Last time, I saw some mysterious stones I couldn’t interact with, then reached a new town.

Today, Geosenge Town!

Hey, redsuit!

Geosenge Town is the town of stones! And a music note. Maybe he’s Pinkie’s older brother.

Following…

Hear this, pip-squeak!

One word, dammit.

Team Flare is gonna use the stones on Route 10 and a fantastic treasure to make everyone on our team happy!

I’m sure Serena’s going to really like getting that.

In this world, the ones who have power are the ones who win with flair!

And he runs off. So are they just like the avant-garde team, or are they rich brats to continue that plotline?

Then hey, alt-me’s here.

Serena, was someone from Team Flare here just now?

And I get to pick the response! I feel Serena would be honest, though.

You said he was here…But he isn’t anymore, is he? There’s only a dead end up ahead… I wonder where that Team Flare guy went…

Hm.

Someone else says that if I want to know about the stones, I should go to the hotel. Then when I go there, she’s there and now suddenly okay with talking. Apparently no one knows why or how the stones were put up, but probably with the help of pokemon, and honestly if the best your god monsters can do is a knockoff Stonehenge you’re really incompetent. Also, it’s maybe a burial site for “warriors from ancient times” and hey what if the warriors were the pokemon?

Others say they were built as family memorials or that they were set up for a ritual to celebrate life.

“Basically, narrowed it down to either being related to life or related to death.”

I don’t know about all that, though. Personally, I think they might just be a kind of calender. You see it all the time in astronomy studies. Ancient cultures used stones to track the movement of the sun.

This is why being too heavy handed with references is bad. In our world, we saw stones like this and figured out they were related to astronomy. In this world, they saw stones like this and…cross-referenced to our world but never bothered checking their own?

Incidentally the magic of tiles mean the stones are in very square grid type patterns, which isn’t what you’d be seeing for a calender. It’s totally a grave or something.

One thing is for sure–those stones are full of mysteries. Many believe they contain some kind of mysterious power. I just hope it’s a benign power that is watching over us people and Pokemon.

I hope it’s not and I get to fight it!

Speaking of which, there are some mysterious stones in the neighboring Shalour City, too.

Elsewhere, someone gives me an everstone, most useless of stones. I gather it has some secondary effects regarding breeding, but I don’t mess around much with that either.

Geosenge Town
Quiet stones speak volumes.

Apparently not coherently, though.

Inside another building…

Someone wandering for 3,000 years trying to find a Pokemon…

Wait, what? That’s the first I’ve heard about this.

I’ve heard a story about a man like that, but you can’t believe everything you hear.

Okay, let’s follow Flare guy. The road leads to a bunch of stones, one of which is obviously covering a door in the larger stone behind.

It’s an ancient artifact? You’re adorable, Serena.

Trying to leave by another route leads to that lucario running up again. She recognizes me.

I’m not exactly sure, but I think that Lucario is saying it wants to battle with you.

“Since like most people, I default to battling when I’m not sure what my pokemon want.”

Wow, she looks freaky up close.

Two L25 lucario. Somewhat challenging, but then my pancham beats them both.

She reminds me she’s the gym leader and of the next gym! That’s not very impressive though because I just beat her. Gym leaders really shouldn’t fight you beforehand or if they do, there should be some big point about how the pokemon they’re using is some new one they’re training up, so then you’re all oh my god that was their weak pokemon what must their actual team be like????????

Onward! The route has weird crystal pillars. The first one looks cool, but by the third, it just seems really artificial. You’d think naturally occurring rock would vary more, you know? They should’ve had a couple different versions.

Hariyama. Huh, did I miss the earlier evolution or am I supposed to breed it? Then the stupid thing uses whirlwind on me.

Arg still have battle girls. At least it looks like she’s in a decent outfit. I can’t wait for people to get the sprites out of this, I really want to compare them.

Holocaster thingy.

Sycamore: Hello there! Looks like you’ve almost made it to Shalour City!

Oh dear lord he’s tracking me.

That’s fantastic! It looks like your journey with your Pokemon around the Kalos region is going swimmingly! I wanted to tell you about a person in Shalour who knows a great deal about Mega Evolution. People call him the Mega Evolution guru. I’ve told everyone else about him, so if you have a second, you should give him a visit.

