Hope

“You’re safe! This is incredible ...”

This work comes with a short story. It contains mild spoilers for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Blue/Red Rescue Team. You have been warned.

Feel free to skip the story if you want. There are notes after the double tilde.

This work is almost twice as long as my previous story and deals with some quite powerful negative emotions, so brace yourself!

Background Music:

Dum Complerentur: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Choir of Westminster Cathedral

If you want to listen to some music whilst reading the story, start out listening to:

Media Vita: John Sheppard – The Tallis Scholars

and switch to the Palestrina when you see the word ‘farce’.

~

Do not be alarmed! This orb will not harm you. I have transferred this message into its fabric in order to help you, to help all of us. The orb is feeding my words directly into your memory and will take but an instant. It will play out in a fraction of a second in the outside world. When I have finished speaking, you will return to normality as if nothing had occurred. You may stop this at any time by simply willing it, but I urge you to listen to what I have to say. I hope that our combined efforts may be able to help us escape.

My name is Laura. I am Latias. The place you find yourself is Pitfall Valley. Centuries ago, this entire region was cursed to be inescapable by any normal means. The formation of a mystery dungeon on this spot has not broken the curse. If anything it has made it worse. No matter how far you walk, no matter how far down you search, you will never find an exit. There are always more rooms, more caves.

The curse is powerful, but it can only be so strong. If enough of us pool our resources, our combined power must be enough to break the curse. If you are hearing this message, you are strong enough to lend your aid. The message in this orb is still connected to me by a weak psychic link that should function even across the warped space of the dungeon. Come and find me and the others like me. Together we will punch a hole out of this prison.

Should this means of location fail and it is not possible for us to combine our powers directly, creating a record of our exploits may allow one of us to see an avenue of escape that another has missed. I will teach you to fashion your own orbs and crystallise your own messages within them.

I have recorded everything I have discovered about the curse and its effects in this orb. I hope that my attempts at escape will provide you with inspiration to push against the boundaries of this place. As the curse cannot be all-powerful, it cannot be all-encompassing. There will be loopholes. If only one of us finds a single flaw and leaves an orb behind then we could all eventually escape.

~

There was something not quite right about the eyes. She stepped back and looked at the full carving, faintly illuminated by the dim fluorescence of the cavern walls. The way the peaks and gouges caught and highlighted the glow was still beautiful, even after hours of labour.

A faint voice in her mind still questioned why she was doing this. Why had she given up looking for an exit? The dungeon could not extend forever no matter what sort of curse was placed on it. This place had to made from something, and there was only so much material. It had to have a boundary. What if she was sitting right next to the exit, wasting her time when escape was within her grasp? Perhaps the way out was only a floor away!

Yet that was foolish. She had started searching for an exit as soon as she had crashed here. It was difficult at first. The tear in her wing sent lances of fire through her brain, but she knew she would not be safe until she had escaped. So she had descended. It was only after the third day and what must have been several hundred floors later that she began to began to doubt. And when she had remembered over what she and her brother must have been flying ...

Her brother stared back at her from the cavern wall, his wry grin looking almost mocking the half-light.

Oh, Larry. Why haven’t you come for me?

The realisation that she might have crashed into Pitfall Valley had filled her with a new strength. She hadn’t seen where she had landed. Perhaps this was merely a large dungeon. The only way out would be through. She had continued her journey with alarming speed. It was hard to tell now how long she had persevered. Though each floor of the dungeon was different, there were also the same. The same glowing walls, the same sorts of caverns, the same occupants. It felt like weeks. It may have been longer. She must have traversed thousands of floors in that time. What kept her going was a stubborn refusal to accept that she could be trapped. It was a refusal she still felt, but she no longer felt the need to rail against it so strongly.

So she couldn’t escape by travelling. There are plenty of other means!

She still wasn’t quite sure what had made her stop in this particular cave. It was true that its size was breathtaking. The ceiling arched almost a hundred feet above her head. From the canopy, a forest of stalactites rose up into the gloom. Caverns like this were rare, but she had seen them before. She had seen all the caverns before.

