My Pokemon Diary

A journal of my adventures across Sinnoh. Warning: contains ghosts, cults, and very good friends.

[oliviasliver]

Introduction

You’d be surprised the things you can be talked into by someone you admire. 

I, for instance, have agreed to write about my personal journey of self-discovery with my pokemon and post it online because someone else told me I should.

I don’t know if it will be interesting. I haven’t fought any gods. I haven’t almost frozen to death. I’ve never had to fight for my home. My friends don’t get beaten and battered, and my relationship with my mom is pretty good. 

So, it might not be the most thrilling journey, but it’s mine. I hope you enjoy it.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

It was me! I was “someone else!” 

Olivia and I have been messaging each other for a while now, but she has been suspiciously quiet about her pokemon journey. 

Tell me all of your secrets, Olivia. Tell us all!

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

New Year, New Possibilities

For all intents and purposes, this blog is over. I will not be updating twice a day to keep you all in the loop about how my pokemon are doing. (They’re doing great.)

But. But! I do have a friend that I met through this blog who is also going on a pokemon journey. I’ll make sure to link to her when she starts up, which should be around the new year.

I’m so excited to see this stuff from the other side of the screen, and from what I heard, it’s going to be great. So stay tuned!

Oh, and Harry says Marry Christmas.

At least, that’s what I think it means when a kadabra starts flashing red and green lights.

Maybe I’ll just run over to the pokemon center now.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Cleffas are Cute: An Introspective

Bowie won.

No.

Bowie crushed it.

I'm making this Cleffa a star.

We breezed through the next contests like they were nothing, but I knew we had to up our game before the Master rank. I stuffed Bowie full of poffins to raise her appeal, and took Sunny on wild runs through Amity Square looking for accessories.

I decked her out in the best clothes, I watched as she danced like an angel, I coached her through her moves.

We came in dead last.

Again.

All the other contestants had these awesome strategies, and frankly I think my poffin making could use some work. But I never felt embarrassed. I never felt out of place. I never felt like I was doing this for someone else. Besides, if you saw how much fun Bowie had out there, you'd know I couldn't possibly feel bad.

Still, I think battling might be more my thing.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Taking the Stage with Bowie

I flew to that infernal, always calling city of Hearthome. Why is it that I always find my way back to the place with all the crying kids, crowded streets, and uncomfortable memories?

I could be in Floaroma right now.

I grabbed Bowie from my box. Bowie is a cleffa I'd caught forever ago. I've never used her, but all of her moves are cute. My champion team is powerful, but not adorable. She'll need to fill in.

I take to making poffins. It's surprisingly annoying, but I apparently need to fill Bowie up with them if I want her to wow the judges.

I put on my beautiful dress with entirely too many bows. Time to shine.

Same guy.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

The Battle Zone: Endgame

It's a long, cold flight to Snowport and a surprisingly short boat trip later, I'm at the Battle Zone! Markus is there to greet me, as well as some guy named Buck, and I can't keep the grin from my face. There are more challenges for me, after all.

...I think I saw future Markus.

Look, I fought a time god. It could happen.

CHERYL'S HERE!!!! And she has a frigging latios. I guess I’m not the only one who had run-ins with legendary pokemon. I think I’ll have fun here.

My pokemon journey is, for all intents and purposes, done. I may record more pokemon in my pokedex. I may fight more battles in the Battle Tower. I may go up against the elite four again, but I have achieved what I wanted to for this blog. I made great friends. We proved ourselves. We even made the world a little better. That's more than what I wanted.

However, there is one more challenge awaiting me. One that I cannot back away from and still call myself Champion.

We're winning a contest.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Twinleaf Town. Or, Normal Again.

I've been home for a couple of days. It's nice. It's boring. I defeated a cult. I was recognized as the greatest trainer in the region. I fought what some consider a god. I made more money than I know what to do with.

Can I just be normal again?

Sleeping in my bed is a special chore. I'd let A'tuin sleep in it his first night here, and he refuses to give up the privilege even after gaining almost seven hundred pounds. So I now need a new bed. New mattress and bed springs, too. Just the whole thing. 

Cleo has wreaked havoc on the floorboards. She needs to be out more, and tears at them when she’s bored.

