« Back
Generated:
Post last updated:
Three words with the ring of fate - so say you'll incorporate
Scott & Ellie discuss the ethics of owning cards & pokémon
Permalink Mark Unread

Scott is pretty sure that having a nemesis is normal, if you're in a superhero story. Is he in a superhero story? He's not sure he likes the weight of responsibility, even if it is dressed up in frills and baubles that make it seem less scary. Maybe especially not then. There's a lot to worry about, but at the same time, it's like he's being tested. Whatever this Clow Reed wanted, Scott has to figure it out before the world ends at the hands of adorable forces of nature that may or not be people that he's enslaving.

And he still hasn't finished his math homework.

This particular night finds him meditating, a last-minute check for active cards before he half-finishes the assignment in time to hit the hay.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ellie is entirely not expecting the wild 'mon attack in the middle of downtown Saffron. On the plus(?) side, neither is anyone else, so her confusion doesn't stick out too much. She's never seen this species before- some kind of steel-hybrid arbok? The coloration is wrong and its hood is solid metallic instead of patterned and seems to be taking up the whole face instead of the neck, but that's the closest she can come up with on a second and a half of thought.

She's a ways back from the front lines so she fumbles for her dex instead of a pokeball, which means that she's caught unawares when it launches itself like a spring and eats her with its mirror face.

 


Probably a teenage girl somersaulting into him from nowhere will disrupt Scott's meditations a bit.

Permalink Mark Unread

It does. In fact, it gets him to yelp in surprise. He tries to compose himself enough to address the...teleporting sorcerer???...before this turns into an actual fight (hopefully; his confidence in his diplomacy skills has taken a few hits).

"Who are you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Uh." She seems somewhat disoriented herself. She has some kind of PDA device in one hand, the other patting at her belt for the six small red and white balls hooked on to it. "My name's Ellie. Where... am I?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're in my bedroom. Are you okay?"

He really hopes Kero doesn't pop his head out right now.

Permalink Mark Unread

"More or less. Except for how I shouldn't be in your bedroom. Is this- no, this isn't Saffron, it's dark out..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What's Saffron? Where were you trying to go?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Saffron's the city I was in. I wasn't trying to go anywhere. There was a rampaging 'mon and it had some kind of offensive teleportation attack."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Um. Okay. You're in Beacon Hills, California. Did the 'mon' follow you?"

His hand goes to the key in his pocket.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It doesn't seem to have. It was pretty big. Noticeable."

"I've never heard of the California region."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...okay. I've never heard of Saffron. Are you speaking English?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm speaking the common language? Is that what you call it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"-there are a lot of languages in the world. I don't think English is even the most common, that might be Spanish."

Or Chinese? That's not important, though, what's important is-

"Can you tell me what 'mon' are?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pokemon. You know, typed animals. Don't you have those?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You mean like...animal kingdoms? None of those have teleportation powers."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Some Pokemon do. Not any of the ones I have with me, but."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...We don't have Pokemon. Where did you say you were from again?

You can sit- anywhere," he adds, lamely, although only his chair is currently free- his bed still has his lacrosse stuff, some piles of laundry, and homework on it.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pallet Town in Kanto, originally. I've been traveling for a while, though. Do you want to see a Pokemon?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Okay. Are they in those...balls on your belt?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yep." She unclips one and it expands to fill her palm. "Pokeballs. This one's my sylveon." She tosses it at the floor-

Permalink Mark Unread

And it splits open, sending out a burst of light that coalesces into a white-and-pink creature, about the same dimensions as a medium-sized dog and inhabiting a curious triangle between a fox, a dog, and a cat. It has four ribbonlike tendrils sprouting from the bow-shaped fluff at its neck that wave gently through the air.

It chirps happily and immediately cuddles up to Ellie's leg.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Does it have a name?"

His voice sounds softer now than it has thus far.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just Sylveon. Or Sylvie. I'm not really into the nicknaming thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

Two of Sylveon's tendrils grab Ellie's hand to direct it in administering headpats.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Is Sylvie more like a pet? Most people here that keep animals keep them for food, or milk, or as pets."

Are pokemon a type of animal? He could ask-

Permalink Mark Unread

- oh no-

Permalink Mark Unread

One of the items in Scott's room, previously resembling a stuffed animal, jumps into the air, hovering there. It's a yellow, fluffy little bear with white wings that don't seem to need to flap to keep it hovering.

"What??? Who is this? Where did she come from? What is that thing???"

Permalink Mark Unread

"-sorry, Kero. This is Ellie. Ellie, this is Kero. I'm Scott."

Permalink Mark Unread

...It talks?

"Uh. Hello."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...hey."

Permalink Mark Unread

"This is Cerberus, my new friend. He looks like a stuffed animal, but he's-"

Permalink Mark Unread

"My true form is way less cute than this. It's ferocious!"

Kero's exclamation about his own ferocity is undercut by the crack in his voice that emerges midway through the word.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You mentioned that you never heard of California- most people in America have heard of California, I think? Have you heard of America, or of- China, Mexico, France, England, um, India, Japan, Mexico-?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, none of those places. I think I might be from a different world or universe somehow."

