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Pokémon Wi-Fi And Discussion Thread
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ArdillaVerde93, in Video Games
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By ArdillaVerde93
"Leave the battlefield in ruins with the Cataclysm theme deck! Awakened at last, the mighty Lugia is yours to control! But it's not alone. Appearing amidst the rubble left in Lugia's wake are other dangerous Pokémon such as Hypno, Raticate, Arceus, and Scyther! Play your cards right, and watch with glee as the Cataclysm theme deck sends your enemies running for shelter!"
The picture used is an edited(by me) version of an image from DeviantArt user Inosuke-0101. I added the gradient effect and the text. I found a free app that allows for lots of picture editing fun, including lovely fonts like the ones used here. The deck is based on a story I'm writing.
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By Temaelrin
When you were younger; did you collect Pokémon Cards?
Chances are if you were born in the late 80s/early 90s you probably did, I know I certainly did and I was pretty efficient at doing so, owning at least 6,000 or 7,000 Pokémon Cards by the time it went out of style, but I handled many, many more despite the fact that I only ever purchased 2 booster packs at the very beginning. I am going to start this topic by sharing some of my memories of Pokémon Cards and I really hope that you also share your memories too; please leave a comment and tell me what your fondest or darkest memories of the whole thing was for you.
There’s a lot of stories associated with these little cards in my history, I became quite astute in Pokémon card economics for my area where I’d see a hole in the ‘Market’ as it were and where I’d go out and ‘buy’ those cards cheap by trading outside of my area (Like around Darbyshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Devonshire, Denbighshire and so on) depending on my travels; as I travelled a lot with family. I’d also quite often bulk up my deck by picking up Pokémon cards that were discarded by people who had way too many of that card and didn’t want them, it was very common in my primary school for students to dump cards and just toss them to the ground when they didn’t want them, or for students to drop the cards by accident, and for them to get blown around in the wind. I never got a shiny from anything like that, but I did get some neat cards, and I was willing to pick them up. As deck bulkers.
Of course I’d bring those acquisitions home and start bidding wars with groups of other people who wanted them to maximise my profits (In cards) which explains pretty much how I got hold of my ‘vast fortune’ of Pokémon cards. I didn’t need to resort to ‘crime’; IE - Stealing Cards, Fraud or anything like that because I was pretty damn successful at it. My favourite trick was to trade one card for multiple cards; and once (my best deal ever!) when I brought back an illusive shiny Charizard (Which I traded a Venusaur and Chansey shinies to someone who had three Charizards), I got it purely to trade with someone in my area who was willing to part with half of their collection (Including several shiny cards - which included a Venusaur and Chansey!)
Why? Because both of the people I was dealing with were collectors - respectable collectors that were only ever interested in completing the sets that they had; Base, Jungle, Fossil and Team Rocket's “Dark” cards. I was less interested in ‘buying’ from ordinary people and more interested in selling to them instead, and ‘buying’ from collectors who had no interest in having multiple copies of the same card.
By the end of it; I had 4 Charizards. One in great - mint condition; that was for my private collection and was kept safe in a photo frame that I had in my bedroom; it was the pride of my collection and I very rarely took it out (Except for one incident), and I had three that were in decreasing conditions; one of them was barely a card anymore as the previous owner took it to bed with them and cuddled it causing it to be severely damaged and even the front was splitting from the back and there was no amount of repair work that could fix it; and surprise, surprise no one wanted it.
Did I ever have a deal that went bad? Well to be honest, some of my deals felt like a drug deal. I’d have protection, the other side would have protection (In numbers of people) and we’d trade by putting one card on one table and the other side putting their cards on another table before crossing over to collect each other’s cards and leaving. I am and always have been a tall bloke; I am currently around six foot six (6’ 6”) and I was quite tall for my age when I was younger; and extremely strong for my age too. I tried to avoid deals that had to go to certain lengths but when you’re trying to run a ‘Pokémon Card Empire’ in your local area, sometimes you needed to make fantastic trades from people with bad reputations, something I thought I could mitigate with ‘Protection’.
