4 ∅ [Video]

[callbacks]

[The video starts on an unsure-looking Kirlia. He starts to edge away, but Dave--apparently behind the camera--speaks.]

Naw, go ahead, dude. C'mon. Don't be shy.

[The Kirlia sighs, extremely put upon, and then ballet-toes back into place. There's a Dawn Stone on the floor nearby; the Kirlia bends primly at the waist to pick it up, and:

Presto.

Wart the Gallade examines his arm-blades for a moment, then shoots Dave a look as if to say, "If we're quite done now." Dave chuckles quietly.]

Yeah, yeah, thanks for humoring me, bro. The moment has been secured for posterity. Duty discharged. [The relief on the Gallade's face is palpable before Dave turns the camera towards his own movie star mug. Hello, Johto.]

So, hey. I get that baby's first evolution is probably ancient headwear for most of you, but he's the first guy I got all the way to his final form. That's worth some kind of jokey home video.

[Yeah, because he's obviously being ironic about this. He's not Proud Dadding all over his starter, no sirree.]

Anyway, I've been hearing about a bunch of different evolutionary paths our Poképals can take, and, I dunno. I'm curious, I guess. If you ever made a choice like that, what made you pick one way or the other?

Comments

[Audio]

[unkinder]

I only knew the first 150 when I arrived, so I can understand the feeling, at least.

[Audio]

[callbacks]

I didn't have Nintendos when I was growing up, so I don't even know that. I knew...the electric bunny thing? And the dragon. I know there's a dragon.

[Audio]

[unkinder]

[...]

Pikachu? And...Charizard, I'm assuming?

[Audio]

[callbacks]

Yeah, probably. I mean, they all came out when I was, like, two, and my steel trap of a memory bank hadn't exactly completely developed by then.

[Audio]

[unkinder]

Well, the games hadn't been out for very long back home. There was Blue, Red, and Yellow, and that was it. Two-thirds of the Pokemon here didn't even exist yet.

[Audio]

[callbacks]

So you're from...the late nineties?

[Audio]

[unkinder]

I am, yes.

[...Technology advanced so fast, Dave.]

[Audio]

[callbacks]

Was people's color coordination really that bad?

[Audio]

[unkinder]

[Having lived with someone who takes full advantage of awful 90s fashion...]

It appears so. Apparently fashion has changed to a degree, not that I've payed much attention to it either way.

[Audio]

[callbacks]

And boy bands. Boy bands were real?

[Audio]

[unkinder]

Define 'real'. Real in the sense that they existed, or real in the sense that they didn't all look like they came out of the same cookie cutter molds?

[Audio]

[callbacks]

Real in the sense that they were physical entities that you could touch and not the fevered hallucination of a mass of sexually frustrated tweeny girls.