victory_road

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[The video starts off jitter-y, like whoever is holding the Pokegear is shaking. The camera is pointed at some out-of-focus trees, and Newt's excited voice can be heard, midway through a sentence- he started talking before the video actually started.]

-been a while, I know, I've been really focusing on getting some stuff in order and training my Pokemon, and it's fucking paid off big-time, alright-

[The camera turns to Newt's face- the angle is unflattering, but he looks the happiest he's been since he arrived to the Pokemon world.]

Ok. You guys ready for this?

[He moves the Pokegear around to face away from him again, and starts mimicking a drumroll sound effect. The video slowly pans over to the right...

There's a very blurry, toothy maw taking up the entire screen. The camera zooms out a little bit and re-focuses, revealing a very proud Eelektrik who wiggles happily for the camera.]

That's right, baby! Yamarashi's a big girl now! She's not quite ready to evolve a second time yet, but that's fine with me. Look at those fangs, man! She's definitely more like a lamprey than an eel- I dunno who named these guys, but they kinda fucked up there. Like, look at this!

[Yamarashi's mouth works obligingly, sucking in air as her mouth gapes. If you've never seen a lamprey's mouth before, the visual might be a little disturbing, but Newt seems to think it's the most wonderful thing in the world.]

Ok. But that's not all, my dudes. Like I said, we've been doing a lot of training.

[Now, the camera pans to the left, revealing a somewhat sparkly Unfezeant female and a beautiful female Meowstic. The Meowstic, Negora, meows a greeting as the Unfezeant, Dolly, fluffs up her feathers proudly.]

That's right- three of my girls are evolved, now! And everyone's been trained up pretty well- Hammerjaw should be evolving within the next couple weeks, if he wants- and Slattern, should, too, but he's being a bit of a pill.

[Newt turns the camera to face him, again.]

Also! To keep this evolution train going- Powder Puff and Raythe're both getting ready to evolve, but they're both trade evolutions. Anyone willing to help me with that? I've got the items for them already.

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I actually also have two pokemon which I need to trade to evolve. Maybe we could help each other out. I've got the items ready as well.

[Plus Armin's Clamperl are going to both evolve into deepsea monstrosities so maybe Newt will want to admire how excellent and cool they are.]

Dude- that's like, perfect!

Do you have to like, meet people in person to trade or can it be done, like, digitally?

As far as I know, digitally works as well. And of course, it would be quite easy to verify.

[After all, if they let the pokemon out afterwards and they are not evolved, then you know it didn't work.]

Ok. Ok!! Do you wanna do this now! Because I am pumped the fuck up!

[Before Armin even gets a chance to answer, Newt ducks offscreen and gathers up a Spritzee and Clamperl in his arms. When the camera refocuses on them, it's clear that the Pokemon are incredibly excited. Powder Puff has a Satchet dangling from her beak, and tucked inside Raythe's shell is a Deepseascale.]

[This much excitement is infectious. Especially once Armin sees the Clamperl.]

Oh! We have the same Pokemon.

Can you give me a few minutes to get to the pokemon centre? I'm at home right now.

Hell yeah! Clamperl solidarity, man. Which of the forms are you gonna get evolve yours into?

Oh- yeah dude, of course- wait, do I have to be at a Pokecenter too?

Both. I have two Clamperl, so I'm going to evolve one into each form.

And I think so yes. As far as I know, we'll need the computer system to trade unless we are able to do it in person.

Sweet! I really wanted to see what both forms looked like, so that's perfect.

Alright, gotcha, I'll start heading over to the center now. It's like a ten minute walk from this place, I'll try to hurry up so you don't have to wait around for me.

All right. Just let me know once you get there.

[While he too hoofs it to the pokemon centre. Or rather, takes a quick hop onto his Skarmory. Just to save an extra bit of time.]

Wow, they've grown a lot! I'm sure they must be proud of themselves. [Yuuko may not really be into lampreys or eels, but she can appreciate a Pokemon putting hard work into evolving.]

A few of my Pokemon have evolved recently, too. [Naturally, this is the cue for Twizzle the Sylveon to pop up and start chirping happily.]

They damned well better be proud of themselves- I know I'm proud for them!

Ohhhh- that's one of those Eeveelutions, right? The Fairy type? It's cute, but the ribbons are a little weird. Are they, like, accessories that every Sylveon has or are they legit flesh ribbons?

... I'm not insulting your cat-thing, by the way, because it's still cool as hell, I just really can't wrap my head around those ribbons.

