31 KiB
[RST] Pokemon: The Origin of Species, Chapter 39 - Hearsay
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Author: u/DaystarEld Pokémon Professor*
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URL: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9794740/39/Pokemon-The-Origin-of-Species
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Score: 53
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Created: 2017-01-01T11:25:32
Post:
Comments:
u/Salivanth [+19] (3 hours later)
Very interesting indeed.
Giovanni seemed to know Leaf wasn't planning on publishing as soon as Leaf thought it, even though she didn't say anything. Leaf seemed to think the conversation was oddly like Giovanni could read her thoughts.
Theory: Giovanni isn't psychic himself, but he was getting notifications from someone who was, hidden nearby. He easily has the resources. Probably spoken directly into his mind, with the phone being a red herring to disguise the psychic involvement. Hence the lack of noises from the phone.
u/Ristridin1 [+19] (3 hours later)
Giovanni wouldn't be able to hear a message spoken into his mind, being Dark and all. The rest of the theory seems plausible. The phone could simply be on silent mode, to make it less plausible for Leaf to notice that he received messages.
Besides that, if it was not necessary to use a phone, it would be far more reasonable to not give any sign that communication took place.
u/DerSaidin [+11] (4 hours later)
Yeah, I suspected this too; psychic readings via the phone.
Listing reporters names would have probably been enough for the psychic to monitor Leaf's reaction and identify which ones (Zoey) she responded to. I wonder if anything will happen to Zoey in the next chapter or two.
I also wonder what would have happened if Leaf started suspecting Giovanni during the meeting.
u/Salivanth [+2] (4 hours later)
Both points are true; fair enough.
u/ketura [+10] Organizer (3 days later)
Has no one brought up the idea that it was Misty herself? Giovanni seemed to be very certain on her opinions on things...
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (3 days later)
You are indeed the first person to bring that up :)
u/DCarrier [+8] (13 hours later)
Perhaps Giovanni is psychic and dark. They're not contradictory, as [Malamar](http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Malamar_(Pok%C3%A9mon)) shows. That said, it seems like something Giovanni would be trying to keep secret. Acting on it like that would be risky.
u/DaystarEld [+11] Pokémon Professor (19 hours later)
Since it's the only Psychic/Dark pokemon besides the mythical Hoopa Unbound, I just imagined that Malamar's evolutionary line has two brains, one dark and one psychic, hence the whole upside-down thing. Maybe that'll prove to be a silly fancy, if Gamefreak adds in more, but so far it would preclude any human from being both.
Good thought though, that would definitely make for a terrifying antagonist :)
u/Electric999999 [+3] (14 hours later)
I don't think it would be that risky, there's no evidence at all and without some actual evidence noone would take that sort of claim seriously, especially with the implied weath and influence he wields. "Oh another conspiracy theory about giovanni"
u/Cuz_Im_TFK [+3] (19 hours later)
Yeah, and the fact that he didn't follow up with Leaf about the other reporter looking into it after realizing she wasn't going to publish was a dead giveaway. Forgetting to get that information is not a mistake you'd expect Rational!Giovanni to make, therefore he most likely got the information.
Rather than having a human psychic nearby though, I suspect he was using Mewtwo somehow, possibly in conjunction with the phone. The suspicious chrome ball on his belt is also probably related.
u/Salivanth [+9] (19 hours later)
That seems unnecessary.
First, Mewtwo's range is apparently "over five times" (IIRC) that of a human psychic, so he'd still have to be relatively close, he couldn't just do it from a lab two cities over. Mewtwo's capabilities may actually be significantly higher than that, but the interlude doesn't suggest that Giovanni knows about that if it's true.
Secondly, why use Mewtwo for such a mundane task? I got the feeling Giovanni does this thought-reading thing a lot. He probably has one or more psychics on payroll who literally just follow him around for this exact purpose. Leaf is a fairly minor player in the grand scheme of things. Even if it is possible for Giovanni to get Mewtwo to help him in important discussions, this is unlikely to qualify. It's not even the most important discussion he's going to have TODAY, since Giovanni's going to follow up with Leaf's source. And the reporter Leaf got the story off is more established and experienced, and thus more of a threat.
