The Journal of Arthur Lindt
March 7th, 20XX
Nova’s recovery had been going well. After our conversation and confirming we would be partners going forward we made our way back into town. I introduced him to my mom, as well as reintroducing him to Boltund who he was wary of. It didn’t take much convincing to let him know that Lemon was a friend, as soon after he hopped around chasing Lemon through the park.
To Lemon’s credit, he kept his speed slow enough that Nova could keep up allowing for them to actually have some fun. After a bit more relaxing we got on our way home. We were only in the city for me to get supplies and catch my starter, so there was no need to stay in town now that I had Nova. We spent the majority of the day walking, and not wanting to waste anytime I used the walk to do some basic training with Nova.
Since Sunkern can’t evolve until we find a sunstone, Nova is going to be stuck in that little seed body of his for a while. As such practicing his mobility is important, while he won’t ever be fast, I do want him to have a good amount of control over his movement. If he can’t be fast he needs to be precise. As such his training consisted of balancing on top of my head while we walked. He was small enough to fit up there, but still needed constant rotations and little hops to adjust his balance. Occasional I would mix little hops or side steps into my walk, just to keep him on his toes. For the first hour or so he fell pretty often, leaving me having to catch him before he reached the ground.
You would think this would wear down at someone’s desire to do something, but Nova didn’t even complain. He simply asked to be put back up there again and try again. By the time the sun was getting close to setting and we stopped to camp, he was pretty good at it. While my sudden moves or hops would trip him up, he almost never fell outside of those. It was only more proof that this Sunkern was definitely a quick learner, he just seemed to pick up on things not long after I explained an idea or asked him to practice something. It gave me high hopes that he had solid IV’s, but even without them we’d find a way to make our strategies work. I believed in Nova completely.
As we sat down for the night to camp, mom laid out a food dish for Lemon, while I placed Nova onto the ground. He shuffled on the spot a bit, burrowing his butt into the loose soil on the ground before he sighed and closed his eyes. He was likely spreading some light roots in order to absorb nutrients and food out of the soil. Actually this is a good chance to talk about food.
The biggest thing I was worried about waking up in this world, -aside from having died to get here- was how exactly food worked. See back home I’m a rather big fan of meat. Beef, pork, fish, all of it. The world of Pokémon however, in most iterations, lacks the traditional animals that we normally used for food back home. As such I was worried that I was going to have to be vegetarian, since I was really against the idea of eating a Pokémon if I had a say in it. Sunkern is literally a plant, and clearly has a high level of sentience, intelligence and personality. Like I can distance myself from eating a cow, but if that cow can tell me its hopes and dreams and actively have conversations, it gets a little too tough for me.
Unfortunately the research I did showed absolutely no evidence of animals outside of Pokémon in this world. While there was a decent chance they might have existed at one point, given references to those animals in Pokédex entries, it seems that in a food chain topped by creatures with supernatural powers they didn’t last long. As such the only meat people could get into their diets would be from eating Pokémon. It wasn’t a completely rejected idea either, Magikarp made a common dish, and Miltank steaks and things all existed still.
That being said it wasn’t common, and most people ate vegetarian dishes or use animal byproducts. Eggs were a common ingredient for protein, as a good chunk of bird Pokémon could lay them and were bred for such a thing specifically. Obviously there was Miltank milk as well, so there was access to lots of supplies. But when it came to actual meat dishes they were just something that was accepted as an option. Pokémon eat each other in the wild all the time, despite the intelligence they share, and most research showed that most Pokémon didn’t hold the idea of people eating them as taboo or anything.
However it was considered taboo to raise Pokémon specifically for consumption. Any Pokémon farms that existed were simply for the byproducts, eggs and milk and the like. Fish could appear in many stores and towns, but was almost always gathered by small independent fishermen or fishing crews. There were a lot of protocols and regulations to prevent overfishing of any one species, so it was considered less of a problem. This meant that there were people who made a living hunting or fishing Pokémon for consumption, but it was not a common career path. Most sources of protein consumed by people, or trainer Pokémon, were either plant based or artificial. It was just less ethically questionable and something the world had put a lot of work into producing. I didn’t complain, since eating Pokémon felt weird as an idea.
