They evolved during the longest and most soul crushing grinding session, so I had to make something up!


I never thought I'd see the day my bois are all grown up..... But we made it! Waaaah! ;u;
It's hard to leave Wartortle Nathan behind! The evolution took away almost everything that made up his look. In all this time, I couldn't come up with any idea that could let him keep any of the fluff as a Blastoise, so he just looks normal now. But it's okay! He's still adorable, and I'm honestly so relieved that the design turned out as something that I'm actually happy with. : D
Pilot is just Pilot - now l a r g e and with the most ridiculous crest. You all saw it coming. There was no other way.

• Here we are at Tan Boat Creek, the route south of Botan City. Of course the actual creek isn't anywhere in sight (it will come later, I swear), but you get to see the lake at the south of Botan City and the sea at the eastern coast of Rijon! I do not know if all this stuff can really be that close together, but the most important thing is that I got to draw a lot of water.


• Uh. So. The Swampert and the Scizor come from the teams of trainers on this route. Imagine you go on a nice walk with your super awesome level 31 team and then there are level 37 Swampert and Blaziken everywhere. Uh oh. This time, the level spike is intentional because this is where you're supposed to go! The first trainer battle went just fine, since unlike the Sceptile in the Gym, they have normal movesets that are not designed to nuke you from orbit. But after that battle, I decided to go into the tall grass and grind to 36 for Nathan and Pilot's evolutions. Really glad I didn't meet the Scizor until after that. (:


• The wild Pokémon shown here are most of what is available in that place. If it wasn't for the occasional Ledian and Furret, I would still be there grinding my life away today. u_u


• Yeah they're not going to battle wild Pokémon for training anymore unless the wild Pokémon really want to. Most Pokémon love to battle, and many Pokémon like a challenge, but it's just unfair by now.


• Benny learned Psybeam! With this nice upgrade, he's still pulling his weight around mid-game. Gen 3 was a simpler time in which most Pokémon don't learn any good moves until very late, so he's doing just fine between them.


• idk man, I don't know if Nathan and Pilot's little adventure was good enough for their very important and cool evolutions, but I don't know if anything would be good enough for them. (I love them very much.) And tropes are tropes for a reason.


• The Ranger guy and his Pokémon spend long stretches of time in the wild doing Ranger things, and he lets them hunt as a main source of food. Maybe he eats some of the meat too, I'm not sure. Anyway, Pilot isn't very traumatized by this event, it's just what living in the wild was like every day.

Next time: Hm. We're not done here yet.

Awww, too serious a moment to evolve. Still good though.