The night she had found this place, she had discovered the perfect spot to rest in its far corner. There were no entrances on either of the adjoining walls, meaning that any intruders would have to walk across the entire length of the room before they could reach her. Not that she was worried about the occupants of the dungeon, of course. She had run across nothing stronger than an Aerodactyl, and they posed her little threat. Still, constantly fighting groups of the mad Pokémon had grown tiresome and she now tried to avoid confrontation with anything whenever possible. But there was something else about this place. Something she couldn’t describe.

She had tried to sleep that first night, but she couldn’t. As she lay there in the permanent twilight, something broke in her mind.

She was in Pitfall Valley. She would never escape, never see anyone she knew again. She was doomed to wander this place forever, the same cursed caverns and fungus and moss and gloom ...

She had wept bitterly until she could cry no more. And then she had huddled in the darkness, waiting for the end to come.

But nothing found her that night, and eventually a new strength rose to fill the emptiness from which her grief had poured. She had decided then that she had to cease traveling. Clearly the curse on this place interfered with the power of the dungeons somehow.

Now that she thought about it, Larry had mentioned something like this to her before. Fractals? That it was possible to create an infinite network in a finite space?

The image of her brother didn’t look convinced.

She could still see the first tentative marks she had made when she had decided to create the image. Those first claw marks were crude and shallow, making the ears look fuzzy. She would have to go over them again when she had finished the rest of the body.

Reminiscing like this will do you no good, Laura. Back to the job at hand!

And yet she couldn’t summon up the will. She had the feeling she was coming to another realisation, but she couldn’t figure out exactly what it was just yet.

So she had decided to stop travelling. She felt at home in the cavern she had found, so she had created a psychic link to the place. No matter how far she travelled, she would always be able to return to it. Food was not a problem. Whenever she passed the stairs to the level below, so emerged somewhere different. These places were full of items, and there was always enough food to keep her going.

She had decided to make the carvings as a record of her experiences. She had seen no-one like her in this place in all her travels, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t there. If someone found the cavern while she was hunting, she wanted to make sure they stayed. She had thought about crafting whole murals explaining who she was and what she was doing, but the process had turned out to be harder than she had thought. The cavern walls were hard and carving was a slow process. The rocks cut into her hands so that she could only carve so much before having to rest.

And is it worth it?

Yes. Of course.

She had made other carvings, but she still returned to this, her first. She wanted to make it as lifelike as she could, a representation of what she had left behind. She knew too in the back of her mind that these carvings were there solely to give her something to do. The monotony of her life here would be too much to bear otherwise. Larry had talked to her once about what happened to creatures caught in this place.

Stir crazy, I think he called it. Being trapped in one place turned them all insane.

Certainly the Pokémon she had met were not of sound mind, but perhaps that was the effect of the dungeon itself. She could feel a faint malevolent presence emanating from the walls themselves. It didn’t help.

More recently, she had found a way to write messages in rocks she extracted from the walls. She had spread these throughout the area in the hopes that she could find others who may be able to help. Their reach would spread farther than the carvings could, particularly if the residents moved them about as she knew they did other orbs.

As of yet she had not gotten any responses from them, but she ...

What?

A roar. Close by.

She wheeled. Two Aerodactyl were tearing at each other a little way into the room.

How did they get so close? You’re becoming too complacent, Laura!

It looked like they were squabbling over something one of them was carrying. She readied herself. The Pokémon were too involved in their battle to notice her, but the victor was bound to spot her as soon as he was no longer distracted by the loot. She settled down silently. Both of the combatants were in a bad way. It looked like this wouldn’t take too long.

One of the creatures suddenly reared up and spun into the other, a purple glow shimmering off its skin.

Take Down? What’s it doing?

In a moment, it was all over. The attacker landed a fatal blow, but the shock of the attack had crippled it. It sank to the floor, exhausted. She doubted it would cause her any problems.

She turned back to carving. Yes, there was definitely something skew with the eyes. Perhaps if she ...

But she was too distracted by the battle. Why had the attacking Pokémon used such an odd tactic? Just what was it carrying? She sighed inwardly and glided over to the two prone forms. Inbetween them lay an orb, half hidden under a sprawling wing.