Oh, well...yeah, apparently a Sylveon's ribbons are actually part of their body. I'm not really sure how that works, either, but Twizzle seems to enjoy having them. She likes using them to pick things up or hold onto my arm. I think the Pokedex said that a Sylveon can use them to read people's feelings, too.

[Twizzle makes a heart shape with her ribbon-like feelers and winks. She finds her flesh ribbons very useful, for a number of reasons.]

You know what, that's really weird, but also pretty awesome? They're kind of like, prehensile tails, but there's a Lot of them, and they're mostly attached to the head.

Man, Pokemon bio is so weird. I wish there were like, actual schools here, I really want to know what the biology curriculum would be like.

I guess when you put it that way, they are kind of like extra tails. [Yuuko was pretty shocked when Twizzle first evolved and her "ribbons" suddenly started moving around and touching things.]

I'd be pretty interested to know how Pokemon biology works, too...like how they breath fire and ice and things like that.

Or tendrils, tentacles, weird prehensile whiskers... Really, there's a lot of things that those could maybe have roots in.

Exactly! No one's given me a straight answer about how stuff like that works here, and I haven't been able to figure out a plausible hypothesis, either. At least, not one I can actually test or prove.

It does make you wonder who first figured out trading evolved anything, or trading with items could spark such significant changes.

... Congratulations to your girls.

YEAH I KNOW like what mustve been going through that guys head

like idk picture this

ur some dude back in like medieval times hanging out living ur life

and someones like "hey can i borrow ur machoke for a bit i gotta like move this pile of fucking, idk, dead people who died of the Black Plague" and ur like "yeah sure bro just let me borrow ur uhhhhhh caterpie for a bit"

and then u pick up ur new caterpie and the other dude is like "whats up with ur machoke hes like glowing lol" and then ur old machoke fucking turns into a four armed BEAST

like how WILD...

Edited 2018-10-01 08:48 (UTC)

Once you knew it was possible, I suppose it became a matter of deliberate trading and chance that showed trading with items could cause evolutions as well. It doesn't make it any less strange or surprising to consider. Finding the exact, right conditions for... what would you call it. A genetic potential?

Not that I'm sure how to describe what evolutions are for pokemon.

ok yeah tbh when u describe it that it makes more sense. less like random chance and more like trial and error and testing out hypotheses?

like for example, maybe certain stone evolutions were seen in the wild because those stones were common in that area, but ppl who owned the earlier forms of those pokemon could never get theirs to evolve, so they started trying to expose the owned pokemon to the stones and boom! evolution!

honestly idk who called this stuff evolution because it makes my brain spin a bit, evolution is smth that happens over thousands of years not over the course of the day with a stone or some training; but idk what i'd call it instead so i guess it works i just gotta keep getting used to it

I was talking about how evolution is an inadequate word, but it's also the accepted one in the area. I suppose it can be considered a kind of personal metamorphosis. An evolutionary metamorphosis?

[ She sighs and frowns. Terminology fails here, and she's grudgingly resigned to it, and too used to absorbing new spins on old words based on what the local population uses them as. ]

But yes, that's what I was thinking. People use trial and error to test out more than they realise, and the science here seems likely to do the same. It's possible that earlier pokemon... groups? I'm not sure what that terminology is either, but possible that those kinds of trades could have happened to, trading individuals to another group and triggering that metamorphosis. Trying to replicate the same things in a controlled environment seems like the natural human progression. We know it's possible, so we have to find out how, and if we can control it.

metamorphosis works!! esp since theres like, caterpillar, cocoon, and butterfly Pokemon.

ur absolutely right- society is built upon people trying to do new shit, failing, learning from those mistakes, and trying again; so why wouldnt it be the same here?

u trade ur pikachu to someone and it doesnt evolve, but you know it has an evolution that won't come from leveling up; maybe you start giving it items then so you can trade it with a held item, and then it spontaneously evolves when you give it a thunderstone. boom. progress, baby

Right. Progress, for better and worse. Then there's what pokemon might not have pursued as strongly on their own becoming passion projects for people, and now the two benefit from each other. It's more amazing to me that it hasn't led to more selfish ends than anything I've heard about so far.

[ Though reaching Violet Town, there's the question of what happened in the ruins of Alph to the southwest; that however has the unfortunate air of unsolved mystery, which she doesn't appreciate. ]

There's a certain amount of sense to most this stuff, for all some things make no sense whatsoever. Like the ledges issue.

Some Pokemon require being traded to evolve?

[What.]

