Welcome back to another chapter of Diary! As always, I do not own Pokémon, and enjoy!

38. Surfing the Sights

Day 37 (October 6, 2019): Sinnoh

Closing in on the last quarter of the run! It involves a bit of backtracking, but it's nothing that I mind.

Because finally, I have the move Surf.

And that means I can move on water, getting to places, items, and Trainers that I couldn't before.

So all the backtracking is worth it.

And I start with behind the Valley Windworks.

For there is the TM for Thunderbolt, one of Gracie's final moves. It quickly gets taught over Shock Wave.

Heading back to the bridge and going the opposite direction on the water leads me to a new area called Fuego Ironworks. There's a few extra Pokémon, namely Fire Types, and also extra Trainers inside the building. However, they are guarded by notorious spinning panels, and the player has gone them to get to the end. Luckily, the person at the end isn't too important, as he only does item trades. So unlike other places with these panels, getting to the end isn't too much of an issue. Story wise, Gracie wouldn't have too much of a reason to go here, especially with her motion sickness… Assuming that's kept or not toned down in the final product… I'm not entirely sure, because psychics do move around a lot via teleportation and what not…

Sandgem is my last destination, and I quickly head to the water to the south. This once again opens up a bunch of new areas, and I waste no time going to explore them. However, this also involves a very long area without healing, so I have to be careful what moves I use here. There's a lot of Water Type Trainers as I surf through the waves, and I use almost all the Power Points for Magical Leaf. However, I do manage to safely make land. On land, even tougher opponents await, and the main attraction of the area lies ahead…

After a few more Trainers, I've run out of Power Points for Magical Leaf and Thunderbolt. I've also used a few for Psychic. However, I made it to the end of the route and what lies beyond.

The Pal Park.

Or at least, the entrance of it, anyway.

The Pal Park that cannot be accessed until the main game is cleared, but seeing as I'm not doing anything after the main game this run, I may as well talk about it now. The Pal Park allows a player to transfer Pokémon from previous games to Sinnoh. The reason why it's built in that way it is due to the way the games' hardware works. The original Kanto games and their sequels allowed players just trade normally between the two games, provided they didn't try to trade any new content from the sequels to the old ones. If the player was using the game Pokémon Stadium 2, this could be done any time player had delivered something called a Mystery Egg, which in turn unlocked the ability to have more than one Pokémon in their party. However, if the player was just using the regular games, this could be done about halfway through the game upon unlocking something called a Time Capsule, and waiting a day in real life.

Unfortunately, the next generation of games had so many hardware and gameplay differences that old Pokémon could not be transferred at all. About two decades after the games' release, developers finally found a way to allow Pokémon from the original two generations of games to be used in newer ones. However, that uses an entirely different transfer system that I will explain later. In order compensate for Pokémon coming from older games being unavailable, the developers created several side games that allowed players to fill in the gaps in their collections. However, it was still expensive and difficult to collect everything, so the third generation of games remain the most difficult to complete entirely.

Which now impacts this generation.

Native systems playing the Sinnoh games were called DS's, and most of them had the ability to play games from a system called the Game Boy Advance via a special slot. The previous generation of games were all on the Game Boy Advance, and what was gotten in the side games could be transferred to one. After one had their desired Pokémon on the Game Boy Advance game, they could start up the DS game and choose to do something called migration. Migration allowed six Pokémon to come over from the Game Boy Advance game, but they could not be returned to there. They could hold items, but could not know any Hidden moves. After migration was done, Pokémon would be stored in the Pal Park. This was meant to be done only once a day, but using a second Game Boy Advance game, the player could do this as often as they wanted, with a slight penalty once they were finished. The Johto remakes also had the ability to use the Pal Park, but removed the once a day restriction.

