Pokemon White, Day 4

Something I forgot to mention on Day 3: There was an abundant amount of Pokemon Rangers at Pinwheel Forest cosplaying as Carmen Sandiego. I didn't know Carmen liked giving out berries after Pokemon battles...

Anyway, I get out of the forest through the terminal. On the other end, I was stunned at how huge Skyarrow Bridge is. It feels bigger than all the towns/cities/paths I've traveled so far combined. There's just no way I could have not noticed this bridge from the forest, or from Nuvema for that matter. Skyarrow expands and extends all the way to Castelia City, the dark urban skyline becoming more visible as I exhaustingly walk closer to it. The air around it just feels unwelcoming to me...

When I arrive in Castelia, I feel like I'm already lost in all the tall towers, the docks, and the rushing people everywhere. Down a couple of the streets, there are these men and women in suits and briefcases that just run around. I try not to walk in their path, but they keep coming and avoiding me at the last possible second. After a while, I just kind of give up and make a game out of it, try to see how long I can delay them.

Just out of spite. o _o

Later, I find this break dancer, Mickey, that's just busting moves left and right. I go up to compliment him and instead he challenges me to a Pokemon battle with his Pansage. After my win, he expresses interest in getting a dance crew but can't find people to do it and then he just almost shrugs and continues dancing. Shame he can't find anyone.

I walk further down the city to find an alleyway to try to find my way back to the Pokemon Center and, all of the sudden, this guy in a suit pops out from behind a dumpster and flashes me! ... By flash, I mean he surprised me, then gave me the TM Flash, then went back into his hiding place...

Then, I find Mickey again down the street... Or at least an exact replica of Mickey. He has the same clothes, hair style, skin color, attitude, and even the dance moves as Mickey. I thought maybe he was a relative of Mickey's, so I go up and ask. The replica's name is Edmond and he immediately challenges me to a Pokemon battle with his Panpour. After another win, I tell him about Mickey by the fountain place, but, before I could ask about their relative status, he acts like he never heard of him before and thanks me and leaves for the fountain.

I want to say they're the same person and that they are just trying to trick the newcomer in their city...

I walk to one of the docks and find someone in a trench coat who says they can help evolve the elemental monkey Pokemon with the use of his evolution stones... Honestly, he could've been telling the truth, but I just back away slowly and run for dear life in the other direction. How else am I supposed to react to that? I mean seriously...

After abandoning the thought of being a creep magnet, I walk further down the street to heal my Pokemon. It was only then did I notice that there was some ruckus on the docks in front of the Pokemon Center. A female with thick purple hair comes up to me and asks if I've seen any Team Plasma Grunts anywhere. Then I notice Bianca, following up behind her, all upset. Apparently, the Munna that she caught in the Dreamyard was stolen.

To see Bianca in shambles like that... I felt bad for her, and I worry about her. This incident only confirmed my suspicion that she might not handle this independence from being sheltered for so long...

Burgh enters from around the corner and notices the us. He greets the purple-haired woman, Iris, as a good friend and asks about the situation. Burgh then takes power into his own hands and walks off to the direction of where some Plasma Grunts were last seen.

I would've followed right after, but then I noticed a familiar face further down the docks... Raymond was also a street dancer who looked eerily similar to his dancing counterparts. After I defeat his Pansear, I mention the other two dancers I've met and immediately he thanks me and runs off in the direction of the fountain.

Curious, I decide to follow him to the plaza. I was stunned to find them. Three dancers moving robotically in the same way, mimicking each others moves in a very fluid way. They could have been clones. Mickey notices me gazing at them and thanks me for finding them, so much that he gives me an amulet coin. They turned out to be really nice friends...

Which reminded me that I need to find Burgh.

After retracing my steps back to Iris and Bianca's location, I find Burgh just down the street. I meet up with him and he says that the Grunts took off in the direction of the Gym. We quickly follow the trail and find grunts encircling a building right across the street from the Gym.

Burgh and I confront the pale minions and battle them. Burgh fights of two Grunts at once, while I quickly defeat the remaining Grunt's Sandiles. After our win, the Grunts cower back into the building and we follow them, only to be greeted by the preacher from Accumula. Ghetsis is his name, or at least that is what the Sage, the one from Pinwheel Forest, calls him. That creepy guy preaches more about why Pokemon should not be in the control of humans and Burgh makes his rebuttal. After their back and forth, Ghetsis returns Munna to me and like that, they all disappear.

After their leave, Bianca and Iris come rushing in through the doors to help. Bianca is overjoyed when I return Munna back to her. Bianca promises to not only take better care of her Pokemon, but to become stronger as a trainer and a person so that she can put up a fight. Iris acknowledges Bianca's efforts and decides to whisk her out of the building to go train and do girl stuff, leaving me with Burgh.

Burgh turns to me and pretty much says that he couldn't wait to battle me in the Gym. Then he walks away, leaving me in control of what to do.

So much has happened today, I'm just about ready to call it a day.

Pokemon Roster, Day 4:

• Pearl, Dewott, Level 23
• Lightning, Blitzle, Level 23
• Lily, Petilil, Level 23
• Trebuchet, Drilbur, Level 23
• Chester, Tranquill, Level 21

Who knows where those evolutionary stones have been... I'm sure the dance crew would be happy to get their hands on those stones...

It Is In The Writing

Fall Quarter Update

I thought Fall Quarter was fine and exceptional. I met new friends, had amazing adventures, and did well in most of my classes.

However, one of my teachers didn't think of it that way, what with my grade in his class. The Poverty class that I took last quarter--the one where I had to go out of my way to climb cardiac hill just do to homework at that specific computer lab, the one where the teacher belittles our intelligence and competence to understanding the material on a regular basis, the one where I admittedly refused to attend some classes because of these above reasons... that class, decided to drop my GPA last quarter.

So, today I went to go to see an advisor. However, before I went into the college office, I went to the mailbox next door to check for junk mail. Instead, what I found was a christmas card from my friend, Rachel. It was probably the christmas card she originally sent before I told her my other address. The card has a decorated tree on the front with a shiny and textured silver border around it. On the inside of it, she wrote in her pretty cursive handwriting:

Did you know?

R.H. Macy failed 7 times before his store in New York caught on. English novelist John Geasey got 753 refection slips before he published 564 books. Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 home runs. Don't worry about failure, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try.

--Published in the Wall Street Journal--

I thought this seemed really fitting and almost even cosmic. Happening to just pick this letter up from the mailbox that I wasn't even going to check (expecting to have junk mail if anything seeing as I already checked it the day before) and to have those words in the christmas card (instead of just an ordinary "seasons greetings!" message) can only be described as an act of fate, as a beacon of good tidings to come.

I was recommended to ask for Ursula by everyone in Kresge from what it seems, so I sat down with her. She was very nice about everything and not even the slightest bit condescending. I handed her my paperwork and she felt that I knew what I was doing and understood that that class was a fluke. She recognized that I understood how things worked and she told me what to do to get my GPA back up and the best way to do it. She even caught something that I hadn't noticed on my transcript, a general ed requirement that I didn't satisfy yet before transfer because of its recent addition into the portal, and she fixed it so that I didn't have to fulfill that requirement...

Basically, Ursula is amazing. She even has a little pen holder on her desk in the shape of Ursula the sea witch from The Little Mermaid.

So now, with my grief and frustration behind me and with these serendipitous words of wisdom I obtained, I feel more determined to work even harder now!

Here's to better grades this next quarter!