Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Pokemon Blue

I love Pokemon. It was the first game I ever really got into when I was young - maybe sixteen or seventeen - and it stayed with me as I grew up. I always thought I'd play Pokemon all my life because I could never put it down. It just has that effect on you. You already probably know what I mean, right?

I guess I was a bit older than the average Pokemon fan when I got my hands on my first game, which I remember quite clearly being a copy of Pokemon Blue. Like a million of other kids that year, I received it as a Christmas gift. Across the country, countless Pokemon games were being unwrapped that very morning. They all came from the very same factory in Japan, crafted together by the same hands. They were all stuck in shiny new Game Boy handhelds and turned on for the very first time. I remember I had the biggest smile on my face when I began my adventure, nestled beside the Christmas Tree, decked out in full winter pajamas.

I selected Bulbasaur as my starter, caught a Pidgey and a Caterpie, and brought my strong three-man team through the first couple of gyms without a hitch. I thought everything was going well. Brock and Misty were a piece of cake - Bulbasaur IS easy mode, though. Rock and Water types bow down to Gross. Admittedly, Lt. Surge gave me some issues, but I eventually triumphed after a bit of grinding. It was one after the other.

Eventually, I came across the HM Cut and was given access to Route 9 and soon after, Rock Tunnel. It took me a day to navigate through the darkness, but I did it. By then, the month of December was reaching its close. I'd shut myself up in my room for a few hours every day playing Pokemon, grinding Pidgeotto, Butterfree, and Ivysaur up a few levels each time. I didn't care. I was having a blast. A friend of mine even traded me a Sandslash for a herpaderp, which brought my team up to four strong. I didn't think the game could get any better. Then I stepped foot into Lavender Town.

For a few seconds, I stared at my Game Boy's screen as the color scheme turned gloomy. The music began playing and I made a face. Lavender Town's melody was melancholy and sad - completely unlike all the other themes I'd heard so far. I immediately realized this place was something else, something the developers wanted to set apart from the rest. I didn't know any other reason they would have gone to the lengths they did to make Lavender Town seem so dark. The haunting music followed me into every building, even the Pokemon Center. No longer smiling, I waited impatiently for Nurse Joy to heal up my pals as the depressing sounds wore on. I thought they'd never end.

Having hung around Lavender Town long enough, I made my way to the western exit. Everything was going according to plan until I realized I had majorly goofed and forgot to check out the town's main feature: the Pokemon Tower. Lying back on my bed, I pulled the Game Boy close to my face and squinted. Pretty much everything was har to see because the Game Boy obviously didn't have a bcklight, so I turned on myroom's lamp and glanced at the window. It was maybe nine or ten PM about then. Everyone in my house was going to head off to sleep soon.

I decided to play on. As I walked into the Pokemon Tower and talked to the depressed NPCs, I began to lose some of my focus. My eyelids were getting heavy and I was mashing buttons subsconsciously. I talked to the same girl over and over without realizing it. Her dialogue filled the bottom of my screen a few times. "Growlithe, why did you die? Growlithe, why did you die? Growlithe, why did you die?" It was weird how the characters always say the same thing over and over again. You'd think it was an error or something - that these poor NPCs are glitchy fragments of real people, doomed to say the same thing over and over until the end of time. Here, at least, it seemed fitting. They were only mourning.

I progressed up the levels of the tower, beat my Rival, and entered the floor with the mystical healing pad. I walked over it a few times, tentative to breach the edges, let another unidentifiable 'Ghost' appear. I was getting tired of my Pokemon being immobilized with fear.

While facing one of the Pokemon tombs, I selected Sandslash and scrolled down his options. The friend that had given him to me already taught him Strength. Curious, I opted to use the move and was intrigued to read the game's note: "You can now move heavy boulders around!" I know a tombstone wasn't what the developers had in mind for Strength's purpose, but I had Sandslash push at it anyway. To my surprise, it moved, revealing a small black hole in its place. My character immediately dropped through it.

I thought I would appear on the floor below, but I didn't. Instead, my character was surrounded by a black screen with the Lavender Town music playing. I scootched back on my bed and brought the Game Boy right up under my lamp, thinking I'd be able to pick out some features of the new level if the screen was better lit. There was nothing to be seen. I tried to move my character, but the game just emitted that 'dunt dunt' sound it always does when you walk into something.

Next thing I knew, the Lavender Town music stopped playing; it cut off right in the middle. I figured the game froze, but when I tried to move my character's feet still jostled and I still got that 'dunt dunt' sound telling me I couldn't walk anywhere. I swallowed; there was a lump in my throat. I was nervous. I hadn't saved my progresss in a while and I didn't want to lose everything I had accomplished by flicking the power off. Plagued by indecision, I set my Game Boy down, reeled my legs over the side of the bed, and put a hand to my forehead. I was sweaty and clammy. My attention darted back to my Game Boy and I saw that the sides of it where my hands had been resting were slick with sweat as well. I must have had a fever.

I stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the lights, looking at my gaunt reflection in the mirror. I was pale as a sheet, my eyes seemed milky and glassy, my lips were pale, and my hair was unkempt. I stunk from devoting all my time to Pokemon and not hygeine. Just as I reached forward to turn on the faucet, something on the corner of the counter caught my eye. It was my Game Boy. I hadn't brought it in with me, had I? I retracted my hand from the faucet and set it on the small electronic device instead, pulling it up and frowning at the screen. It was all black now, but still dead quiet.

Maybe it was partially because I was in a daze from having a temperature or I was just really tired, but I couldn't drag my eyes off the screen. My eyelids peeled back and I kept staring into the black abyss, wondering where my character had gone. The Game Boy's power light was lit, so it hadn't shut itself off. The game was still running.

After a minute or so, the chill from my bathroom was starting to get to me. The feeling of little icy fingers dragged up my spine and fixed around the back of my neck. I breathed in deeply and looked back up in the mirror.

My reflection was gone.

Instead, I was seeing the reflection of my empty bathroom and the dopen doorway leading into the dark hallway by my room. I rubbed my eyes a few times, but my reflection didn't appear. It was obvious I was having some sort of nightmare. Smiling to mysel fand thinking it stupid to get scared over what was clearly a fever-induced dream, I picked up my Game Boy and rolled it over my fingers a few times. Ready to pinch myself and wake up, I looked at the screen one last time and froze. I was now looking into a very pixelated, distorted version of my reflection. My eye sockets had gone black and my empty mouth was gaping open, stretched down my face. My fingers were digging into my temples. Music started playing and got louder and louder, even though I wasn't touching the volume dial. It wasn't Lavender Town's theme. It was eerier, less constructed. It didn't take me a minute to realize it was the song being run backwards.

I dropped the Game Boy, which clattered against the bathroom tile. The back popped open and the batteries flew out and rolled towards the doorway. Throwing my hands into my sweaty, messy hair, I went weak at the knees and sunk back against the wall, pinching at myself, trying to wake myself up. The music was getting louder still, even with the Game Boy face down, without batteries. My glazed eyes darted to the mirror.

It was entirely black, as if it and the Game Boy had swapped visuals. My heart began beating really fast and I could feel those icy fingers scraping down my back, forcing me to look over my shoulder. It was then that the lights in the bathroom went off, making everything pitch black. I screamed and jumped out of my skin, spinning around and feeling for the light switch, trying to turn it back on. I must have turned the wrong way because I was no sooner facing my mirror, which had the faintest glow to it, like a weak electronic screen. I cried and beat my hand against it, waiting to feel the glass-like sheet to shatter against my fist. It didn't Nothing broke. All I heard was a soft 'dunt dunt.'

I spun away and tried to feel around the darkness, but it was as if all the walls had closed in around me. The music was blaring in my ears, hot and unnerving, making my head want to burst. Tears streamed out of my eyes as I struggled, but there was nowhere to go. Dunt dunt. Dunt dunt. Dunt dunt.

43 comments:

  1. That's SO lame. I mean, wtf, if all of that had really happened (yeah, I know it's just a pasta; but you should at least TRY to be realistic), how could you possibly write the damn story? Wouldn't you be dead or something? It makes absolutely no sense, it's not scary, it's just pure SHIT.

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  2. Oh man. Don't listen to him. Shit, Inglorious Basterds wasn't realistic at all and it kicked all kinds of ass. This was FAN-tastic- a little unpolished but all around a superb use of modern tropes in storytelling. I've been glued to Pasta's video game section for a while, and I think this style of storytelling is just what we need. Keep on keepin' on.

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  3. Anon, do you ask this on any of the stories where it ends up where the writer/protagonist is dead or something and supposedly unable to write/post the story?

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    1. it could have been an vision or a nightmare

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  4. @Inunah Yes, I do. I mean, you can experience any sort of paranormal thing, I'll buy it, but you have to be alive to tell us about it. If that's impossible, then have another person do it and say you heard about it/witnessed it/read it from a journal entry or WHATEVER. Jeez, I love pokémon pastas, but that one just ruined everything for me. That's just my opinion, anyway...

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  5. Anon with the problem: Cool story, bro.

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  6. It's a good thing forum commentators set the standard for literary excellence today. I've turned over to Anon's side- so much so in fact that I've decided to weed out all the books in my collection where the protagonist just shouldn't be speaking. I'll admit, I hated to see most of my William Faulkner books shredded, but I mean COME ON! Some of his characters are DEAD. and SPEAKING! Just... terrible writing. I hated to burn Toni Morrison too, but she's got dead protagonists all over the place.

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  7. The story was decent and I like Pokemon Creepypasta, but I'm tired of hearing about Lavender Town.

