( in preparation for the inevitable autobiography ;D )
ENTRY #1 - Saturday, July 16th
Well, I never thought I'd find a use for one of Yaryar's musty old journals, but here we are! Following my tragic fall from grace after an attempt at valiance, I was outcast here to the fuckin... boonies or whatever. I've managed to grab some decent friends amongst the riff-raff. I'm still not sure if I can really trust everyone, but hey- we've already gone through some trouble together at camp and wound up closer for it, so I'm pretty optimistic!
Just so I can track their progress, here are my friends so far in order of most- to least-trustworthy, and also their contest rankings because that's fun!!
- Sherman Teyelelelele-whatever -
- Blond nerd, likes frog and frog-adjacent pokemon a lot for some reason
- Only one who hasn't backstabbed me once yet! Until proven otherwise he can do no wrong, sorry I don't make the rules
- Jack Broiler (Broilem, Broiley, something like that) -
- Redhead BBQ boy, may make me drop my pescatarian diet lmao
- DID lie to my face once BUT otherwise has been very nice, real peacekeeper type. Will probably help cool any fires I start, which is funny because he's got a big flame on his apron
- Theo G... Grangley(??? it starts with a G I think) -
- Blond guy with loud headphones and a funny cat
- Also does some musical things, though we aren't very in sync yet. Also completely totally magical, because magic IS real, and having a magic dude around is sick as hell
- Lily Hickory - (only remember because her dad's a professor. leafs are easy to remember)
- Black-haired chick in a big hoodie -r̶e̶m̶i̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶K̶i̶k̶o̶ ̶:̶(̶-
- I stg a 60 year old accountant masquerading as some emo teen. But said she'd help make me famous and I feel like she has that kind of power??? But x2 she's also the reason we got in huge trouble earlier. It's complicated.
Anyway, I'm going to actually start this sucker up a little before we actually started out. Yesterday we learned a bunch of crap about the Jamborees (which I'm going to win!!) and the Gym Challenges (which I'm also going to win!!) which are the BIG DEAL EVENTS that trainers do in Croli to get in the limelight.
- The Jamborees are like, Pokemon Contests, but local. You need to get 4th place or up in 5 contests to qualify for the Grand Jamboree, and you can do better in those by doing your research on what the judges like and catering to their interests, which sounds easy enough.
- Meanwhile, gym challenges are easy- you just have to find the 8 squares they labeled as the most important trainers in the region and beat em in battles to qualify for the finals by November-December-ish, then beat up the best of the best out of the other gym challengers, and then beat up the Elite 4 and be the BEST best. Apparently the region has two champions that get decided by the final battles, so I hope my eventual partner-in-crime there doesn't fall too much in love with me ;)
Also learned about some sketchy people to look out for!
- Team Catch - the swamp cannibals we found in the woods a while back that tried to kidnap me! Apparently their whole deal involves catching a bunch of Pokemon and releasing them en-masse where they don't belong. Something about how all Pokemon should be available everywhere? I get wanting to be accessible, but if it's obviously doing more harm and everyone smart is telling you that's bad, why do it? Obviously they just suck, just like my sis Tita >:(
- Children of Demeteros - Some creepy horror-movie rednecks who act all pacifistic and friendly to try and get you to join their cult. Somehow they're so popular they even get celebrities to join them? Ngl I know I can be pretty easy to convince sometimes so I'm glad we're traveling in groups so I don't get got.
Oh, and some people who are, good or whatever are the SRO (Southern Ranger Outpost) and the NRO (Northern Ranger Outpost) which are full of, you guessed it, Rangers. I don't really see the glamour or interest in doing ranger-y stuff but someone's gotta do it.
Then today, the last day of camp, all the families were there e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶o̶w̶n̶ which was okay! Kinda funny to see what everyone's relatives are like. Sherman's dad is some fancy contest judge, and his mom takes pics of things randomly just like he does. Jack's dad was almost just like him but taller/louder/older- he had a whole conversation on the phone about meat-cooking methods? Very on brand. And Theo's older sis came over from the nearby college w̶o̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶s̶ ̶y̶a̶r̶y̶a̶r̶ and seemed way out of place with the old people, haha. Lily's dad ditched apparently though, which was both good and bad since he didn't get to watch Lily's Pokemon get beat up by Bean. Dunno if Theo's sis'll give him a hard time, since he got Beaned as well, but eh. He'll win the next one I'm sure.