Harry has been quiet. Contemplative? I think he feels he failed me in some way. Or maybe he knows that I feel like I've failed him. When we went against the elite four, his speed and psychic power meant almost nothing. I should have trained him more. He wasn't ready for that alakazam. 

Quantum is the only one who seems satisfied. He's been keeping busy putting out the small fires Amalthea starts up when she isn't being careful enough. She was always careful before. Maybe she's feeling cooped up, too. If this goes on much longer, my whole room will soon be destroyed.

Tragedy stays with me while I...well, while I mope. I can't help but feel that all of the challenges have been conquered. All of the horizons have been traveled to. I stood at the edge of the infinite and found my place to be here.

When Mom tells me that Markus was babbling about a ship I just about run out the door.

He was always the one to find new things to do.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

The Champions of Sinnoh

The champion was Cynthia. I should have known this. Seeing her twisted my gut. I hadn't seen her since just before the legendary pokemon were stolen. She thanked me for what I did on Mt. Coronet. Of course she knows. 

Even though no one else seems to.

The battle wasn't easy. Her pokemon were undoubtedly stronger, and had combinations of types I wasn't ready for. My team pulled through, though. They always do.

Rowan showed up to see me become champion. He and Cynthia know each other, which is just all kinds of typical.

Well. If Cynthia is just me in a decade or so, I suppose I should stop questioning her motives. I think she's good people. Besides, we have something in common now: we're both champions.

I enter my team in the computer, and it's official: A'tuin, Cleo, Tragedy, Harry, Amalthea, Quantum, and Ashlei: Champions of Sinnoh.

It feels...bittersweet.

It feels like the end.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

The Pokemon League and The Elite Four

The pokemon league building looks like a cathedral. Inside, it looks like a pokemon center. It was kind of jarring, actually.

Markus fought me before I went to fight the pokemon league. I won, but it was a wake-up call. I hadn't gotten rid of all these annoying HMs! A'tuin still knows rock smash, for goodness sake. Thanks for the heads-up, Markus!

Aaron is a bug type user. He must not have heard that Tragedy trained by fighting bugs. 

Is it weird to call a bat fighting five bugs “majestic?” Because that's what it felt like. She was beautiful.

Bertha used ground types. They were mostly water/ground and rock/ground.

A'tuin + giga drain = we win.

Flint was the first one I had to switch my team around for. He was a good strategist, but by the end of our fight, in the bright sunlight his pokemon had created, he tried to pit his Steelix against Amalthea. We gladly accepted the boost to her fire power and our win.

Lucian used psychic pokemon. I'm sure some of you are thinking that I may have gotten big-headed after beating the last three trainers so easily. Lucian cured me of the idea that I might not have more to learn. I won, but only after every one of my pokemon took a beating against his Alakazam, leaving Tragedy alone to fight medicham. We were lucky that she dodged medicham's lightning and ice punches by flying, and that crobats are so fast. It was a victory from the jaws of defeat, delivered to us by hyper potions and revives. It shook me, but I had, after all, won.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Victory Road. Or, Evolving into Champions

I don't want to rush through my time on Victory Road. I don't want anyone to think I find the pokemon league less important just because I saved Sinnoh and faced a being that might have been a god.

But.

Victory Road was long and arduous. We spent days traversing it, getting sidetracked by hidden items and random battles, becoming stronger. For the first time in a long time, my journey felt like an adventure again. There was no need to rush. There were no crazy cults or possibly world-ending stakes. It was just me and my pokemon overcoming obstacles together. As it should be.

Oh, Amalthea finally evolved. I made her learn flame rush first, so now she's terrifying and awesome.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Sunyshore City. Or, Getting Back on Track

I never realized until I went on my pokemon journey how many different types of power we have crammed in a region so small you can traverse it on a bike. Sunyshore City is all solar powered, and they're recovering from a major blackout. Maybe the sun stopped working one day.

That was a joke, but after what I've seen, it might be legitimately possible.

Met a guy named Flint. He's part of the elite four. He wanted me to battle the gym leader, which...duh.

Volkner claims he's so strong battles aren't fun anymore, because he always wins. As though his entire team couldn't be beat by a diglet.

A'tuin crushed him. He called it “thrilling.” 

Gym leaders.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Reflection on the Disappeared Dialga

I don't know if it was a god, really. It was strong, but most of what it did wasn't any more impressive than a strong pokemon would be. It did seem really old. And whatever it really is, Team Galactic does not have it.

