Chapter 9 - Reality Check

"Derrick, can you help me wash dishes down here? I could use a hand."

The boy swallowed absently, pressing START on his Gameboy SP and finding the Pidgeot in his team, commanding it to Fly to Fuchsia City. His glazed eyes followed the pixelated bird as it flew back and forth across the screen, carrying Red to his desired destination. The upbeat theme for the City struck up as Red landed, but Derrick instead pressed the volume on the side of his handheld down to mute it, bringing it from his eyes so he could wipe his hand down his face and think. Maybe a run through the Safari Zone would help change the pace.

"Derrick!"

"What is it, mom!?" he called back, trying to coat the annoyance in his voice.

"Come down here and help me with these dishes!" came the equally annoyed response. Derrick snapped his SP shut, placing it on his bed as he slid from atop of it and exited his room, making his way down the stairs as his mother continued to reprimand him: "I had to call you four times before you even answered. If you were that busy why didn't you just tell me? It's probably that game - you've been playing it entirely too much lately!"

"You're exaggerating, mom," Derrick retorted half-heartedly, stepping into the kitchen and finding a clean cloth to help her dry dishes with. "I haven't played it that often."

"I beg to differ," his mother pressed, pausing her washing to place wet fingers at his chin and turn his face toward her, earning her an embarrassed groan from her son. "Look at you. Look at your eyes! You've hardly been sleeping because you've played that game so often."

Derrick softly pulled from his mother's grip on his chin, rubbing the bags beneath his eyes a bit. He will admit, he hadn't gotten as much sleep as he wished. "It's not the game, mom," he murmured, wiping along his face once more. "My system's back light won't work with this game, so I can't play it into the early morning or anything. It's been those nightmares." His mother's expression softened a bit at that.

"The one from those other times...you're still having those?" she asked. As her son nodded, she crossed her arms and pursed her lip, eyes concerned. "That's strange. Usually recurring dreams like that mean something special." Derrick gave a light shrug, resuming his drying duty. When he was reluctant to meet her eyes, she raised an eyebrow. "Derrick, you can't hide forever. If you're having the same dream over and over, then you probably should begin digging up a few skeletons you may have forgotten to confront."

"Maybe..." he responded, biting his lip.
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Derrick maneuvered Red through the Safari Zone, pacing the character back and forth in the tall grass, even making him stand still and simply facing him different directions to save steps, hoping for a good Pokemon.

"Dude, you're hopeless," remarked Scott, peeking over at him from his phone and smirking. "I'll never know what you see in those sorts of games."

"It'd be awesome if I could find a Chancey," she whispered to himself, having not heard his friend, running or throwing bait at various wild Pokemon as he went. As he gradually became more bold in his steps, making Red walk more and more instead of reserving steps in the Zone, the bells sounded for his time to quit. "Bah," he blurted in defeat, watching his character return to the Safari Zone's lobby.

"No luck?" his friend muttered with a roll of the eyes.

"Hmm?" came the absent reply. Scott's mouth curled into a frown.

"Okay, screw that game!" she blared, bring his phone to his lap. "Turn that thing off and let's actually do something! We haven't been hanging out that much this summer. Let's go find you and me a ladyfriend so maybe this summer won't be so dull, because all you've been doing when we hang out is play on that stupid SP and hardly pay attention to the world. I don't know what your deal is lately, but we need to get you...Derrick...wait, are you okay?"

Derrick lifted his face toward his friend, exposing how clammily white it had become so suddenly. The boy doubled over a bit, nausea filling his mind and stomach. He saw his friend come to his aid, fanning his head, shaking him, shouting into his ear, but the more nauseous he got, the less he could hear or feel Scott with him. In fact, he couldn't feel or hear anything, it seemed. With painful gradualness, his nausea subsided, and he found himself in Pallet Town.  He also saw Red standing, staring at his small house.

"I thought we were supposed to be in the Fuchsia City," she muttered, hoping almost that Red couldn't hear him.

...I did, too. But we're here again.

Derrick looked around. He knew Pallet Town's tiny structure like the back of his hand, but it seemed surprisingly quiet now. There was no heartfelt background music like he was used to, and everything looked excessively static.

It's a bit strange, Red muttered, still staring at his house. Derrick joined him after a bit of wandering, looking  over to his his eyes pasted to the building.

"What's strange?" he asked, hoping that would draw his eyes from the building. It was beginning to unnerve him.

Well...many things, actually. It's strange that we somehow are back to the beginning place after a run in the Safari Zone, but...it's more strange how little I know about this place. God...was I born here?

"Well, yeah," came the boy's reply, as he leaned back against one of the rows of fence erected near his house. "You were born here and lived here until you decided to become a Pokemon master."