One time I remember distinctly that I had a knife pulled on me (I was ~12 years old at the time)... Needless to say my reputation for people who fuck me around is as infamous as it is today. I become extremely unpredictable. Very quickly the guy who pulled the knife, lost control over me, I stared at him blankly and told him to put it down before he poked someone's eye out with it, or I’d ramn it up his arse. He laughed thinking that he had the upper hand, but then I just kind of lunged for him, grabbing his wrist with one hand and his throat with my other hand, knocking him onto the floor. I don’t remember too much of what happened during the struggle - this kid was around the same age I was, and he was holding me at knife point (With one of those red covered swiss army knives, with a tiny blade) and there we were fighting each other over fucking cards. I realised this when I had him to the floor, his own knife to his own neck below my hand; telling him to just let it go. He didn’t want to; and I could see it in his eyes. I told him ‘If you don’t drop it, then I’m going to push it in. If you let go; I can’t do that. Please let go.’ He eventually dropped it and I told him “Look at us. We’re going to kill each other over Pokémon cards. For fuck sake man.”...
The above story is absolutely true in that it was a dream. It's a particularly nasty dream that I remember to this day because of the effect it had on me. I woke up afterwards and reassessed what my (I guess you could call it) subconscious was telling me. I kind of saw that one of these days these deals with bad people is going to backfire, like it did in my dream, and I kind of stopped trading with bad people. This was brought about by the amount of people who were getting beaten up for the Pokémon cards, it was so bad that I remember it even being on the news at one point too. A young kid at the end of my street was left needing stitches because some other kids beat him up for his cards.
I have a story that I will share, that actually happened in that it happened in real life, not in a dream or nightmare, but real. Whether you believe it or not is up to you.
I was in a Pokémon card battle with a school bully in Primary School who when he’d win against people he’d take their Pokémon cards, he’d entice them with, “If you win, you can have all my cards. If I win you have to give me all of your cards.” He had advertised it the previous week, that he was doing it on the following Monday, and I knew exactly what was going to happen. (Spoiler alert: It did happen). It was the one time I risked my good Charizard; because I knew I was going to be in a position where I was going to be winning back the cards that everyone lost. He played fair and reasonable in each battle, having done about eight when I decided to stop this and challenge him, after watching his strategy. Needless to say, as soon as I started evolving my Charmeleons on the bench into Charizards, he started sweating. When I won... He didn’t play fair.
When he lost he didn’t live up to his end of the deal which I fully expected; I told him to the effect of; “I don’t want your cards; I just want the cards that you’ve taken from people. If you want to walk away from this with your own cards then do I am telling you. If you don’t want to walk away with your cards then carry on doing what you’re doing.” You’d think he’d chose the former option, but no, he chose the latter. After securing my cards which was easy for me because I only brought my fighting deck where as he had all of his cards there. I decked the ten tonnes of shit out of him, and took all the cards including his own; just as I promised, put them in my bag… Although I had to be careful where I was putting them, because my bag had a hole in the bottom of it, so I put them within this kind of stiched on meshed compartment in the bag that would hold them all. Then I got the fuck off School Premises, and took my stash home because I knew he’d go straight to a teacher and blab. I snuck into my home, and put the cards somewhere safe, and then I also made sure to have a new deck of cards, putting my fighting cards away and kept the other cards safe. The new deck of cards I had was full of my lowest quality cards that was mainly energy cards and trainers and I went back with them. When I came back, I hid behind one of the mobile buildings between a hedge and the building and waited for a teacher to find me. Why? Because that was my alibi. I didn’t “Leave the School.” I was hiding all along. I sat there and started planning every possible outcome I could think of to try and keep my story credible.
The headmaster eventually found me and ordered me to get to his office where I found the fellow classmate I had beaten the shit out of nursing his wounds and forming bruises, and I just smirked at him… Like a fucking nutcase. When the headmaster wanted to get to the bottom of it; I decided because at this point I had nothing to lose to be almost completely honest with him. The only thing I lied about was the going home bit - as that would destroy my insurance. I told him that he was battling people for their Pokémon cards; and when they lost they had to hand over all of their cards or he’d beat them up. The headmaster said “Well then they knew what they were getting themselves into, not that, that’s okay. But that’s their fault. They could have said no to the battle in the first place.” So I said “we had the same deal”, I was the last to do it, and the deal was that if I lost I had to hand over all my cards or else I’d be beaten up. If he lost he’d have to hand over all of his Pokémon cards. He lost and refused to hand over his cards and all the cards that he won off of the fellow students. So I beat him up.
The headmaster didn’t like that, and started pinning the whole thing on me; I repeated back to him “Well he knew what he was getting himself into, not that it’s okay, but he could have said no to the battle in the first place.” But of course he tried to twist and turn it, he then asked “What did you do after that?” To which I said “I ran from the playground and hid behind the classroom where you found me.”
