Surprisingly, I’m kinda hoping we don’t go for Poliwrath… simply because if memory serves there are not many options for Fighting attacks in a while, probably just Focus punch and whatever comes level up or relearner, and a bunch of weaknesses are gained. And I’m sure the King’s rock can be found in the Slowpoke Well once access to Strength (and possibly Surf) are gotten.
But hey, we finally got more team members and another gym taken down! This is going to be good regardless.
Bye-bye demon cow! I was concerned for Arietty, given that she's weak to rollout, but you've made it through unscathed. Even if Jake's prone to being distracted by the sexy... I wonder where he got that trait from? *cough*
Pokéathlon? It's been too long. I vaguely remember how it works, but not the pay outs because 2500 points for a stone seems crazy, though I am comparing that to the battle tower equivalents. Hopefully it's not that bad and you can score points easily enough.
I'm not a fan of clothes shopping. The best thing about it is it being over. I've got a body shape that's difficult to dress too, so if I find something that works for me, I stockpile so that if one gets damaged then I've got spares. I still have an unworn pair of jeans from four years ago, just because I bought three pairs and I'm still on pair number two...
…Oh my god, double battle trainers in Johto will straight up refuse to fight you if you only have one Pokemon! You're FAR better people than trainers in Sinnoh
While there's been lots of positive developments in Pokemon games in recent years that make them mechanically better to play, do you think any aspect of them has become more inconvenient?
Looking at the swirly belly pattern wound up making me think of time and time travel and then Professor Layton and the Lost Future, and then I cried, as I did the first time I played that game.
How To Train Your Dragon is a banger film, and also contains one of the only good male gaze scenes, wherein the male protagonist is staring lovingly at a woman in full neck-to-ankle leather armour as she whips her hair in front of a massive explosion that she just caused.
I've never read the Borrower books, but Studio Ghibli's Arietty is a goddamn adorable movie about a friendship between a boy and a girl the size of a bug, who's a perfect namesake for a bug the size of a girl!
I have a doggo!! I rescued him from a shelter when he was a pup and he's my pride and joy! He comes to the nursing home I work for to visit the residents :)
Oohhhhhh, they DO sell evolutionary stones here! I'm pretty sure the prizes rotate on the daily, so we'll have to come back and check for Fire and Water stones…
I pretty much hate everything about clothes shopping but especially dresses and pants as a thin-waisted short person with big thighs. I have to get everything hemmed. I do like buying fun socks
@songwithnosoul Okay I'll go through your comments in the usual order but first, I am DELIGHTED by the pictures of your baby old man! He's looking so handsome for his age, so floofy and smooth! Thank you for sharing him, he's a delight <3
Oh, I did! After I read this, when I was petting him in bed, I told him all about the nice things you said about him and that these cuddles were sponsored by you.
I'd graduated by the time HeartGold came out but there was a girl in my brother's high school class who was a runner and for a pound a day she'd put your pokewalker in her bumbag before heading out on a run. A natural entrepreneur, that one
What a lucky catch! Just as much of a match for Whitney as that traded Machop they put in the game specifically as a counter to the murdercow. I love to see it!
Same! I actually like this Jigglypuff sprite? I think they've hit a good size for the eyes relative to the body that doesn't ignite some kind of weird primal terror in me. She's genuinely adorable! She's downright babey!
Of course, these team pictures are really cute. And you arranged for a good composition, too! Jake goes behind you because he's the only one who'd really be visible, and as the broadest Arietty goes in the middle! It works!
I love getting to scroll through this towards the end of the game and see how my babies have grown <3 It was kinda fun getting photos again in Kalos, but it sucked that you couldn't get your whole team in the photo with you. Let me express the power of friendship, god dammit Game Freak
I never thought about it like that, but stuff like contests and the Pokéathelon must be such a nice break from the constant life-or-death of the actual battles if you're nuzlocking.
Oohhhhhh, they DO sell evolutionary stones here! I'm pretty sure the prizes rotate on the daily, so we'll have to come back and check for Fire and Water stones…
What are your favourite and least favourite things about clothes shopping? My favourite is just buying Snag tights, because they're cute and they're COMFY, and startlingly hard to destroy. I've got a few pairs that I've had for multiple years at this point, some that I've slept in, and they're just fine. It's amazing. My least favourite is hemming trousers, because anything that fits on my hips is always about five miles too long for my legs. So much hemming... how about you?
