Tag: asks

Lanette, do you know any…. Pokémon contest gossip? I’m certainly no contest star, but I’m just…. collecting info. As advice.

I’m sorry, but unlike some people (who are just now getting through the last season of Binaclebob Trapezoidpants, which means I’ll need to find something new to show them), I don’t really gossip about others. The people in question aside, of course.

I mean, some of that is because I haven’t kept up with celebrity gossip concerning the contest circuit in a while, and anything I could possibly tell you is both outdated and common knowledge by now. I think the closest thing to real gossip I know about is the fact that Lisia doesn’t actually wear that outfit when she’s not expecting to be in the contest hall anytime soon. But we’ve all seen the photos of her in her sweatpants and tank top, so I don’t think that counts.

Mind telling us about your coordinator days? What made you want to become a coordinator, how u started and such? ^^ thanks!

Well, I always thought it would be fun to be a coordinator. In Hoenn, or at least when I was younger, you would always see contests broadcasted practically every week. Watching all of that artistry in motion made me fall in love with pokémon in the first place—the choreography, the creativity, and everything else are just magical when you put them together.

So when I turned ten, I left my hometown (Lilycove City, for those curious) with my mudkip to travel across Hoenn and put together a contest team. As you probably already know, there are two types of contest circuits: themed and general. I wanted to take on both, but knowing how challenging the themed circuit is, I was careful to catch and raise one pokémon for each theme. (My swampert is the tough specialist, medicham the smart specialist, manectric the cool, glalie the beauty, and clefairy had been for cute contests.)

From then onward, I think my journey was pretty ordinary, to be honest. I traveled on my own, but I made a lot of friends along the way who taught me plenty about contests, including everything there is to know about berries, pokéblocks, and even poffins. As for the contests themselves, they were a struggle to get used to, certainly, because appeals are like battling but with more fireworks. Still, I got the hang of it pretty quickly, and after my third or fourth loss, I was able to earn my first ribbon—in a beauty contest with my then-snorunt, actually. Once I got the ball rolling, so to speak, I was able to earn ribbons for each of the themed contests right up to the master rank. It was the general circuit I never completed, and even then, it’s less because I lost and wasn’t able to enter the Grand Festival and more because I had burnt myself out on contests altogether. Eventually, I just sort of quit, one ribbon short of the five I needed to compete in the Grand Festival.

By then, Brigette was tired of gyms too, so we met up and decided to leave Hoenn to—not to put it dramatically or anything—find ourselves somewhere else. That’s how we wound up in Kanto, registered for classes with Professor Oak at Celadon University. And you probably know the rest.

Dear LH, My uncle recently got seriously injured and asked me to help on his ranch where he mainly raises Beef Tauros, or so he says. His ranch hands are Machoke, and i’m worried that me being so lanky and thin, that they wont respect me enough to listen to me supervise. any Tips, and is my uncle joking about the Tauros being raised for their beef? Also, my Aunt makes this ice cream out of Custap Berries because of their sweetnes. Do i need to fear health problems from eating such a sweet berry?

I wouldn’t worry too much about it, actually. So long as your uncle makes it clear to his machoke that they’re supposed to listen to you because you’re his relative, you should be fine. If they do show any attitude, be firm and speak with an authoritative voice. Don’t let yourself lose control of your temper, especially thanks to the fact that you’re dealing with fighting-types. With all pokémon, if you’re firm and in control without shouting or showing aggression in any way, they’ll instinctually follow your orders.

When it comes to tauros meat, I have to say that I’m … not actually sure. Tauros meat is a delicacy in many regions, so it’s possible that he’s not joking. Otherwise, the only other reason to keep tauros is to breed them for work or training. You’d be able to tell the difference through whether or not they’re branded. If they’re branded, they’re meat tauros because they won’t be trading owners; if they only have a tag fixed to their horns or ears, then they’re work or training tauros.

As for custap berries, actually, no! Although custap berries are very sweet, they’re still not as high in fructose as added sugars. You still shouldn’t eat a lot of custap ice cream, but that’s true with every food. Keep your diet healthy otherwise and stay active, and you’ll be fine!

((unrelated but I’ve been following you for a while and I really love your writing I feel a lot of this is real it’s great, plus the pokemon versions of various shows and other world building make it definitely feel more solid and less “game where you fight people”))

{Aww, thank you! 😀 I might’ve mentioned this before (which means I’m sorry if this comes off as a cookie-cutter response when, no, it is just really true), but I adore worldbuilding and adding little details to characters and settings. It’s a lot of fun to share all of this, so it’s awesome to see other people enjoy it. Mostly because it’s more of an excuse to go all-out on more worldbuilding. 8D}

join us lanette… you don’t need a solid fursona or to be super into it, you can just mash some pokemon together and give it a cute outfit and hairstyle and say it’s you, and as an added benefit no one has to know it’s you and not an oc!! stealthily assign your crush a pokemon and draw your sonas together… the possibilities are endless

It’s hard to say no when you’re that welcoming!

Also, it’d be fun to experiment with azumarill girls in cute dresses and things like that.

Do you have any pokemon at the moment, Lanette?

Oh! Yes!

I still have my starter, who’s by now a swampert. He’s probably my foremost partner, in that he’s not only handy around the house (sometimes anyway), but he also helps with lifting heavy equipment for me. Then there’s my medicham, whom I sometimes confide in whenever Brigette’s not around. Then you have the two pokémon I’d kept from my time as a coordinator, a manectric and a glalie. I used to have a clefairy for the contest circuit too, but I gave him to Bill, as a sort of gift exchange because Bill was giving me an eevee (who is now a flareon and, strangely enough, my glalie’s best friend). You’ve … probably heard of that clefairy, actually. I feel a little guilty about that, but I thought those two would be a perfect match when I made the trade. So that was more correct than I’d thought.

That’s about it, actually. Coordinators focus a lot on the development of a pokémon’s style, so even when I was traveling, I tried to keep my team small. I’m glad I did now, if I’m honest. The lab barely fits me, let alone more than a handful of pokémon, and even then, most of them spend their time outside unless I really need their help. Yes, even my glalie. I’m not sure why, but she adores warm weather.