Friday, December 1st, 2017
It was my birthday. My birthday, not the one listed on the ID card that I had with Thomas's name, which was sometime in late March.
I'd always looked forward to my birthday, not necessarily because of the celebration itself, but what it meant was coming. Just because of how things tended to go, it was rare that I got the chance to see my large extended families during the year, but Christmas time was always the exception. Both sides of my family would have large gatherings that everyone would attend and I would get to see them all.
Many of my close friends had also moved out of the state after college, but always came back to visit their parents at the end of the month, so I had the chance to see them as well. Because of those events at the end of the month, my birthday itself was never that big of a deal but rather it signaled a start to my favorite time of year.
It stung me to know that this December I wouldn't see any of my friends or family.
Unable to build the effort to do much, I spent the entire day sitting in my room, reading or otherwise lazing around. I did remember to check on the egg but still didn't see anything different about it.
Saturday, December 2nd, 2017
After doing nothing on my birthday, I felt like I should at least try to do something productive the next day. After giving it some thought, I decided to check out the Minneapolis gym so that I would at least know what the challenge was.
It turned out that only one person per league can challenge the gym leader per day, which was understandable to a degree given the absurd number of daily challengers there would be otherwise. The lucky contenders were determined with a miniature bracket of one on one matches between that day's eight challengers. In the event that there were more than eight people from a given division, the bracket got randomly selected from those that were present.
Fourteen novice trainers showed up to challenge the gym and since I wasn't selected, I ended up leaving the gym without battling a single time. I didn't stick around to watch any of the bracket matches and instead spent the rest of the day in the Metrodome watching advanced and master league matches.
Sunday, December 3rd, 2017
I decided to spend the day getting some training in, so I went to one of the many downtown training centers. I quickly got most of my team set up with their current tasks before running into issues with Blitz that I probably should have seen coming.
With how many times he'd ended up having to attack from a range in recent battles, I wanted him to work on Ember some more and then hopefully transition into Fire Spin after that. He had other ideas and wanted to work on his speed and striking damage. After his defeat to two water attackers in a row and then me not picking him for my third match of the Brawl, he'd become even more stubborn than usual.
I knew that I'd need to come up with a better way of working with him, and soon, but I hadn't yet been able to think of anything.
Monday, December 4th, 2017
I'd still had limited luck with my online research looking for anything useful about other-dimensional things like Ultra Beasts. The only thing that I'd been able to discover recently was that there had been an Ultra Wormhole over southern Galar at some point, but I wasn't sure how to use that information.
For the umpteenth time, I regretted not finishing Sun since there was almost certainly some lore that I was missing. In the hopes that I would find something useful, I ended up spending the entire day at the Minneapolis public library. My search was ultimately fruitless and left me wondering why I thought that I would have any luck finding hard copies of information that had already proven scarce online.
Tuesday, December 5th, 2017
John watched as Thomas battled the trainer that he faced during the first week of the Brawl. The first matchup of the fight had been between Peren and Bill's Girafarig. It had been a close match between the two Pokemon, but the badly hurt Girafarig had managed to be the one to get the knockout, leaving John waiting to see what Pokemon Thomas would send out next.
Thomas thought for a few seconds, then sent out Nin instead of Blitz as John had expected. John groaned at the decision and came up blank for why he would have made that section for the second half of the battle. While Nin was slightly better against Girafarig, it looked like a stiff breeze would knock out the psychic type, leaving it as a non-factor in John's eyes. Blitz was strong against the rest of Bill's team, and John wasn't confident that the same thing could be said about Nin.
"Is he even trying to win?" Cait asked with frustration in the stadium seat next to John. His initial reaction was to defend his friend, but he couldn't disagree given the match they were currently watching.
As predicted, Thomas ended up losing the match after Nin was defeated by Bill's Dwebble when he was unable to hurt the other Pokemon.
