellow bands and circles around various parts of its legs, tail and ears. These markings will glow at night, along with its eyes, and will strike fear into anyone nearby. It hides in the darkness, setting ambushes for people and Pokemon, and will glow as it attacks. In the wild this Pokemon is very rare, and is much more commonly found in Urban areas under the care of people.

As I said with Espeon, Umbreon is one half of my favourite eeveelutions, and at the moment, it just about edges Espeon out, although that can definitely change depending on how I feel at given times. It’s Dark type, likes biting and attacking people, and is generally a bit sneaky. I love its demeanour, its connection to the moon, and how it looks. Definitely has a place on team, when I can get it to evolve that is, it’s a little tricky with the moon and sun timings.

 

U – Undecided

So I had my word picked out for today, because I did have all my words picked out, but then I sat down at the key board, and tried to think of what to write on that word. And I came up blank.

So I went to an online dictionary, browsed through, found nothing satisfactory. I came home, asked my partner, tried to run with his suggestions, got nowhere.

U is a hard letter. I am undecided on what to write today.

And, whoops, there we go, accidentally found a topic.

Undecided can apply quite a lot when I am writing. Indecision is probably a better word, but we’re on a theme here. Often I will have two, or sometimes more, options for what happens next in a story, and I find it really hard to choose which one to go with. What direction do I take the story in, direction A, direction B, sleep on it and see if direction C emerges which is better?

Example: I’m editing chapter 2 of Mechanica Awakening, and I’ve got this scene on the train. I was torn between two options: cutting it or keeping it.

So what did I do? I used my soundboard.

I call him that. He’s a real person, one of my friends, and I talk to him all the time, and he is great for bouncing all my ideas off. I give him the current topic of indecision, often describing the scene and any options involved, and he give me his opinion and often helps me to choose between any options that are involved. He also proofreads stuff for me. He’s excellent.

Considering I often have quite a lot of undecided stuff in my novels, I use him a lot.

Shout out to him – he knows who he is 😛

What do other people do when they are undecided on something?

U – Unusual facts and supersitions

One of the most annoying letters to come up with something for, as I am sure other people doing this challenge understand. Today I’m going to give you a plethora of unusual superstitions, facts, and titbits of information about dragons.

• People thought that a weapon dipped in dragons blood would cause a wound that would never heal.
• A bath in dragons blood could help you see into the future.
• A dragon’s tooth brings good luck like horseshoes and four-leafed clover.
• Dragons are the causes of eclipses, which is when they attempt to eat either the sun or the moon.
• Dragons sighting have been recorded over the millennia. One such sighting was in London, England on 30th Nov 1222, where multiple dragon were seen flying over the city, and may have caused the sever thunderstorms and flooding that came just after they were seen.
• Powdered dragon bone is thought to be a sovereign specific, able to cure any ill.
• Dragon saliva can used as an ink that can mark metal and the base for exquisite perfumes.
• Suspicions abound that dragons can shapeshift into others creatures, but if they can they are so good at acting as that creature, that no one has ever confirmed their true nature.
• If you want to approach a dragon in friendship, take a gift along – a good gift is a drawing of the dragon that you want to befriend, since dragons have some vain tendencies.
• When the world was thought to be flat, the edge of the map was always marked with ‘Here Be Dragons’ as people believed that dragons lived on the edge of the world, ready to eat any unwitting travellers that went too far.
• Dragon are mentioned in the bible: Revelation, Chapter 12 (as well as other places).
• An ancient metallic dragon’s scale makes an excellent mirror, as metallic dragon scales get shiner as they get older.
• In alchemy, a winged dragon represents the volatile elements, and a wingless dragon the fixed elements.
• If a Chinese dragon holds a fan in its tail, it’s female. If it holds a club in its tale, it’s male.
• There is a constellation in the sky called Draco, the dragon stars. The tail sits between the big and little dippers.
• In old England, the leaders of clans were called Dragons, and the King of the clans was called Pendragon (as in Arthur Pendragon, King Arthur and the round table). To slay a leader or king was to slay a dragon as they were just as fierce in battle.
• Vikings carved dragons as figureheads on their boats, so that when they went raiding and came out of the mists, the dragon head would be the first thing that people saw.

And there you go, some unusual facts and superstitions about dragons. I hope your enjoyed – shout out to everyone still doing to a to z challenge, we’re on the home stretch now! Also, have a cute dragon dice holder, I kind of want one, but have no spare money, alas.