After the Alolan Rattata line project, I ended up joining the Alolan Meowth/Persian project. Unlike the Rattata line, the Meowth line that was brought to Alola completely adapted to the dark energy and turned into a pure dark-type variant.
Yes, according to old records, and I'm talking about possible pre-fourth civilization stuff here, Meowth was a species that was imported to Alola, and the western continent through royals that bought a few Meowth from warrior sailors that got them in one of their travels and decided to keep them around, which according to another project that collaborated with this one, later on, became the Galarian Meowth variant.
Now, I was unsure whether it was because it became a pure dark type or not, I did not want to type shame after all since there were some overall decent dark types such as Umbreon, Absol, Zorua, and Alolan Muk, though that one was not a pure dark type, but Alolan Meowth and Persian had their bad traits amplified during their type change.
Don't misunderstand me, they were not bad per se, but all Alolan Meowth were known to be impulsive, selfish, fickle, cunning, smart, and prideful, which made them rather hard to handle. Not to mention that brutal and vicious got added to that list of traits with their evolution to Persian.
Speaking of Alolan Persian, I could not help but be puzzled by its head. I personally thought it looked stupid, and I definitely preferred the original/kantonian one. Even the galarian alternate evolution, Perrserker, was better than that one in my opinion. Yet, for some strange reason, Alolan Meowth/Persian seemed to be rather popular among some trainers.
I certainly failed to understand those people. I mean, if you absolutely needed a dark-type feline Pokemon, then Purrloin was definitely the better choice. Not only did it and its evolution, Liepard, look better than the Alolan Meowth line, but it was easier to handle as well. Though, Liepard could be moody and vicious as well.
It was still the better choice for a dark-type feline in my opinion, but ultimately it was a choice each individual had to make on their own. Anyway, personal opinion aside, I spent the week working with the project team, taking care of and observing those spoiled cats with entitlement problems.
I also thought about some of the theories that had been proposed as the initial reason for the variation in the Meowth introduced to Alola. There were two theories that were the most popular among the many theories I found in the research files.
The most popular one was that the Alola region seemed to have had a period where the dark energy presence/concentration was rather active, which managed to affect multiple species such as Rattata, Muk, and Meowth.
The second theory was that the Alolan Rattata were responsible for the variation in the Meowth. I believe there was no need to elaborate on the particularities of this theory. There were many more theories on the topic, but honestly, all I knew, was that by Dialday evening, my previous opinion on the Alolan Meowth line had cemented itself.
I was confident that it became an impossibility to convince me that the kantonian/regular line was not better than the alolan menace. Frankly, I could not help but think that we needed a fairy variant of that species/line to balance out the bad attitude the alolan group brought onto the table.
Nonetheless, I was done with the project, and I was definitely going to leave that topic alone for a long while, possibly forever. The two days of the weekend helped clear the mood, especially the customary weekly check-up.
During that one, I saw that the awaited thing ended up happening after all. Kimura/Hitmonform had managed to complete his first round of limit-breaking just two weeks after raising the first four parameters to S. I was hopeful that he would be able to complete the second round within just a third to half a year at most.
Anyway, I certainly had enough of Meowth for now, so I did not join the Galarian Meowth project at the start of the new week. Instead, I moved on to another alolan variant of a "Kanto native".
Alolan Grimer as well as Muk, were the colorful cousin of the regular Grimer as well as Muk, and unlike their regular cousins, they did not stink. That little detail alone was enough for humans to prefer them over their cousins.
Alolan Muk was their favorite among the 4 species, and since the Alolan Muk line still liked waste, trash, pollutants, and toxins, people voluntarily utilized them in trash disposal facilities, factories, and other places that produced and/or stored anything in that direction.
Alolan Grimer had a lower ingestion capability, so its poison level was low enough for it to suppress the smell without crystalization. The Alolan Muk on the other hand had a much higher capacity, so it absorbed all the trash/waste and pollution/toxins it could find. This impacted their coloration, and once the toxins/poison inside their body exceeded a certain level, they crystallized the excess.
It was the fact that it concentrated the poison/toxins inside its body and that it crystalline any excess that Alolan Muk did not stink, unlike its regular counterpart. Though, unlike the Kantonian Muk, the Alolan Muk had an additional dark typing, which most attributed to its "chaotic" and "excessive" diet.
Still, despite the additional dark typing, the Alolan Muk line was surprisingly known for their quiet and friendly attitude. The only times their dark typing shone through was when it was starving, but even then it only destroyed stuff without harming others. In short, Alolan Muk and Grimer were mostly harmless and friendly.
Well, unless one was a Trubbish or Garbodor. In that case, all bets were off, because those two happened to be on the alolan duo's menu. Still, that was fine since no one was perfect, and most did not care about that little detail anyway. Some even welcomed it due to their dislike for Trubbish and Garbodor.
I personally thought that Alolan Muk was a pretty good Pokemon, and I considered whether I should one or two to the Orphanage and/or the sanctuary. Not only could it act as a convenient waste disposal point, but it could also act as an additional guardian if it was strong enough. Honestly, the idea was not a bad one, so I decided to keep it in mind.