After storing Pokémon in the Pal Park, the player could then enter the area and speak to attendants. The player would have to participate in a minigame called a catching show. In this game, there would be several different areas, and the player would have to find the Pokémon they sent over. Once a Pokémon was found, the player could instantly catch it, and it would be held by the attendants. Once all six Pokémon were caught, the minigame would be over, and all Pokémon would be stored in the player's boxes. The player would then receive an item for participating, depending on how well they did and what species of Pokémon were caught. All Pokémon captured would behave as traded Pokémon, retaining the data from their original game.

While Pal Park is seen as slow and convoluted now, it was very advanced for its time. This was the first instance of players being able to transfer multiple Pokémon at once, and to have Pokémon from multiple games in one area if those games were not in a main game. This was also the first time there were not any restrictions on what could be brought over involving when the game was made. Transfer was eventually made easier and streamlined in future games, but I will discuss those when I get to them.

For now, I will discuss Gracie's story.

Gracie's story won't use the Pal Park as it appears in the games, since Traveler doesn't have the technical limitations that necessitated it being there in the first place. Thus, there's a chance of it being removed entirely. However, I can also think of it being there for a different reason, and doing something similar, if with much different circumstances. Since those circumstances would be spoilers for something later on, I will hold off explaining until I get to that.

For now, it's time to head to Jubilife, the final destination using Surf, and the means of advancing the story.

A little bit of Surfing, a little bit of land, a little bit of Trainers, and I'm on to the next town.

Canalave.

Which means all I can do is heal and run straight into a rival fight.

Luckily, he's easily taken down with Type advantages.

My next destination will in area near the place, but a little backstory about this place first.

So in the very early days of Kristine's character, Canalave played quite a large part. Kristine was only a vigilante (called freelancer back then), and was entirely sure where to go. Because of her prowess in battle, she knew she could do the Badge quest whenever and whatever order she wanted. So she simply headed to Sinnoh in Canaclave, wondering where her adventures would take her. Kristine rests in the popular inn after arriving in the city, but still wasn't sure what to do. She tries to do homework (somehow being able to attend school remotely), but fails considering there are other vigilantes that are quite rowdy. As a result, she decides to head to the library.

Once there, she starts doing her homework in peace. However, she can't physically write what she needs to for her homework on her own. She also can't use her adaptive equipment, seeing as it's too loud for libraries and people are heading in and out to distract her. So she starts using magical abilities to try and write what she needs to. This culminates with several people staring at her and otherwise confused it what's going on, as most people have never seen that. One of the people that notices this is a canon character called Shauntal (more on her later). Shauntal was particularly perceptive to magical abilities, and also to the fact that most people were made uncomfortable. She attempts to go to Kristine to try and figure out what's going on and what to do, but is stopped when Kristine suddenly looks as though she isn't paying attention to anything.

In reality, Kristine is having a vision, and Shauntal is able to detect that power. However, Kristine's visions resemble mild seizures, with her staring blankly, not responding to anything, doing some involuntary actions as a result of that (such as dropping a pencil she's holding without any attempt to pick it up or even awareness that she dropped it) and often shaking. Even though Shauntal understands visions can take the form of seizures, these seizures are still not healthy for the person and the brain. As a result, Shauntal wonders if she should call a doctor. Almost as soon as she thinks that, Kristine suddenly snaps out of it.

However, Kristine does not seem to register the library or where she is before running off at seemingly superhuman speed to the entrance. She also ends up leaving everything she has behind, and Shauntal decides to follow her. They come across the giant bridge in the city, where many vigilantes are fighting with each other. Kristine is hidden from view, and Shanutal is as well. A civilian gets caught in the fight, and it looks as though she will drop fatally to the ocean below. Before anyone could react, Kristine uses magical power to stop that from happening, and get the civilian to safety. At that point, she reveals herself but appears to be defenseless. Shauntal realizes she cannot help, as the vigilantes will simply overpower her. However, she wonders why Kristine will go charging in, since that would basically mean she was heading into her own death.

