#53. Time & Space, Beginning & End
--Today's swarm!--
Choro Notes: These appear on the route north of Fight Area
Makuhita
Makuhita has a tireless spirit—it will never give up hope. It will keep getting up and attacking its foe however many times it is knocked down. Every time it gets back up, this Pokémon stores more energy in its body for evolving. It eats a lot of food, gets plenty of sleep, and it trains very rigorously. By living that way, this Pokémon packs its body with energy. If you hear quaking rumbles in a cave, it is the sound of Makuhita undertaking strenuous training. Many snapped trees can be found near its nest.
Choro Notes: I like Makuhita, I even use its evolved form, Hariyama. They're tough fighters that can take a blow and dole out its own. Fun fact: They can learn surf!
Zorak Notes: Makuhita evolves into one of the cooler fighting types in a series of very cool fighting types. I wonder if he's born with those boxing gloves or WHAT
HulkaMatt Notes: YA EVER SEEEEEN MAKUHITA? Makuhita is a MOUNTAIN of a Pokémon... or well, at least it turns into one
A yokozuna in training.
Holy christ naming things is hard.
You've felt it before!
Volkner, we're cool man but you're not going to shock me.
You really have had that passion relit, huh?
Music: Sinnoh Gym Leader Battle
Hope you got tougher!
Oh my.
Choro Notes: The Battleground
Every day two or three gym leaders or past partners will appear in The Battleground and ask for battles. This is kinda neat! You not only get to see your partners' other monsters but you get to see what Gym Leaders are like if they get serious. The monsters they use in their gym battles aren't their full power!
Oh dear, you know what's about to happen Volkner!
Hahaha, man that move is so overpowered.
Oh wow, what's that?
Choro Notes: In addition to their stronger team, they've also got monsters from outside of Sinnoh.
Oh jeez
. . . well then.
Heh he-
Why did I not foresee this?
. . . ok you know what?
There, nice trade.
. . . I choose to risk this.
Yes. That is to be expected.
SURPRISE! Revive. :D
Oh my~
Flint and you show each other tricks, don't you?
Hahahahahahahaha so freaking overpowered!
HAHAHAHA
Yup! Man you really opened up after we fought.
Coo' coo' Hey I'm gonna go talk to Candice over th— hey wait!
Haha, hey Marley who do you know that got you in here? Heck yeah we can fight. High fives all around!
Music: Sinnoh Trainer Battle
Choro Notes: In Diamond/Pearl, Cheryl, Mira, Buck, Riley and Marley don't actually have vs. sprites, they're never actually battleable! They ARE possible partners in the Battle Frontier though, so if you ever wanted to have Marley's Arcanine or Mira's Kada— Alakazam teamed up with you it's a way you can do it!
Choro Notes: Ninjask
Ninjask are the fastest, non-Deoxys species of monster known. They're lightning quick bugs who even have Speed Boost as their ability. The most common tactic is to give them Swords Dance and Baton Pass.
Dom no stop get off.
. . . I'm not going to lie, I'd be confused by that too.
Sorry Marley!
Oh my she's so fabulous.
Weird that that worked out the way it did.
Yesssssss.
Lyudmila it's ok, he's really quite friendly!
Oh whoa, you retrained him.
Choro Notes: Electrode used to be the fastest monster! Well, until Ninjask (and Deoxys) unseated it.
Oh. No, please don't. I had a bad time with this in the Battle Factory.
GOTCHA.
oh.
What are the freaking odds?
BLAM
This might be game!
Oh COME ON.
Pshhhh, nah just this fight. Geez, you're so timid.
Haha, s'ok. I just sort of always win when people don't cheat fuck you Palmer!
Frieeeeeeeeeendship.
Man I'm upbeat lately. I wonder why that is?
quote:
Choro Notes: The rest of the updated teams
There's no way I'm going to fight them all! so here you go so you don't have to look them up or wait them out!