Wednesday, December 6th, 2017
I ended up making another trip to the Minneapolis gym and this time was selected for the bracket to challenge the gym leader. Unfortunately, my first match turned out to be Peren versus a Beedril, which put an early end to my hopes of earning the badge.
As I left the gym, I decided to give up on showing up for additional challenges. Bashing my head against the challenge bracket wasn't worth it when my team didn't have a good enough matchup against dark Pokemon to guarantee that I'd earn the badge even if I got lucky enough to fight the gym leader.
Thursday, December 7th, 2017
It had been some time since I'd gone to watch either John or Cait battle, so I decided to go to the Midway to watch Cait's match on a whim. She hadn't managed to repeat the two versus three win that she'd gotten in the first week, but she still hadn't dropped a single match. Even though I wasn't terribly invested in wracking up wins in the Brawl, her success still made me feel bad about my own zero and four record.
As expected, Cait handily won her match and extended her win streak.
Friday, December 8th, 2017
After Cait's match the previous day, I decided to spend another day at the training center. Watching her fight had finally reminded me of her suggestion about using Ember and Quick Attack at the same time and I was curious to see if it would work. Blitz even seemed somewhat interested in the maneuver when I suggested it to him, which was promising.
It turned out to be a disaster.
On his first few attempts, Blitz flew directly into his own flames and slightly singed his feathers as a result. Even once he got the angles adjusted so that was no longer a concern, Blitz ran out of breath too easily and wasn't able to keep both his speed and a steady stream of Embers at the same time. Halfway through the day, I decided to give up on the combination move and let him go back to practicing Wing Attack.
Saturday, December 9th, 2017
Since it was above freezing, it was a nice enough day to warrant checking out the St Paul gym. I'd heard that the gym in St Paul had the same challenge setup as the Minneapolis gym, but I hoped that the state capitol's gym wouldn't be as busy. After taking the Light Rail to St Paul, I discovered that its gym was just as crowded as the one that I'd left.
After not getting picked for the bracket, I decided to check out the science museum so that I wouldn't have completely wasted the forty-five minute trip there. It turned out to be a lot of fun and it was interesting to see what was different from the one that I had visited so many times before. However, when I was riding the Light Rail back at the end of the day, I felt mildly guilty about doing something fun while my Pokemon were stuck in their Pokeballs for the entire day.
Sunday, December 10th, 2017
When I'd checked my opponent's roster for my weekly Brawl match, I immediately noticed that her team was composed entirely of grass and bug Pokemon. Even with the problems that we'd been having, that made Blitz the obvious choice for the battle and I led with him to inflict as much damage to Linda's roster as possible.
Blitz ended up completely tearing through her Servine and then Venipede, making my first Brawl victory a one versus two win.
Monday, December 11th, 2017
I woke up in the middle of the night and scrambled for my Poryphone so I could jot down the sudden inspiration I'd had. I'd already known that I had been approaching my training with Blitz the wrong way, but I hadn't been able to figure out what I had been doing incorrectly. Oddly enough, it was a bitter-sweet dream of playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends that revealed my error.
When I reframed my team with the lens of the other strategy game that I was familiar with, it was easy to categorize my team into different classes. With his ability to heal, capacity to fight at ranged or melee, and general utility, Peren was clearly a cleric. Scout's ranged prowess and general squishiness made her a wizard. Nin's fighting style focused on disabling his opponents meaning that rogue was the obvious choice for him.
The thing that I'd been missing, as obvious as it was in retrospect, was that Blitz was a barbarian. As I finished typing into my phone, my idea cemented and I knew what I wanted to do next. After all, when your barbarian lacked range options in combat, you didn't force them to take a level in sorcerer as I'd effectively been doing. You give them thrown weapons.
Notes completed, I fell back asleep.