Not that food was a complete necessity anyway. Ghost type Pokémon were known to not require food of any kind, as well as several grass types that had no need for it. Sunkern was one of those grass types. While it had a mouth, and absolutely could eat if it wanted too, their main method of gathering nutrients came from burrowing their roots and absorbing it from the ground, water and from sunlight. Lots of grass types could do this actually, although some still needed food to supplement their diets. The fact that Sunkern could eat was good, since vitamins would be an important thing to integrate into his diet if I wanted to maximize his potential. Unfortunately that would have to wait until I had gathered more money during my circuit, since vitamins and the like were expensive.
Tomorrow would be an important day for us though, as the bandages could come off and I could actually have Nova try out his moves while we finished the walk home. We would figure out what he knew and what we needed to practice and learn. After that I would hopefully be able to get some practice with him battling other Pokémon. Maybe Lyra would be okay with him training against Azurill, having a type advantage against a younger trainer's Pokémon would be a good place to start before battling wild ones. Although eventually we would need to practice and strategize for beating flying type Pokémon since that was the first gym we would face. All things in time I suppose, no need to get ahead of myself.
Our journey would be tough enough as it is, trying to plan out every little detail before we got there would be a bad idea. Nova and I were both the type to want to adapt and grow on the fly, not to overly plan ahead, so that’s how we would do things. Train and strategize for ourselves, and adapt to our opponents as we need to. Tomorrow is that start of that all. I can’t wait.
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Arthur Lindt
The morning came with no struggle. I was the first to wake up for once, the excitement of today clearly having an effect on my ability to stay in bed. My mom was snoring softly on the other side of the tent, while Lemon was sleeping outside next to Sunkern.
Eventually when Sunkern and I were travelling on our own he’d probably have to stay in the tent as well, just because wild Pokémon could get nosy and try and make off with my sleeping friend in the night. That wouldn’t be as much an issue on the safer routes, or once he became strong enough, but until then keeping him safe would be important. I know he likes to sleep with his roots in the ground, since that's what he complained about when I tried to bring him in the tent last night, but we would have to find some compromise. I’m not letting Nova get nabbed silently by a Noctowl in the middle of the night.
That would be a later problem, one to be added to the list of things I will eventually need to deal with. For now I was happy just to have a partner, and to get to learn what they are capable of. Pokémon training is a dream come true for me, both before my extra memories and after. As such I leave the tent as quietly as I can, avoiding waking my mom just yet. It was unlikely she’d sleep much longer, and I wanted to get this sorted with Nova on my own first.
Nova was still nestled into the dirt where I had left him, but Lemon had curled around him to sleep as well. A little, adorable bundle of Pokémon. I walked over to where they were laying, and tried to think of a way to nudge Nova awake without disturbing my sleeping dog. A situation I must have far overthought, as Lemon perks up and raises his head on his own, before standing up to stretch out. He gives me a look and small bark before he moves over a few feet to lay down again. Smart dog, as it seems he knew exactly what I was after.
I sat down next to the bundle of bandages that was Nova and gave him a gentle nudge. I saw an eye open slowly and look at me before closing again.
“Kern…” Is all that the little guy manages to say before I assume dozing back off to sleep. It was kind of adorable, but unfortunately I needed him awake.
“Hey Nova buddy, I need you to wake up okay. I want to figure out what moves you know. That way we can figure out if there’s anything for you to practice as we walk.” The word practice was all it took as Nova’s eyes shot open and he hopped out of his little hole to face me properly.
“Sunkern!” He spoke much more firmly, making his excitement clear. Looking in the hole he hopped out of I could see thin pale roots that spread out into the dirt. It appeared he broke them right off in order to jump out of the hole. Not what I expected but I guess it made more sense then him pulling the roots back inside of himself.