Roark - Oreburgh City Gym Leader
L62
L61
L63
L61
L65
Cheryl - Partner from Eterna Forest
L61
L63
L61
L62
L65
Gardenia - Eterna City Gym Leader
L61
L62
L61
L63
L65
Fantina - Hearthome City Gym Leader
L61
L62
L62
L65
Mira - Partner from Wayward Cave
L61
L62
L63
L65
Maylene - Veilstone City Gym Leader
L62
L62
L63
L64
L66
Crasher Wake - Pastoria City Gym Leader
L61
L61
L62
L63
L65
Riley - Partner from Iron Island
L61
L63
L62
L61
Byron - Canalave City Gym Leader
L61
L61
L63
L65
Candice - Snowpoint City Gym Leader
L62
L61
L61
L63
L65
Buck - Partner from Stark Mountain
L61
L62
L61
L65
Well this was fun, Hey I've got some rifts in time and space to go seal. See you guys later!
Stupid mountain hate this mountain.
Hate this snow.
Hate this waterfalls. WELP gonna fish
Oh look, a gigantic, draconic sea slug.
Dratini
It is called a Mirage Pokémon because so few have seen it. Dratini was long considered a mythical Pokémon until recently, when small colonies were found living underwater. It is a large Pokémon to begin with, even the young can exceed 6.5 feet in length. Dratini continually molts and sloughs off its old skin beneath waterfalls. It does so because the life energy within its body steadily builds to reach uncontrollable levels.
Choro Notes: Dratini are cute but I don't have too much to even say about them! Look at the freaking size of them, though.
Zorak Notes: Little serpent dragon evolves into BIG GOOFY DRAGON.
HulkaMatt Notes: When I first entered the Safari Zone in Pokemon Red Version and hooked a Dratini I was so god damned excited. Unfortunately for me I was also very lazy when it came to grinding so I never really got myself around to fully raising one until Fire Red came out. MY SECOND FAVORITE FIRST STAGE 600. Outdated, but still insanely good dragons that deserve to be raised more than they actually are. GREAT POKEMON.
And at the top of the falls. . .
I see three treasures~
The last plate!
Well that was a fun scavenger hunt. Reward please!
. . . oh. :I
Choro Notes: Orbs
The Adamant Orb is Dialga's hold item. It boosts the power of his Steel and Dragon-type moves. It also has the added effect of allowing you to face Dialga in Platinum.
Aaaand the Lustrous Orb is Palkia's. It boosts Palkia's Water and Dragon-type moves as well as allowing you to fight it.
Well then.
DIALGA. GET OUT HERE BEFORE I HIT YOU.
Music: Dialga & Palkia - Primal Pokémon
Dialgaaaaaaa. Don't make me come in there!
"Get outta here!"
"Get out!"
Choro Notes: Dialga and Palkia both have extraordinarily high catch rates for legendary monsters. Their rates are both 30, the same as murkrow and sableye. By comparison, Mantyke and Skarmory are both HARDER to capture than beings capable of controlling time and space.
Dialga
A legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh. It is said that time flows when Dialga's heart beats. This Pokémon completely controls the flow of time. It uses its power to travel at will through the past and future. It appears in Sinnoh-region myths as an ancient deity. It is said that time began moving when Dialga was born.
Choro Notes: Dialga is fucking massive and its Dragon/Steel typing is unique. It's signature move, Roar of Time, is a Dragon-type Hyper Beam that distorts time itself.
Zorak Notes: Dialga has a very big head, but also a giant fin on his butt for some reason.
HulkaMatt Notes: An ASSHOLE in Smash Bros. Brawl.
Hey hey hey. Don't you start.
You do NOT take that tone with me, sir.
Choro Notes: See? :I
Palkia
A legendary Pokémon of Sinnoh. It is said that space becomes more stable with Palkia's every breath. Its total control over the boundaries of space enable it to transport itself to faraway places or even other worlds. It is said to live in a gap in the spatial dimension parallel to ours. It appears in Sinnoh mythology as an ancient deity.
