Tag: slowpoke

(Assuming it’s domesticated from birth) Might an Eevee display different behaviors/talents depending on its parentage? For example, an Eevee hatchling from Espeon and Vaporeon making a good future Leafeon, or an Eevee coming from a long line of Flareon suddenly displaying pre-evolution behaviors for a Sylveon? Whatever the answer, does the same also apply to Eevee with an unevolved parent or with a non-Eevee parent, or other species with branching evolution lines like Oddish or Rockruff?

Certainly! An eevee’s preferred evolution is a conscious decision made by the eevee itself; it’s an expression of both its interests and its identity, both of which can vary vastly from those of its parents’.

Of course, if an eevee is born to a solid pack of one specific eeveelution, then they’re more likely to evolve into that eeveelution as well. This may be for two reasons: either the climate/terrain is better suited to that specific eeveelution (thus, evolution out of necessity for survival) or the eevee sees it as easier to evolve into a matching evolution so as to fit in with the rest of its pack and get along well enough to survive (thus, evolution out of social obligation … and also necessity for survival again). Thus, you’re less likely to see pre-evolutionary behaviors that don’t match the rest of an eevee’s pack, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will never see differing pre-evolutionary behavior.

(Incidentally, yes, the point still stands if the eevee were domesticated. Sometimes, multiple tame eevee will also form a pack of like eeveelutions in order to better withstand certain climates and areas they’re raised in. This is generally more common in regions with extreme temperatures, such as the Arctic, where eevee, even domesticated ones, will generally try to evolve into glaceon to better withstand the elements.)

If an eevee came from a pack of mixed eeveelutions, and especially if its own parents were two different evolutions themselves, it’s more likely for the eevee to pick whatever feels right to it, even if that eeveelution isn’t that of either of its parents. The same can be said for eevee whose parents consist of one eevee or eeveelution and a completely different pokémon. Because such mate pairings occur in situations where there isn’t a need to evolve into one specific eeveelution to survive (either through better socializing or simple adaptation to the environment), the eevee feel freer to explore their options and express themselves according to which eeveelution they would prefer.

As for other evolutionary families, it absolutely works in similar ways: if you have a pack or garden of solidly midday lycanroc or vileplume, hatchlings will be more likely to display pre-evolutionary behavior consistent with their group’s evolution of choice. A mixed pack, garden, herd, and so forth will yield more varied behavior.

There is only one exception to the above rule, and it’s slowpoke. A slowpoke’s pre-evolutionary behavior is that of … well, a slowpoke. They’re fascinating and wonderful creatures, but no, all slowpoke are like that, if you understand my meaning.

Yeah uh, my Slowpoke kind of got buried alive a few times. he got better though and now he’s too big for my Espeon to bury him quickly. I am still very, very confused. Bill, bill pls,

I would attach an image of the timestamp for this message, but I think we all know by now that this was sent in June. —LH

Thanks, Lanette. —Bill

When it comes to why your espeon has been doing this, it could have been for any number of reasons, actually. It may have been because your espeon was jealous of another psychic-type (which is a bit more likely, considering the fact that an espeon’s evolution is reliant on the strength of your bond with an eevee). It could have been from a dispute over food, toys, or any number of other things. It could even have been for your slowpoke’s benefit, as the misguided equivalent of “throwing a blanket over your sleeping friend,” as it were.

Or your espeon was simply bored.

Either way, it’s important to pay attention to potential triggers and your pokémon’s mood whenever they do something you can’t quite explain. There’s a reason for everything; you simply need to observe them to understand what that could be.

But in any case, it’s excellent to hear that your espeon has stopped this behavior on its own! Presumably, anyway.

Can magnemite evolve to magneton on their own, or do they always need other magnemite to fuse with? Same goes for beldum and metang– do I have to worry about my beldum going out and fusing with another trainer’s beldum? (And, if so, who gets ownership of the pokemon?)