The vigilantes taunt Kristine, and Shauntal reaffirms their bloodlust. However, Kristine seems quietly confident, and they unleash a gang of Pokémon on her. As the Pokémon run towards her, she uses a different type of magic to turn them against their trainers and each other, seriously injuring everyone involved but her and Shauntal. Before Shauntal can do anything, Kristine teleports away, leaving the devastation in her wake. Shauntal realizes that Kristine still left everything she had at the library. After alerting the authorities as to what happened and hoping they can clean up the mess, Shauntal grabs the items and decides to return them to her. However, Shauntal can't find her anywhere in the city, and assumes she headed back to the room where she was staying.

After Shauntal gets information about where Kristine is staying, she heads up to the room where she is supposed to be. However, upon knocking on the door, there is no answer. Shauntal waits a while, and tries several more times, but still no answer. Getting worried, Shauntal uses her own magical abilities to see through the door, and is horrified to find Kristine lying on the floor, pale and unresponsive. She realized that whatever magic Kristine used before had drained all her power to the point of unconsciousness, possibly even death. Realizing hospitals may not have the ability to treat something like that and that they are already full up from the injuries Kristine has caused, Shauntal decides to treat her herself. She also is inspired to try and write a novel about Kristine, finding the circumstances fascinating, but also confusing and worth elaborating on. When Kristine eventually does wake up and correct Shuantal's mistakes, the latter expresses concern over the former's powers and the journey she is taking, but there is nothing she can do.

If this situation sounds like something that is completely different from Traveler's lore, that's because it is. This scenario was from a different story entirely called Price of Rebirth. That story contained the last incarnation of Kristine before the character was moved into Traveler and solely into Pokémon. Price of Rebirth had a lot of differences from Traveler, but also a lot of similarities. The similarities were why the character Kristine was taken from Price of Rebirth and reworked into Traveler. Thus, many of the scenes of scenarios of Traveler were originally inspired by Price of Rebirth and the themes it had.

What makes this scene particularly important is that unlike many other scenes and ideas where they were simply inspired by Price of Rebirth, I am planning for the one at Canalave to be adapted as directly as it can be into Traveler. It's because Shauntal is planned to be a major character in Traveler, and the scenario from Price of Rebirth is a good way to introduce her and her relationship with the protagonist. Additionally, this was the first time where Kristine not only got noticed from someone that was higher up in the League and didn't already know who she was, but also one of the first times that type of person expressed concern. While this is no longer the first time in Traveler, it still remains important and something that the new Kristine will come back to later.

Thanks to Traveler having different lore from Price of Rebirth, some aspects of the scenario are changed drastically right off the bat. I will mention more of the revised scenario when Shauntal is introduced properly, but I may as well explain some larger changes here. The most obvious one is that in Traveler, Kristine cannot use magic (at least, not in the traditional sense). In Price of Rebirth, she was a powerful magic user and had no problems using almost whatever she wanted. The main reason for this was because there was no restriction for people with mental problems using magic or other supernatural powers like in Traveler, mainly because I didn't know how to write that in properly. Another change is that her visions do not look like seizures, and instead resemble something else entirely. However, the way they present is very rare, and she still attracts a lot of attention. Additionally, her writing things down for whatever she has to do is not seen as something out of the ordinary because of the way she can adapt it, and she probably attracts attention for a different reason.

The idea of her going to school has been solved in Traveler, to most likely be explained later. Instead of doing homework, she will most likely be doing something related to a job, with what said job is also being explained later. Kristine was also far younger in Price of Rebirth then she is in her Traveler incarnation, being around the age of a regular starting Trainer in the former. The ability she uses to stop the incident on the bridge doesn't automatically put her at risk of injuring herself or dying. As a result, part of that scene will not be used, although she probably would mention that she still has abilities that could harm her if she used them too much. Even these abilities are not as drastic as her original ones, although the trade-off is that she's far less powerful overall with them, except in very specific circumstances that still cause a lot of damage to her. In Price of Rebirth, Kristine had a lot of protection from the law, and therefore wouldn't think twice about harming someone if it meant protecting herself or her allies. This also prevented someone like Shauntal from doing much in punishment. In Traveler, she knows she does not have much protection from the law and that Shauntal can easily stop her. Thus, she would think twice about using violence, knowing that I can get her in legal trouble along with leaving a mess. And that's just the changes that are most obvious due to the main differences. There's plenty more that aren't…

Despite this, the scene with Shauntal is one I remember well, so I'm looking forward into incorporating it into Traveler. That will be explained and for much later, though.