On Kyoday I called Mom and Dad to ask them how they were doing. Mom was excited to share that both Epona/Rapidash and Aomi/Lapras had broken through to the dark gold stage, which qualified her Pokemon-wise for the Ace-Class.
However, while Mom had enough alliance (contribution/merit) points to satisfy that particular condition as well, she was missing another high-level competition verification to reach the 3 she needed for the Ace-Class upgrade.
Mom's championship at the Senior League Tournament counted as one and was enough to replace the 8 S-Rank Badges from the Grand League Tournament. Her rank as a Lady at the Battle Club served as the second proof, but she had nothing that could act as a third proof of competence.
Still, Mom had apparently already taken steps to rectify that. She shared that she had signed up for the Fountain Cup taking place in Ferrum, which counted as a high-level water-type competition. All she had to do was make it into the Top 64 to finally earn the Ace-Class trainer rank.
The tournament/cup would start next month, and Mom was quite excited about it. Oh, and it seemed that Dad initially wanted to try his luck as well since he need 5 high-level proofs of competence to advance to the Elite Class, but he decided against signing up when he found out that he would need to make it into the Top 4 for the Fountain Cup to count as proof of competence for the Elite-Class.
Dad had only two water types after all, so making it into the Top 4 was a bit unrealistic. I got why he abstained from this one, even though that did not change that he still needed 2 more high-level events to fulfill the first Elite-Class upgrade condition.
Well, at least he managed to fulfill two-thirds of the Pokemon-related upgrade condition. He had more than 3 (high) gold stage Pokemon in reserve, and since Vibra/Rhyperior's breakthrough to the dark gold stage, Dad had satisfied the condition that required him to have at least 6 dark gold stage Pokemon.
Those 6 were Titan/Nidoking, Duke/Crobat, Agni/Arcanine, Skye/Pidgeot, Kaiyo/Lapras, and finally Vibra/Rhyperior. Sadly, the same condition also expanded further and added another condition on top of that, which stipulated that 3 of those 6 dark gold stage Pokemon had to be at the (high) dark gold stage.
Currently, only Titan was at the (high) dark gold stage, and Duke was the only (mid) dark gold stage Pokemon on Dad's team. Though, I was pretty sure that Agni was really close to advancing to the (mid) dark gold stage as well.
Well, I was sure he would be able to complete both the Pokemon as well as the competition/competence condition before the start of the GLT. Honestly, Dad did not have to reach the Elite Class before the tournament to participate in it, but it was a goal he set for himself, and I simply chose to support him since it was a good goal to have.
I also knew that he felt a bit of pressure due to the possibility that I could/would catch up to him in a year or two, which was why he wanted to at least get the official trainer classification before I did. That was also the reason Mom was willing to wait and work so hard on earning that SLT championship.
In fact, both had a lot to brag about, but they were just lucky enough to have me, which was why they had a few "insecurities", even though they had nothing to be worried or insecure about.
Yeah, anyway, interesting conversation with my parents aside, the weekend went pretty nice, and I welcomed the 14th month's final week with open arms. Like before, I first chose a project to join for this particular week, and seeing how I had dealt with Alolan Muk last week, I decided to keep the environmentally friendly theme going, so I chose to join the Galarian Weezing project.
I found this variant interesting because of its additional fairy typing, though I could see how purifying the air could result in something like that. Still, it was the only poison and fairy-type Pokemon as far as I knew, which made it interesting enough on its own.
Add to that the various tales and stories linked to the original Weezing and thus to this variant as well, and the project became interesting enough for me to be fully committed right up until the last minute on Dialday. According to records Weezing and Koffing belong to the small group of Pokemon that have a special way to "evolve" by combining two members of the primary species.
The best-known member of that phenomenon was probably the Metagross line, though the Magnemite line was capable of doing that as well. What most do not know, was that Koffing could do it as well under certain circumstances. Though it took a lot of time and tons of luck. It also required the presence of a lot of poison gas of two kinds.
Like seriously, luck was a pretty vital condition for this since the chances of the fusion/evolution happening was extremely low even if the conditions were fulfilled.
Regardless, that particular method aside, there were also records about a special Weezing, or at least a special evolution of that line, that had 3 bodies instead of the usual 2. I was not sure whether it was an alternate evolution of Koffing or an actual evolution of Weezing because there was no actual information on this 3 body Weezing aside from documented hearsay and rumors.
I even went to look up this mystery Weezing inside my super library, but I only managed to find rumors in there as well. For some reason, no one seems to think that studying or documenting this Pokemon after stumbling on it was a good idea. Heck, due to the vagueness of the records, I could not even be sure if this was even true or just a flight of fantasy.
The only reason no one was outright denying it was the existence of the alternate fusion/evolution method and the fact that all Weezing had the small third lump connected to their bodies.
I thought that this whole thing was rather interesting, but since I had no Koffing or Weezing on my team, and because I was not planning to add one any time soon, I simply shelved it as something interesting after I left the lab on Dialday evening and left it alone to gather dust in some corner of my mind. I had other stuff to worry about after all.
Anyway, on Arcday, the new month was starting, and it would be the last full month I would be spending at the lab.
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