Permalink Mark Unread

Nod.

"A few weeks ago, I would have said pokemon were physically impossible in this universe."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hey, don't-"

Permalink Mark Unread

Kero thinks better of saying that out loud, instead bumping into Scott with his head as a warning. This is a bad idea!

Permalink Mark Unread

Scott pretends not to notice this.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well. I'm glad they're not physically impossible. That would kind of suck."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No kidding. Poor Sylvie...so is she like a pet, and you're her owner?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Kind of? Some people treat their 'mon like that but mine are working pokemon. I'm not huge on the battle circuit but we do some of that, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What do working pokemon do?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Help with human jobs. Depends on the type for what exactly they're suited to; flying for couriers and transportation, fighting for construction, rock and ground for mining, grass and water for farming, steel for manufacturing, and so on. Mine help me with my research- I'm studying pokemon evolution and they're all from the eevee line."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's a lot of different kinds of things. How many types are there? Flying, fighting, rock, ground, grass, water..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Eighteen, in all. Fire, water, grass, normal, electric, flying, bug, poison, fighting, rock, ground, psychic, fairy, dark, ghost, steel, ice, and dragon." She rattles the list off with easy familiarity.

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's a lot of types.

So if yours are working pokemon, what do they do for you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mentioned I'm a researcher- sometimes as pokemon grow or when they're exposed to certain stimuli, they undergo a permanent metamorphosis, changing their shape and getting stronger, sometimes even switching their type. We call this evolution. My project is to study the whys and wherefores of this change to understand more about it. All my 'mon are of the eevee line, which means they all started out as the same species, eevee, which is the pokemon with the most possible evolutions out of any that we know about. So I raise eevees until they evolve, keeping track of their diet and habits and personality and so forth and compare them to what they're like afterwards. Cross-reference all of that with the circumstances under which the evolution actually occurred and maybe I'll be able to find some patterns in the data."

Permalink Mark Unread

"-that's incredible. What have you discovered so far?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's still a little early for any firm conclusions. I do have a hunch that the theory of each individual eevee having a so-called destined evolution is just completely incorrect, it's all down to environmental factors. Which raises some interesting questions when you take that perspective and look at a 'mon like nidoran, which has distinct evolutionary paths between the male and female of the species."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are there any pokemon without any evolutions?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Kero does not interrupt this, because they have clearly moved on to talking about something besides the Cards. Thank Clow.

Permalink Mark Unread

"There are, yes, but it's certainly not the norm."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If they depend on specific conditions- you mentioned diet- how often are new evolutions discovered? Are there any that you only see in the wild, or don't see in the wild?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Well. That sounds an awful lot like a jumping-off point for a whole entire lecture. If Scott has anything else to do tonight he may want to figure out how to interrupt her at some point.

Permalink Mark Unread

He will happily listen to her talk about magical animals from another world!

Permalink Mark Unread

(Kero, meanwhile, drifts off, bored-)

Permalink Mark Unread

(-and realizes that he can probably sneak some snacks from Scott's backpack while no one is looking.)

Permalink Mark Unread

Snacks? Snacks? Ooh, Sylveon wants some snacks.

Permalink Mark Unread

Kero will play keep-away, sure. They're his snacks.

Permalink Mark Unread

Scott is happy to prod at evolution and related topics for a while, especially if this lecture allows for questions. Does evolving depend on overall health; do some pokemon experience delayed evolution? Are there any evolutions that are rarer than others, relying on specific conditions- like those lizards that change gender or animals that camouflage themselves?

Permalink Mark Unread

It's definitely based on things pokemon themselves do, so if one is too weak or sick to get up and do things, it won't evolve. But there doesn't seem to be an inherently critical time period- a sick pokemon that gets better can still evolve as usual. There are some evolutions that seem to be associated with certain times of day- like umbreon and espeon only evolving during the night or day- or locations. Ellie's read about a certain rock formation in the Galar region that the native yamask have to visit before they can evolve, and their evolved form is different than yamask elsewhere.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do they have spawning grounds? Do wild pokemon keep their own territories?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Pokemon generally make nests where they live and lay eggs there. They'll have at least accustomed ranges if perhaps not territories per se. But that's something that varies by species. Rattata packs are very fierce about defending their space, whereas something like a fearow will roam about hundreds of miles and not care too much about what others are around."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What about Sylvie? Do evolutions behave differently than their earlier forms? What does the science say? It's so cool that you're on the cutting edge of it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sylvie's a snugglebug. Always has been. Personalities in general carry over through evolution, most of the time when things change it follows from changes in the body plan- venonat gets wings when it evolves into venomoth, for example."

Permalink Mark Unread

Scott wants to compare and contrast! Which species (evolutionary lines?), if any,  have live births? How much do Pokemon change on longer timescales- do they seem to have natural selection at all?

Permalink Mark Unread

This is all very much an area of active research. They're starting to brush up against the limits of what's known for sure.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Are there any big questions you're hoping you'll solve?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Me specifically? It'd be really cool if I could find one of the so-called missing eeveelutions, Or prove conclusively that they can't exist, but that's more of a stretch."