Tuesday, December 12th, 2017
After the previous day's revelation, I had spent the rest of the day watching matches at the Metrodome and noting down any moves that I thought would be a good fit for my Pokemon. With the list in hand, I went to one of the training centers, ready for a full day of training. I got Peren, Scout, and Nin set up with their goals first, though I wasn't entirely sure if it was possible for Nin to learn the move that I'd suggested for him.
With them squared away, I took Blitz into a section of the training center that the much smaller Aitkin training center lacked. It was a room filled with light smoke that you could use to get a better idea of a move's strength judging by how the smoke was dispersed by the Pokemon's attack. My plan was to use Peck as a ranged move by having Blitz Peck at the air, but then send the energy forward instead of continuing to hold it in his beak.
Blitz seemed unsure about the idea but thankfully was interested enough to give it a shot. His first attempt barely displaced the smoke that filled the room, but it was still enough of a success that I thought the idea might actually work. We spent most of the rest of the day in that smoke-filled room with marginal, yet tangible, improvements.
Wednesday, December 13th, 2017
After the previous full day of training, I determined that my Pokemon could use a break and we spent the day relaxing in my room.
Thursday, December 14th, 2017
Cait grumbled as she left the Midway after her first loss. She'd known she couldn't keep up her win streak indefinitely, so she was more annoyed by how she lost than the loss itself. She'd been distracted the entire time and that had led to a few bad calls which had ultimately cost her the battle.
The most frustrating thing was that the source of her distraction was the same as the last time that she'd been off her game like this. After watching Thomas's particularly aggravating battle on the fifth, she had decided to skip his next one, only to find out days later that he'd actually won in a one versus two.
She was annoyed that she hadn't gone to watch Thomas's first win, but was even more bothered by the fact that Thomas hadn't bothered to tell her, and presumably John, about the match. Cait had long since moved past her original ideas of how rivals were supposed to act with each other so that wasn't why it hurt.
It hurt not because her rival didn't tell her, but because someone she'd been starting to think of as a friend hadn't.
Friday, December 15th, 2017
Whatever plans that I'd had for the day were canceled when John decided to drag me to lunch, complaining that we barely saw each other even though we were neighbors.
"Sorry, I guess I've been busy with challenging the gyms and training," I said, and for once I realized that my given excuse was almost entirely true.
John shrugged, "It's not really a big deal, I just wish we could hang out more." He paused thoughtfully before continuing, "Actually, my family is going to come down next Friday to pick me up, and then I'm going to spend a week or so up in St Cloud for Christmas. Do you want to come with?"
As much as I liked John's family, I had absolutely no interest in spending a full week with them. Actually, the fact that I liked them made me even more certain that I would only feel worse after spending Christmas with them. Unfortunately, the Brawl was suspended over Christmas so my only reasonable excuse was taken away from me.
While I was still trying to come up with a response, John noticed my hesitation. "It's fine if you don't want to." Despite his assurances, I thought that he looked hurt as we finished eating.
Saturday, December 16th, 2017
I had meant to spend the day at the training center but it ended up being another slump day that just consisted of me hanging out in my room. Even though I didn't regret doing so, I still felt bad about turning down John's well-intentioned offer.
My negative feelings were only exacerbated by his off-hand reminder that Christmas was less than ten days away. It would be the first time I'd ever spent the holiday season without my friends or family, and I was still uncertain how to cope with that.
Sunday, December 17th, 2017
Even though I still wasn't feeling great, I dragged myself to Nicollet Park for my weekly Brawl match. Blitz was once again benched because of type matchups, though this time I was careful to explain why in advance.
It was a much closer match than the previous fight had been, but I ended up getting another win. Scout was ultimately responsible for the win after she was able to defeat my opponent's Spheal in a drawn-out fight.
Monday, December 18th, 2017
I spent most of the day wandering around Nicollet Mall, checking out the various shops and decorations. I wondered if I should get small Christmas presents for John and Cait, but I didn't have any ideas for what would be a good gift. I hadn't talked to John since he'd invited me to his parents' and it had been even longer than that for Cait, which made me even more uncertain about giving them a sudden present. Ultimately, nothing caught my eye, partially because I had no idea what their interests were outside of Pokemon.