The headteacher then did exactly what I thought he was going to do. He told me to give him all of the cards I took from the student. (Give to the head teacher that is, not the student) to which I feigned resistance - after all if I make it look like I was all too willing to, I was concerned that it was going to look too easy. After several threats of expulsion I handed over the cards and said “That’s all of them.” Which the student said it wasn’t even a quarter of them. I told him “It’s all of them.” This would be the second lie I told. The head teacher then forced me to empty my bag and pockets, and even sent the receptionist out to go look for the cards around where I was found. Because of course he believed the bully over me. (And people wonder why I was such a little fucking shit back then?)
When the receptionist came back and said that she couldn’t find anything the head teacher asked me “Where are the Pokémon cards?” For a moment I thought I was about to be found out, I thought my clever plan was falling apart right from underneath my feet, and I couldn’t understand how or why, because he was questioning everything. I told him and lied again, “That IS all of them. I don’t have anymore!”
My fatal flaw in my plan had become obvious when my head teacher asked “So where are the cards that you won the battle with?” Damn it; why does my head teacher had to have children who’s explained how they worked to him! I had to come up with an excuse fast, and the first thing I could think of was “I mixed the cards up, they’re all there… Including mine.” It was the third lie I told, and I only planned to tell one lie… I was already seeing that I was building a wall of lies… I had to stick to it - in hindsight like playing Poker. He then asked “So if he won a battle with eight pupils, and each battle deck has sixty cards including yours and his that’s at least six hundred cards. So where are they? This isn’t six hundred cards.”
I fucked up.
I fucked up bad.
I hadn’t even taken that into consideration and I was kicking myself, that I hadn’t even thought about that, I had the perfect plan but I missed something so fucking obvious. I told him that on the way from the playground to the building I “dropped” the other cards somewhere on the path knowing that it was a high traffic area and that any student could just come along and pick them all up. It wasn’t uncommon to find Pokémon cards lying around when I was at school, either cards that someone chucked away because they were worthless or dropped by accident - as I said in the first paragraph. In fact most of the cards in this deck I gave the headmaster were what I called ‘dropsies’. I said that I couldn’t go back and pick them up because I didn’t want to get found by anyone as I only realised when I was hiding that they fell through the hole in my bag. I acted pissed off about it, to really sell that I was kicking myself for doing it.
“You could have put them in the netted compartment in your bag.” My headteacher said to which I replied indignantly “Yeah I could of! Then I’d still have them. That’s all that’s left… I’m annoyed as it is, that I didn’t.” The lies were just compounding and compounding by this point, as I put on a look of annoyance, I was thinking about the lies I was spinning and working out if any of this was worth it or not, and what my narrative had changed from when I originally planned this out to what it was now, and focusing on trying to remember the key fake-facts of my narrative.
The head teacher then told us both to show him where it happened and we all went outside to the playground where we showed him where the battle happened, we discussed a few things there, before he then told me to show me the route I took to when I went to go hide, which I did. I showed him my route making sure to tell him “I was running so my bag was bouncing up and down at this point…” And he was looking everywhere for cards, it just so happened that on the path we were walking by there was two Pokémon cards in the bush - a Grass Energy and an Electric Energy, and further down the pavement there was another card a Caterpie, I told him that “The cards must have dropped here and someone came along and picked them up.” But regardless we continued to the building I hid behind and said “I opened my bag and took out the only cards I had left. I swore loudly as I realised that I lost nearly all of them; and I put what I had left into my pocket because I didn’t want to lose anymore.”
We then went back to his office where the bastard gave the son of a bitch bully the Pokémon cards he took off of me and said “Let that be a lesson to you to never battle people for their cards again. You got lucky in that you got some of your cards back. But if I hear you’re doing it again, I will suspend you.” I felt relieved because if he was buying into the narrative that they were his cards then my lies worked, or were convincing enough for him to believe it. He then looked at me and told me that I was suspended for two days and my father will be called to pick me up for fighting a student.
To me; getting suspended was no big deal - it actually happened often in Primary School (In year 4 especially) and I took it as two days off to play computer games or study on my own terms, and my own things… Or watch Star Trek:TNG and Voyager. xD
My father wasn’t happy - of course. And I couldn’t tell him the truth because I knew he’d take my cards from me, and go back to the school with all of my cards just to “teach me a lesson.” I was grounded, and when I went back to school I told the people who lost their cards to come to mine on Saturday when my grounding was let off. I also told them to come to me with a list of Pokémon cards that they knew that they had in their collections, and I’d happily hand them back over to them. My father was going to be out in the back garden mowing the lawn and my mother was going to be at work on that day.
