Searching Far and Wide

[intricate_engineer]

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"It helps them practice to have them spar with each other and more variety in opponents isn't trivial. I could probably do without a couple of them but then I'd have less flexibility - some 'mon are better against some others."

[intricate_engineer]

"How willing are they to fight for you?"

[the_very_best]

"...Quite? It'd be kind of hard to manage them if they weren't."

[intricate_engineer]

"So it isn't a gradual process? Just catching them is enough?"

[the_very_best]

"Oh, no, I had to train them! But I've had all mine a while and didn't keep any that seemed implacably opposed."

[intricate_engineer]

"Did they try to attack you at first?"
Glen orders some dinner for both of them and food for the Pokémon from Bar.

[the_very_best]

"Wild caught ones did, yeah."

[intricate_engineer]

"Did they try to escape?"

[the_very_best]

"Nah, most kinds of 'mon don't do that. The ones that do are hard to catch."

[intricate_engineer]

"Huh. Do you know why?"

[the_very_best]

"If one attacks you in the first place it typically wants a fight?" she shrugs.

[intricate_engineer]

"Do human owned Pokémon frequently get a chance to reproduce?"

[the_very_best]

"Not sure what constitutes frequently but people breed 'em."

[intricate_engineer]

"I'm wondering if there may be an evolutionary benefit to being caught by humans."

[the_very_best]

"Human-caught ones do evolve more but I suspect that is not what you meant."

[intricate_engineer]

"No, yea. It means something different where I'm from. Is every generation of Pokémon the same?"

[the_very_best]

"Pretty much? You can get weird variants if you breed one that evolved under particular conditions, get designer Ivysaurs that have baby designer Bulbasaurs or whatever."

[intricate_engineer]

"What's different about the designer ones?"

[the_very_best]

"In the case of 'saurs it's flower variants, you can get a daisy or a rose one or something if you shell out a lot of money."

[intricate_engineer]

"Do their basic characteristics ever change? Such as, are Pokémon ever born with a different type or a vastly different size?"

[the_very_best]

"Not by that much? I mean, there's bigger and smaller ones, but the type is consistent for species."

[intricate_engineer]

"Do people breed Pokémon to get large changes over time?"

[the_very_best]

"...I'm not sure what you mean."

[intricate_engineer]

"Say some Pokémon do something better than others, they are stronger, or faster, or friendlier. Does anyone breed the best Pokémon so that several generations down the line you have Pokémon that are all stronger or all faster?"

[the_very_best]

"Oh, yeah, people do that. Or breed for personality."