“Well I’m glad you’re so enthusiastic about practice buddy, but first things first. We gotta get those bandages off of you.” He was even more excited at this, hopping up and down and spinning on the spot in excitement.
I picked him up, and starting at the top by his little stem I pulled the bandages off, slowly unwrapping the little guy's body and revealing his, apparently newly formed, seedy shell. He was yellow and brown with a tightly closed opening at the top of his head that had a small leaf sprout coming out of the top. It was odd, as I remembered from their game model that Sunkern tended to have a more open spiky crown at the top, leaving it more open around the sprout. The fact this was still partially closed was interesting, and suddenly gave me an idea that made a lot of Sunkern’s behavior make more sense.
“Nova, how old are you?” I asked the question, forgetting for a moment that I couldn’t really understand what he meant, although that didn’t stop him from trying to answer.
“Sun… Sunkern?” He sounded confused, so I could only assume that he either couldn’t answer my question, or wasn’t sure for himself.
I pulled out my phone, opening the Pokénet to scroll to the forums. Sunkern sat on my lap, but wiggled around with a sort of manic impatience that I could feel just from him sitting on my lap. I typed in the term grass and was bombarded by the sheer number of options available
Tips and Tricks, Grass Types #34,521(Public)
Grass Kicks Ass #21,438 (Public)
Grassy Domain #19,456 (Public)
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
I decided to ignore the least popular pools, instead focusing on the ones with the most active followers. Tips and Tricks, upon some research, appeared to be a series of forums that were made for each typing that existed. They’ve been around almost as long as the forums had and while they contained a lot of useful advice, the sheer quantity of their user base made it difficult to get quick or consistent replies. Grass Kicks ass appeared to have the same idea, but was much more chaotic in its user base. You would probably have a more entertaining time, but were far less likely to get any useful information.
Grassy Domain was a newer forum, which made its follower count impressive. Being the 3rd most popular grass forum after only a year showed that it was popular, but it was a wild card. Apparently it was founded by a gym leader, and that’s why it’s popularity soared so quickly, but he wasn’t very active as anything other than a moderator. Unlike the other two that focus on discussing anything and everything, this was more focused on the applications of grass types in battles. A more controlled and directed chat, even in comparison to the other two.
My knowledge of another world's modern internet led to my decision making. I was confident that a more controlled audience, even if it wasn’t wholly focused on my topic, would be more useful than trying to sift through the dozens of comments I would get that would be less than helpful.
I clicked the forum, and was met by the lovely log in or make an account page I had been graced with so many times in my previous life. I never had made an account as Arthur before, since he only used the family computer at home to occasionally watch battles on the Battlenet site. I thought a while before deciding on a username quickly enough, and then logging in to post my question
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WeakestChampion: Hi, I know this page is focused mostly on moves and utility for grass types, but I recently caught a Sunkern and was hoping someone could help me figure out how old he is. The top of his head looks more closed than normal, and I don’t know if that means he's young and I need to be more careful with him, or something else.
Indigoshmindigo: I’m just saying grass types from the Kanto/Johto area are just weaker in general. Sinnoh has the strongest grass types by far.
DancingFlowers: And like I’ve said every single time you’ve tried to push that obviously biased rhetoric, there are strong Pokémon of every type in every region and trying to stir up regional conflict is pointless.
Indigoshmindigo: Oh yeah, then why is Cynthia the only regional champion with a grass type hmmm? Obviously Sinnoh has the strongest grass types.
ToxicTangrowth: Okay dude that’s not even accurate. Steven Stone and Diance both have grass types on their teams. Now you're just making stuff up.
Indigoshmindigo: Yeah, secondary grass types. No primaries though, checkmate nerds.
BugCatcher: Dude you’re gonna get banned if you keep this up, this forum is actually moderated remember.
Indigoshmindigo: Pft I get banned then you just know it’s true. They are trying to silence Sinnoh’s clear grass superiority.
