Being completely unprepared...

So yesterday I went to the gym. No, not the cool kind. The kind where you walk in and immediately feel like you should have got out more as a child. Anyway, thanks to Craig, the absolutely terrifying PT, I woke up this morning feeling pain in places I didn't even know there were muscles. Seriously, I now know exactly how Loki feels in The Avengers after Hulk has smashed him into the floor several times.

Seriously. It's like my spine is full of cement.

Anyways, this got me thinking about this little place, which is another case of me being totally unprepared for what was coming.

Yup. It's Viridian Forest.

Ok, so this may seem like an odd thing to say, but you have to bear in mind that collectively we all now know exactly what to expect when we step into a forested area in Pokémon.

Excessive amounts of goddamn bug Pokémon.

But the first time around, I literally no idea what I was expecting. This was the time when I had just realised that stepping in front of a random person on a path was bound to result in a battle, and I had only just figured out that you couldn't run from said battles. I also still thought that you had to go all the way back to your Mom's house every time you wanted to heal, but that's a story for another time.

I just remember being absolutely terrified of this guy:

He is clearly standing there waiting to pounce.

But when he offered me handy advice, rather than trying to beat the ever loving crap out of my beloved pets, I completely ignored him and continued on my merry way through the considerably less terrifying forest.

Unfortunately, of course, I ran into the goddamn Bugcatchers, who I was unaware were to become a staple of Pokémon games for the next ten years. Anyway, you wouldn't think this would be much of an issue, but turns out I was completely unprepared for any poison of any description, having ignored the helpful advice of guy #1 to go and buy some antidotes. So, although it pains me to admit it, after his Weedle succeeded in poisoning all of my Pokémon, six year old me continued on her merry way, unaware of the impending doom. And sure enough I soon found myself back at the Pokémon centre, realising that maybe antidotes were the way forward.

Upon my second trip through the forest I'm happy to report I was more successful. Decking Caterpies left, right and centre, I finally got out of the goddamn forest and moved on with my Pokémon journey, cursing Bugcatchers for their wily ways.

Moral of the story: Take some antidotes to the gym.


*Edit*

I finished the drawing I was going to publish with this just now after work. I'm beginning to think I should maybe do these in colour; I did some in acrylic aaaaages ago, but that takes time, skill and good paints, none of which I have very much of at the moment. So here we have #010 #011 #012

I have to admit, in my current replay of Yellow, I have both a Beedrill and a Butterfree on my team at the moment. I find that early on in the game they are pretty useful for gym battles and whatnot, even taking account of the fact that sleep powder only ever works for one turn on opponents Pokémon but ten when used on mine (or at least it seems).

Amusing parental anecdote: My mum walked in on me when I was drawing Metapod and asked what I was drawing so I informed her of the name of the Pokémon to which her response was "It's a green shrimp thing". Made my day!