As for the chrome ball, I'm not sure. There are non-Mewtwo explanations for that though. It's a rare (or Kanto-exclusive) type of Pokeball which Leaf isn't familiar with, or Giovanni, being a rich man, has custom-made Pokeballs to look impressive. Or it's a special type of ball developed by Team Rocket to try to contain the Mewtwo line. Either way, I don't think it actually contains Mewtwo, or is directly related to 2.351.
u/Cuz_Im_TFK [+2] (a day later)
That seems unnecessary
It is unnecessary. I guess it was more of an argument made based on story tropes and foreshadowing. I wouldn't be surprised at all if I'm wrong.
Secondly, why use Mewtwo for such a mundane task?
Practice? Testing/training range, obedience, or something else? Teaching Mewtwo that Giovanni wants to use his powers "for good"? I dunno, there could be a bunch of reasons, and while it's an argument based on tropes and outside knowledge that he's probably a "bad guy", there are plenty of possible rational justifications for him to use Mewtwo for this. Sure, I wouldn't rank it as the highest probability explanation if it were the real world, but it is a story, even if it is a ratfic.
I got the feeling Giovanni does this thought-reading thing a lot. He probably has one or more psychics on payroll who literally just follow him around for this exact purpose.
You're probably right. That'd be the efficient way of going about it, though risky if he ever unknowingly tries to use it on a psychic who can notice what's going on.
u/None [+3] (a day later)
Alternatively the phone could have some sort of computer program that analyses her responses, which would fit with the recent chapters about ai
u/blanktextbox [+16] (11 hours later)
My interest in signals intelligence had me thinking very hard through that Giovanni meeting and made me all too aware of how Leaf's thinking about the wrong things throughout. Her earlier sensitive phone call made in the clear from a room that was provided for her put me in that frame of mind, and Giovanni showing up sealed it. Going toe-to-toe with such a significant figure who's clearly operating at least one meta-level higher... poor Leaf never stood a chance, even without a psychic next door feeding him info.
Helps to have outside knowledge that he's almost certainly villainous, of course. I feel like he needlessly tipped his hand by leaving when he did, but there could always be reasons for it.
u/DaystarEld [+13] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
I feel like he needlessly tipped his hand by leaving when he did, but there could always be reasons for it.
A bit, yeah, but I figured he cares very little about whether she figures it out eventually, compared to the time he saves just leaving when he gets what he wants.
u/DaystarEld [+10] Pokémon Professor (a minute later)
Hey everyone, welcome back! Aside from the holiday crazyness, I worked on a lot of other projects this month, so I'm glad this chapter didn't suffer in terms of length as a result, and in fact ended up holding the longest-chapter-yet ribbon. This is the first full Leaf chapter too, and as I've always been less sure about her sections than others, any and all feedback is more welcome than usual. Hope you all enjoy it!
Also, I was super tempted to end the chapter at the second line of dialogue in the final section. Not just because of all the busyness of the holidays, but for the sheer cliffhanger value. Consider me finishing the section here rather than another chapter my new year's gift to all of you :) Happy 2017!
u/None [+11] (5 hours later)
[deleted]
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
Thank you, glad to hear it!
u/gbear605 [+10] history’s greatest story (4 hours later)
And besides, if the story's going to come out either way, she'd rather be the one to break it than risk Zoey's broad strokes.
I think Leaf needs to do some introspection and think about how much she really differs from Zoey.
EDIT: After reading the rest of the chapter, I disagree with my original thoughts, just because of her decision in the last few paragraphs.
u/NightmareWarden [+10] Church of the Broken God (8 hours later)
So based on the final section I think we've confirmed Leaf isn't a Dark type. That really isn't surprising. I've never had a problem with Leaf sections, but the research segments I've enjoyed the most have fed us details about other regions or were fantastically original like one old woman's tale on rock-humans. The way Leaf chooses to interact with her Pokemon is a pleasant contrast from Blue. She doesn't just tell us, but shows us that Pokemon aren't just for battling and we rarely see that in the anime.
Barring another event I'm guessing we'll see Blue battling Misty within the next two chapters. It will probably be a mostly underwater battle, but we've seen water Pokemon that are less-than-dexterous underwater (psyduck). And she might use an odd foreign Pokemon like togetic. Or she could've evolved an eevee from Bill into a vaporeon which I'm suggesting just because I've never seen her use one before. The last thoughts I have for Blue are how he'll react to hearing about Giovanni meeting Leaf and if he will meet any of Misty's less famous sisters from the anime while working on the Cerulean lesson.