But that can't be...I don't know anything about this place. I don't even remember being raised here. Derrick swallowed as Red's eyes finally broke from the house to meet his own. The first thing I remember from this place is waking up in a room and going downstairs from this house and finding my way into tall grass, where I met Professor Oak. I had never met him before then. I had never met my rival, either. Even my 'mother'...

"That's your mother, Red," Derrick tried to reassure him. Red's eyes blazed for a moment at the remark. He beckoned Derrick follow him into the house where his mother sat at the table staring at the wall opposite from her.

This is my mother? Does she know anything about me? Does she ever mention me to other people?

Derrick couldn't respond. He only bit his lip and stared at Red's less-than-neutral expression.

She says the exact same thing whenever I talk to her now. Before I met Professor Oak, she would tell me that kids my age normally leave home, but after I started training Pokemon, she simply heals my team and wishes me off. She doesn't ask me to sit down and talk about my travels, or compliments me on how well I've been raising my Pokemon. She's...she's hardly even human!

Derrick watched the sprite of his character's mother as it remained perfectly still, most likely waiting on her son to talk to her so she could heal his Pokemon. She couldn't believe how right Red sounded.

I couldn't have been born here, from a static mother who talks about only two things, and with people I hardly know...God, where was I really born?

Intermission

So, I know I haven't posted a blog in over a month now, and for that I am extremely sorry! Then again, it is Christmas time. And with that being said, also mentioning that I just finished exams and am now being thrown into the situation of helping relatives prepare for Christmas, I still don't have a ready blog to post yet.
I'll be posting on Christmas Day, however, I promise! I have a new chapter almost ready by then, and soon after that, probably that Friday, I'll be posting another Pokemon White 2 blog, so keep an eye out for those two posts soon!
I'd also like to mention that my boyfriend is visiting me on the 29th, so I'll have one more period of no posts during the week that he's here, then I'll be back on schedule like usual. I promise. ; w ;

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season so far!
- Churl

Pokemon W2 - Grumblings

Laziness cupcake

Warning: This blog post may or may not contain spoilers. Just to be on the safe side...

So why did I draw a cupcake instead of my team? Well...let me be honest...I had one, but I'm finding that I really don't enjoy drawing Lucario. Besides, the cupcake is of Litwick, my newest team member, so be happy! It's cute!

Luz (Litwick) ♀ - 35
Cesar (Serperior) ♂ - 37
Eris (Krokorok) ♀ - 37
Luke (Lucario) ♂ - 37
Corro (Crobat) ♂ - 37

Alright...I decided, since honestly, the game's been running pretty much exactly how B/W ran, I'm going to spend today talking about a few things I dislike about this game...and this generation as a whole.

1. Difficulty

Now this, kids, is MATH.

A friend of mine gave me Pokemon Red the other week, and though I have played multiple times through Blue and Yellow, I decided to give it a play-through, mainly to see what was different about the variety types. Every time I go back to these older games, I remember how freaking DIFFICULT they could be at times. I mean, yeah, you had the simple formula of catching good Pokemon, leveling them up until they could stand a chance against trainers and the gym leader, but in those days, you didn't have fancy movesets, abilities, natures, characteristics - all that nonsense. You learned...maybe 12 or so moves in the ENTIRETY of your Pokemon's existence, unless you wanted to use a TM on it. When you finally got  Pokemon who used Hyper Beam, Thunder, or Earthquake, you were God.

Now everything's all fancy. Now, don't get me wrong - the characteristics and natures and whatnot are cool additional aspects to the game. It gives more complexity to your Pokemon. Not every Pikachu has the same exact stats anymore. Zigzagoon use pickup to get you cool items, Sandile and their evolutions get an attack boost every time they knock out an opponent; it's awesome! But there are other aspects that kind of annoy me now.
For instance. Remember how when you got a Pokemon on your team poisoned, you hightailed it back to the Pokemon Center and healed it up before it fainted? I do, too. Remember how in Pokemon HeartGold, your Pokemon would somehow magically heal from its poison a point away from fainting? Yeah, that was kind of annoying. Well, I got a team member poisoned for the first time in this game, my Flaaffy, actually (I was leveling it up). Well, I start heading back toward the Pokemon Center, when I noticed something. There was no flash on the screen, no bleeping sound telling me that an HP had just left my poisoned Pokemon. That just makes me sad. I want it back! I want my challenge back!