It looks like one of mine. How ironic that one of my orbs should find its way back to me so soon!

She picked up the orb and knew in an instant that she was wrong. No wonder the Aerodactyl had fought so ruthlessly over this.

An escape orb!

She was so stunned that she almost dropped it. This was it. A way out. She had been searching for one of these orbs since she had arrived here. A part of her had wanted to give up, to assume that the curse somehow destroyed all such orbs to prevent escape. But she had persevered even when all seemed hopeless. She had tested every orb she found. She had tried so many orbs that failure was no longer a surprise.

And yet here was the solution, after all this time.

A calm washed over her. She was finally going to make it out. She walked back to the carving and felt a stab of sadness that she would never finish it. Still, she would soon be face to face with the real thing. Her heart leapt.

She should leave a message for her orbs, but she could wait no longer. She pulled the orb to her and willed it to release its power.

She moved. The walls of the cavern fell away and a pressure built up around her. There was a sensation of speed.

And then she collided with something.

For a moment, all was confusion. She couldn’t tell which way was up. After a moment, she managed to find her bearings. She was ...

She was lying on the floor of the cavern.

What? How had ...

She had bounced. This place did have a boundary, and it prevented teleportation.

So this is why Larry hasn’t come for me. If escape orbs fail, then so will rescue badges. If Larry came here, if he brought a rescue team, they would all be trapped here just like me.

There’s no way out.

Almost unknowingly, she started crying.

No, it can’t be.

She willed the orb to function once more. But nothing happened. She looked down at it. Its power was gone, drained by the journey.

It can’t be.

Tears were flooding down her face now.

It can’t be.

She felt something dark growing in her chest. She tried to control herself, but the more she tried, the more it grew. There was no hope for her at all now. She would remain here until she died. Carving pointless murals of people she would never see again.

It can’t be.

She hurled the orb at the opposite wall with such force that a whole section of rock sheared off, crashing to the floor with a deafening roar.

It can’t be.

She unleashed the power the had been building inside her. She blasted the wall where the orb had landed with Psybeam. She channelled all of her rage into the torrent, buffeting the wall with all her might. And she kept going. When she finally had to stop the flow, the wall was white hot. The orb had long since vaporised.

Unsatisfied, she dove at the wall, clawing at it desperately as if to dig her way out of this prison. The walls burnt her and uneven shards of rock sliced at her hands. But she didn’t feel the pain.

She kept attacking until she had no strength left to fight. She finally collapsed in the hollow she had made, burnt and bleeding, as consciousness slipped away from her.

~

I have tried several tests with warping items in order to see if I can break out of the region that way. Warp seeds seem to have too short a range to be useful. I was lucky enough to come across a Warp Scarf recently, and my experiments there have been much more successful. I have been able to traverse huge distances using the power of this device, but I have never been able to come close to any kind of boundary.

It may be possible that longer range teleportation would work. I have spent weeks searching for an escape orb but without success. I fear that this place may destroy such orbs, but we cannot give up. I still hope fervently that I might find such an orb, or that a rescue team sent from the outside might bring one with them. If anyone finds this who knows how to create such orbs, please leave us knowledge of how to do so. You may save us all.

~

The floor was icy. Rocks were biting into her belly. She didn’t recall the caverns ever being this cold. She suddenly realised that she was shivering weakly. There was a layer of what must be ash covering her wings and back, but it didn’t seem to help. The cold surrounded her like a cloak.

Worse still, there things in here with her. Part of her mind warned her that this was something to be concerned about, that she should deal with these intruders immediately. She should probably find some way to warm herself, too. But it was so hard to summon up the will.

Why bother?

Sleep was easy. It was warm and calm, more appealing than anything the real world had to offer her. Perhaps she would dream again. She could close her eyes and be returned to where she belonged, leaving these caverns far behind.

The voice in her mind reminded her that she hadn’t dreamt in weeks. Ever since arriving here, her dreams had been sporadic and fitful. The caverns she explored appeared in her dreams. Larry mocked her, gleeful in her distress.

It’s still better than this.