I don't see any major reasons for our heroes to stay in Cerulean while watching their Clefairy and Abra sales. We'll probably hear from Bill at least one more time- oh man do I feel dumb. The thing Bill wanted Red for has to do with that ticket for the S.S.Anne doesn't it? I can think of a few things the kids could do there. Anyway what else could happen before we get back on the road? We could learn something about the cave Misty found (and someone other than Blue could snag a high level Pokemon since he set the precedent), Bill could get involved, the Abras could be stolen by team rocket, something related to coordinators, someone's Pokemon could evolve and we get to see some training/behavior differences, we could learn about shadow Pokemon from the Orre region, or Xerneas could wake up thus activating the fairy type.
u/DaystarEld [+11] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
We'll probably hear from Bill at least one more time- oh man do I feel dumb. The thing Bill wanted Red for has to do with that ticket for the S.S.Anne doesn't it?
Congrats on being the first reader to voice that :) Your prize is an upvote!
u/NightmareWarden [+4] Church of the Broken God (14 hours later)
I will treasure it forever! I wouldn't have discovered it if you hadn't posted it on rationalfiction.io so thank you for dealing with the hassle of duplicate posting and all the formatting pain it involves. I really love this story and look forward to anything else you produce in the future.
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (14 hours later)
I actually haven't been posting it on rationalfiction.io! I just put it on fanfiction and daystareld.com, so I guess someone else is doing the work of continuing to duplicate it elsewhere, for which I thank them!
u/None [+6] (7 hours later)
[deleted]
u/DaystarEld [+3] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
\o/!
u/DaystarEld [+4] Pokémon Professor (a minute later)
Typo thread!
u/gammagurke [+3] (4 hours later)
"Leaf takes a deep ."
"Giovanini"
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
Fixed, thanks!
u/None [+2] (5 hours later)
[removed]
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
Fixed, thank you!
u/Mizu25 [+2] (14 hours later)
You said this was about a story you want to write, but did you need to come halfway up the mountain to talk about in person?"
to talk about it in person?
since the straps a round her waist and legs do most of the work of keeping her secure.
straps around her waist
"Oh, sure." Leaf relaxes a little. This was far off what Leaf feared.
far off from what Leaf
But ultimately, you'are a stranger to me."
you're a stranger
would come with drawbacks, such as being able to sit in a chair without removing it.
such as being unable to sit
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (14 hours later)
All fixed, thanks!
u/Golden_Magician [+4] (14 hours later)
Although I find Leaf to be the least interesting character of the trio by far (she seems a bit bland) this chapter was quite enjoyable. Started a bit boring, then the tension slowly rose, and kept rising, and then SUDDENLY FREAKING GIOVANNI HIMSELF. That escalated quickly and Leaf's reaction pretty much mirrored the reader's! As for the cell phone, it might Mewtwo shenanigans. Although he could also be dwelling in the Cerulean cave after his escape, based on Misty's mysterious trip. The plot thickens! Now I'm looking forward to Abra silliness and Cascade Badge battles. Thanks for providing us with our monthly dose of OoS :)
u/DaystarEld [+3] Pokémon Professor (14 hours later)
Glad you enjoyed it :)
u/Electric999999 [+2] (14 hours later)
I didn't think Mewtwo was cooperating with Giovanni.
u/Golden_Magician [+4] (14 hours later)
I thought of it mostly because we do not know what kind of range psychics have, but I assume it's fairly limited for humans; other psychic pokemon presumably wouldn't be able to discern subtle intentions and relay them to Giovanni; Mewtwo on the other hand fits with range, power and communicability!
u/The_Magus_199 [+1] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (a day later)
Not to mention that the narrative has to have brought the weird poke ball to our attention for a reason...
u/DaystarEld [+5] Pokémon Professor (a day later)
I feel like one of my potential weaknesses as a writer is that Conservation of Detail is less of a thing for me, particularly in a story like this, where I might throw out little details and bits of worldbuilding for no more a reason than a "huh, isn't that interesting" moment.
This definitely leads to chapters that can go on overlong and a plot that feels too slow, but is more enjoyable for those who like the atmosphere and exploration aspect of the story.
u/TheTrickFantasic [+3] (4 months later)
The reference to the custom Pokeball might have been thrown in on-the-fly just for more detail, which is great by itself, but you never know. Later in the future, it might make for a useful or really cool callback.