Hah, I have to hem all my pants like that too. I sympathize. Those tights sound like a good deal, though! As for me... I can't say that I have a favourite thing about clothes shopping, or that I have ever enjoyed it at all. Even before COVID it was just a thing to get through, and after it's something actively try to avoid. Don't like being in close quarters with so many fuckers who refuse to even wear masks...
Dex Entry
Between long periods of dormant slumber, this writer rises again for periods of activity that leave piles of dead fictional Pokemon in their wake
@Time Master Eon I do most of my clothes shopping online these days because honestly it's so much quicker and less stressful… also most online shops have sizing guides on them so instead of having to try stuff on you can just take your own measurements and get something comfy. I need more comfy t-shirts, I did a cull recently of stuff I no longer care for and now I'm short…
@Garnet jeans and a graphic t-shirt are a timeless classic ✊ Though I have started liking some more feminine stuff now that I buy from companies like Snag and Lady V, which make really comfy stuff with pockets! Shopping online on sites with good sizing guides is starting to be something I genuinely like, which is wild XD
NUZLOCKE MERCH?! C'mooooon, payday… The Weep'n Bell design is cute as fuck, thanks for sharing that link!
@PageEmperor I'm playing these unmodded (because, y'know, nostalgia) so I'm afraid Poliwrath is our only option for fully evolving Claire, but I've never used one before, so I'm looking forward to it!
@Black Viper Attractive women are 4x supereffective against Chu and her whole team 😞🏳️🌈
Don't worry, the Pokeathlon payouts are MUCH better than the Battle Tower—it's usually a few hundred points at a time, unless you really fuck it up!
Glad I'm not the only one who stockpiles jeans… I also have a stockpile of ones that are still good, I just need to patch the big chub rub holes in the inner thighs, and as soon as I crack how to do that, I'll never have to buy jeans again
@Spectacles Every guide is like "lol Falkner and Bugsy are so weak" UNLESS YOU'RE SOLOLOCKING WITH A CHIKORITA MOTHERFUCKERS! It's all good, though, Jake is clearly the superior boy <3
I have never met your doggo but I am already certain that he is just the GOODEST of boys, please give him many pets from me and tell him how wonderful he is on my behalf <3
Oh my gooooood, you just gave me flashbacks to spending AGES trying to get a Shiny Stone for my Togetic in my SS run before realizing that I couldn't get that until after the League, and I'd have to go through it with Toby as a fragile wee Togetic… he made it, though!
Literally it's gonna sound like I'm shilling at this stage but I genuinely love Snag tights because they also do ranges of skirts, dresses and socks and everything they do is well-sized for larger folk, I got big shoulders and big hips and everything I've gotten from them fits really well and is COMFY, and most importantly the dresses and skirts have pockets! Lady V of London also does dresses that look cute and fit well if you're not a stick figure, and again, pocketsssssssssssssss <3 I am steadily achieving my dream of dressing like a curvy Ms Frizzle with these two companies
@songwithnosoul Jake and I have earned The Lady's favour with our hard work in the early part of the run, and so She graciously gifted us Arietty just in time for Whitney's gym <3
Truly, the lesson of all military history, now distilled for nuzlockes: boring and alive is much better than dramatic and dead!
I made Cameron a paparazzo in B&B, which is… basically the same thing as a stalker, honestly, they just get paid for it XP
I live for and by online shopping, because goddammit I hate being in physical stores. Bad for my feet, stressful, and I'd much rather just take my measurements and check the sizing guide than spend ages in a changing room trying stuff on. I don't think they even wash this stuff between people trying it on! No thank you I will shop online and pop stuff in on a cool wash before putting it on. Between Snag and Lady V of London I am steadily achieving my dream of dressing like Ms Frizzle, though. If I could afford the shipping, I'd like to shop at NerdyKeppie, but unfortunately the Atlantic makes shit expensive >:(
Hello and welcome back to my HeartGold nostalgialocke! Last time, we got our third badge and headed for the Pokeathlon! This time…
-Awful kazoo cover of the OG theme tune-
You know what the Pokeathlon was great fun on? Your DS' touchscreen! You know what it's horrible garbage to play on? Your laptop's trackpad mouse! This is the terrible price of piracy
IIRC, the games on the Power Course might be easier, though, especially the brick breaking game. For Power, Arietty's pretty obviously the team leader, though everyone else is pretty mid since they're all unevolved.