There was a couple of them that claimed that they had cards that weren’t in the collection I stashed away, and I told them to be honest with me, otherwise they’re getting absolutely none of their cards back. One of them tried to push their luck but when I told them “That’s it. I’m keeping your cards.” He fessed up and admitted that he lied. I got pretty much all of the cards back to their rightful owners; and was left with the bully’s original collection, and several others… Where I got the Chansey that I’d later use to trade to get a Charizard.
And if the bully ever reads this; and knows exactly who I am from it because he’d know the story, then you’ll know exactly what this means; “I’m such a winner that even your mum thinks that you’re a loser.” (It was his favourite phrase). This was one of the factors that eventually lead to Pokémon Cards being banned from the school; what put it in the coffin was when teachers started confiscating cards and people would come back to the classroom when it was empty and steal them. I know this because I proved it could be done, when I stole some from the teachers drawer that she had confiscated from my friend, just so I could promptly return them to my friend, after school because the Teacher was going to confiscate them for “a month” - something I felt she wasn’t allowed to do. -- Again I don’t view that as stealing, I view that as taking back my friend’s property to give it back to my friend. I didn’t request or take payment.
I did feel dirty about lying, but I didn’t want him to win, and because I stuck with it, I won. Was it stealing? No. I gave him every chance and opportunity to play fair. But he didn’t. I had to lie… I don’t feel right about it, but at the time I saw it as the ends justifies the means… At the end of the day I was doing a net good. But it was still lying… But then again, the headmaster DID give the cards back to the bully… So… What do you think? Was 10 year old me, in the right or the wrong? If you have an opinion on it let me know. I think ultimately I was in the wrong, but it’s a complicated a case; I think I used morally ambiguous means to do something good. To give the cards back to the people who lost them.
I of course had legitimate and fun battles with people I won’t say exactly how far I got with that because it probably can be used to personally identify me. But my tactic was sound; have a deck that had two types of cards (Like if I picked Fire, I’d pick something that if the player used something strong against Fire, I’d pick something weak against them. I never battled with Psychic cards), I may have thrown a couple of Normal cards in there; that way I could keep my energy cards to a reasonable level and have room to put in some decent trainers. It was a strategy that really worked for me, and made deck building - something I spent HOURS, on my weekends doing.
By the beginning of 2004, my collection was stored in my cupboard when we moved house, and that’s where it remained for years… Now as I’ve said openly a number of times; I was quite a little shit to my parents… Well, to everyone really. In 2006 I moved out of my parents when I was 16 and moved into a friends place until they made up some bullshit and threw me out. In 2007, 6 months after I came back home I moved out again this time permanently, except during this time one of my sisters (from what I have been told by third parties) stole all of my Pokémon cards and either sold them for weed or kept them to herself. They disappeared from the face of the planet, and I’ve never seen hide nor hair of them ever since.
Which brings me to Shit I’ve bought from eBay.
I was talking to @Neptune and @SMFoxy about the days where I had Pokémon cards, and obviously they were talking about the days when they had Pokémon Cards, back in September. The only one of us that was able to keep a hold of their Pokémon cards was @SMFoxy, which he mentioned here in his status later in October. Both Neptune and I however; had zero to our names; except for two or three that were given by Neptune’s sister (My sister in law) from promotional packs that contained two or three cards. We were in town doing some shopping one day and we just happened to stop by Game in the high street, where Neptune saw the Pokémon cards and sighed in lemeant as she wanted them, I asked her what was up, and she pointed them out and said that she remembered the days when you could walk into some cramped and shady looking comic book store and buy Booster Packs for a quid, or get it from a book shop but didn’t want to ask for it, or to buy something for herself to which I told her that’s fucking nonsense and then I asked her which one did she want. She picked it up and I took it from her and waltz right up to the counter and said “One of these please!” Whilst she stood there dumbfounded.
The guy seemed to be hell bent in getting us a membership card, and offering pre-orders and god only knows what, to which I refused; I don’t shop at Game enough to warrant a card, and I don’t pre-order (Not since the X:Rebirth incident. No way. Never.) He then had no choice but to check it out, we paid £20 for it and told him to keep the change and GTFO’ed so fast it was unbelievable. Of course one of the booster packs in the tin contained a Mega Rayquaza EX, which she was very lucky to get and keeps it in a soft plastic sheet within a hard plastic wrapper because she considers it a high value card.
