So nice of you to read this again my little monsters. Thank you!
For my “Something Something” Saturdays, even if this one is not written on a Saturday but earlier, to ‘complete’ my site, I can write just about anything.
Since I am brand spanking new, I figured some kind of introduction would be nice.
Now talking about how I am feels a bit redundant because I do not have many fans yet, and those who do read are most likely my real life friends, so for a first story let me tell you a story neither new fans, or old friends have ever heard. The story how I got my first Pokémon Game.
Delibird but different
To explain my story, I first need to tell you some Dutchie lore, you see we have the distinct honour of ‘inventing’ the original Santa Claus. That is right we did it first. But rather then a old fat man that looks like a Delibird, this one is a holy bischop, that looks like a red clad version of the pope. His name is Saint Nicolas, or Sint Niklaas and he is quite a bit creepier than Santa. The latter is basically the same person who got made fatter and jollier by the Coca Cola company and relocated to the North Pole because Spain or Turkey was not a good home for him. His dark skinned henchman that come down the chimney with their bright red lips and curly hair were replaced by cheerful elves and his steamboat has been replaced by a sled with reindeers. Sinterklaas as we dutchies call the OG gift bringing bloke was a less forgiving person as well. If you have been a bad kid, you did not get a block of coal, you either would get beaten with twigs by his henchmen or even abducted. Yes that is right, that sack Santa always carries around, here in the Netherlands it doesn’t always holds gifts.. it also holds bad children who will be forced into slave labour for the man. We celebrate this man on the 5th of december and to young childeren that day is quite a lot more stresfull to young childeren then Christmas would ever be….after all that day might be the last day you see your family. Me being a gullible girl was absolutely terrified of the man, and when I was very little I even broke his staff onc.and our plant pot…and some other stuff. It was November 5th 1992, I was a six year old nervous wreck. He asked me to hold it and I dropped it, it was a very heavy but fragile prop, which landed on mothers favorite candle knickknack , then on the planter and then it’s head broke of on the floor. I blacked out in fear, I do remember though that I still got presents, I knew one day they would come and collect me or that I would at least pay the price.
Cruel Karma
Seven years later, minus a day, we celebrated it on the 4th because my dad had to play a concert that sunday. I had known the truth about good old Satan Nicolaas for quite a while now, unfortunately my health had taken a turn for the worse, my motor functions and muscle usability had dropped quite a bit. I was bad at physical things, I could thread a needle easily, but playing catch, running around, kicking a ball or even walking up the stairs was quite a challenge for me. My muscles did not always function like they should, this included some really important ones. Of course when you are sick like this in grade school, it forms a special bond between you and your classmates, the bonds of a victim and her bullies. As a result, I did play with dolls a bit but I never had much people to play with and playing outside was hard, so I got into video games, it let me do amazing things that would get me injured or I would not even been able to do at all. On october 10th 1999 a game came out that I desired soooo much. But back then it wasn’t widely available at stores yet, gaming was much more a niche and weird Japanese RPG’s .. forget about it, but when it picked up popularity they would make it widely available for december purchases. Never had I desired something so much as long as I can remember, it even overshadowed consoles. On this night, my parents decided they wanted vengeance for having them buy that prop from the fake Satan Niklaas all those years ago. We were about half way with the presents when we got a square little box, both me and my sister, we both knew what it was, she would get Red , I would get Blue. She got to open her first, after she read a poem first. It was nice and witty and wished her a lot of fun in playing but it would also mention that something went wrong so that they hoped everything would be alright. It was Red like we expected, super excited my sister ran around the house to get her gameboy colour, she was even kind enough to bring mine. Then it was my turn, mine was “not written by my parents” but by Sinterklaas. In which he told me that when he was buying the gifts he hesitated for a moment when picking up mine, because I broke his staff all those years ago. Then someone just snatched the last copy just from right under him, so I would have to wait till early next year and he would deliver it to me then. The sound of my little heart breaking was drowned out by my sisters copy firing up on her gameboy colour. The first time I ever heard the Pokémon theme of Red and Blue was when I found out I would not be playing it. I actually felt sick. That might have been spoiled of me, but I was so sad.. I desired this so much more than my sister had done, perhaps they were tricking me? I unwrapped the bo and it was an old box of my games with a post it with sorry sweety on it.
