Category: Uncategorized

Buizel and Floatzel

Buizel
The Sea Weasel Pokémon
Type: Water
Official Registration #: 418
Entry: This small, weasel-like pokémon uses the flotation sac around its neck to stay afloat, even in the swiftest of currents. In order to swim against these currents, it twirls its double tails around, which drives its body forward like the propeller of a motor boat. Incidentally, the author is told that this sort of behavior may be reminiscent of a certain fictional mammal that uses its double tails to fly—which, in the author’s humble opinion, is thoroughly ridiculous. Who ever heard of a creature flying by twirling its tails about? That defies at least one law of aerodynamics! At least buizel’s tail propeller is founded in science.

Floatzel
The Sea Weasel Pokémon
Type: Water
Official Registration #: 419
Entry: The evolved form of buizel, by battle experience. Floatzel are known for the floatation sacs around their necks, as well as their habit of swimming close to sea ports. These sacs, originally developed to aid in floatzel’s hunting abilities, enable this weasel-like pokémon to glide at high speeds along the surface of the water, as well as stay afloat, regardless of how much weight it carries. Hence why it makes its home around marinas, actually: the sac allows floatzel to carry off prey and rescue people that have fallen into the water. Of course, it should be worth it to note that it will occasionally do the reverse and carry off people and “rescue” prey, particularly throughout trout fishing season in its native Sinnoh.

So my friend had to move out of town and due to a set of unexpected circumstances I have to take care of her Sylveon. Any tips for raising him?

On a very basic level, much of a sylveon’s requirements are very similar to an eevee’s—and, by extension, many of eevee’s evolutions. Sylveon eats the same sorts of food (either kibble or a meat-heavy diet), requires both walks and regular battling, and will gravitate towards the same sorts of toys (including chew toys, squeaky toys, and soft toys). In fact, in many ways, sylveon is among the easiest eeveelutions to care for, as unlike eeveelutions such as leafeon, vaporeon, glaceon, or flareon, it requires no special care according to its type. Fairy-types are generally agreeable and adaptable, and although they may come with mischievous streaks, they’re generally easier to domesticate than even normal-types. This, along with their typically cute appearances, is why they make popular pets in the first place. All of this, of course, is simply to say that sylveon in general are easier to care for than one might think. It just requires some basic knowledge of how to care for canine pokémon.

However, in your case, there may be a few complications that are far more important to address. You see, sylveon evolve in response to a heightened sense of affection. To put it another way, affection is very much like happiness, so sylveon has a lot in common with espeon and umbreon. However, espeon and umbreon simply evolve due to happiness. In tamed situations, this means “whenever the eevee in question feels an overwhelmingly strong bond with their trainer.” Tamed pokémon, after all, derive their happiness from spending time with their human partners. However, happiness is actually a lot vaguer than sylveon’s evolutionary requirement because happiness doesn’t necessarily mean closeness, either. Even in tamed settings, there are rare cases in which an eevee may evolve via happiness derived from time spent with a mate, from pure enjoyment of an activity, or even from a really good joke. It’s just that it’s easiest to achieve the exact level of euphoria eevee needs to evolve by allowing it to feel love for its trainer.

Affection, meanwhile, is also a requirement derived from the bond between a trainer and their pokémon, but it’s more physical and specific in nature. Sylveon are extremely rare in the wild because affection is pleasure derived from being taken care of and loved. An eevee that achieves sylveon’s evolution requirements is typically cleaned, fed, given a home, and showered with love (that is to say, given physical forms of affection, such as petting) on a daily basis. Affection isn’t simply happiness, in other words, but rather an overwhelming sense of belonging. This feeling may occur if an eevee feels strongly bonded to their mates or packs, but the feeling of loyalty an eevee experiences as a result of human affection tends to be a lot stronger than anything it experiences in the wild.

I’m sure by now, you’ve can gather why I’m telling you this, but for the sake of clarity, allow me to put it this way. You’re being given a pokémon that evolved due to his strong feelings of belonging, instilled in him by another human. Trading itself can be a bit tricky, as it requires you to build trust in a pokémon that doesn’t know you, but this is going to be especially challenging with your new sylveon, as you are, at the risk of putting it far too bluntly, not the trainer who helped him to evolve.