Regardless, let's give it a go! By the way, it probably goes without saying, but the whole Pokeathlon thing is visually, and in terms of events, heavily based on the way Japanese schools do Sports Days, or Undokai. Now, I don't know about you, but at Scottish Primary Schools, Sports Day is usually a day where you don't have classes, you go run around in a muddy field for a bit, then have a picnic with your family and get to go home early. I don't remember it ever being a big deal for anybody. It was probably fun if you were one of the athletic kids, but as one of the fat kids who preferred reading, I was just there to throw stuff in the throwing games and then go home early. They're a whole production at Japanese schools, though, or at least, at all the ones I worked at; Kids also put on performances singing and dancing as a class between sporting events, there's huge covered picnic areas set up for all the families and teachers, and the events are INTENSELY regimented and competitive from middle school on (and probably in some of the more expensive grade schools). My favourite that I went to was for one of the kindergartens I worked at; have you ever seen 300 3-to-5-year-olds sing the Totoro song together before all the 3-year-olds have a somersault race? That shit was ADORABLE. I got to yell "ganbatte!" to the kids I recognized from my English classes and help the 5-year-olds count the results of the beanbag toss. It was very blessed. You'll have seen plenty of Undokai if you've watched any high school based anime ever, because it's considered one of those major significant events in your school life, especially if you're in a sports club. I'm not a big fan of making kids be super competitive--it should be as fun to take part as it is to win--but I just love the sheer effort and gung-ho the Japanese put into things. Like, hello, we're Scottish, if we didn't hate ourselves so fucking much we could've made a whole wee Highland Games out of our Sports Days! Make school fun sometimes god dammit
My high school didn't have Sports Days, but the main extracurricular sports teams were the hockey team (which was girls-only) and the rugby team (which was boys-only) and every year the S6 hockey and rugby teams would play each other at first rugby, then hockey. Generally, the hockey team won both, because the gender segregation tended to make the rugby boys underestimate the sheer bloodlust of teenage girls given weapons, and also the rugby team would call off their practices a lot more because of the weather while I distinctly remember attending hockey training once during a thunderstorm and our coach pointing out that there were a ton of lightning rods on top of the school so we'd be fine down ont he pitch and to focus on our drills. That woman was also responsible for such pearls of wisdom as "it's not a foul if the referee doesn't see it" and "it's their own fault if they're not wearing shinpads". Ahh, the highs and lows of high school sports
Anyway, this one's always been my favourite for racking up lots of points FAST when grinding for evolutionary stones.
Took me a minute to orient myself since the hitbox for the blocks is tighter than I thought, but I didn't have to switch out Arietty once due to tiredness, which is pretty solid! My girl STRONK 💪
This actually went better than I thought it would—the click-and-drag controls work better on my laptop than the dashing on the speed course challenges.
My pro strat for this game consisted of leaving Jake and Abby to guard the goal while only running around with Arietty because this girl does NOT tire
There's a million and five wee bonus prizes for various stuff, let's skip on to the main event…
That's my girls! And Jake! Fully did not expect to actually win any of these thanks to control issues, but you can still rack up points pretty quick even if you lose on the right courses
Another day, though. I'd like to go nab a sixth teammate and I'm pretty sure Claire's close to evolving…
On we go! God every piece of art for the National Park is SO PRETTY <3 Lookit the wee Sunkern in the flowers!
I'm thinking that Abby's going to have a GREAT time in Morty's gym!
Right, let's crack on!
Honestly, Sudowoodo's really adorable in this gen, it's almost a shame I can't catch it. Almost. Abby's still cuter.
Once again, Jake clears all obstructions in our path!
Cool, thanks! Hey, is it only berries that grow in these? I think Jake would like a few more of those magic leaves, if you know what I mean…
And now we get a hammer, too! We're almost all tooled up!
So, is there a sixth teammate to be had here…?
Adorable, but a dupe…
Never used one of these guys before, this should be interesting!
Reality distorting, hmmmm…?