BIG SPOOKY THING happened after that though, apparently Bekah (girl who likes poison types) was taken away semi-by-force? I didn't really get what Lily was saying, but we needed info so we started super-sleuthing the shit out of the campground. And by that I mean going where all the other kids were and approaching the first one we saw that was jock-adjacent. Some square named Cody had some info we needed, but we had to battle him for it, so being the strongest and most fun-to-watch battler I of course w̶a̶s̶ ̶v̶o̶l̶u̶n̶t̶e̶e̶r̶e̶d̶ stepped up to the plate.
Unfortunately all superheroes have their kryptonite, and mine is M̶y̶ ̶e̶x̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶b̶o̶y̶f̶r̶i̶ ̶b̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶e̶x̶-̶s̶w̶e̶e̶t̶h̶. Zanzan. I had been a bit thrown off by his hair being similar, but what really threw me over the edge was that he had a Taillow. I could barely stand seeing the thing in the first place, but having to watch it get hurt? Because of ME? It was miserable. Fortunately I'm, obviously, very strong-willed, so of COURSE I won.
I had to get away from those rancid vibes though, so I ran off and climbed the tallest rock I could find and just... stared at my phone for a while. Two weeks ago it was buzzing 24/7, but ever since I was ditched I've been completely cut off. My family (not like I'd want to talk to those backstabbers), my so-called friends... Zan... guess I wasn't that special to any of them after all.
Thankfully, there are some people in this world who know a real star when they see one, and Jack and Sherman scrambled all the way up Teen Angst Rock just to make sure I was alright. It was the nicest thing I think anyone's done for me since I got here, so I gave them a bit of the deets on what had cracked my otherwise-impenetrable confidence. I̶ ̶h̶o̶p̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶w̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶i̶t̶-̶
All in all a good end to a shit day. Tomorrow will be better.
ENTRY #2 - Sunday, July 17th
GOD I'm exhausted what the fuck. No one told me walking for 6+ hours would be such a drain. I got so much gravel in my kicks :( let me start from the top though.
As we were leaving camp I was gifted a pokemon from Theo- a huge, strong plant thing with massive chompers. Decided to name her Verne, and even though she shakes hands by biting your entire body she's pretty amicable otherwise! Not to be outperformed, Jules (my Bidoof) decided to give herself a little pompadour for some reason. Pokemon are funny sometimes.
OH!! And Sherman got a pokemon egg! Apparently it's a baby of Bean, who IS one of the most powerful Pokemon I've seen in my life, so we all know it's going to come out ridiculously strong. I can't wait to see what a Beanlet looks like.
Also Lily totally extorted the bus driver with some legal jargon or whatever. It was hilarious.
We got grilled briefly by some SRO olds on our way out the door about the swamp cannibals that tried to kidnap us (Team Catch) and missed some pomp and circumstance, which was unfortunate but eh. Got healed up by some Pokemon Nurse guy with pink hair and a lil bit of a serial killer vibe, bought a couple things (very quickly learning that products are expensive when you don't have that 10,000P/week allowance... fml) and marched off into the horizon.
Unlike the OTHER scrubs we had a mission to learn about vis a vis Bekah's maybe-kidnapping, so we went up Route 101 to talk to Lily's dad about the whole sitch. I brought up that we could totally perform on the streets for pocket change once we hit some bigger cities, so to embrace the whole "incredibly poor adventuring children" vibes we looked around in the garbage to find some stuff to try and make music with. Some nasty trash-munching Deerling were in the way, alongside a bigger one that I can only assume was their dad or something, but Theo used his MAGIC POWERS!!! (god that's so cool) to tell them to shove off. One of them didn't understand MagicSpeak though and kept hassling Sherman, so I showed it what's what and caught it to give to Jack (he named it Ditzy, pretty fitting lmao). But anyways that means we now we have two trash banjos, which is two more instruments than zero. Nice.
We fought some other weird dogs and a bird and stuff too I guess. Whatever.
Anyways EVENTUALLY we reached Tunica Town, which apparently is named after the big trees that are named- guess what- Tunica trees. They're like normal pine trees but I guess they wanted to be different so they have green bodies and orange leafs instead of the other way around. I can respect being unique, but apparently the town likes them so much they literally build their homes around them... seems kinda dangerous, since trees fall over all the time, but the Prof said the one built into HIS house won't fall over so I guess it's safe enough. Also he made us dinner which was great cuz I'm the brokest I've been in my LIFE!