2. Technical Machines

Speaking of TMs, this frustrated me a little when I started playing Black. Normally, when you would pick up a TM on the side of the road, you would often either sell it if you knew you weren't ever going to use it, or you'd keep it for a special occasion, for when you got the right Pokemon to use it on. You'd then carefully chose which Pokemon you'd give it to, and the TM was gone. Well, as you probably have guessed, you get to keep all the TMs you pick up. Now, I know this has its good side as well, but I'm going to go back to the difficulty aspect on this. I think that letting you reuse TMs over and over takes away from the special feeling you got when you picked up one you really wanted to use on your team. For example, Thunderbolt (TM24), Flamethrower (TM35), and Ice Beam (TM13) were three of the most sought after moves, for me. They were raw, and powerful, and usually difficult to obtain. And after I would get them I would usually keep them until I found the right Pokemon to use them on. Now, whenever I get them, I can just throw them all out on anyone that's compatible and not give it a second thought. It takes away from the special feeling you get when you find a TM.

3. Freaking...Hugh

I just don't like this guy. He's melodramatic; he's excessively Sasuke-esque; he's easy as nonsense to beat in battle...I mean, at least Cheren and Bianca provided a challenge, in that they popped up to battle in the absolute LEAST opportune places, particularly in ones where I hadn't healed up my team. I'm sorry, guy. I wanna like you. Maybe you'll grow on me later.

Sorry for the ranty blog post. Hopefully I'll have more productive things to say next post.

- Churl

Pokemon W2 - I luff this game~

Dis my pic. Click to make big n' stuff. 

WARNING: This blog post will, *most likely*, contain spoilers. 

Before I go any farther, please lemme remind you about how dissatisfied I am about the variety of wild Pokemon you experience in this game, at least toward the beginning. I need a water-tyyyyyyype! ; A ; Alright, done. 

Midnight (Zorua) ♂ - 25 
Luke (Lucario) ♂ - 30 
Eris (Krokorok) ♀ - 30 
Cesar (Servine) ♂ - 31 
Corro (Golbat) ♂ - 31 

Okay, real talk. I'm not personally a fan of Pidove and his evolutions because...well, just meh. He's a little boring. But I kinda want a flying-type, and I know that they had Zubat in the sewers of Castelia City, so broke down and got a Zubat, because frankly, Crobat is one of my favorites. Also...I have a Zorua now. I'm in Driftveil City at this point, and you get a Zorua droppe off on you when you get there. He's cute, and he has pretty decent stats, but I'm not sure...I already have a dark-type Pokemon on my team, so I'll just have to see what happens with him. I'll train him for a while, at least. But anyway...

Alright...this pleases me. As I'm slowly plowing my way through the game and finding out new things, I'm finally beginning to realize that the gym themes are more various now. I mentioned in my last blog post about the ambient bug-like music in Castelia's gym, and I experienced the same thing when I got to Nimbasa. I PROMISE I won't post about every gym's music, but this really excites me, considering I had grown almost more-than-used to the generic gym theme whenever you enter a gym. But anyway, back to Nimbasa. If you played B/W, you remember that Elesa, Nimbasa'a gym leader, is a fashion model. In B/W, you challenged her in an amusement park. In this sequel, they changed things up a bit. You can still access the theme park, but now you get to challenge Elesa on a freaking RUNWAY. Like, a catwalk runway. This music here is what you hear when you've beaten all the trainers and have only her to defeat. It is SO cool. No lie.

But yeah. I'm in Driftveil City, now, and it is the hosting spot of your Pokemon Tournaments. Now, I realize that this aspect of the sequel was well-advertised before it even came out in Japan, but I never thought that you'd get to experience it so early on in the game. I thought it would be an extra for after you beat the main storyline. but nope, it's PART of the storyline. It's enjoyable, albeit a bit stressful at times. Mainly because the first match you have is against your rival, and he has a Tranquill that knows Roost. I'm sorry, but that is BITCH MOVE. Otherwise, you get Battle Points to redeem, and it's a cute idea to help plan battle strategies.

M'sorry for the abrupt edit. I'm a silly person who doesn't do her research enough.
- Churl

Pokemon W2 - Creepy Crawlies

Picture es small. Click to make big.
WARNING - This blog post WILL contain spoilers.

So, I've done a bit of changing around with my team. Here's who we have now.

Cesar (Servine) ♂ - 20

Maverick (Darumaka) ♂ - 20
Luke (Lucario) ♂ - 21

Eris (Sandile) ♀ - 22

Maverick is a bit of a...guest team member for now. Mainly because I'm not the fondest of his stats and would prefer a different fire-type, but I'm not in the best shape, currently being in the Castelia City gym, filled with bug-types. I also released Ross. He won't hold up well in the next few gyms, if my predictions of where I'll be headed next are true. But yeah, I'm in Castelia City now, and am looking for Team Plasma with Hugh.
Oh, by the way, this is Hugh:

Instead of Cheren and Bianca being your companions in this one, since it's two years from the prequel, you get this little twirp. He means well, but JESUS CHRIST, he's like a Sasuke for Pokemon. Don't get me wrong, he does mean well, cares about his Pokemon and whatnot, but he's a little churlish! (Neheh...churl-ish.) Regardless...back to Castelia City.