Choro Notes: Palkia's typing is shared with Kingdra and it's such an asshole typing. It resists a ton of types and is only weak to Dragon-type moves. Its signature move, Spacial Rend, is a dragon-type version of Lugia's Aeroblast. 100 base power, 95% accuracy and a high crit. rate. It's literally tearing space apart. I fucking hate that it's not spelled Spatial. Palkia is even the Spatial Pokémon SPELL IT SPATIAL. This is worse than Faint Attack.
Zorak Notes: Space Godzilla!!!!! Neck and shoulders are kind of indecent though.
HulkaMatt Notes: AN EVEN BIGGER ASSHOLE IN SMASH BROS. BRAWL!
Welp, let's leave.
Music: The Azure Flute. . .
Choro Notes: Azure Flute
The Azure Flute is the final event item from Nintendo WiFi. HOWEVER. It was never released! They just flat out gave away the monster it leads to. So here you go, a scene you can never officially see!
Music: Beginning Dimension
. . .
What. . .
Music: ArceusChoro Notes: Deoxys, Giratina and Arceus are the only monsters to have their own battle themes in the games. Arceus's is. . . unsettling. It has a sort of disjointed cacophony feel to it that brings primeval chaos to mind.
OH LORD.
Ok uh. . .
Ok hey. RUN.
. . . what the HELL just happened?
Arceus
According to the legends of Sinnoh, this Pokémon emerged from an egg and shaped all there is in this world. It is said to have emerged from an egg in a place where there was nothing, then shaped the world. Other myths describe it as the Pokémon that shaped the universe with its 1,000 arms and that that this Pokémon was born before the universe even existed.
Choro Notes: The Original One, a monster seen as a creator deity, Arceus has the highest stat total of any monster. The plates scattered across Sinnoh are fragments of its power. Arceus's Multitype ability alters its type to match the Plate it is holding and this in turn alters Arceus's signature move, Judgment. It's a 100 base power, 100% accurate move that it always gets the same-type bonus on.
Zorak Notes: Praise be to Pokémon God, originator of all, whose son Satoshi saved us from the PokéDarkness.....
HulkaMatt Notes: An ass. jk don't put that. No. No, actually it is. It's fucking stupid. I don't like it and I'm totally not just saying that because I don't believe in pokéreligion. FUCK OFF ARCEUS YOU ASS.
quote:
Choro Notes: Arceus
Arceus actually has a lot of events associated with it. . . the problem is they're mostly in HeartGold/SoulSilver!
In Platinum, if you take Arceus to Oreburgh mine you'll meet someone new who tells you a myth:
quote:
"If I had to explain very simply, I study how people came to be. That could explain why I happen to be in Sinnoh. In Sinnoh, there is a myth on how the world came into existence. Investigating that myth may give me insight on the emergence of people.
[...]
I'm told [the Plates were] created at the same time as Sinnoh. The plate I found bears this inscription. "The rightful bearer of a Plate draws from the Plate it holds" The rightful bearer, I think, may point to the shaper of this world. Oh, by the way, I'm only interested in the words and thoughts left behind. Physical artifacts like that Plate don't interest me once I've read them. I hope we meet again somewhere.
He shows up again at Canalave Library:
quote:
"Well, hello! We meet again! After we parted, I went from Oreburgh, to Hearthome, Celestic, then Eterna. Yes, the town and cities surrounding the foot of Mt. Coronet. Why the fascination with Mt. Coronet, you may ask? Well Mt. Coronet happens to be called "The origin of Sinnoh." I learned many things on my journey. Would you like to hear them?
The way I see it, our world began when the spirit within people was born. When that spirit came to be, there followed awareness about the world. Within the newborn spirit, time and space were intertwined as one.
People and Pokémon, too, were but the same presence. As I understand it, people and Pokémon shared the spirit and awareness. They should have understood and accepted each other then. Because they shared the same spirit, people and Pokémon intermingled. People took the place of Pokémon, and the opposite also held true. That interpretation could give us an idea about how our world came to be.