Items:
1x Pokemon TCG: Evolution Celebration Tin - Leafeon GX (Neppy) 1x Pokemon TCG: Battle Heart Fall 2016 Tin - Pikachu EX (Me) 3x 100 Pokemon Cards Bundle RANDOM HOLO GUARANTEED -Mixed Lot Mint (Neppy gets 150, I got 150) 1x Pokemon Promo Dragonite Card Nr Mint (Me) 1x Pokemon: Arcanine - 18/108 - Rare - XY Evolutions (Neppy) 1x Joblot Bundle Of 825+ Official Pokemon Trading Cards (No Energy Cards) (Split 50/50) 1x Dragonair rare non holo pokemon card. Base Set 18/102. Wizards of the coast. (Me) 1x Ninetales 12/102 Holo/Shiny Pokemon Card, Base Set, Rare (Neppy) 2x 90 Pokemon Energy Cards Lot - 10 of Each Type Bundle Deal (Split 50/50) 3x 100 Pokemon Cards Bundle RANDOM HOLO GUARANTEED -Mixed Lot Mint (Neppy gets 150, I got 150) Price I paid:
£19.99 (Game - Not eBay) £20.95 (Amazon - Not eBay) £27.97 - £5.01 (Buy 2 Get 1 Free) £3.49 £0.99 £37.49 £0.99 £3.24 £10.00 £27.97 - £5.01 (Buy 2 Get 1 Free) Shipping:
£0.00 (Bought from Retail Shop) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £2.00 (Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For) £2.00 (Royal Mail 2nd Class Signed For) £0.00 (Free Shipping) £0.00 (Free Shipping) Total Cost:
£157.08 To see the full list of both of our collections you absolutely can; right here. It’s been alphabeticalised and sorted. In the Mixed Lots (Where we would get three packs of 100 cards) we often got a little more like 103 - 105 cards. So I’d say that particular person on eBay is pretty good; and all the cards that come from them appear to be 100% genuine. If you’re in the UK and you’re interested, in knowing who the seller is on eBay, send me an EcchiText and I’ll send you the seller’s name/listings. He usually sells them in 5’s, 10’s, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 100’s. 200’s, 300’s, 400’s, 500’s and 1000’s, and at the time of writing has a buy 2 get 1 free deal (You might indeed be able to find him with that information on its own.) I can at least say that the things we’ve purchased from him were legit, and pristine. Very professional. If you play TCG Online; I think he also sells codes.
The 850 random card lot we got which was mainly commons and uncommons, there were hardly any rares in there, and if I recall - no holos. It was a bit of a bullshit buy to be honest, but the purposes of getting it was to pretty much bulk out the collection. Also I’m not going to complain 850 cards for under £40 is not bad at all, in fact I actually still left positive feedback, because there was nothing in there that wasn’t advertised, and there was nothing that was advertised but not in there. It seemed to be a one off sale, so this seller doesn’t regularly sell them.
With that aside; I will show you some pictures and show you some statistics of the cards we have.
Here are some pictures of my cards, with a sneak peek of what’s to come in the next part of Shit I’ve Bought from eBay…
And here are Neptune’s Cards
Graphs
The following graphs cover the following data:
Amount of Cards in Each Set Rarity of Cards Date Obtained Card Types Pokémon Types Holographic Count There are somethings that I feel I should point out before I start this; I am well aware that we have labeled a few things that are not canon in the Trading Card Games; for example what we call ‘Normal’ is what most would call ‘Colourless’, what we call ‘Steel’ is what most would call ‘Metal’, ‘Electric’ - ‘Lightning’ and so on. I know some of you will be itching to mention it in the comments below so I thought I’d get that out of the way. I did at least try to stick to the HTML colour pallet of the card types in “Pokémon Types”. We also only started recording date obtained after October 6th.
Amount of Cards in Each Set:
Temaelrin
Neptune
Rarity of Cards
Temaelrin
Neptune
Date Obtained
Temaelrin
Neptune
Card Types
Temaelrin
Neptune
Pokémon Types
Temaelrin
Neptune
Holographic Count
Temaelrin
Neptune
Next on: "Shit I've bought from eBay" - HP ProLiant DL380 G5 Rack Mount Server - (Coming Soon)
Do you still have your Pokémon Cards? Did you used to collect them? Please leave a comment below and share your experiences! 😄
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By ArdillaVerde93
Is it wrong that I wanna pinch this thing's cheeks? ❤️ Anyway, little Kylie. She was the result of a pairing of Dr. Kai Russet and a Cinccino. She was once shown to have the power of mind control, and weak reality alteration.
Don't think too much into the pose. She's rubbing her belly. And the picture was classified as "Safe," anyway.