I did finally get around to buying a new Pokeball like I'd intended to do a long time ago, along with getting the one that I'd caught Mightyena in repaired. With it being winter for the next few months, I didn't know when I'd get the opportunity to catch a new Pokemon, but I didn't want to be unprepared like I had been on Halloween.
It still didn't feel like late December given that it rained for most of the afternoon. As I finished up my shopping, I wondered if we would end up having a brown Christmas, which would only make the end of the year more unfamiliar for me.
Tuesday, December 19th, 2017
Once again, we spent the day at one of the training centers, but progress continued to be frustratingly slow. I had Scout working on Protect, the last move that I wanted her to learn before finally moving on to Follow Me. She was trying to make a shield out of electricity, but so far it was too slow and unstable to be of any use in battle. In the same vein, Peren was still trying to get Worry Seed in a spot where it could be used on an opponent. He was essentially creating an ultra-caffeinated bean for the attack, but that only worked when the target swallowed the resulting seed.
Blitz continued to show progress and he'd started displacing the smoke all of the way to the target with his ranged Peck attacks. That said, it still needed a lot more work since the target itself was barely touched by the effect. Lastly, I had Nin working on Fire Fang in the hopes that he would be able to learn it before he evolved, but so far he was having issues generating the necessary heat on his own.
I was tempted to ask John or Cait to borrow the TM that they'd both earned from the Hinckley gym, but I decided against it. For some reason, it felt like it would be in bad form to use a TM that another trainer had earned, and even if that wasn't the case, it would be weird to ask to borrow it with how long it had been since we'd talked.
Wednesday, December 20th, 2017
In the evening I went to Loring Park to see the Holidazzle light display with my Pokemon. Well, Peren and Scout to be more specific since Nin and Blitz quickly requested to be returned to their Pokeballs due to what I suspected was the cold and boredom respectively. My two team members that stayed out seemed to really enjoy the lights display, with Scout being especially enthusiastic as she looked at the decorations with wide eyes from Peren's back.
I actually ended up enjoying the display more than I'd expected, being particularly impressed with some of the ice carvings that had clearly been created with the aid of Pokemon. The only negative aspect was that the holiday display made the continued lack of snow all the more obvious and disappointing.
Thursday, December 21st, 2017
The shortest day of the year was normally just a curiosity for me, but this one I paid special attention to Peren to see if he would react to the date. Back in September, the fall equinox had passed by without my notice so I made sure to check to see if he reacted at all to the winter solstice. The first day of winter was normally the day that a Deerling's coat changed from orange to brown, but as Al had told me, the Deerling in Minnesota were a bit different.
Fitting with what he had said, there was no discernable change with Peren as the season changed. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I'd expected to happen given that Peren had been switching between his fall and winter coats for weeks, but it was still something that I'd wanted to check.
Even though I knew it was stupid, I still couldn't help but be annoyed when it was dark at five in the afternoon.
Friday, December 22nd, 2017
I woke up early in the morning and went straight to the training center for another full day of training. It was the day that John had said he was going back up to St Cloud, and I didn't want to be in my room on the off-chance that he decided to extend another last-minute invitation to join him.
The training center was a lot less busy than usual and I suspected that many other trainers were doing the same as John. Since I was unable to do the same, I put all of my efforts into the one productive option available to me.
Saturday, December 23rd, 2017
Once again, I spent the day lazing about in my room. I'd briefly considered another trip to the training center, but I didn't want to overwork my Pokemon after all the effort that they'd put in the previous day.
Sunday, December 24th, 2017
For me, Christmas Eve was the same as any other day, and we once again spent the day at the training center. I would have normally had a match scheduled for the day, but with the Brawl temporarily suspended for the holidays, I had nothing better to do.