The game’s generally been good about not hitting me with tutorials, but the handholding here is really annoying. I’m obviously not investigating it any more than getting pokedex data actually matters. It’s all busywork.

A swarm of nidoran appear. I catch the girl and am reminded of my longest-running issue with the series.

Nidorino.

It raises its big ears to check its surroundings. If it senses anything, it attacks immediately.

Staravia.

They maintain huge flocks, although fierce scuffles break out between various flocks.

Sawk.

Desiring the strongest karate chop, they seclude themselves in mountains and train without sleeping.

Dedenne? Is that this generation’s pikachu clone?

Its whiskers serve as antennas. By sending and recieving electrical waves, it can communicate with others over vast distances.

That’s interesting. Also it’s half fairy type.

Successfully get a hariyama.

It stomps on the ground to build power. It can send a 10-ton truck flying with a straight-arm punch.

Into Reflection Cave. Beautiful. Also, apparently you can’t bike or rollerskate here. Who’s stopping me? Well, apparently my mom’s voice in my head. You win for now, game. This also means I can’t use the dousing rods, because.

Chingling. Gah.

Each time it hops, it makes a ringing sound. It deafens foes by emitting high-frequency cries.

There’s a mirror wall and someone staring into it. When I talk to him, he says he’s considering never leaving. After battle, he confirms that yes, he’s been hypnotised by his reflection, and barely even cares he lost to me.

Solosis.

Because their bodies are enveloped in a special liquid, they are fine in any environment, no matter how severe.

Mr. Mime. Well, if anywhere was their natural environment, it’d be here. (I’ve always thought certain trade-only pokemon were there because not even the designers could justify their having a natural habitat.)

Emanations from its fingertips solidify the air into invisible walls that repel even harsh attacks. Also, it’s half fairy now? They’re just sticking it on at random now.

Woobat! It swoops down from the ceiling. I really like the variety they have in pokemon attacks.

Its habitat is dark forests and caves. It emits ultrasonic waves from its nose to learn about its surroundings.

Roggenrola.

Its ear is hexagonal in shape. Compressed underground, its body is as hard as steel.

And then I lose to a battle girl with two L25 fighting types. But seems you no longer lose half of your money. On the one hand, this makes sense with how much you get from other trainers. On the other, you lose so rarely that only seeing your finances gutted by a single error made it any concern. If they’d made it way more difficult as well, this would be a great idea. But…they really didn’t.

The trainer behind sees you in the mirror, which is a nice touch.

Wobbuffet…? It’s wearing lipstick. Oh, and it’s a girl, is this girl-only? It also puts up quite the fight getting into the pokeball.

It hates light and shock. If attacked, it inflates its body to build up its counterstrike.

For the record, Wobby, you might get less light and shock if you stopped preventing your opponents from fleeing.

Anyway, back out for healing. And nidorina!

The female has a gentle temperament. It emits ultrasonic cries that have the power to befuddle foes.

Still straight poison. You know, the nidoran line has always struck me as strangely solid for a pure poison type. Maybe they should be half fairy now, at least until they hit the final stage and get the ground type.

Mime Jrs. The pre-evolution of the pokemon no one cared about in the first place.

In an attempt to confuse its enemy, it mimics the enemies movements. Then it wastes no time in making itself scarce!

Yet it doesn’t flee from battle. That’d be a fun challenge.

Well anyway, I’m going to retreat because I need to keep doing berries. I think I’ll need to stop soon because I’m getting farther and farther away and still no fly HM.

I also take on the rich people yet again. It’s just too tempting!

Machop to machoke.

Its muscular body is so powerful, it must wear a power-save belt to be able to regulate its motions.

Sandile to krokorok.

They live in groups of a few individuals. Protective membranes shield their eyes from sandstorms.


Traded machoke for machoke, machamp. Whose arms really do not look that impressive – like they just sort of perched the second set on top of its existing shoulders, they don’t look like they could muster much force.

Its four ruggedly developed arms can launch a flurry of 1,000 punches in just two seconds. Shockingly, it’s not party fairy type.