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By ArdillaVerde93
Some of you know I have a story on here called Lovesick. It's about a sick Shaymin in love with a trainer who wants to cure her. Well, I decided to write a prequel of sorts. This explains why Shaymin is with the trainer, despite being wild. This was touched on, but not really elaborated on. If I may stroke my cock ego for a bit, Lovesick is still up, and available for reading.~
There's more than one Shaymin. More than one Latios. More than one Latias. It makes sense, doesn't it? When you think about it, it's a bit ludicrous to step back and take in the view of a windswept meadow or a treacherous forest and think every blade of grass, every tree, every flower, and every dandelion puff was all the work of a single entity. Arceus Himself didn't even create Sinnoh single-handedly, let alone the myriad of species that live there. That's precisely why the Legendaries exist. Clearly, though, these deities are not immortal. Not invincible. The mere fact that a Shaymin had the incredibly poor fortune to contract a rare and fatal disease is proof of this. But that wasn't her first brush with death.
All Shaymin have access to an island in the extreme northeast of Sinnoh. The sun beat down on this one in particular that day as she tended to her property. As it usually did; when Arceus designated that bit of land for the original Shaymin and her descendants, He called on Groudon and Kyogre, to ensure that the weather there would be hospitable towards the growth and health of abundant plant life. Shaymin herself included, of course. Judging by what, indeed, could only be called an abundance of plant life, it clearly worked. Few humans have ever been lucky enough to see what they've rather appropriately dubbed "Flower Paradise," but the general consensus is that, besides Shaymin, no wild Pokémon live there. This is simply fallacy. However, one can hardly blame the misinformed for being misinformed, given what the truth actually is. The plant life does attract Pokémon. However, humans do not typically have the opportunity to venture to the Flower Paradise unless Shaymin allows it. This is relevant because the wild Pokémon hide when a guest of Shaymin approaches. To date, the Flower Paradise has been home to dozens of Shaymin, and these Shaymin have played host to a myriad of human guests.
Among these humans lucky enough to be granted an audience with the rulers of fertility, most have been trainers. However, there are exceptions to every rule. It's known that Professor Samuel Oak is permitted entry. As well, engaged and married couples are sometimes shown favour and allowed to enter. In fact, at least one recorded incident has taken place in which a Shaymin, having particular interest in a wedding, posed as the bride's bouquet. It is not the case, however, that Shaymin are attracted by the victorious, the studious, or even the betrothed. Rather, what attracts a Shaymin is gratitude. Of course, Shaymin have personalities all their own. But, as a whole, as a biological instinct, these wondrous deities are drawn to the thankful. Shaymin, as well, are quick to show gratitude of their own. In the Sinnoh region, in fact, Shaymin's name is evoked as the punchline of jeers directed towards the overly talkative, or the overly polite.
Shaymin winced as sweat stung her eyes; only now did she realise how long she had been tending her island-wide garden. Moreover, the scent of rain was faint in the air, and she knew she'd soon have to retreat to her shelter. First, of course, her eyes needed cared for. Pure, clean water flowed in a spring nearby, and she used it to splash the sweat out of her eyes. As she blinked the last bits of water away, she smiled. She couldn't help herself from being prideful, gaze resting upon a magical garden of her own creation. Everything seemed to be in order, and the rain would only aid in their growth. Content with that knowledge, Shaymin began the short journey towards shelter. A burrow, cleverly hidden beneath one of the countless flower patches dotting the island. She had fashioned it with her powers some time ago. She wasn't the only one preparing for the rain, either. As she padded towards home, another smile crept up on her. Above, a group of Butterfree searched for a safe place to land. Being a Grass type, Shaymin typically disliked Bug types. She knew these Butterfree, however, and knew them to be friendly. "Come with me," she offered the worried couple. "I'll make room for you." Grateful trills were her reply from the winged beauties as they followed close behind her. They likely wouldn't have much room to spread their wings, but it was a far better alternative to getting caught out in the open during rain. It wouldn't kill them on its own, but their senses would be dulled, making them easy prey. For all of the next few minutes, all was well. It's a shame it couldn't stay like that.
For starters, neither Celebi nor Dialga smiled upon her that day; time was not on her side, and rain was dampening her fur before her burrow was in sight. Then again, not much was in sight as it was, with the suddenly harsh wind blowing a curtain of leaves in front of her vision. Hearing the worried cries of the Butterfree behind her, Shaymin acted quickly. Not wholly unlike a child throwing a tantrum, she stomped on the ground with a stubby forepaw. All at once, vibrant flowers sprang up, leading to her burrow. Of course, Shaymin herself didn't need reminded of its location. But she rarely had guests there, and wasn't about to risk her friends getting lost. Due to her stature, she could only trust her ears in this situation, as the blowing leaves obstructed her vision, especially since the oncoming storm prevented her from reaching Sky Forme. But she was content with the wingbeats she could hear growing ever fainter before being drowned out by the howling wind. Meanwhile, she kept running. The sad truth, however, is that she didn't get far.