Nobody does. It's safe.

And if anyone else comes after it, I'll mess you up.

It's weird to just go back to training now. I wonder what Dialga's world is like. I wonder if the legendary pokemon are back in their lakes. I wonder if, in my old age, I'll regret not breaking Cyrus's nose. Probably. He does have such a punchable face.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Creation and Destruction: The Master Ball

Rowan and Lucas showed up as Cyrus and his poorly-dressed cronies fled.

Dialga was out of control. They wanted me to stop it.

In my bag, there was a ball that can catch any pokemon.

Given to me by Cyrus.

Is that why he told me where to find him? So that, if he did fail, the pokemon would still be caught? Does he want me to trap the god of time in a pokeball so that he can recover it later?

Doesn't matter.

I sent that thing right back to where it came from.

Well, A'tuin did. A'tuin fought a god. We stood at the highest point in Sinnoh, and he shook the earth until Dialga fell off.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Legends Come True: Dialga’s New Galaxy

After Markus and I beat Team Galactic’s garish commanders, Dialga started a light show. Cyrus went all cuckoo, talking about how it was creating a new galaxy.

That was when the three legendary lake pokemon showed up.

I think this is the closest thing I've ever had to a religious experience.

They appeared and stared down Dialga, somehow stopping the light show.

Then Mesprit was in front of me.

It just...looked.

In an instant, it was gone.

I think it went back home. Our home.

Cyrus came at me then. He was harder. Fiercer. He made me regret not letting Amalthea evolve quite yet.

On the other hand, the wild pokemon in Mt. Coronet hadn't allowed Cleo much exercise. She needed to let off some steam. 

Never make someone angry when you know they can shoot lightning.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

The Endless Moment: Stopped Time on the Summit

I don't know what it was. 

Cyrus called it Dialga, master of time. A powerful pokemon I could accept. A pokemon that controlled time was a bit harder to swallow, but it was definitely affecting the world around it. 

Waves of darkness rippled past overhead, colored like the rainbow of an oil spill, and for the first time, I realized Cyrus believed in this thing. He'd bought into his own apocalyptic cult. He thought Dialga would destroy the world.

And he thought he could command it.

He thought he could become a god.

And here I was, with six injured pokemon, trying to stop him.

And then Markus showed up!

The little bastard. I was running on fumes, and he was still as energetic as ever.

Mars and Jupiter tried to stop us from interrupting Cyrus. We fought them together.

Maybe I focused a little extra fire on Jupiter. That colorblind sin against fashion hurt my friend.

By the way, Markus, if you're reading this: I couldn't have done that fight without you. I especially couldn't have handled what happened next if you hadn't healed my pokemon.

Learn about type matchups.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

Up the Down Mountain: Lost in Mt. Coronet

Turns out getting to the summit of a mountain is difficult. Heck, even figuring out where the summit is is difficult. 

The Team Galactic grunts I meet tell me I'm the cause of all their problems. They do know how to sweet talk a girl.

“It's your fault that Team Galactic members are in such pain.” Be still, my heart.

New theory: Cyrus invited me to the summit so the exposure and wild pokemon can do what he and his goons never could, and kill me dead. If another graveller explodes, I find a way to level this mountain.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

A Detour Through the Worst City

I flew to Snowpoint to get back to the high point of Mt. Coronet. Let no one accuse me of making wise decisions. See, it turns out you can't get the the peak of Mt. Coronet from Snowpoint.

Luckily, I think Cyrus will wait for me. I just don't know why.

[sinnohtrainer1-blog]

The Secrets in the Basement: Freeing the Legendary Lake Pokemon

I cornered Cyrus in his office. He told me I was weak for caring about the pokemon he kidnapped. Then I kicked his sorry hide.

Actually, Cleo and Amalthea kicked his sorry hide. I'm going to learn how to make poffins as a special treat for them.

Cyrus gave me a master ball and told me he was going to Mt. Coronet. I don't know why he wants me to follow him. I guess I'll find out.

I met Saturn again while freeing the legendaries. Someone needs to learn his lesson.

I don’t think I really mentioned him the last time we fought. Possibly because he was completely underwhelming, and in fact still is.

That hair, though.

The pokemon are gone. Back to their lakes, hopefully. Chasing Cyrus, possibly. I should do that, as well.