Last time…

…Silph has completely returned to normal.

But the people outside are happy to sing my praises!

Wait, I thought you were being physically held inside your homes, not that you were just wusses. What’s the point of stationing people at every door otherwise?


Wait, so not only were you guys just sitting around waiting for a rescue, but lots of other people escaped and didn’t bother to tell anyone why?

Also, anyone who flocks back is an idiot. Saffron: Currently Not Being Attacked By The Mob Right This Moment! Still Exactly As Vulnerable As Before!


Yeah, I am pretty awesome.



It sounded more like you were thinking aloud there.

You know, when I get over the wrongness of pidgey having a call that doesn’t even share a single letter with its actual name, I realize that’s actually a pretty good transliteration of a pigeon coo.



Holy exposition, random letter!

Copycat is the girl’s nickname, so as you can see, the confusion about noun/proper noun goes both ways.

Unlike a lot of the NPC chatter, this actually is going somewhere. The fact it’s so hard to tell sidequests from flavor text was yet more fodder for the rumors, because you’d run into things like this where if you procured the item they mentioned, things happened.

It never does occur to the character to record the data of pokemon standing right in front of him.


It’s odd to say this when we first hear about her from someone planning to buy her a gift. Sure, that’s only one person, but that’s infinitely more people buying gifts than most NPCs.



Oddly, she has neither a meowth nor a ditto.


Like living things, the sprites of pokedolls also turn toward you, which is more than a little uncanny.

It also bugged me that it never says which rare pokemon it is.

Anyway, time for objective proof you’re not mute.




So, that’s all what you say to here.

Also, she’s not actually maladjusted or anything, as shown by the fact she stops easily. She just thinks it’s fun.



That’s a real pokemon. Specifically

Because why shouldn’t a two-headed wingless bird be represented by an image of a giant sparrow?

Also, two-headed wingless birds are apparently functionally parrots, because yes, the pokemon just talked here.

Her having a bird is less random than it seems, because bird pokemon can learn mirror move, an attack that causes them to repeat the last used move of their opponent. Or it would be, except that doduo don’t learn that move.

Weird.

I guess this can be taken as an example of how characters don’t necessarily need to stick to a theme in all ways. Here we have Copycat, which is a gimmick, who collects pokedolls in what seems at best only tangentally related, and furthermore, has a pet doduo. I guess doduo have two heads and that’s sort of like doubling which is like copying… I think she just likes her doduo. They are cute pokemon.

No, you saw the ROCKET BOSS escaping, dammit.

God, no wonder fandom can’t get any of this right.

Why look what’s finally accessible. Soon, gym. Soon.


Read about it where? You mean in a letter, or has so much time elapsed that this is in newspapers?


There was none, weirdo.

Meanwhile in the pokemart, not a single fuck was given that day.



And yet I notice you’re still hanging out in here. You’re like one of those people who complain bitterly about it raining because you can’t go out, yet when a sunny day rolls around you’re still glued to the TV.

Yup, looks like Gary didn’t even bother with this place.


Look at how short! I bet that’s why you’re so scowly, it’s because you’re short!

You’re all pushovers, frankly. If the point is that you’re actual fighters yourself, maybe you should stop challenging the tiny kid to test of pokemon strength.

One of the things I liked to do with this gym was see how I could align them.

Well, sucks to be you!

I can see you’re an articulate one.


Okay, so let me try to make sense of this.

Are you guys basically actual human fighters, and you just happen to also have pokemon, maybe for training practice or inspiration or in the hopes that you’ll absorb warrior ki off them?

Or do you mean that in the pokemon world, a karate master is someone whose pokemon have mastered karate, because everything is done through pokemon?

Is it that there’s some belief that by mastering fighting yourself, you become a better trainer, and this is like fighters mastering Go? Or the reverse?

Why aren’t you just punching my avatar in his tiny eleven year old face is my point.

Doesn’t get his own sprite or name. Clearly, not someone I need to worry about.


Well, that was easy.

One of the many things I used to try to do was aim to always have my pokemon just under the level of my most recent badge. This was always the point it broke down at – if you really grind and focus on raising one pokemon, you can get up to L50 by now, but otherwise it’s not going to happen.

They’re both surprisingly fragile for physical fighters.

As a kid I assumed this was because they didn’t have one to give out, Sabrina having already served them their asses on a psychic platter. After all, wouldn’t a trainer having their badge make them look more legitimate? It’s more likely a reference to the idea of dojos losing their sign when they’re beaten.


Regardless, he knows how to bargain. What’s a badge compared to an exclusive pokemon?

The magic of save files means I don’t have to!

It’s also the more boring one. Hitmonlee just uses fighting attacks.

Yup, different sayings on the wall that, unless you saved beforehand, would only ever let you access one of them.

Hitmonchan, in sharp contrast, can learn the three elemental punches. They won’t do any damage because hitmonchan have the special stat of a pile of dirt, but it’s the principle of the thing.

I actually have no idea which of the two is actually better. I know that everyone initially thought hitmonchan was cool because element punches, then went over to hitmonlee for actually being able to do damage, but I have no idea how well hitmonchan do when not saddled with a moveset of special attacks.

Tomorrow,