I guess whatever really happened to Bekah is secret, maybe. Or Lily LIED to get us to go home one more time. Either way we didn't get to listen in on some conversation she had with her dad about something that... I guess was really serious? I tried to eavesdrop, but I didn't hear anything AND I got caught trying to listen in (cringe) and got roasted for it so guess I'll never know. Apparently though, Bekah and her mom (aka Maybe Kidnapper?) are over in Houma City, and Lily wants to get there not immediately but promptly or something. Considering that's where my fam's staying right now I'm NOT looking forward to that, but. Hey. It's a big city, and I may have a big presence but I can lay low if it's really that important for us to pass through.
(( OOC - Lily learns that Bekah is most likely her half-sister, and that the woman who picked her up from camp is her mother, Inola Lucia. Professor Hickory and her had moved out really young & had Lily before the mom ditched and returned to her family due to wanting part of the political power they had. She (presumably) didn't want anything to do with Lily or Hickory anymore and never reached out again. Inola & Bekah probably went back to their home in Houma City, where we'll eventually be heading. Bad feels vis a vis Dad Hickory not telling Lily about this sooner oof ))
ENTRY #3 - Monday, July 18th
'Nother busy day. Started off with me & Theo's first attempt at busking- we got a nickel and a dead Wingull, but at least we didn't come out poorer than we started right?
It was mostly the same old song and dance on the way back down the route, but we ran into some weather reporting guy named Niel Spots?? He challenged us to some Pokemon-catching contest, which I don't think has anything to do with weather but it was fun so I'm not complaining!
Wildest thing was hands down the fact that this guy KILLED one of Jack's pokemon!!! It like, died and burst open and a whole-ass ghost came out it was terrifying. Can't believe I just witnessed murder. But apparently it just evolved, so I guess it wasn't *really* a murder, but if something gets knocked out and becomes a ghost that's called *dying* isn't it?????? really makes you think.
Being as perceptive as I am, I of course found the strongest Pokemon there- some weird dog, but like, way bigger and tougher than the smaller dogs we saw the day before. Even with Jack helping me I think we bit off more than we could chew, and Mosk seemed freaked out as well. We had to use a temp ball to stall the thing long enough to run off into the bushes. I guess I really high-tailed it over-dramatically because Sherman hopped in the bushes just to check if I was okay, what a stand up guy...
Apparently though we still won the challenge because Theo totally charmed the pants off of the whole forest somehow. Lookin like the pied piper out here. Oh, I'm putting that in my friendship ranking later...
(( OOC - After the contest ended, Jack had a brief vision of the whole world on fire, everyone else disappearing from view except for Lily. Short, but very spooky... ))
After totally making it on the news (our first humble steps into the spotlight!) we crashed back at the dinky outpost hotel and learned from some paper they left there that we're supposed to drop by Blowsville (or whatever it's called) and come back around to the fancy-looking city to the west of here.
ENTRY #4 - Tuesday, July 19th
I'm stopping real quick to write some notes down before things get WACKY, but also because I'm a bit tired and it's a good enough excuse for these dweebs to slow their roll. Tomorrow I'm putting my foot down and we're gonna just chill out for a day I stg.
On our way out from the outpost we learned that some big scary monster attacked a nearby building overnight, which is a bit freaky. I mean, first a big-ass monster attacked when we s̶n̶u̶c̶k̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ briefly left Camp Corsola, now it's attacking here? I'm wondering if maybe one (or all?!?!) of us are marked by some Crazy Fate Shit and we're being followed by something dangerous. Gotta get stronger so we can beat the shit out of it before it hurts us, for sure.
Then we hit Route 118, ran into this cop with some crazy strong Pokemon that looked like weird floaty eyes. Could tell they were steel type (cringe), but since I teamed up with Jack to fight em we were able to poke em out eventually. Only the start of Team Flamin' Tough's winning streak for sure!
Only bad thing though is that that battle knocked the wind out of me a bit, bringing me down to only Mosk at a sliver of health (since Sherman's taking care of Verne), and now some punk redhead child in robes and his gaggle of old spotty people is blocking our path. Apparently he's nothing to sneeze at though, since he knocked Danny out and now he has to rely on us clearing the path for him (haha get rekt). Sherm's got a good team though AND he has Verne so I'm sure he'll knock this ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ノ out of the park no problem.