A Pokémon is said to have shaped this world. Could that Pokémon be the physical form of the original spirit? Hmm... The spirit came to be, and from it, time and space were born... That seems to point to legendary Dialga, the Pokémon of time, and Palkia, the Pokémon of space...
And they lead back to Arceus, the Pokémon that made them arise. Oh, there were also Plates, weren't there? One Plate read "Three beings were born to bind time and space." Those three beings I read to mean the three Pokémon of the lakes. It's about Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. The myth describes how they gave spirit to the world, shaping it.
But it all starts with Arceus, the first. It is known as the Original One.
Oh, by the way, I wrote down the words engraved on those Plates. I summarized them in a book and donated it to this library, There it is in that bookshelf. I'd be pleased if you'd read it. I have to say, I'm glad I came out to Sinnoh. I suppose I'd better be off in search of new myths in faraway lands. It would be nice if our paths were to cross again."
There is a lot of extra dialogue in the game that you really kind of have to look for that explains a bit about Arceus, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina's status as deities. There's an actual conversation with Cynthia in the ruins at Celestic town that has her own interpretation:
Cynthia posted:
"This cave painting... It's always been described this way. The light in the center represents either Dialga or Palkia appearing at the Spear Pillar. The three lights around it were thought to be Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. But, then, I realized that there may be another way of interpreting this. Could this triangle of lights actually represent a different trio?"
"Could they be Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina instead? And the large light in the center. Does it represent something else? Could it be what created this world of ours? Do you know of the ancient Plates they find all over Sinnoh?
One of them had this engraved on it. 'Two beings of time and space set free from the Original One.'
I think this quote, too, points to the presence of another Pokémon. A Pokémon even more powerful than Dialga or Palkia. Does that sound plausible to you?"
"I'm not quite sure how Giratina fits into this scheme of things, but... It's said that in the Distortion World, neither time nor space were stable. I think that tells us something about Giratina, the only Pokémon there. It must have been as powerful as Dialga and Palkia, the rulers of time and space. In some way, though, Giratina has to have a power opposite of theirs. A long time ago, I wonder what sort of person painted this?"
"Dialga's Roar of Time... Palkia's Spacial Rend... To the people back then, those Pokémon really must have appeared to rule over time and space. Seeing them must have shaken the people to their very core. This painting represents those feelings of awe, wonder, and everything else. It passed that memory to countless people, eventually becoming a myth..."
"That's what I believe as a researcher of myths."
Arceus, funnily enough, IS a being of immense power. Aside from its power to become any type and its extraordinarily high stats in battle, it can actually display its power in a bizarre way: It can create the monsters, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina.
If one takes an Arceus to the Ruins of Alph in Johto, it has a strange reaction with the Unown and the player is taken to ruins far north of Johto but south of Sinnoh.
It's quite honestly the bizarrest thing in the series.
L-let's get out of here.
--Later!--
Jorge. . . Jorge can we do this later I'm having an existential crisis at the moment.
Music: Diamond/Pearl - Rival Battle
. . . Ok my fault, but whatever.
NO. STOP IT.
Not so tough now, are you Staraptor? (Jorge, did you teach that thing Steel Wing specifically for this?)
Alright Lyudmila, you're untouchable!
Oh jeez.
JORGE. WHAT?!
Hmmmmm >:T
Not this time, flower.
Alright Jorge, you KNOW how this is going to end up.
Close! But you know how this goes!
Uhhhh D:
Nope, not happening.
Music: An Ending Song
. . . That didn't—
I mean, c'mon- that can't—
I mean, not to—
I-I had a lot on my mind and. . .
You know what.
Don't get used to that. This isn't going to be a regular thing, Jorge.
. . . C'mon Jorge I guess I owe you a burger or something now, let's see if Marley and Volkner are in.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And with that, Lady and Jorge's stories draw to a close. Well that was fun and only took a fucking year. Hope everyone has fun with Black/White when it's out!
Roar of Time, Spacial Rend and Judgment Images by PEARL MODE.
Thanks to the people that did fanart, etc.
Follow Red on Twitter for other LP projects.
This has been an An Orbital Grouse production.