From: Rob (robfrompw@yahoo.com) Subject: [PW!] The Ilex Forest Log Race Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon Date: 2001-08-17 15:45:59 PST Sarah, the teenage shepherdess, is standing under the shadows of the thick trees in the Ilex Forest, directly in front of the Celebi shrine. Sitting next to her, face in his knees, is a sad Mimic in human form, contemplating his most recent destructive action and its significance. Barbie, Sarah's Mareep, is standing still at the base of the shrine. When the Mareep notices that Mimic starts trembling and that her trainer is speechless, she lowers all of her defenses and trots up to Mimic. Barbie nuzzles her head up against the Ditto's back, bleating softly, hoping that his sadness is genuine and not some kind of evil trick, "Reee... Reeep..." Mimic is comforted by the nuzzling. He glances back and is quite surprised that the one doing the rubbing is the ever-suspicious Mareep. Mimic reasons that now, more than ever, Barbie has a valid reason to be terrified of him, but instead she's getting close to him. Mimic asks out loud, "How Barbie be not scared?" "Mimic, you heard what that... interesting... girl said." Sarah kneels down and rubs Mimic's shoulder with her hand the way Barbie is nuzzling his back with her head, "She said the kid committed suicide. You can't blame yourself for that. If he was crazy enough to do that, he would've done whenever he lost any battle. Obviously that would've happened some day, since you can't win 'em all. Even Pokemon Masters like Ash Ketchum, who I've read books about, lost many Pokemon battles." Mimic sits in quiet contemplation while Sarah awaits a response. "Aaaah! My wood-carrier broke!" The nearby yelling of a young human interrupts Mimic's train of thought. Sarah, startled by the yelling, glances to her left. In the distance, she sees a brown-haired male trainer dressed in blue and wearing a red belt. The boy, who appears a little younger than her but older than her brother Teddy, is flailing his arms around in frustration as his pet Farfetch'd watches, looking disappointed. Sarah looks back at Mimic, her hazel eyes showing that she's concerned. She points to where the Farfetch'd trainer is and says, "That trainer over there seems to have some kinda problem. Helpin' him might make you feel a little better... I can't help him alone since I'm kinda shy, so I'm scared to approach him by myself." "Mimic try." Mimic stands up and manages to Transform into Sarah despite his lingering sadness, "Mimic show Sarah how Sarah be if not shy." Not-Sarah briskly leads the way towards the Farfetch'd trainer, followed by a timid stranger-fearing Sarah, and an even more timid almost-everything-fearing Barbie. 'Sarah' places 'her' hand on the boy and he suddenly stops flailing his arms around. Looking straight into his eyes, 'Sarah' asks, doing a decent Sarah impression, sans the stuttering, "Don't have a Miltank! I overheard your yellin' and came over here to ask what's wrong and to tell you that it probably ain't that bad." "I don't say 'ain't'! That's improper!" Sarah huffs, hiding behind her duplicate. Mimic shrugs, "Fine. Mim... I mean, *I* meant to say that it probably *isn't* that bad, but I can't know for sure unless you tell me. What's your name, kid?" "My name's Sylvester and my problem is REALLY bad! I had my Farfetch'd here Cut down a few trees..." Sylvester motions first towards his Pokemon partner then towards the fallen logs in the area before continuing, "He Cut one of them into smaller pieces and when I loaded them onto my wood-carrier, it broke!" He turns around to show off the broken ladder-like contraption tied to his back then faces Mimic again, "If I don't get these logs over to my dad's cabin and turn them into Charcoal by nightfall, my dad's gonna get angry! And believe you me, I don't wanna see my dad angry! Aaaah!" He begins to flail his arms around again! "That it?" Mimic asks, forgetting to do his Sarah impression. The boy's problem seems pretty lame to Mimic when compared to his own inner turmoil. Sarah knows, from past experiences, how unpleasant the consequences of disobeying her elders, particularly those who are easily angered, can be. She peeks out from behind Mimic and stutters, "Th-that does s-sound like... like a real a pr-problem, Syl... Sylvester. C-can we do any... anythin' to help you?" Sylvester stops flailing around and blinks twice. "Whoa! Are you two twins or something?!" He asks, seeing Sarah for the first time. "Something." 'Sarah' removes 'her' hand from Sylvester's shoulder and taps Sarah, "This Sarah and Mimic is Mimic. Like Sarah say, can Sarah and Mimic help?" Sylvester places his hand on his chin and stands still for a moment. When he notices the scared Mareep hiding behind the girl who is hiding behind the 'girl' who just spoke, he gets an idea, "I know! The only Pokemon I have is Farfetch'd, and he can't drag these logs all the way to my dad's cabin all by himself. If you have your own Pokemon, you can think of clever ways that your Pokemon can drag these logs to my dad's house, located way over there..." Sylvester and Farfetch'd simultaneously point towards the east, but the Ilex Forest's thick trees block the view of the faraway cabin, "...before nightfall, I'll give you a prize!" Sarah looks at her Mareep, then glances at the shrunken Pokeballs in her leather satchel, "I've only got... th-three Pokemon, and I d-don't think... don't think any... any of 'em can m-move these huge logs, but m-maybe Mimic can..." She puts her hand on Mimic's shoulder, "Unless... unless you... need time to recover." Sylvester scans the nearby area with his eyes, "Your twin might be strong, but it would be best if more trainers and Pokemon showed up to help us out!" "I... I guess that'd help... Maybe we can w-wait a while..." Sarah swallows back some of her saliva, nervous that too many trainers will show up since she becomes increasingly more frightened as the group of strangers around her gets larger, but willing to wait since it would take some pressure off of her drained friend. -Sarah ( NS: This 'log race' is the mini-event I was talking about in my last few posts. Anyone in or around the area feel free to join in and agree to help take the logs, stating your plan for getting them over to the Charcoal Man's house [preferably a Pokemon-related plan] and I'll take it from there. )