To give credit where it's due, even with the path ahead obscured, Shaymin hardly seemed to have any trouble, her paws crushing fallen leaves and kicking up rainwater as she ran. But something felt wrong. Not just wrong, but very wrong. Shaymin was able to run for only a few seconds before fatigue hit her hard. At once, her gait went from a sprint to a weak stagger. Her breaths came shakily, and with much difficulty. She burst into a fit of harsh coughing, whimpering as every cough hurt. "What..." Shaymin could barely speak; she could hardly hear herself over the cacophony of nature's wrath around her, and the weak voice she had was mostly drowned out by coughs. Her chest burned as though she had just swallowed something too hot to be eaten or drank. "Wh-What... " Shaymin stammered desperately; this was all happening so fast. "What's... happening... t-to me?" She couldn't run anymore; whatever was doing this to her, she was helpless to stop it. Then, a flash of red filled her vision, before the world turned black.
Shaymin awoke some time later, in a daze. Without even opening her eyes, she knew full well she was no longer in the familiar surroundings of Flower Paradise. Whatever she was resting on was soft and plush. Certainly not the ground she passed out on. Without opening her eyes, she shifted her position. Yes; certainly, this was a bed. And not the one she had fashioned for herself out of shed bits of fluff from Jumpluff and Whimsicott. Had Arceus teleported her away from the storm when she lost consciousness? She wasn't able to keep that thought in her head for too long, however, before a voice spoke. "Good; she's waking up." Shaymin finally opened her eyes. That voice. A young adult male. She didn't know who the voice belonged to, but it certainly wasn't Arceus.
A boy stood over her, gaze fixed on her, and with a warm smile on his face. He wore similar attire to what Shaymin remembered Professor Oak wearing. A white coat, partially open, over a red shirt. Khaki pants adorned his legs, and he wore sneakers, mostly red and with light grey mesh, over plain white socks. Shaymin didn't feel threatened by him; merely uneasy. Nonetheless, she wanted answers. She opened her mouth, but, to her immense shock, could only manage a sort of raspy squeak. What's more, that short vocalisation caused her great pain. Her throat and chest both burned, quickly silencing her. "You can't talk?" the boy asked. Shaymin noted the genuine concern in his voice before nodding. Though she sensed no malicious intent, Shaymin didn't lower her guard. "Can you do me a favour?" the mysterious boy continued. Shaymin cocked her head quizically, allowing him to continue. "I know you must be in a lot of pain, but could you roll over? On your back, I mean. I think I know what's wrong, but I have to make sure." Shaymin complied, nearly as eager as this boy was to identify her illness.
No sooner had Shaymin moved onto her back, her leafy quills flattening against her fur, then the boy produced an odd device. Shaymin was certain she had seen it before. But what was it called? A "stellar scope?" She shook the thought from her mind; far more important problems were present at the moment than pronunciation. "This will be cold" was the only warning she received before the boy placed 2 nubs on one end of the device into his ears, then pressed the other end - a flat metal disc - gently against her chest. It was indeed cold, but Shaymin didn't react, as she was warned beforehand. Besides, she suddenly realised something. Upon closer inspection, this boy was wearing white gloves. He wasn't a professor; he was a doctor! This revelation calmed her significantly. At least she was in good hands. Finally, the odd device was pulled away, though only to be repositioned on a different area of her chest. "Can you take a deep breath for me?" the doctor asked politely. "In through your nose, and out through your mouth." Again, Shaymin complied with the innocuous request. Soon after that, the device was again pulled back. This time, the doctor removed the nubs from his ears. "Your heartbeat is fine, which is a relief. But your breathing is definitely laboured." After that explanation, the doctor sat on the edge of the bed. Shaymin righted herself and listened intently as a few medical terms were tossed about. But the topic of the conversation changed quickly as a gloved hand was extended towards her. "I'm sorry; please forgive my poor manners. My name is Tyler Miller. I found you unconscious, and brought you to this Pokémon Centre." In spite of the situation, Shaymin found stifling a giggle rather difficult. Tyler's politeness was welcomed, of course. But it had been quite some time since anybody had spoken to Shaymin with such reverence. Blushing beneath the stark white fur of her cheeks, she nuzzled the boy's hand. Faced with affection from a deity, Tyler's professionalism faded somewhat. "U-Umm... See,... what's wrong is..." Unlike Shaymin, Tyler had no fur cloaking his cheeks. Therefore, when he blushed, it was very obvious. For just a few seconds, Shaymin was glad her voice was shot. At least Tyler couldn't hear her giggling as she backed off to allow him to diagnose her. Even then, Tyler needed a moment to compose himself. The next minute or so was spent in relative silence, save for the sounds of scribbling as Tyler wrote on a chart. "O-Okay. I won't keep you waiting anymore. Your symptoms add up to what I'm sure is bacterial pneumonia."