There were even fewer trainers at the center than there had been on Friday and so we had almost the entire building to ourselves.
Monday, December 25th, 2017
Any hopes I'd had of sleeping in and ignoring as much of Christmas as possible were shattered when I was awoken by a loud knock on my door. I stumbled out of bed and blearily looked through the peephole to see a Delibird patiently sitting on the other side. I cautiously opened the door and was handed a small wrapped box before Delibird turned and started waddling down the hallway.
Slightly confused by the wordless exchange, I walked back to my desk to unwrap the box. Once I'd gotten the thing open, I was greeted by the sight of two specialty Pokeballs and a note. I took a moment to identify the balls as a Dusk Ball and what I was pretty sure was a Net Ball before taking a look at the note.
'Merry Christmas Thomas! Now you've got the right tool for the job next time you need to catch a Pokemon in the middle of the night. The Net Ball is from Al, and he said that now you can catch one of those water Pokemon that you had to pass up on before.
Sincerely,
Tammy'
Floored by the unexpected gifts, I stumbled back to my bed and sat down. I knew regular Pokeballs were thirty dollars a pop, so I didn't even want to know what the going price was for specialty balls. The fact that the gifts were likely expensive made me feel even worse about the fact that I hadn't even considered getting gifts for the two people that had helped me so much in this world.
Tuesday, December 26th, 2017
The minute that stores started to open on Nicollet Mall, I was there to purchase a pair of thank you cards and some stamps. With the purchase complete, I immediately headed back to my room so that I could get them written up. My mom had always drilled the importance of writing someone a thank you after receiving a gift and following her instructions made me feel a little bit closer to home.
My thoughts of my parents as I wrote led to a couple of close calls as I narrowly avoided tear-staining the cards.
Wednesday, December 27th, 2017
Even though it had been several days since we'd last gone training, I decided against the activity and spent almost the entire day cooped up in my room. Thankfully, my Pokemon seemed alright with the decision with the slight exception of Scout. With how she stared out of the room's window, it was becoming increasingly obvious that she was eager to go outside and explore, but I couldn't build up the energy to follow her lead.
Thursday, December 28th, 2017
John returned from visiting his family and the first thing he did was stop by my room to show off the new Pokemon that he'd caught.
"So how was your Christmas?" I asked John as I leaned down to pet his new Swinub, who seemed ecstatic at the attention. I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to hear how it had gone, but the default question came out before I could stop it.
"It was good. Other than catching Swinub I got some camping stuff that I was missing." John answered with an easy smile. He hesitated before asking, "How was yours?"
"It was quiet, which was nice," I lied.
We ended up talking for a few minutes more, which admittedly was nice after barely talking to anyone except my Pokemon for the last week.
Friday, December 29th, 2017
Feeling a bit better after talking to John the previous day, I went back to the training center, much to Scout's joy. I got the impression that it wasn't as good as being able to explore outside, but it was still something she liked more than staying in one room all day.
Saturday, December 30th, 2017
Late in the evening, I got a text from John, 'Hey I just found out that the Brawl throws this big New Year's party in the Metrodome. We should check with Cait and all go together!'
Feeling bad even as I typed my response, I sent back, 'I'm going to pass. Big parties really aren't my thing.' A second after sending the first message, I followed up, 'I'd definitely be up for doing something smaller though if you'd be interested in that.' I didn't want to completely shut down John after already having done so once, but I had absolutely no interest in attending a big event like he was suggesting.
It was almost a full minute later when John's response came, 'I'll get back to you on that.'
I still felt bad a couple of hours later when I got ready for bed. After fighting to fall asleep for some time, I eventually drifted off, completely oblivious to the cracking sound that came from my desk.
A/N: The next chapter should already be up by the time you're reading this so normal notes will be at the end of the next chapter. As far as I'm aware, no one has correctly guessed the egg, so now's your chance to make a last-minute guess before the reveal in Chapter 21: One Good Day