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  8. Currently not accepting Pokemon Stories... Pokemon Blue, oh hell yeah I'll accept that!

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  9. Man, these recent Pokemon creepypastas are shit. The same thing every time. :/

    Also, what is so scary about Lavender Town and why is a backwards version of its theme in every creepypasta about Lavender Town? Please enlighten me.

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  10. Meh... it was ok I guess...

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  11. @stoncils: about your books...you're an idiot. Instead of SHREDDING them, you could have SOLD them and made money. Again, you're an idiot. And this is a different Anon speaking. Not our aforementioned complainer.

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  12. Also, I'm dead and still talking, so don't complain about story characters. It's worse being the actual dead guy.

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  13. anon calling stoncils an idiot:
    lol gj, it's called sarcasm

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  14. As I read that, I actually tried to picture it and put myself into it...but I did it too well and I started to get really scared...until the ending. Then I was like, oh...ok! Decent enough for me...

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  15. Gross type? Oh, GRASS type! Great pasta BTW. It didn't end with him dying, just trapped. Someone probably got him out from above.

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  16. That idiot Shakespeare has dead characters talk all the time. I mean, get real, Will. Dead people can't talk.

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  17. DUNT DUNT

    This is the only possible situation DUNT DUNT could possibly be creepy.

    Gah never again will I touch walls in Pokemon.

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  18. that was quite creepy. I don't care if it's not realistic. For me it was just real enough to picture myself in the story and give me chills now and for the next time I start up my pokemon game.

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  19. Woah, woah, woah! Who says dead people can't talk? We dead people are proud of our rich, cultural heritage and I'll have you know we can convey it just as eloquently as you elitist living people. Where do you get off, anon?

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  20. I actually really enjoyed this story, it was a fresh twist on the video game pasta genre

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  21. I'll throw 'em a cookie for this one. This is a little different than most of the Pokemon Creepy Pastas I've read.
    Though, it would be nice to hear about a town other than Lavender Town. btw, anyone anticipating Black and White generations Creepy Pasta~?

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  22. Wow,I'd say,how in the world could this be rated 3/5, its awesome xD

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  23. i agree with zombiegavins, it's not like these are supposed to be real. i come here because i find these stories entertaining, and this was a very fun read.
    things begin to shake you up once his face shows up on the gameboy...and his reflection dissappeared. the fact that they technically swapped screens was my favorite part, cus then you know things are gonna go nuts. then the dunt dunt sound...genius.
    i didnt have to do all that commenting, i know, but i still liked this story. i do, however, agree that the lavender town theme is getting a BIT repetetive.

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  24. Correction: i mean complimenting

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  25. ok all of u say the lavender town thing is in all of the pokemon creepy pastas but ur rong look up the pokemon tarnished gold creepy pasta its different. it doesnt even have lavender town in it. but its pretty creepy

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  26. or FOR YOU PEOPLE ASKING.
    SOMEONE PROBABLY BURN HIS HOUSE DOWN AND HE FOUND A SECRET EXIT.

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  27. He said he was around 16 when he got this? Why does he still wear christmas pajamas? If I was an evil pokemon blue cartridge I'd have sucked him into my creepy-world "dunt dunt" land too.

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  28. "A friend of mine even traded me a Sandslash for a herpaderp, which brought my team up to four strong." -That actually sounds like a Pokemon to me.

    "My eyelids were getting heavy and I was mashing buttons subsconsciously." -This is actually how I normally play Pokemon games...

    Blue was my first game too. I was only 6 though. I played at a friend's house. Right after they caught Zapdos I think.

    I remember the first time I went into Lavender town; the music scared me and I didn't hang around very long. As I grew older, I started to love the tune and it's my favorite score to date.

    I can't help but feel these 'Scary Times in Lavender Town' stories are growing a little tired... but I have to hand it to the author- he wrote it well.

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  29. ... i had a Pokemon Red game a few years ago. my cousin gave it to me cause it wouldn't save but i managed to get to Lavender Town and i found a black room just like in the story. I didn't freak out though, i just got pissed cause i couldn't move and i couldn't save so i had to completly restart the game.

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    1. lol i thought there was an actual room like that. so i didnt freak out at first, but then he said that he went to the bathroom and started thinking,..."oh hell!!"

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  30. This is why I don't play Pokemon.

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  32. The original Gameboy has no backlight. How could he see his game?

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  33. "A friend of mine even traded me a Sandslash for a herpaderp, which brought my team up to four strong."

    simply this made the whole story ruined for me. haha.
    herpaderp... i just lost it C:

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  34. Thats weird this also happen to my firend 22 days ago and i haven`t seen him for weeks

    IM NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT THIS

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  35. Don't drop that Dunt Dunt Dunt.

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  36. A great pasta! Very creative! Utmärkt jobb!

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