That having been said, it’s going to be especially important for you to spend as much time as possible with your new sylveon. You need to work especially hard to build his trust in you, and you need to emphasize the fact that although you cannot replace his original trainer perfectly, you will still love your sylveon as much as she did. Pay attention to the routines your friend had maintained with her sylveon, and try to follow those same routines when he comes into your care. Make your new sylveon an irreplaceable part of your life. Ensure he becomes well-adjusted to the rest of your team, and set aside time each and every day to give him affection.

In other words, go into this new relationship realizing that sylveon exists due to the affection he received from its trainer. Don’t let this discourage you, either. Let it remind you that the trade may affect your new sylveon in negative ways and that it’s important for you to reassure him as much as possible that he’s still loved.

Once you get past the first few weeks and once your sylveon becomes adjusted to you and begins to trust you, you’ll find it will get easier to care for him. (As I’ve said, sylveon’s list of daily requirements is far shorter than those of most other eeveelutions.) Just try not to diminish the amount of affection you show your sylveon (as in, continue making him be a part of your life), and you should be fine.

Good luck, anonymous.

The Slakoth Line

Slakoth
The Slacker Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 287
Entry: A sloth-like pokémon first discovered in the Hoennian jungles. This pokémon spends most of its day lying listlessly on the jungle floor or draped across tree branches. The hours it does not do this, it spends sleeping or reaching lazily for food. Even those who have observed it (for science, of course) have often reported a sudden, strong urge to do as the slakoth does by lying listlessly about the forest floor. For this reason, it was originally thought that slakoth could be part-psychic, but upon deeper studying, it was discovered that, no, a certain portion of the Pokémon Symposium just wishes they could be as lazy and carefree as slakoth.

Vigoroth
The Wild Monkey Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 288
Entry: The evolved form of slakoth, by battle experience. Researchers aren’t quite sure why vigoroth, the middle evolution of the pokémon embodiments of sloth, is unable to keep still. Some think it has to do with the species’ increase in heart rate, but this still doesn’t explain why the change occurred. Others believe vigoroth’s body naturally produces caffeine, but not only is this not true, but it also doesn’t make sense from a scientific standpoint. Still others believe that when you spend twenty hours of your day dozing and the other four hours actually sleeping, it just stands to reason that you’ll be particularly energetic upon waking up (to the point of being downright irritable and potentially violent if anyone attempts to get you to stay still). The author’s closest colleagues would like to go on record to state they know someone with heavily strange sleep cycles consisting of a day of solid sleep, followed by three days of barely any at all, during which he “works himself into the ground” and “vehemently objects to any attempt to get him to sleep,” so therefore, they consider this to be a valid theory. The author, meanwhile, would also like to go on record to state first of all…

Slaking
The Lazy Pokémon
Type: Normal
Official Registration #: 289
Entry: The evolved form of vigoroth, by battle experience. Supposedly the laziest pokémon in existence, slaking barely moves at all and spends much of its lifetime asleep, much like its preevolved form, slakoth. However, it does move, specifically to shift itself into a new spot whenever food is no longer within reach. While this is pretty lazy, it’s been recently outclassed by Alola’s pyukumuku, which doesn’t move at all, even when its reachable food sources have been depleted, unless physically picked up by a human and thrown back out to sea. When slaking have been studied side-by-side with pyukumuku, it was found that slaking rapidly develop extreme envy towards pyukumuku and would, if they didn’t weigh 288 pounds, adopt very similar behaviors.

Hey Bill, do you think you could make a list of the most psychoactive pokemon produced substances? I require this for, uh, research purposes for my, uh friend……

You know, I could actually respond to this, seeing as my answer would be purely for academic purposes, and in any case, it’s not as if I haven’t already made a few suggestions. Purely for science, of course.

On the other hand, my sensible, highly intelligent conscience tells me that perhaps in this particular case, offering any further information would be considered “enabling” and therefore “an ill-advised idea that could very well result in me being kicked out of the Symposium.”

