Ratatouille. Glad I thought of it.
After the battle, I immediately take Sashimi & Ratatouile to the nearest restaurantPokemon Center, before then proceeding to go into a strange man's house... Oh wait. I'm directed towards Hugh, who is on Route 20, first. Can do. On my way there though, I see... a car? Since when did any automobiles exist in Pokemon aside from Mew's truck? No matter; I take on a few trainers in the next area without a hitch (During which, Sashimi learns Water Gun), and on the way meet a Sunkern. Weak, but I'll deal.
I catch it and name it Margarine, before continuing on towards the only available destination, Floccesy Ranch... Where I pretty much immediately land in a battle with Hugh. Damn.
...Almost lost Margarine there, but it worked out in the end. Afterward, we're tasked to find a couple of Herdier, but even though I try to leave, that Alder guy just says the same thing he said before about where Route 20 is, despite his only problem earlier being delivering the second town map.
Returning, Hugh seems to be just wandering around without actually searching until I head somewhere myself, at which point he races ahead of me. He could have gone there on his own in the first place y'know...
Heading in the opposite direction, I end up finding a Lillipup. Now if I just catch and evolve this, the ranchers won't have a problem!
...Well. Until they find a Herdier corpse in the corner of their farm. That might pose a problem. :/
Dropping that idea, I catch the Lillipup and name it Bosintang (A Korean dish made primarily of dog meat). After some more healing, I follow after Hugh - who has again stopped - I continue on to search for the missing Herdier.
Further into the "ranch" (which is seeming more and more like a forest lacking bugs), I see the Herdier with a guy who I'm guessing is part of Team Plasma. Since they're of course not going anywhere any time soon, I search the remainder of the forest before saving the day.
...Eventually, I get back to the man, who is indeed a part of Team Plasma. He asks me if I've heard of it, but since his ego's big enough already, I deny anything. He's momentarily confused, but doesn't care. He then, for some weird reason, gives me the TM Frustration while he leaves. Wimp.
Well, the ranch owner soon comes by to retrieve the Herdier and wonders whether Hugh is afraid of losing Pokemon. I still don't care.
—
Shortly, I return to Alder, who still seems to think it's okay to invite a young girl into his house. I'd stay away, but there was a Hiker blocking my path to anywhere else on route 20. So in I go to the torture chamber! Don't worry Meither, you won't need to worry about ransom money; 95% of kidnappings end in murder within a few hours anyway.
...Oh, and look. He's already conned a couple of schoolkids into entering his home. I bet he has candy. The kids, obviously brainwashed, decide to battle me. Which I easily win. Having nothing else to do there, I leave.
Only to run into a weird man who gives me a Medal Box, whatever that is. He explains that it's for something called a Medal Rally, and since I have no idea what that is, I inquire further.
...He's not very helpful. He gives me a few medals, then essentially tells me to figure it out myself. Joy. Well, Alder comes back outside to tell me to go to the first gym to test my skills, so I guess that's what I'll do. Turns out that it's in the starting town, not that it was when I was there before.
As I leave town, Alder gives me some berries and tells me a minimal amount about held items. Boring. Berries aren't that great anyway. Finally leaving, he finishes by telling me to battle all the gyms. I guess that's this games primary goal then (Unlike in Johto & Sinnoh, where the goals were to find your rival and defeat Team Galactic, respectively).
Since I don't want to be underlevelled for the first gym, I'm going to train up my Pokemon until they're all around 8-10 (while Sashimi is already 12). Until next time, folks!
Pokemon:
- Sashimi the Oshawott, Lv.12
- Ratatouile the Patrat, Lv.5
- Margarine the Sunkern, Lv.7
- Bosintang the Lillipup, Lv.7