In the wild, yes, beldum and magnemite (and diglett, for that matter) need fellow pokémon to evolve. This is largely because these pokémon don’t naturally gain enough energy on their own, but they can gather this energy by pooling their resources together. When tamed, though, trainers will usually develop their pokémon’s abilities, which in turn allows them to develop the energy reserves needed to evolve on their own. Thus, these pokémon essentially undergo a form of budding that allows them to create clones of themselves in order to evolve. This may sound disturbing, but because evolution is often spontaneous, most trainers are fortunate enough not to see this process happening.

Slowpoke undergoes a similar transformation, by the way. The only difference is that in the wild, they simply force innocent shellder to merge with them, rather than members of their own species. Slowpoke are, truth be told, extremely terrifying once one gets past their slowness and innocuous appearances.

The Slowpoke Line

bills-pokedex:

Slowpoke
The Dopey Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 79
Entry: A sweet sap leaks from the tip of this strange pokémon’s tail. Although mysterious in its production, this sap tastes exactly like a sweeter form of honey and thus is effective in attracting pokémon. Slowpoke frequently use this to their advantage, as the core of their behavior centers around their fishing rituals, in which they flock to the banks of a slow-moving body of water, dip their tails in, and wait for a bite. However, as slowpoke are not the brightest pokémon nor pokémon with the fastest reflexes, they often fail to notice when they get a bite—or, for that matter, much about their environment at all. Which leads into the second fact: that some humans have found that slowpoke tails are not particularly nutritious but are quite frankly fun to chew on. How we as a species discovered this about a creature who is completely incapable of noticing when anything—human or otherwise—is chewing on its tail is probably best left up to one’s imagination.

Slowbro
The Hermit Crab Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 80
Entry: The evolved form of slowpoke, by battle experience. Or, rather, to be more accurate, slowpoke evolves into slowbro after it gains enough strength to fish in waters where shellder naturally live. This is relevant because it is the shellder that enables a slowpoke to evolve by clamping down on the tip of its tail. However, curiously enough, a slowbro will always revert to a slowpoke when the shellder is removed, which raises several questions about the nature of slowpoke’s evolution. One possible hint to the existence of slowbro as its own pokémon lies in the fact that due to shellder’s hold on slowbro’s tail, the slowbro host can no longer fish and is, therefore, forced to hunt literally by hand. Thus, slowbro is quite possibly not a true evolution but instead what happens when a slowpoke is forced to give up its sheer laziness.

Slowking
The Royal Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 199
Entry: The evolved form of slowpoke, when given a king’s rock and traded. It is said that a king’s rock is actually a piece of fossilized shellder that, when traded, reverts back to being a shellder and subsequently bites its companion slowpoke’s head. Upon dual evolution, this shellder then leaks toxins into its host, which breaks down slowking’s literal mental barriers and gives it a drastic boost in intelligence. Given that this means slowking’s intelligence is chemically enhanced, the writer would like to take the time to note to younger readers that drugs do not, in fact, result in intelligence boosts in humans. Just say no, children, and stay in school. Unless you go on a trainer’s journey, at which point never eat mushrooms you can’t identify.

Bill, in case you were still wondering why Fennel won’t leave Amanita with you unless another adult is present to supervise, this. This is why. —LH

Mega Slowbro
The Hermit Crab Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 80+
Entry: The advanced form of slowbro, via slowbronite. Despite the expression on its face; its erratic, spinning battle style; and the fact that it has somehow been nearly completely consumed by its symbiotic shell, mega slowbro does not need assistance. It is trying its best, dear readers. Just … just let it.

My slowpoke will be ready to evolve soon into a slowbro but I’m kinda worried. Will it hurt my slowpoke having a shelldon biting it’s tail? Or am I being overly protective? I don’t want my slowpoke to be miserable!

Not at all! When it bites down and changes form, shellder begin to create a toxin that targets and dulls the nerves of its host slowbro’s tail. (It’s called a toxin, but it doesn’t have any real detrimental effects to the slowpoke line other than numbing the area of contact. In sufficient enough doses, it can even unlock psychic and intellectual potential.)