Greenthumbs:HEY, NEW GUY WITH A NEW QUESTION WHERE’S OUR SUNKERN EXPERTS
Indigoshmindigo: Oh look Lance joined the chat lmao. Weakest champion, what a lame name. Shouldn’t you want to be the strongest?
User Indigoshmindigo was banned for repeated violations of the chat rules
Chat Rules are:
No Hate speech (Region, Gender, Religion, Identity or otherwise)
No bullying (Do not directly insult other users, keep it civil)
No scams (Any posts of weblinks will be scrutinized, watch yourself)
Keep on topic (This is a grass type forum, so do try and stay on that subject)
DancingFlowers: Thank Arceus he’s gone. What was the Question Weak? Also why the name, I know Indigo made fun of you but it’s kind of odd.
WeakestChampion: Oh I just wanted to know how I can tell how old my Sunkern is, his crown is weird. And it’s no problem, the name has to do with my personal goal. Keep an eye on the Johto league next year, you might see exactly why I chose that name.
Sunflora#1: ooo mysterious. Well to answer your question, despite common misconception Sunkern don’t actually increase in size with strength. They only get larger as they grow older, so depending on the size you can figure out how old they are. If the crown on top of their head looks too tight it’s probably because they recently shed their seed shell. Either because of injury or because they were growing bigger as mentioned. It’s kind of like an Arbok skin actually.
ToxicTangrowth: Oh cool. Sunkern are weird, most grass types get bigger as they get stronger.
Sunflora#1: Yeah well it’s probably because Sunkern’s strength isn’t really tied to personal training. They have to evolve to really grow stronger, which is why they will spend years grouped together basking in the sun to try and trigger evolution. Training just isn’t efficient when they are so weak.
WeakestChampion: Well, I’m going to be training my Sunkern anyway. He's my starter so we will be practicing and getting stronger. Will that make him bigger too?
BugCatcher: Whoa wait, SUNKERN is your starter? Suddenly the name weakest champion makes sense. I mean good luck dude, isn’t the standard first gym in Johto a flying type one? You better catch another team member.
Sunflora#1: Um, I mean you can train your Sunkern. Both them and their evolution learn the same moves so it’s not that evolution is strictly necessary, but Sunkern is so weak it’s kind of tough to train them until they evolve. But as for your question, no. Even if it’s not common, plenty of people (Myself included) have tried trained them before. They don’t get bigger with training, only with age. They max out at around a foot or so, and 5 pounds. Usually by the time they are a year old. Give or take a few inches and ounces.
WeakestChampion: Thanks. Your advice is greatly appreciated. I'm certain I'll come back with more as our training continues.
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I decided to log out there. It was bound to be just more people telling me that Sunkern is a bad idea for an evolution or not worth training. Frankly I wasn’t interested in hearing it.
“Well that was productive buddy. According to the internet, you're probably pretty young, given your weight. But at least your head is normal, it’s just because you had to regrow your… Shell? Skin? I’m not actually sure what they call the outside of a seed.” I looked at Sunkern who just stared back at me, an equal look of confusion on his face.
“Eh, not the point. The point is you're probably old enough to train, so that’s what we are going to do. First things first though, we need to learn what moves you know. So if you could just demonstrate them all for me that would be great.” I stood up, still carrying my little buddy, and walked over to the edge of our campsite. Setting him down at the edge of the main path, I filled him in on my plans.
“So, I just want you to use the moves you know. We will take note of what you can and cannot do and go from there. Don’t worry about maximizing power, we will find your limits once you’re fully healed and at home. This is just to catalogue what you know.” Sunkern nodded and then turned away from me.
He concentrated, and I pulled out my Journal, flipping towards the back so I could write notes away from my actual journal entries. I backed up and gave Nova space to work, as I paid attention to what was happening. He started by sitting still, and doing a small light shift on the spot. He began to glow lightly with green energy, and the shine of his seed body began to look healthier and more firm.