It was, no pun intended, the perfect storm. Treating Pokémon is complicated, in and of itself. They can typically understand humans, but humans cannot easily understand them. Moreover, while Tyler was able to understand some Pokémon language, Shaymin couldn't speak, anyway. So the doctor could only assume his explanation got through to her. "There was blood on your face, mostly near your mouth. Since you were unconscious when I found you, my guess is that you coughed up blood right before passing out. So you fell in it." Tyler hesitated. Could Shaymin understand him? She was staring in wide-eyed shock, implying that the diagnosis worried her, or that she at least understood it. Of course, for all Tyler knew, it could just have been the word "blood" that got her attention, since even Pokémon tend to associate that word with injury or illness. It wasn't until Shaymin gave a slight nod that Tyler continued. "The likely reason for you losing your voice is that the coughing you were doing damaged your vocal cords. With pneumonia, that can definitely happen. Your lungs fill with fluid, and you start coughing to get rid of it." Again, wanting to make sure Shaymin understood him, Tyler fell silent until she responded with a nod. At that, however, he allowed a smile to come through. "There's good news, though. I can cure this."
If she could speak, Shaymin would have cheered. But her face told as much as words could. Her eyes, usually emerald green in colour, but now faded with illness, sparkled nonetheless with joy. She made an attempt to voice her gratitude, but was again reduced to a painful squeak. "We'll have to work together to get your voice back," Tyler added. "It'll take a while, but..." Carefully, he extended a hand again. "...I'll be with you every step of the way, if you'll allow it." Not a moment's hesitation followed Dr. Miller's offer before Shaymin closed the distance in a single joyous skip. Of course she agreed to his help. Sure, she would miss Flower Paradise. But it wasn't as though she would never return there. This was merely a temporary setback. And, to be honest, she wasn't even sure it was a setback. She felt no fear towards this boy. He was, if anything, overly polite to her. Shaymin trusted the doctor. Besides, even weakened, the fact remained that she was a Legendary, and could easily fight him off if he attacked her. She would daresay she found a new friend. One that, ironically, she never would have known had she not fallen ill. And she was appropriately grateful for this opportunity.
The next week, the duo didn't stray far from each other. And, gradually, Shaymin's health improved. But her voice did not return. While her gratitude was obvious, she couldn't voice it. Tyler had been right when he said getting Shaymin's voice back would require a joint effort. This took nearly another week. During this time, Shaymin learned that her saviour was a trainer. As the days passed, Shaymin's gratitude morphed gradually into affection. She followed him closely, and even slept by his side. But her greatest act of kindness came when she had fully recovered. Knowing she would have to return to her home, Shaymin offered Tyler a final gift. After a heartfelt, and finally verbal "thank you," she presented him with a Gracidea. A single, vibrantly pink flower, native to Sinnoh and sacred to the people and Pokémon there. If ever Tyler wanted her by his side again, she assured him he need only hold the stem of the flower and call out to her. Then, in a flash of white feathers, she took off, into the morning sky. She would see Tyler again. And her feelings towards him would be amplified many times over in the coming years. And some say that, deep in Flower Paradise, Shaymin fiercely guarded an empty medicine bottle.
*Author's Note*
This was actually fun to write. And cute. But WAS it cute? I leave that judgement up to you!~ Oh, and here are the references.
"It's known that Professor Samuel Oak is permitted entry." Shaymin is an event Pokémon, unobtainable through normal gameplay. In Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, an item called Oak's Letter was required. Without it, there's only a white rock where people pray and give thanks for their blessings. Professor Oak's canonical first name is Samuel.
"...a Shaymin posed as the bride's bouquet." A reference to a bonus mission in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows Of Almia. The mission is called "For The Bride And Shaymin."
"It wouldn't kill them on its own,..." Refers to several Pokédex entries for Butterfree, stating that the scales on their wings are waterproof.
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