There was a faint sound filling the cavern. It was a hum so constant that she hadn’t noticed it until now. She wondered idly what was causing it, but decided it really wasn’t that interesting. Now that she was listening, there was a sound of voices too. It seemed terribly distant; she had to strain her ears to hear them, and even then could barely make out the words.

“Keep it up, Alan. I think she’s stirring!”

The voices were rather irritating. The creatures were getting agitated about something, and the sounds made it hard to concentrate on the task of falling asleep. Perhaps if she lay still for long enough, they would get bored and go and annoy someone else. The Aerodactyl she had encountered had certainly all had short enough attention spans.

The voice in her –

Shut up.

There was nothing for her here. She let go of the sounds and drifted off into darkness.

~

My name is Luke, of Team Rangers. It is possible to escape this place. We have brought with us a Teleport Gem. Before entering this dungeon, we probed its boundary carefully. It cannot prevent teleportation. Even self-induced teleportation will take you past the boundary. As long as you do not attempt to travel too far, the boundary will let you through. Do not attempt to use an escape orb or a rescue badge. The teleportation process is so far-reaching that the boundary will interfere with the process while it still initiates. I do not know what will happen, but you will not likely escape. Any other method of teleportation should work.

I will now describe to you how to fashion a Teleport Gem of your own. The easiest way is combine psychic powers with the mobile nature of a ghost, but even this is not strictly necessary ...

~

She awoke to voices again, stronger this time. It looked like the creatures hadn’t left her alone. She sighed to herself.

“I don’t understand! She’s taken every berry I’ve given her. I’ve cleaned her up as best I can. As far as I can tell, all of her internal wounds are healed. She should be awake. I don’t know what I’ve missed.”

“It’s okay, Stan. What you’ve achieved with her in such a short time is amazing. It must have been terrible to be trapped in this place for so long. I’m sure she’s in there somewhere. We just need to coax her out.

“I – thank you.”

The voice quavered.

“I’m going to try speaking to her once more. If she doesn’t respond, I think the best thing to do would be to take her back with us. You’ve seen her murals. Her brother is clearly very important to her. If anyone can get through to her, it will be him.”

“But what if she doesn’t recover? No. Luke, I trust you. She’s still in there. I know you can get through to her.”

Something jabbed sharply into her side. She winced and spasmed, opening an eye involuntarily. She caught a brief glimpse of the cavern and –

Aerodactyl.

She reared up, trying to push the creature away from her. She only managed to get about halfway before her arms gave way and she crashed to the dirt. The Aerodactyl shrieked and cowered backwards.

Odd.

Every Aerodactyl she had encountered had been brave to the point of stupidity. If they had their minds set on something, nothing would keep them from it, particularly if a meal was involved.

The creature was small, she noticed now, probably a child. It even wore a scarf, although it clearly wasn’t too comfortable with the arrangement. Ordinarily, she would have been interested in this state of affairs. But the danger didn’t seem so real now. She doubted this thing would hurt her. Perhaps –

A Mudkip bounded into her field of vision. It looked at her squarely and smiled.

“Laura! It’s so good to have you back with us.”

There was an strange green shimmer in the air about the creature, making it difficult for her to focus on it.

“I’m so sorry for everything that’s happened to you. How are you feeling?”

It smiled again.

This was tiresome. She shut her eyes and waited for the thing to go away.

“I’m being very rude, aren’t I? My name is Luke and we are Team Rangers, a rescue team. We’ve come a long way to try and find you, Laura. Your brother sent us here to bring you home. Larry.”

She opened one eye. The Mudkip was grinning.

“You’ve already met one of us, it seems.”

It gestured to the Aerodactyl, who was standing even further away now. There was a pause.

“Anne?”

The Aerodactyl looked alarmed, then spoke.

“Oh. Gosh! I’m so sorry to have startled you. I was trying to warm you with my wings. I must have jabbed you with one when I shifted position. I was standing over you for so long ...”

It looked at her mournfully.

“She meant you no harm, I assure you.”

It was a third voice, off to her right.

“Anne is still very new to all of this, but she means well.”

It was a Treecko. It stepped quickly and gracefully into view, moving up to the Mudkip and placing a hand tenderly onto the small of its back.