“Hm, growth. Saw that before but good to confirm. What else have you got?” Sunkern looked back at me before facing forward. He did tiny small hops on the spot before suddenly throwing himself forward. He bounced lightly off the ground and rolled to a stop, rather anticlimactically in all honesty. But that being said the initial throw motion had some definite force packed behind it.
“Well, I’m going to call that tackle. Definitely needs some work on the landing but a good move to have.” Nova nodded, before righting himself back to how he was sitting before.
This time he shivered his whole body before a set of seeds fly out the top of his head, four of them total by the looks of it. They sail through the air in a slow arc, before landing on the ground in front and quickly breaking open. They spread out small roots that covered across the ground around where they landed. The grass on that area of the ground slowly began to wither and die as well. Needless to say, I was surprised.
“Is that… Leech Seed? I didn’t think Sunkern was supposed to learn that. Useful though, definitely taking note of that.” I recorded the information down, before giving Nova another nod.
He looked back before proceeding to do what he did last night when I laid him down for bed. He shuffles side to side, digging himself into the dirt. He began to glow ever so faintly and then just sat there. No other changes or movements made.
“What… What moves is that. One second.” I walked up to approach, inspecting Nova from every side. There was no other changes aside from the light glow.
“Wait a minute. I think I know what this is.” I reached down to pick Sunkern up, only to notice he wouldn’t budge. Despite being a light Pokémon I couldn’t get him to move from where he had sat. He was using ingrain. Another move that Sunkern didn’t learn normally from what I remember.
“Well now isn’t that something. Ingrain too. I wonder how that happened, have you had a trainer before Nova? Did someone teach you a TM?” Sunkern simply looked at me, lightly giving their head a shake in the negative.
“No then. Hm, it must be an egg move then, which is fascinating. I’m much more interested in seeing your IV’s now buddy. If you got two egg moves that are that useful you must come from a line of powerful Sunflora.” Sunkern beamed at the praise, stopping his use of the move ingrain to hop on the spot. His little hops of joy were seriously adorable.
“Is that it then, anything else?” Another shake of the head tells me that’s all.
“Hm, not a ton of moves. We will have to work on absorb soon, just to have more attacking options. Probably razor leaf as well. But that’s for after we get back to town, we will have plenty of time to practice before the league circuit starts once we are there.” Nova looks excited at the idea of learning new moves and does another hop dance as I bend down and pick them up again.
“In the meantime I think we should work on growth. During the walk back, while you balance on my head I want you to practice using growth. We want to reduce how long you need to concentrate on using the move. Ideally you will be able to use it while moving around. But for now let's just work on reducing time to gain the benefit okay.” He nods once more in my hands.
“Sunkern.” His response is firm and determined. This little guy is always ready for any training or practice I come up with, no complaints to be had. I truly couldn’t ask for a better partner.
As we approached the camp we could see my mom packing things up and just getting ready to go. We had most of a day’s walk ahead of us, and then we would be home. I would have to see Professor Elm once we got back, since he might be willing to let me borrow a Pokédex just to check Sunkerns IV’s and moves, just in case there were any other egg moves he had that he didn’t actually know about. From there training would begin. We had 3 months to get ready.
Well more like two and a half, since I wanted to get to Violet City before the League started so I could challenge Falkner right at the beginning of the circuit. My team would need more time and effort training, so I needed to maximize the time I had available to train. I would focus on Sunkern’s training during this off season, and after beating Falkner I would get another teammate and train them as well. I debated catching another on the way, but I would only do so if someone jumped out at me.
I needed a Pokémon that fit my personal limitation of being overlooked and underestimated, and they needed to have the same drive to get stronger as Nova had. I needed a team of ruthless battle maniacs, willing to work their asses off everyday for minimal gains. If they couldn’t do that then I wouldn’t be able to make them strong even if I wanted to. Hopes and plans, dreams and goals. These things needed to be mutually aligned for me to bring out a partner Pokémon’s true strength. I only hoped finding teammates like that could be so easy as finding Nova was.