Personally, I'm still waiting for GameFreak to get back to us on the custom Pokeball that Prof. Oak had delivered at the start of RBY....
u/Mizu25 [+3] (14 hours later)
He takes a phone out of the pocket of his suit, shifting it enough for her to get a peek at the lid of one of the balls on his belt. It's unlike any she's seen before, chrome grey with a circle of yellow around the top.
What pokeball type is this? Heavy ball? I want to say Ultra, but it doesn't seem to fit.
Well, that was quite an intimidating discussion with Giovanni. I'm guessing he teleported in and had a Rocket member reading Leaf's mind psychically from close-by, feeding him her thoughts via a phone app? Would explain why he just up and left without her saying something either way about publishing at the end there.
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (14 hours later)
I wanted to convey that it's a custom made ball, which someone like Giovanni can probably afford to get made. Maybe it has special properties, or maybe it's just for his own identification purposes. Who can say?
u/Mizu25 [+5] (15 hours later)
Ah, right, that makes sense. I'm so used to only the 'standard' games ones being the only balls the concept of a custom one didn't even enter my mind :P
u/gbear605 [+3] history’s greatest story (4 hours later)
I would personally have preferred not to have this chapter be solely Leaf, but that's because I'm just not that interested in Leaf's story (and Blue's story, for that matter). I'd rather only be getting Red's story, but I'd guess that I'm in the minority of readers.
u/NightmareWarden [+7] Church of the Broken God (9 hours later)
Some of the reasons I like Leaf's sections are who and what she can bring into the story that are outside of Blue and Red's experiences. Strange Pokemon from her region, pokemon and item specialists, etc. Would you enjoy more stuff along those lines as opposed to the mundane (non-Pokemon detective work) research? Or do you find Leaf pretty flat all around?
u/gbear605 [+7] history’s greatest story (10 hours later)
It's not really an issue of Leaf being a flat or boring character, more that I'm really interested in Red's story with researching and everything else just makes Red's story take more time to get to.
u/DaystarEld [+7] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
I'll take "I don't find this character boring, but I find the other characters more interesting" :) I hope to satisfy your urge for more pokeresearch in Red's next chapter!
u/jldew [+2] (7 hours later)
So, are Porygon a thing in this fic? Just a hunch.
u/UltraRedSpectrum [+6] (9 hours later)
Given that pokeballs convert pokemon into software that can be directly edited via TMs, it seems likely that it's possible - albeit difficult - to code a pokemon from scratch. Does raise the question of why you can't copy pokemon, though.
u/Electric999999 [+3] (14 hours later)
We've seen the turning stuff into data tech work on objects too, so there must be some major limitation against copying even simple things, otherwise they'd have replicators and be post scarcity by now, which rules out something similar to why it doesn't work on people.
u/MaddoScientisto [+6] (a day later)
It has probably to do with conservation of energy: you can turn an existing pokemon or object into pure enegrgy and store it but you can't just create the energy out of nothing (well you probably could invest some energy into it but it would probably be massive).
However you could maybe clone a pokemon by unplugging the cable as the transfer is going through........
u/sir_pirriplin [+4] (a day later)
But then you could just turn your trash into energy and then that energy into something useful, like they do in Transmetropolitan.
u/MaddoScientisto [+2] (a day later)
Well nobody thought about saving dying people with pokeballs until bill told red so who knows
u/sir_pirriplin [+5] (a day later)
But this time it wouldn't be about merely saving lives. If free energy and trash disposal were possible, the person who came up with it could make a lot of money!
u/Electric999999 [+2] (2 days later)
Well they tried sticking people in them, and the results were not good, I imagine it's simply the case that noone is willing to touch anything involving it, there's no reason to indicate they'd be particularly opposed to this sort of tech and it's the kind of thing that would be pretty incredible.
u/DaystarEld [+6] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
They will show up eventually, yes :)
u/TheTrickFantasic [+2] (4 months later)
The Grimer/Muk outbreak in Celadon makes me want to draw a connection to the earlier Paras/Parasect outbreak on Mt. Moon, since both locals are associated with Rocket activity in game canon. Maybe it’s just coincidence... or maybe both were planned. This is an older thread, but I came up with an essay-sized post, so hear me out?