Because now it's time to go train.

And the way to train is to take a ship to Iron Island.

Iron Island is an optional place that players can use to train their Pokémon before taking on the Gym. It's also the only place to meet a powerful new team member, strong against the Gym and many other areas. Additionally, it allows the player to meet up with a new character, Riley.

Riley is a Trainer that mainly trains the Pokémon Lucario. Later on, he is revealed to have other Pokémon that specialize in the Attack stat. Riley is implied to be a powerful Trainer, as he was once asked to take a position to be a Gym Leader. However, he refused, recommending Roark instead. He also implies that he's the owner of Iron Island, although it's not known what he does there at the present other than train. Like all of the stat Trainers, Riley will join the player to fight in double battles with them. Similar to Cheryl's situation, Team Galactic has attacked the island, and Riley wants to deafeat them together. At the end of the island, Riley gives the player a Pokémon egg, which will hatch into an exclusive Pokémon called Riolu. In the anime and Pokémon Special, Riley is able to use the power of Aura communicate together with his Lucario to great effect.

I don't really have too much of an opinion on Riley, other than wanting to see aspects of his character expanded upon. I think the concept of someone being a powerful Trainer that initially does not have a rank and also specializes in Aura (almost a form of magic) is interesting, but a lot of official material doesn't do much with either. So in Traveler, Bertha has retired, and Riley has taken her place in Sinnoh's Elite Four, after being recommended to do so by Byron and Roark. He teaches Aura to young Trainers, and is revealed to be a descendent of the legendary Aura user Sir Aaron. Sir Aaron is a canon character from the anime that had a Lucario but it's not known of Riley is his descendent. Two of people that Riley has trained include Ash and Richie (both canon to the anime, with the former using Aura briefly). By the time of Gracie's story, Riley recognizes Gracie's strength, and agrees to train her on Iron Island. Gracie asks if he has trained the Mold Breaker, but Reilly says no. Kristine's condition makes her difficult to train, and due to the amount of emotional baggage and other things associated with that, no one has forced the issue. Besides, Kristine does not have any problems with going out control, so there's no reason to make her train quickly. Gracie nods slowly, and the two head in.

Also, I'm not sure if the problems with Team Galactic will be here, but what I do know is that the training will be helpful for Gracie.

So let's get to it!

It doesn't turn out to be much, with most Pokémon falling quickly to Magical Leaf. I do get a Pokémon egg at the end, which will hatch into Riolu. Normally, I wouldn't hesitate to use Riolu and its evolved form, Lucario, as soon as I get them. But due to the rules of this run, I can't. So the egg simply goes into storage, and my next destination is the Gym.

The Gym itself isn't too impressive, with platforms rising and falling depending on where the player steps. Platforms also go different directions on cables, and the player has to head the right direction to traverse. It can be a bit surprising, because the platforms move very fast and make an odd noise. It was definitely something that caught me off guard the first time I traversed this Gym… I feel like the sudden height and constantly moving up and down would take Gracie off guard too, especially if motion sickness is still an issue…

Regardless, now is the time to fight.

It's not much for fights, though. Gracie's high level means that she can just blow through opponents, even when most of her attacks only do half damage… Not to mention that she has Thunderbolt, an attack that can do stronger neutral damage to a lot of things in here. Also, I am reminded Gracie is level 60, something the player is expected to be at when clearing the quests of the postgame… To put things in perspective, I am now entering the last quarter…

But in order to do that, I have to fight against Byron.