Edited 2018-10-01 01:46 (UTC)

i know right

i dont rlly get the science behind it, its smth i gotta look into more, but basically certain pkmn are able to evolve when they're transferred to a different owner; but then u can just trade them right back to the OG owner

tbh its not even the weirdest evolution method?? ive heard of smth involving an upside down bottle

oh also the pkmn i have- SPECIFICALLY have to be traded while holding specific items otherwise nothing happens its so weird

I'm starting to wonder if science actually follows any sort of sense at all in this place.

An upside down bottle? What's..the point in that?

Do certain Pokemon just have attachment to certain items that trigger their evolution?

IDK something about the pkmn needing to be flipped over to evolve properly??? like who figured that out

i think that might be it for some of them- esp the ones that seem to evolve while holding man-made objects- but some stuff is more natural, like the elemental stones

so in those cases im guessing its exposure to certain naturally occurring elements in nature that makes them evolve

but that doesnt explain the trade aspect or the ones that need man-made objects. selective breeding? a mutation due to domestication?? idk!

Apparently someone that decided to flip their Pokemon for the fun of it. Maybe they were playing a game with it at the time.

The elemental stones at least make some sense, what with the elemental typings that Pokemon have.

The rest of it...I'm not sure I'll ever make sense of it. Pokemon are nothing like the animals we have back home; there's nothing that evolves and grows like they do? Even when you take quirks into consideration it's still taken years for significant growth and development of them. Pokemon don't seem to follow any natural logic like that.

yeah thats my favorite game, fucking "spin the animal upside down in the air"

its so frustrating like i feel like tearing my hair out sometimes over how much sense some of this stuff DOESN'T make like. if u think ur getting frustrated and confused by it, im a goddamn biologist and i cant make heads or tails of half of this stuff

With as weird as this world is, I'm sure someone enjoys it.

I can imagine it's even worse for you then. People keep trying to explain things to me and it makes my head spin. As a biologist I'm sure you want to rewrite everything to make actual sense.

its literally the worst but its also so fascinating to have so much stuff that just goes against everything ive learned about science and have to basically relearn everything to figure out the laws of this world's nature

its not like its the first time thats happened to me too so i'll adjust its just like. wild

That's the most frustrating part. Relearning everything.

You've been to other worlds before?

the answer 2 that depends on a lot of factors like "what counts as being in another world? do you have to physically be there or can your mind crossing over with an inter-dimensional hivemind count" and im not awake enough to discuss the existential questions posed by that soooo

yesssssss? question mark?

...You could have just said yes but it's complicated.

Ohmygoshohmygosh--Yamarashi looks so coool now!!!

[Hands pressed to her cheeks, Mabel looks starry eyed when she responds, smiling bright as she gazes at Newt and his companion. Behind her, Grendo the Heracross sounds her approval with a low rumbly-noise, arms up in a victory pose.

Congrats little friend!]

You guys are doing awesome, Newt!!

[Yamarashi wiggles joyfully, recognizing Mabel. Hello, little friend!]

I know! She went from a cute little baby to a complete badass. She's still cute though, don't get me wrong. [Newt scritches Yamarashi under her chin as he speaks.]

How about you and your guys? I think I saw a post about you getting swamped with eggs.

She's the super cutest to ever cute!!

[The statement is accompanied by a giggle--but then Newt mentions eggs and Mabel grins, firing finger-guns at him.]

Heck yeah! We had so many eggs it was awesome!! And I had a bunch of people that wanted to take them and now they have great homes and I'm so excited! I had a bunch left over but I'm going to find some young trainers that I can give them to so they can have super awesome Mabel Pines approved Pokemon to train of their very own!

You're related to that Ford guy, right? Guess being an awesome breeder is in your blood, little dude.

I was thinking about buying a couple, but I've had my hands full with my guys as it is- and I already learned my lesson about impulse buying a bunch of eggs at once. Those first few days after most of them hatched were hectic.

Yep! He's my Grunkle and I'm going to be a super awesome breeder just like he is!

Wellll if you change your mind I have some left over that I'm going to hang onto for awhile and it's totally my expert opinion that everyone needs a giant awesome bug like Grendo!

[The Heracross behind her puffs up proudly.]

I'm gonna breed lots more for Christmas too!

I'll definitely keep it in mind! A lot of your egg choices look really cool- the Omanyte and Onix especially, but I wouldn't mind the cats either- and there's the Heracross, of course-

I need to stop talking about this before I drown myself in baby Pokemon again.

[She starts giggling about halfway through his rambling, covering her mouth with her free hand.]

No drowning yourself! At least not until you get a totally awesome place of your own then you can have a whole bunch of them!

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