Or investigated by law enforcement, which is what I actually said? —LH

Yes, thank you, conscience. —Bill

The Snover Line

Snover
The Frost Tree Pokémon
Type: Grass/Ice
Official Registration #: 459
Entry: Although this short pokémon strongly resembles a snow-covered tree throughout the year, it is actually highly responsive to the seasons. For one, it migrates: in the warmer months, it migrates to the top of its mountainous habitat to live in the colder climes, whereas during the colder months, it migrates to the food-rich foothills to breed. Likewise, during the spring, just before it makes its journey up the mountain, it sprouts berries the texture of frozen treats all over its belly and chest. … The author highly suggests that you do not put too much thought into the second trait.

Abomasnow
The Frost Tree Pokémon
Type: Grass/Ice
Official Registration #: 460
Entry: The evolved form of snover, by battle experience. These giant snow monsters are known for their reclusiveness and protectiveness towards their own kind. To protect themselves and their newborn snover, they whip up giant blizzards to conceal their location. In that way, their snover may get up and migrate up their mountainous territory in peace. Travelers who wander through these abomasnow-induced blizzards may stumble across what appear to be moving parts of forests. On the negative side, this greatly increases those travelers’ chances of getting horribly lost within the dizzying, bitter-cold storm. On the positive side, such a sight is incredible to behold if the traveler is on the right combination of psychoactive substa

Actually, never mind.

Good day, Bill. May I ask–is there any other difference between training a normal exeggutor or an alolan exeggutor? Besides the fact that one of their necks is so darn long and that they might have a possibility of not hearing your commands during battle? Thanks.

Well, besides all of the inconveniences brought on by Alolan exeggutor’s long neck (Alolan exeggutor are also a pain to clean and feed because of this), there is the fact that Alolan exeggutor are dragons, whereas exeggutor from elsewhere are psychics. Alolan exeggutor behave like dragons as well, from their inability to withstand cold (exacerbated by the fact that they’re partially plants as well) to their naturally fiercer natures. On the positive side, while their weakness to bug-types is not completely negated, they gain more of a resistance to insects than their psychic counterparts, and fire is barely an issue at all thanks to their dragon element. In short, the most important thing to remember about an Alolan exeggutor (besides all of the problems associated with its neck) is the elemental shift. Types that would greatly harm an average exeggutor may not affect an Alolan exeggutor the same way—but types that might not affect an average exeggutor that much may aversely affect an Alolan.

Of course, there are other things to keep in mind. As I’ve briefly mentioned above, Alolan exeggutor behave like dragons as well, so they may be slightly more aggressive than their psychic counterparts. Doubly so because their psychic counterparts prefer standing in one place and blending in with their surrounding forests, whereas Alolan exeggutor, powered by the brighter sunlight of its native region, prefer to defend themselves with acts of aggression and dominance.

Also, be wary about the tail. While not as fragile as its neck, the bulk of the tail is difficult for an exeggutor to defend. However, like girafarig, the seed at the end is actually another head, and this head is capable of thinking and acting on its own to defend the rest of its body from behind and below. (It does not need to be fed a separate meal, but some trainers find it more convenient to let their exeggutor eat using it instead of its main heads.) In other words, don’t assume that just because your exeggutor has its back turned towards you that it’s defenseless. If anything, standing behind your exeggutor is more dangerous than standing in front of it. At least if you stood in front, it can only rely on its main heads to see you and attack (not that you should provoke your exeggutor in the first place).

Finally, Alolan exeggutor rely more on sunlight than their psychic counterparts and should be kept outdoors at all times (not that … you would find much of a place for them indoors). It is, after all, the brightness of the Alolan sun that allows them to grow to such a height, so not exposing them to constant, direct sunlight may make them lethargic or stunt the growth of a newly evolved exeggutor.

Good luck, @dragonlikeleaves. May this prove helpful to you as you, presumably, raise your own exeggutor.

The Roselia Line

Budew
The Bud Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Official Registration #: 406
Entry: This small, bud-like pokémon is often seen sitting by sources of clean water, waiting for sunny days. When it feels the sun on its leaves, it opens its flower to release pollen to gently scatter about its body. Of course, as readers may expect having read this blog for this long, by “pollen,” the author means “Stun Spore and possibly Worry Seed,” and by “to gently scatter about its body,” he means “to stun and subsequently maim any human who thought he would be perfectly fine if he just got another foot closer so that he may study them for the sake of science.”