It's still not too much of a fight, though. His first Pokémon, Magneton, goes down with Psychic, although it does take two, and he does heal. His strongest, Bastiodon, takes neutral damage from Thunderbolt. It still has a lot of defenses, and Byron gets the chance to heal. Not much of an issue, regardless. The last Pokémon is Steelix, which I have fought several times before. It goes down with only two hits from Magical Leaf, which it is neutral to. Rock and Steel Type Pokémon often have higher Defense than Special Defense, so Gracie can use that to her advantage.

But with the fight out of the way, it's time to elaborate more on the opponent, Byron.

Byron is the father of previous Gym Leader Roark. He appears to have a good relationship with his son, even though he is not surprised he lost to the player. Byron also is interested in being a bit like a mentor figure, enthusiastic about the generation of Trainers after his. He also trains a lot in Iron Island, especially to defeat younger Trainers. In Pokémon Special, Byron is revealed to be skilled at digging and otherwise moving underground. He uses this skill to get the Gym Leaders and several other people to the Spear Pillar in order to participate in one of the final battles there. Byron also uses this to heal Pokémon secretly, and place them back on the battlefield with opponents not noticing.

In the anime, Byron's relationship with his son is a bit different. There's more friction between Roark and Byron, since the latter's Gym duties and hobbies of digging up fossils keep him away from his family. Roark confronts Byron over it, assuming this means the latter doesn't care about him. Things escalate into a battle, which is interrupted by Team Rocket. After joining forces to repel the villains, Byron reveals that he still cherished Roark by explaining that he kept a fossil Roark found when he was young with him. In the Gym battle against Ash the following day, Byron is shown to be extremely enthusiastic, posing with and carrying a shovel into battle. He also owns several different Pokémon resurrected from fossils, although it's unknown if he uses these Pokémon in battle.

As for Byron as a character, I always thought the idea of the father-son duo as higher members of the League was a cool concept. It's also only the second time the games have done this (the first being the Hoenn games, where male player characters are the son of the Gym Leader Norman, and can become the League Champion). I also always thought that Byron doing different poses with and swinging his shovel around in battle, combined with his bombastic personality, was hilarious. Not to mention the idea of using his abilities in the underground to aid people in battle is both interesting and clever, along with fitting for his character. It's especially fitting because Roark is the one that teaches the player how to use the Underground, so it makes sense that Byron would know how to do more advanced tactics with it. It also makes things interesting because the Underground is an optional feature that players might not even know exists, and can't really be used in battles otherwise. So Byron and his digging skills is not something players would immediately think of when it comes to the Underground.

As for Byron in Traveler, I'm not entirely sure what is going to do there. Perhaps he would know Roark taught Gracie how to use the Underground, and challenge her to a test of those skills in addition to some traditional battles. He would certainly keep his bombastic personality and habits with his shovel. Byron being a mentor figure and wanting to see younger Trainers grow would also be kept. As for his relationship with Roark, I feel like it would help to be a mix of what is shown throughout the different media. Byron seems to be energetic and wanting to watch over younger Trainers, so it's not as though the conflict between him and Roark happened intentionally. Thus, I could still see them having a good relationship, but maybe they argue sometimes, or Roark just wishes his father could be around more. It would make sense, because their cities are far away, and neither of them is shown training any Pokémon for long distances. So if something happened to one of them, it would be difficult for the other to try to help, or even know what happened. Granted, there's still the chance that they train Pokémon for transport, but the distance would still be very long.

Regardless, with the fight against Byron concluded, I am finally on to the last quarter of the game. It's been a long road, with a bit more story parts than originally thought, but the end is in sight… Even though I'll be grateful to see it and finally move on, it will be sad to leave the characters in the story here behind.

But I will save this for later, as the journey continues to one of the harshest places in the series…