Bulbasaur I choose yo…..NANI!?!
I did not really enjoy the rest of the evening, even though my parents gave me more gifts to make up, it was all chocolat and socks, and whoop some Pokémon stickers, that wasn’t the game. My sister got less, but my parents told her she would get the candies another day, it was just to make me feel better… while I was there, meanwhile my sister tried to show me how she picked Charmander. It took all my strength to not burst into crying and seem ungrateful, but my parents liked messing with me, so they told my sister I might share my candy if she shared her game.. to which of course she said no too, they knew she would it was part of their fun. When we finally got through all the gifts and there really was no copy of Pokémon Blue, I stacked up my stuff and went to bed, I felt horrible. My parents went to clean up, and let my sister play first before calling me back down again a good 20 minutes after I went to my room. Now I cried, and they told me “if you had cried we would have given this to you sooner’ before handing me another gift, in the right dimensions, giving my sister a bag of candy. I opened it and found my Pokémon Blue, I just hugged my parents not caring how cruel the joke was they played. I began playing it and made a character, I named it Ash because well.. it was a boy. I named my Rival Gary, because that’s how it’s supposed to be. The music was great and when I wanted to choose Squirtle my sister told me I could not..cause that would beat hers, since I just wanted to play I just did not care and chose the adorable looking bulbasaur. But then Gary suddenly challenged me to a battle. Alright..here I would prove I am better in Pokemon than my sister, I would ace this game … Bulbasaur I choose yo…..and then my batteries ran out. My sister had just taken the last pair of batteries, my parents realised they should have gotten some. While I could not contain myself and did cry quite loudly this time, my mother comforted me and said ‘Don’t worry we will get you some batteries in the morning’ and then she realised, the next day was a Sunday, back then all the stores were closed on Sundays. My first bulbasaur…had just died.
A super solution
I did not sleep well that night, I saw Bulbasaur slowly fading from existence before me, knowing everyone will be much father in Pokémon when I went to school on monday. Stressful things as a child. The next day, I avoided my sister like the plague, she was continuously playing the game and I lucked out, now some might wonder why my parents did not ask my sister to not play until I coul play. Well, this kind of bad luck always had been happening to me, like when someone handed out apples in schools, mine would be one with a worm, if we went to a school trip I would be the one get gets stung by wasps right in the beginning..in the middle of my ear , making me half deaf for the rest of the trip and if we ever played hide and seek on a birthday in the forest, they would forget about me and leave me behind..because I was the courtesy invite. To this day people know me for how unlikely unlucky I am. So yeah, the bad luck with the batteries, that’s just Pinkie let’s not punish her sister for it. My mother tried to borrow some batteries from our neighbour but no such luck, so eventually I decided to play Super Mario , so at least I could drown out my sisters cries of joy when she found a new Pokémon. When browsing through my SNES library I suddenly gasped. I had forgotten all about this thing, I had a super gameboy! Would it work? Pokémon might be to new for it, let’s try it out. OMG it works and it gives everything a cool blue colour that is amazing. I chose to not name myself Ash, I used my own name, even if it might look silly on a boy. I picked Bulbasaur again and apologised for killing it’s brother. I decided to name my rival Niklaas right before battling him I went downstairs to get some drinks, I told my mom I fixed it and she was so happy for me that I could play, she told me she would bring me some snacks and drinks in a bit. She let me play the game the entire day without disturbing me. That day me and Bulbasaur’s brother started an amazing journey, and though that Bulbasaur has now been long gone, I am still on that same journey to catch them all and I do not plan on retiring from this amazing journey anytime soon.
I think it’s quite clear that the first game and thus the franchise stole my heart. I just figured it was worth to tell how it almost did not happen, I was quite close to recent the franchise for not being available to me.. when my sister spoiled it all, or was I? Maybe I love the franchise as much because I could not take the game for granted, we will never know but what I do know for sure is that that little blue cartridge had a massive impact on the person I am now.
Is there a game that defined you as a person? Leave a comment or a like! Cherish some nostalgia, pay tribute to that what shapped, but most of all stay Pink!
Until we read again!
Pinkie's Paradise 