Grimer and Muk have no real-world animal counterpart (that I know of) to use as a basis for interpreting their behaviour, but in the game canon they do not occur in outbreaks. So I find thier outbreak slightly suspicious (unless DaystarEld is just using it as a metaphor for a backed-up sewage or pollution treatment plant).
In contrast, Paras and Parasect are strongly based on cicada nymphs and the Cordyceps fungi, and the outbreak conflicted a little with what I expected of their ecology.
I acknowledge that Paras do swarm in game canon, but so far that has only been in Unova, possibly as a reference to the real-life periodical cicadas (genus Magicicada) found in the USA, which emerge from underground in large numbers after maturing as nymphs for 13-17 years. So in that sense, I can kind of see Paras outbreaks as a natural part of their ecology – even if Parasect does not advance to an imago stage (it could be relict behaviour from an ancestor), and the outbreak behaviour is transplanted between regional breeds.
(Aside: Isn’t it fun to think about what lost metamorphic stage the ancestors to the Paras line might have had, before the entire species and its descendants got ‘jacked by the parasite fungus?).
However, in our world, a Cordyceps fungus needs its spores to reach and infect another member of its target species, rather than purely maximize the dispersal distance. If the Paras are already living and breeding in a colony, then the spores already have access to new hosts without the need to mass migrate to the surface (the Pokedex supports this with a very reasonable statement about Paras being doused in spores at birth). Some sort of breeding migration between colonies could help maintain genetic diversity for both parasites and hosts, but then the most efficient behaviour would be to find other Paras colonies first, rather than head directly for the surface and release spores enmass. Although, perhaps that was what was occurring when the other Pokémon caught in the way panicked in an effort to avoid poison, paralysis, sleep, or fungal infection, resulting in Chp 31.
Since the Paras-fungus spores were described as infecting other species* (the wild Graveller in Chp 31), a breeding migration could also be an opportunity to try infecting new species as hosts, which in turn would learn to flee to avoid infection, also leading to the events of Chp 31. Ants have adapted to recognize and evict Cordyceps-infected colony members before the fungus sprouts. If the breeding migration is seasonal, and a threat to other species, the local species populations would likely adapt to avoid the migration and the threat it poses, reducing the numbers caught in it.
In addition, the Rangers in Chp 29 were aware of strange Pokémon displacements beforehand and wary of something, but never voiced that a large Paras migration could be responsible. And the security personnel Leaf interviewed in this chapter said they did not expected the Paras to chase stronger Pokémon out in front of them. This suggests that Paras migrations do not usually have such a disastrous effect. Perhaps it’s a 1-in-10 or 1-in-100 year event. Or climate change.
Or perhaps Team Rocket(?) intentionally agitated the Paras into migrating early, which in turn panicked the other species. Or, the Paras and other Pokémon were agitated into an outbreak altogether. And then Yuuta uses the planned distraction to steal the fossils, rather than waiting to capitalize on a chance opportunity. Later, the same or a similar method is used to agitate Grimer and Muk in Celadon, in order to... distract attention from the Rocket Game Corner? Maybe I’m reaching too hard to justify a chance correlation. But the ability to trigger uncontrolled Pokémon outbreaks at will would be hugely useful for Rocket shenanigans. In GSC canon, they used radio waves to agitate Pokémon into maturing early, so similar experimentation towards agitating them into sudden outbreaks doesn’t seem far off.
*The fact that the fungus can infect species besides Paras also surprises me. For the degree of parasitism involved in hijacking the brain, I would have expected the reproductive spores to be highly specialized to only Paras biochemistry. I am not a mycologist or entomologist, but I have never read about a Cordyceps species that targets multiple, let alone distantly related, species.
Also:
the arbitrary limit [of six], seemingly modeled after the standard League maximum
Years ago, I read another Pokémon fanfic (Pokémon 0 by Afroshock) that explained the 6-mon limit as a legal imposition on Trainers. His ideas were that it limited the severity of the threat posed by any rogue Trainer, and it limited Trainers to a number of Pokémon that they could reasonably be expected to care for adequately. That story also implied that Pokéballs were an imperfect stasis and that certain licenses permitted a higher number of carried Pokémon.
u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (4 months later)
Heya, thanks for the write-up! I won't spoil anything, but can respond a bit to some of these:
(unless DaystarEld is just using it as a metaphor for a backed-up sewage or pollution treatment plant).