Roselia
The Thorn Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Official Registration #: 315
Entry: The evolved form of budew, as a result of a heightened sense of happiness and exposure to sunlight. Roselia’s vibrantly colored, rose-shaped hands release a splendid aroma capable of soothing even the most stressed human. However, these hands also conceal sharp thorns in place of stamens, anthers, or digits. These thorns are hollow and contain two different types of venom, both of which are capable of rendering the healthiest human unconscious in a matter of seconds. Likewise, its crown of thorns contains a third poison capable of doing the same, and roselia as a whole use this collection of thorns, in combination with their alluring scent, to hunt. Thus, if someone tells you to “stop and smell the roses,” it is best to assume that they hate you and wish for you to be stabbed in the face repeatedly.

Roserade
The Bouquet Pokémon
Type: Grass/Poison
Official Registration #: 407
Entry: The evolved form of roselia, by exposure to shiny stone. Elegant and nimble, roserade is prized for its disarming talents. Beyond the alluring scent it has inherited from its preevolved form, roserade is capable of dancing across battlefields and striking with incredible speed and precision using poisonous, binding whips. However, seeing as roserade cannot actually learn Vine Whip and seeing as Poison Whip is not a valid move as far as any league is concerned, this information is basically useless to trainers.

The Mantine Line

Mantyke
The Kite Pokémon
Type: Water/Flying
Official Registration #: 458
Entry: A sizable, manta ray-like pokémon native to the cooler seas of southern Sinnoh. Mantyke are often seen swimming within schools of remoraid. It’s not because mantyke eat them, of course. Rather, it seems that mantyke form symbiotic partnerships with the remoraid. Remoraid parasites that may latch onto mantyke’s fins, so the mantyke benefit from the relationship by having pokémon clean its fins as it swims. The remoraid, meanwhile, benefit from the relationship by seeing much of the world thanks to the mantyke. This is possible because cleaning the mantyke enables it to evolve, which in turn means the remoraid can cling to a much stronger and faster pokémon that can ferry them longer distances across the ocean. That and mantyke’s evolution, mantine, are known for breaching the ocean’s surface and flying up to 300 feet in the air, so the remoraid clinging to it can, quite literally, see much of the world before plummeting back to the ocean’s surface.

Mantine
The Kite Pokémon
Type: Water/Flying
Official Registration #: 226
Entry: The evolved form of mantyke, by battle experience, if the subject is in close proximity to remoraid. This elegant pokémon is known for its maneuverability. Not only can it glide through the water at top speeds, but it’s also capable of breaching the surface and leaping up to 300 feet in the air before diving back into the ocean depths. Scientists are not entirely sure why mantine breach; theories include for communication, for mating, or simply for fun. What is known is that it’s rather alarming to all parties observing a breaching mantine … including the remoraid that normally cling to the undersides of mantine’s fins (until it reaches a height of about 100 feet, of course).

The Poochyena Line

Poochyena
The Bite Pokémon
Type: Dark
Official Registration #: 261
Entry: This small, puppy-like pokémon is best known for its persistent nature. Often seen in packs, when one member spots potential prey, no matter how large it is, the entire pack goes after that victim until said victim is exhausted … or until the victim strikes back. The latter condition is admittedly less known within the research community, likely because it’s very easy to forget that part when chased halfway across the Hoennian grasslands by an entire pack of tenacious canines with massive fangs.

Mightyena
The Bite Pokémon
Type: Dark
Official Registration #: 262
Entry: The evolved form of poochyena, by battle experience. Mightyena are highly intelligent pokémon of great ethological interest to the pokémon research community. They possess highly loyal natures that helps them to form packs in the wild, but in captivity, this loyalty instead drives them to bond deeply with humans they recognize as being strong trainers. In addition, much of their communication with either their packs or their trainers happens through complex body language. Even the most minute shift can mean the difference between happiness and aggression. For example, mightyena indicate happiness and comfort by wagging their tails from left to right. However, a mightyena that wags its tail from right to left is indicating extreme discomfort. Certainly, this difference may seem a little bit too difficult for the average human to spot, but if it helps, the tail wagging is also typically done as the mightyena flattens itself, growls deeply, bares its fangs, and generally looks like it’s about to rip one apart. Subtle clues, yes, but they’re very important subtle clues, in the author’s opinion.