A bit of a long time since I have done one of these!
Blog Ten: Victory thy name is Alaska
Well… that was what I call an interesting week.
I would have updated sooner on the sheer drama that is my life (seriously, I feel like I am on some teen soap opera, except instead of having two barely attractive guys to choose between, robots try to murder me. I tell you, if Gossip Gardevoir and Magnezone: The Terminator ever cross over, I will be ready to watch it, love it and get into overly serious debates with randoms on the internet over every small detail of it.) However, I have been a wee bit busy spending some quality time in Celadon City, and this week started as all of mine do with me nearly dying!
If you heard that another tunnel had collapsed last week, and thought 'I bet that's Alaska's fault', then congratulations, you were right! My lovely shadowed stalker came to drop an advice bomb on me while I was travelling to Celadon sneakily, but in my usual haste, I thought it would be best to ignore and attack him. The Shadow-er Man promptly destroyed the tunnel, causing the other friend I mentioned last blog to disappear. I am not sure about any of this because I fainted (I always seem to faint rather conveniently halfway through things like this. It is like some bad plot device in a novel where the author has no other way for you to get from one place to the other. I am not sure the last time I properly walked into a city…) and slept for a few days, and then woke up inside a rather interesting house.
I hope you have all heard of the Athlews, because I don't know how to really describe them. They are kind of like those people you see with reality shows on TV that they don't deserve: basically, they are some really rich people that own about half of Celadon and kind of rule the social hierarchy a bit, and they think that this gives them power. Another friend who was a friend of the friend that went missing (I shouldn't really be naming names – they are kind of spies, just not the sort you'd spend $15 on at the movies) is friends with these rich people and she thought they were friendly, but they aren't exactly going to be friends of mine any time soon. In summary: nice house, awful people. The matriarch of the family, a wizened old troll named Evelyn, had decided that I was not to get involved in any of Gideon's attacks on Kanto and tried to force me to stay inside her mansion until things were over.
Now, I may not want to be involved with Gideon in the slightest. In fact, I am looking forward to him eventually being publicly humiliated and brought down a peg or two, as Gossip Gardevoir did to Sharona in the Season Three finale, except just with a touch more arrests or bloody justice murder going on. However, I refused to be locked up because of this, protected from him like some little Igglybuff being chased after a Tyranitar. I came on this journey in the first place to prove myself, to set out to win the gym badges and show the world you don't need to be some starter-hogging, reality TV-hoebag to become the Champion. I was not about to let some dried up old woman tell me what to do, so I demanded that I be given a chance to prove myself by defeating Alexis, knowing at the time I could win, and they agreed to let me strut my stuff.
I will make a long, painful story short… I lost.
The loss was my fault. I walked into the battle without any real strategy, simply thinking having a few type advantages would secure it for me, even though that is not always the case. Alexis, the new gym leader and friend of Mr Rich Dick, Jericho Athlew, was rather powerful, with none of her Pokemon fainting. We tend to underestimate Grass types, as they have so many weaknesses, but I was quickly put in my place, and one by one, all of my Pokemon fell. It was the most crushing moment of my life, which may make me sound a bit selfish, considering I left my family barely holding it together and Sandy had only recently recovered from her equally recent gunshot wound, but this was something different. I had done all of this for as part of my journey. Without this mission of mine to prove myself to the world, it all would have been for nothing: the destruction, Sandy's shooting, my own injuries, getting involved in Gideon's scheme. If I didn't have the Indigo Plataeu to work towards, than what point was this all? Being locked away like a damsel in a tower would have made those last weeks worthless, and I would lose the experiences I had gained, letting Chloe and her boy toys move ahead while I was left to watch them on their red carpeted path to pre-planned glory.
I could continue using overly delicious analogies, but need to speed things along, don't I? It has been so long since I last updated that you don't really need to hear every detail! So I kind of shut down, similar to that episode of Magnezone: The Terminator where Magnezone got shut down… my god, that was a terrible comparison, but you get what I mean. Sandy and the other friend dragged me around Celadon like a zombie, and we met some of the people who run Game Freak, that company that makes the Pokemon simulation games. The guy we met, Morimoto, seemed a bit odd, but he allowed me to use his battlefield to get some training done. Again, I did not really think things through, but I wanted to fight, I wanted to know I was still capable before I got controlled. If I had decided not to battle then, things may have turned out differently, but my desperation to prove myself got the better of me, as if the Athlews would let me go free after I defeated a friend I had battle plenty of times in training.