M'kay...this is more of a personal issue than anything else, but people who know me - my boyfriend, my parents, my close friends - will all tell you that I'm not at all fond of bugs. By bugs, I mean insects, spiders, crayfish, (except Corphish...Corphish is adorable) and everything related to creepy creatures. Over the years of playing Pokemon, I've become okay with them being around. You have the occasional gym and whatnot that'll be host to Bug-Type Pokemon and I've been just fine. Well...y'know how Burgh's Bug-Type gym was all art and honey? Oh no...it's not pretty and gooey anymore. It's THIS:

Pardon the quality...

You stand in front of these cocoon sort of things and they SUCK YOU UP and DRAG YOUR BODY down a thin tube to another part of the gym so you can eventually get to burgh, hiding up top in a creepy sort of rainbow art room. Go look it up. Not only does this new gym design resemble an actual hive, but listen to this background music! ; n ;

No me gusta. That is all.
Sorry this post was a bit longer than usual. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game thus far, though. <3

- Churl

Pokemon W2 - Pretty Graaaaphiiics~

Das my picture. Please don't steal it. I like it. ; n ;

WARNING - The following blog post may contain spoilers.

I'm not gonna lie, guys, I was relatively surprised at this game. I mean, I've never played an actually sequel to a Pokemon game. Yes, Pokemon Coliseum had a sequel, but it didn't necessarily have a 2 beside it. But I digress. Say hello to my new team. <3

Cesar (Snivy) ♂ - LV 16

Luke (Riolu) ♂ - LV 18
Ross (Flaaffy) ♂ - LV 18

Lemme get this out of the way, first. I love the variety the game gives you this early in the game. I have a freaking FLAAFFY and RIOLU. I really can't complain too much. I look forward to some more variety later on in the game, but for right now, I'm stoked with the team I was able to scrounge together. I had a Purrloin named Coya at the very beginning, but I can't deny, after I started seeing Mareep and Riolu, I knew I would end up having to make some difficult decisions with making my team.

Anyway, I'm pretty satisfied so far with the gameplay. Not only have they shifted the story line for the game, but they've improved a bit on the graphics of the game. They're mainly small little things, but they've added some touching animation to the game. For one, your battlefield is more animated! What I mean by that is, well, blades of grass move when you're in battle on a grassy field. Plus, all of your opponents have animations as well. I had noticed that a little bit in some of the previews, but I never imagined that they'd let your Youngsters and Lasses have their own animation at the beginning of battle, too. Like I said, small stuff, but they make a difference, to me. If you have a copy, see how many little details you can pick up on. 

Another difference I noticed is that you have a bigger map of Unova to explore. Your character starts out the journey not from Nuvema Town, which you see at the very bottom right of the map, but in Aspertia Town, at the very bottom left of the map. I find this to be rather interesting, because you still have only 8 gym badges to collect, to my knowledge. Three of your gyms are new, and this makes me wonder if you get to interact with the other gym leaders in the game.

I'm not exactly far in the game, but I've beaten past the first gym, which happens to be your good pal Cheren, who is now a Normal-type gym leader. And yes, Team Plasma makes a comeback; I'll make mention of them later on in this little tutorial. So that's that, a little summary of how things are running thus far.

By the way, I PROMISE that I'll have a new chapter up for Glitchy Red Retold. I just recently got a small break and I'm working on it as we speak. 

OMG YES PLEASE

Do you see this? Here, look - I'll show you:

This is a box. For the new freaking Pokemon game. I bought Black for the previous one, so I figured, why not get the opposite for the sequel? So yes, I now have in my possession the game of Pokemon White 2.

I'm gonna do something fun with this. Remember back in the day when I used to do semi-walkthroughs of different games? I think I'll do one for this game, too, only this time, I'll be a first-timer.

...And this is where I grow sad inside. You see, it is midterm week, and I have much to finish and turn in before Wednesday, when I'll finally be in my fall break. I may play a few minutes here or there between now and Wednesday, but I won't have anything to post most likely until this weekend, so be patient, and I'll whip up a nice blog sequence for White 2. <3

Also, I know I've been neglecting my story remake of Glitchy Red. Have no fear, though. I promise you - no, I pinkie promise you, I'll have a new chapter up by this weekend as well. Hope you'll like it. :D

-Churl