I've never quite been able to get the animated 2010 film The Illusionist out of my head even though it was strange and melancholy and kinda sad and I'm not sure if I even liked it. It just came along at a time when all the animation I was familiar with was either very kid-centric western cartoons or Japanese anime, and here was a completely different kind of western animation for telling a very different kind of story, very visually emotional with minimal dialogue. It's a French film, and I can't remember if they'd even bothered translating it because there's so little dialogue; the relationship between the titular illusionist (Tatischeff, though I needed the internet to tell me that since I don't think it's ever stated in the film) and the wee girl he befriends and sort of adopts in Edinburgh is told almost entirely visually.
When will Intimidate return from the war
With a full team, I can no longer skip double battles, but now I'm curious about doing a full sololocke in these games sometime…
These two hit you Sinnoh-style from different directions; what happens if you're doing a full solo run? Will you still be double-teamed by beautiful women? Hold on
Fucking hell it took longer to take down this packet of murder marshmallows than it did to beat Whitney, I gotta start spreading out the Fighting moves on this team
Thank god we're inches away from heals, though we have to go through this cutscene first
It's nice that he's highlighting how significant technological development is usually an international team effort! Shame he's no longer building a time machine, though, I always liked what an utter bugfuck explanation that was for backwards compatibility
Oh yeah, there's an Eevee to be had there… but I've got Astrid now and I'm very happy with her <3
Aye, that Gengar's no joke… but I've got a power-chompin' pupper!
Honestly I think IRL geisha should be allowed to have guard dogs--I saw a couple in Kyoto and both times they were surrounded by tourists taking photos and having trouble getting through to their actual jobs
Probably, but if there is I promise it's capitalists, not The Globalists or whatever the latest dogwhistle is
Good idea, there's training to be had in there!
Speaking of people being weird and creepy about geisha. This is not to undermine strippers who are also professional entertainers who deserve safety in their workplace, they're just working a distinctly different performance style from geisha, who these days are mostly working to preserve traditional dance styles.
She's going on notalwaysright.com IMMEDIATELY after this
Your pigeon liver hurting you, is it?
Hey, what happened to your surfing, dancing Rhyhorn? Not shitting on Psyduck but it does seem like a touch of a downgrade
I don't think it's a generational thing, obaa-san. Arseholes are timeless.
Aren't you a trainer? Actually, I get if you feel professionally prohibited from beating a customer's ass mid-show even if he is being a jackass. Don't worry, I've worked retail, I'm downright excited for the chance to beat up a customer!
Especially one who is apparently one of my employees and yet clearly hasn't read their fuckin handbook.
Yea
And who the fuck are they, bucko? I'm the boss here, and frankly I think "lowest team rocket grunt" is a fuck of a lot higher than you can hope to aspire to.
Look I respect you as a professional performer but I do not appreciate folk talking about me behind my back, especially when they're doing it in front of my face
Now THAT'S a theatrical souvenir! Not that I don't utterly love the tiny wee pink OSK Revue umbrella I got at a takarazuka show in Kyoto; there were a big group of middle-aged Japanese ladies who were clearly big fans of the company, and were really excited to see my girlfriend and I there and gave us the wee umbrellas so we could take part in dancing along to one of the songs, and insisted that we keep them them afterwards. it was such a lovely wee gesture, and the show was SO much fun; we got up on stage during an audience participation bit to learn one of the dances, and I felt very gay about the woman playing the hero who struck down the spider-youkai (...and also the woman playing the spider-youkai. Takarazuka is very gay okay).
Getting Surf is also a hella cool souvenir tho
Challenge fucking accepted, tell em to meet me in the pit
Protip 1 for picking up women: Don't be a fucking coward. Protip 2: Try actually talking to them and find out if they'd even be into you as, like, a human, instead of expecting romance as a reward for dramatic heroics.
Awww fuck yeah
This is another version of the itemfinder that I really like for ease of use—oh my god is the squirtbottle a Squirtle watering can, I need that in real life, It would pair perfectly with my Bulbasaur plantpot
LORE! LORE! LORE! LORE!
Very socially responsible of them! I strongly suspect that they are VERY good puppers
This is such a hopepunk philosophy session of a plot signpost, I'm kinda charmed, especially since it's entirely optional dialogue and not being forced in a roadblock
I dunno I've heard any meathead can kill it with a rock
Ominous, but a really fuckin cool setpiece!
