paladinlost | 101st moon [video]

Ladies, gentlemen and Pokémon, this is a Public Service Announcement.

[The video shows a group of extremely nervous Pokémon. That is probably for the best, as Cecil sounds coldly furious and the sight of his face would surely not be pretty.]

As many of you know, weather moves are both learned naturally by multiple species and available as TMs at either Department Store. They have the power to set up dozens of interesting battle strategies, or to facilitate or impair travel in a pinch.

They also have the power to kill innocent plants.

[The Pokégear abruptly turns towards a vegetable garden. ...Or at least, it must have been a vegetable garden once. Right now, it's a crispy, soggy, sandy, frozen mess of murdered tomatoes and destroyed cucumbers.]

Please teach your Pokémon and teammates that certain moves should not be practiced in urban environments. Please repeat that rule to them every day, even when they should already know it. Otherwise, you might have to deal with ruined landscaping, wasted gardening hours, and over twenty Pokémon who will be grounded for the rest of their natural lives.

[Anyone still listening can practically hear said Pokémon whimper; Cecil certainly sounds angry enough to warrant it.

...But suddenly, all that fury disappears, leaving behind a paladin who sounds almost normal. Almost.]

That was our Public Service Announcement for the day. Do be careful while training, everyone, and remember that even the weakest attack can cause extensive damage to your surroundings.

[His team won't forget that in a hurry.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Awww man...I'm sure they didn't mean it! I mean, back home my dog used to mess up my stuff all the time, and he didn't even have powers to do it with...

[He can understand being angry, at least, but putting the poor things on the Network seems a little harsh in his opinion.]

Is your dog fully aware that both fire and ice can greatly damage plants? That is a very important detail, when it comes to responsibility.

[Dammit kids, you know your own type weaknesses. How can you not realize they also apply to cucumbers.]

Well, no, but...are your Pokemon babies? Cause that might explain it, too...maybe it was just an accident?

Sadly, my youngest is level thirty-seven; youth cannot explain this. ...However, carelessness might.

Gotcha...if you have a Pokemon that could help with your plants, though, I think having them use a move on them would help a lot. Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Synthesis...anything like that. Even if it doesn't work, it's worth a try, right?

There will be no more uses of Sunny Day or Rain Dance in this garden.

[This year, Cecil has learned that it doesn't take a drought or a monsoon to kill plants.]

But Synthesis will be attempted. More than once, if necessary.

I hope it works! What kind of stuff were you growing, anyway?

Vegetables, mostly, along with a few herbs for cooking. I thought it would be nice to eat fresh homegrown food, for once.

Is it too late to start your garden over?

[He doesn't know much about gardening, or else he'd try to offer more advice.]

...If I find species that bear vegetables during the fall, perhaps...

[Somewhere offscreen, there are a lot of crossed fingers and paws.]

[Godspeed, little guys.]

Yeah, there you go! There's gotta be something that'll grow during that time.

There must be. As long as everyone behaves for the rest of the season, of course.

[Including the Grimers. Especially the Grimers.]

I bet they will! ...what exactly happened, anyways? Were they battling each other or just playing around too close to the garden?

I recently purchased TMs for the younger ones. They decided to show off their new moves, their siblings decided to show their own tricks, one thing led to another...

Aha, aww...sounds like they got a little too excited...

They could have done so in the wilderness, instead of destroying their own future snacks.

That's true! But at least they'll know better for the future, right?

Surely. They tend to learn lessons quickly, when properly motivated.