Yep, this is basically the understanding those in the pokemon world have of why this sort of thing happens. Some treatment process somewhere broke down, or some influx of substance caused a population boom, or some major sewer artery got clogged, and they basically just overflooded the local area.
(Aside: Isn’t it fun to think about what lost metamorphic stage the ancestors to the Paras line might have had, before the entire species and its descendants got ‘jacked by the parasite fungus?).
Yep! Same with a lot of other plant pokemon hybrids, like the bulbasaur line, though theirs is more symbiotic a relationship.
*The fact that the fungus can infect species besides Paras also surprises me. For the degree of parasitism involved in hijacking the brain, I would have expected the reproductive spores to be highly specialized to only Paras biochemistry. I am not a mycologist or entomologist, but I have never read about a Cordyceps species that targets multiple, let alone distantly related, species.
I should clarify that the fungus doesn't actually hijack other pokemon in a sustainable way: it just uses their biomass as food and keep spreading through spores, without controlling their movements. The paras family is indeed the only species where they can essentially take over.
Years ago, I read another Pokémon fanfic (Pokémon 0 by Afroshock) that explained the 6-mon limit as a legal imposition on Trainers. His ideas were that it limited the severity of the threat posed by any rogue Trainer, and it limited Trainers to a number of Pokémon that they could reasonably be expected to care for adequately. That story also implied that Pokéballs were an imperfect stasis and that certain licenses permitted a higher number of carried Pokémon.
That's a pretty neat idea too. Hard to enforce, but not if there was a strict ball registration process and the ability to force pokeballs not to work for trainers who try to break it, or straight up teleport them away like in the cartoon (If there's one technology I've basically ignored it's the ability to teleport pokemon into PCs from anywhere, since that feels ridiculously broken and unexplainable)
u/TheTrickFantasic [+2] (4 months later)
it just uses their biomass as food and keep spreading through spores
So the fungus is kind of using Giga Drain? I can live with that.
Hard to enforce, but not if there was a strict ball registration process and the ability to force pokeballs not to work for trainers who try to break it
Agreed. For example, have the Pokeball 'lock' immediately after capture and have it unlock during registration with the Pokedex (or whatever device non-Pokedex trainers use) if and only if the trainer has fewer than 6 unlocked, occupied Pokeballs. The extra Pokemon have to be either deposited or released at a Pokemon Center or other institution. And voila, Pokeball-control; this idea could be used for some neat parallels to real-world gun-control debates.
And naturally, you'd have hackers and cyberterrorists (Super Nerds with grudges?) who would try to break this system, to either unlock their own Pokeballs, or trigger mass lockdowns during an emergency. This becomes an added dimension to each region's cyber-law enforcement, and each department starts commissioning Sliph Co. for Porygon (2 and Z?) specially-coded for this task, and maybe also Bill?
As for Pokeball teleportation... study Abra and other Psychic-types until teleportation is understood well enough to be technologically replicated, as Bill referred to. Miniaturize the technology until it can be integrated into Pokeballs (if it's possible), and have the 'home' location hardcoded to a central depository for each region. At the depository, Pokeballs are sorted by the Trainer No. registered via the Pokedex.
....Maybe I got a bit carried away in places, but that was fun.
u/None [+1] (8 hours later)
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u/DaystarEld [+5] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
Any particular part you enjoyed more than the rest, or found particularly boring?
u/None [+3] (a day later)
[removed]
u/DaystarEld [+1] Pokémon Professor (a day later)
Thanks for the feedback! I was afraid the Laura scene would come off as a non-sequitur, and it kind of is, but I wanted to show that the trio isn't always at the center of the world's big events, and have Leaf recognize that her sense of responsibility has changed since becoming a trainer.
u/None [+2] (a day later)
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u/DaystarEld [+2] Pokémon Professor (a day later)
Yeah, I definitely considered just having it be some random event completely unconnected to any of them, but internally I felt like it was too removed from Leaf's perspective for her to do more than just feel a vague sense of worry and frustration. This first time, it needed to have someone she knew there to really drive home the worry. I also wanted to communicate the idea that their loved ones aren't safe just because they're not out in the world adventuring.