We'll start exploring that next time! Did you have Sports Days at your school? Did you enjoy them at all? I've always been a shite runner so I always hated the races that everyone had to take part in, but I had a mean throw at the shot putt and javelin. In general, I'm at my best in any sport where I get a weapon, which is why I enjoyed hockey so much in high school >:) How about about you? Until next time, thanks for joining me, and haste ye back!
Dex Entry
Very rarely, it hyperfocuses for days on end and produces a finished project. Despite this, it won't stop starting more that it never completes.
That woman was also responsible for such pearls of wisdom as "it's not a foul if the referee doesn't see it" and "it's their own fault if they're not wearing shinpads".
She's right! It's not illegal if you don't get caught :) We never had sports day at our school, really, though we had, you know... They called it gym class but they never really taught us anything about exercising or how to warm up properly or anything, they just sort of threw whatever random activity at us and said "good luck." The mile was the worst, even more than [The FitnessGram PACER Test is a multistage aerobic capacity test-], I just straight up refused to run for it and they haaaated that lmao. I was the dodgeball king as a kid tho, and kicked ass at foursquare during recess on the few occasions I played :p
My favorite fun fact about the Pokéathlon, since we're here - Of all the Pokémon species, there are only five species capable of attaining a perfect 5 stars in every Pokéathlon stat - Mew, Arceus, Giratina, Ditto, and Sunkern. You heard that right, the Pokémon with the (at the time) lowest base stat total of all stands on the champion's podium alongside three physical gods and a piece of gum that can turn into anything and everything. That's fucking awesome imo.
This is another version of the itemfinder that I really like for ease of use—oh my god is the squirtbottle a Squirtle watering can, I need that in real life, It would pair perfectly with my Bulbasaur plantpot
Pokémon has such fun watering cans, I'm amazed I've never seen official merch of any of them just out in the wild. Johto has the SquirtBottle, based on a Squirtle, but other regions have other designs - Hoenn's Wailmer Pail is designed around, you guessed it, a Wailmer, Sinnoh has a Psyduck-inspired one in the form of Sprayduck, Kalos has the Lotad-based Sprinklotad... Honestly, I feel like TPC could make good money selling those as actual watering cans. A quick search suggests they've done the Sprayduck and SquirtBottle already, but this is the first I've heard of them, and no such signs of the other two. Personally, as a Hoenn baby, I'd drop fat stacks on a Wailmer Pail and Sprinklotad I'll never use. Get on it, merch teams :p
Stantler! You'll love Tatischeff, he's a great pokémon, even if their natural learnset peaks early and they need TM support later. Still. STAB normal is great and he comes with a ghost move... Abby's a beautiful fire pupper, but she's got a rival in handling Morty now.
I remember trying some of the Pokéathlon on my laptop and having similar reactions. Some games were very easy, others were very hard, and I even played around with slowing down the game to try to abuse that but it wasn't worth it. In the end I just stuck to the power course because it was the best source of points.
I do wonder what the deal with the Kimono girl here is, though, because you're told by an NPC that she's a capable trainer, but she only fights when necessary... isn't this necessary? Is there a version where the protagonist doesn't step up and she has to defend herself?
Primary school sports day involved everyone doing all of the same events one afternoon and parents/family being there to cheer you on. I think everyone got a ribbon and there were some classics like the egg-and-spoon race, the bean bag toss and a three-legged race. The eggs were wooden and there was no penalty for dropping them, other than having to stop to pick them back up.
Secondary school sports day was a full day affair and families were not invited. You had to do one track event, one field event and then, I think, three more events to fill up a card and they had teachers on each activity to sign them off. People that failed to handed in a card with five completed activities would be punished, not because the school took it seriously, but because people tended to bunk off and they didn't like that. I was a pretty quick runner, so I should have filled my card out with track activities, but these were staged throughout the day, so you had to turn up to the track at the right time... so I did the first one of the day and then four field events so that I could get it over with as soon as possible. I'm not built for the shot-putt, but there wasn't much of a queue for it, so it was quick to do and that was my real aim. Do what I needed, don't worry about the score, spend the rest of the day loafing around. Ah, memories.
I don't think my Elementary School had anything like that but I was taken out to be homeschooled pretty quickly because apparently my teacher had a grudge against me.
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