As for the inevitable bite wound, think of it less like teeth sinking into your slowpoke’s tail and more like a body piercing. Once the shellder has attached, so long as you remember to clean around its teeth every so often, it should be perfectly fine. It doesn’t bleed, and eventually, the wound heals around the shellder’s teeth.

In short, no need to worry, reader. Your slowpoke will be fine.

What’s the story behind the giant slowpoke? And what was Bill supposed to be doing at the time?

Unfortunately, I can’t entirely say, anonymous.

Bill was supposed to be debugging the storage system. What he did instead was pull a giant slowpoke from what should have been an unused data bank (which he had no reason to check anyway). This just happened to be a giant slowpoke with the power to induce euphoric lethargy in certain humans when stared at for certain periods of time, and right when he really needed to be focusing on debugging the system to prepare it for Celio’s link-up with my part of the system, he stares at it. Because of course he would. —LH

To be fair, have you ever seen a finer slowpoke specimen in your life? —Bill

I feel like you’re missing the point. —LH

You’re just upset that I put it up for display in the Pokémon Cutting-Edge Technology Research Center’s Open House Day that one year and got more attention for it than those old poké ball prototypes from that one researcher you fancied. —Bill

I feel like you’re really missing the point. —LH

He wasn’t your type anyway. —Bill

Bill, you left Celio and me waiting for eight hours. —LH

The Slowpoke Line

Slowpoke
The Dopey Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 79
Entry: A sweet sap leaks from the tip of this strange pokémon’s tail. Although mysterious in its production, this sap tastes exactly like a sweeter form of honey and thus is effective in attracting pokémon. Slowpoke frequently use this to their advantage, as the core of their behavior centers around their fishing rituals, in which they flock to the banks of a slow-moving body of water, dip their tails in, and wait for a bite. However, as slowpoke are not the brightest pokémon nor pokémon with the fastest reflexes, they often fail to notice when they get a bite—or, for that matter, much about their environment at all. Which leads into the second fact: that some humans have found that slowpoke tails are not particularly nutritious but are quite frankly fun to chew on. How we as a species discovered this about a creature who is completely incapable of noticing when anything—human or otherwise—is chewing on its tail is probably best left up to one’s imagination.

Slowbro
The Hermit Crab Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 80
Entry: The evolved form of slowpoke, by battle experience. Or, rather, to be more accurate, slowpoke evolves into slowbro after it gains enough strength to fish in waters where shellder naturally live. This is relevant because it is the shellder that enables a slowpoke to evolve by clamping down on the tip of its tail. However, curiously enough, a slowbro will always revert to a slowpoke when the shellder is removed, which raises several questions about the nature of slowpoke’s evolution. One possible hint to the existence of slowbro as its own pokémon lies in the fact that due to shellder’s hold on slowbro’s tail, the slowbro host can no longer fish and is, therefore, forced to hunt literally by hand. Thus, slowbro is quite possibly not a true evolution but instead what happens when a slowpoke is forced to give up its sheer laziness.

Slowking
The Royal Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Official Registration #: 199
Entry: The evolved form of slowpoke, when given a king’s rock and traded. It is said that a king’s rock is actually a piece of fossilized shellder that, when traded, reverts back to being a shellder and subsequently bites its companion slowpoke’s head. Upon dual evolution, this shellder then leaks toxins into its host, which breaks down slowking’s literal mental barriers and gives it a drastic boost in intelligence. Given that this means slowking’s intelligence is chemically enhanced, the writer would like to take the time to note to younger readers that drugs do not, in fact, result in intelligence boosts in humans. Just say no, children, and stay in school. Unless you go on a trainer’s journey, at which point never eat mushrooms you can’t identify.

Bill, in case you were still wondering why Fennel won’t leave Amanita with you unless another adult is present to supervise, this. This is why. —LH