I faced Sandy in a double battle, and things quickly went wrong.
I have mentioned my struggles with controlling and training Darwin in the past. He was an issue, but he had been good mostly through all the training I did prior to coming to Celadon. I had a feeling he was improving, but that was just what I was telling myself so I felt better: I knew that he was uncontrollable, that he was endangering me, my team and those around us. But still, I chose to use him in battle, both at the gym and at Game Freak. He nearly killed Alexis' Meganium in his rage at losing, using a shard of glass as a weapon, and then attempted to destroy Sandy's Butterfree in such a way that Paige created a powerful Twister that shattered a window in her attempt to stop him, sending our Pokemon flying. We found them safely, and I had no idea what to do about Darwin, but I made up my mind quickly when he struck me. One of the first things they taught us at school about dealing with Pokemon was that if a Pokemon ever purposefully struck the trainer, the Pokemon should be released immediately or taken to a Pokemon Center or Professor to deal with. I had always thought this sensible, and these instincts came out as my head felt like it had been cleaved in two, and I knew in a second that Darwin could not remain on my team. He had tried to kill two Pokemon in battle and had attacked his trainer, on top of all his disobeying and previous incidents. I sent him away, all the while wondering if it had been my fault. Should I have focussed more on training him, controlling him, getting him to see what he was doing was wrong? Hitting me might have knocked some sense into him, but I banished him, and never got to see if Darwin had finally learnt his lesson.
I shut down again, and I felt as though the weight of the world was crushing me. I had spent so long been attacked by robots and Gideon that my journey had lost its true purpose, and instead of focussing on battling and gyms, I was constantly trying to answer all these questions that have dogged me all this time. So I had a sort of epiphany while sitting on the garden roof of Athlew Mansion, watching as a storm raged around me: I still have time for all of these things to play out. Gideon has not acted for two weeks even though he has the book he wanted, so that means he needs something else. I have a chance to forget about Gideon, leave the robots in the past, let Indigo Dreams carry on destroying the intelligence of the general public, and I have the opportunity to truly be myself again and set out to achieve the goals I set out to.
As you can tell from my blog title, I have done exactly that. I faced Alexis again, and I brought her gym crashing down around. I set fire to her field and Paige, Frances and Nadia brought her Pokemon down one by one. Nadia delivered the final blow and evolved into a Nidorina as a result. I showed the Athlews what I was capable of, and though I left them behind at the gym with a concussion and a few shocked looks, I am sure I made the impression I set out to make: mess with me, and your going to get burnt *snaps fingers like a character off Gossip Gardevoir* (I doubt I will be allowed back into the Athlew Mansion after this, which is a shame as I was just starting to like being able to roam around their unguarded treasure vaults and rooms filled with priceless artworks…)
But after such a long gap since my last gym win in Vermilion, I have faced so many losses. The destruction of Vermilion, which is only just starting to be properly cleared up and get back on its feet, the Power Plant, the bar, Lavender Town, the second tunnel collapse. It is like I am permanently stuck in some video montage of badly cam-corded building explosions and car crashes. To finally enjoy victory once more, to be able to prove myself, to be able to get a clear head, it is such a magical feeling, and I can only hope this sort of euphoria lingers.
Sandy, Paige, Frances, Nadia and I are currently celebrating by ourselves at the Pokemon Center (some older trainer offered us some wine, but after the way Sandy got at that bar, we declined. I still have no idea why how she got drunk off that drink, but that is a question for another rambling blog.) My journey is not over yet, with Saffron City nearby and an easy route to Fuchsia City open to us, but tonight, I am done with making decisions. I have had to make too many lately, and they never turn out very well. I refused the advice of the shadowed man and that nearly caused Nadia to be crushed, though I am still not sure how she survived either. I set Darwin free, and already I am feeling guilty about it. I led Sandy and our Pokemon down a dangerous path for too long, and it nearly cost us our lives. I have chosen the path I want to go down, and tonight, I will celebrate that I have completed half my steps, and pray to Arceus that I have chosen the right path.
XOXO,
Alaska.
Interlude next, then our new arc will begin! Just to point out, I am not a fan of Gossip Girl, but I saw it being mentioned that it was the finale while I was writing this and got inspired to include some blog themed puns :P