“My name is Stan. I’ve done my best to heal your wounds and keep you comfortable. Do you still hurt anywhere? We still have supplies to spare.”

She stared at the three Pokémon mutely. Anne fidgeted. It was funny how knowing her gender made her feel more real, somehow. The Mudkip was not perturbed.

“It’s alright, Laura. We’ve all done our bit to help out.”

He gestured behind her.

“I think you can stop now, Alan.”

The roar went away. She had become so used to it that she only noticed it now that it was gone. She turned her head. A Charmeleon was standing next to her. It was bent over and panting heavily. A vast plume of smoke extended from its head up as far as she could see. It noticed that it was being watched, pulled itself up and waved.

“Alan. Pleased to meet you.”

For the first time, she felt warmth emanating from close to her tail.

“Alan had been keeping you warm.”

It was the Mudkip again.

“He’s been bathing the walls with Flamethrower more or less constantly since we found you. It’s kept this place warm. You were shivering so violently, we had to warm you quickly. No-one can question this Charmeleon’s dedication.”

The Mudkip smiled over her shoulder.

“We’ve done all this because we wanted to help you. It’s time for you to come home, Laura. You can leave this place at last!”

With its paw, it lifted up a rescue badge.

She tried to speak, but her throat was dry. A dry croak emanated, nothing more. She swallowed and tried again. This time, the words did come out. They were faint, but forceful.

“Go away.”

She shut her eyes.

“Laura, I ...”

She didn’t let the creature finish. Without even looking, she launched a Psybeam in its direction. She was weak and couldn’t keep the beam sustained for too long, but she knew it would be enough to ward the creatures off. Perhaps then she could finally sleep ...

“Laura.”

She opened her eyes. She couldn’t help herself. The other Pokémon had scattered. The Mudkip, though, hadn’t moved. It was standing there blissfully, still smiling. On the ground in front of it sat an orb.

“We found one of your orbs. That’s how we made our way to you.”

It pushed the orb forward until it touched her skin.

“Do not be alarmed! This orb will not harm you. I have ...”

The message played itself through in her mind. She could have stopped it any time, but she was transfixed. It was so odd to hear this message again. And as her words ended, another voice spoke. The Mudkip’s.

She listened to him speak. Then she was back in the cavern.

“You –”

Her voice was still weak.

“You did all of this for me?”

“Of course. We do anything we can for someone in need. In fact, we could use your help. We could only alter this single orb. If you could pass our message on to the other orbs, anyone else who is trapped in here will have the information they need to escape.”

Could it be that these four really know what they’re talking about?

She raised herself to a sitting position. She could now see all four Pokémon again. Stan was smiling at her warmly.

“You don’t need to be afraid, Laura. We really can get you home.”

She wanted to believe that, but she wasn’t convinced.

Don’t set your hopes too high, Laura. You’ll only be shot down.

Alan suddenly visibly shook himself.

“Wait a minute. You don’t believe us, do you? Luke, do you mind if I –”

“Of course, go ahead.”

Alan walked over to Stan. The Treecko did something with its hands that she couldn’t see. Suddenly, the Charmeleon glowed in a bright yellow light and disappeared.

It didn’t come back.

Could it be?

Of course not.

“I still don’t believe you. If you can get me out of here, do so. I won’t send your message.”

Strangely enough, this seemed to make the Mudkip happier.

“That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear. Stan?”

The Treecko pulled out a glowing green orb. The three remaining Pokémon moved together. She noticed that the Treecko was holding the Mudkip tightly.

“Give us your hand.”

She sighed. She might as well play out the farce. She took the Treecko’s hand and waited.

Surprisingly enough, nothing happ–

There was a brilliant flash of yellow light. It enveloped her entire vision, blinding her. She moved. There was a feeling of speed and a slight twisting sensation. Then everything was calm.

The light was all around her. She squinted. No, there was structure to it. Trees and houses took shape. She was outside.

“Laura!”

In front her glided Larry. The real thing. For a moment, she was too stunned to say anything. It didn’t last long.

“Larry!”

Her brother sped to her and held her in his arms. He looked her in the eyes for a moment and kissed her gently on the forehead.

“Oh Laura, I’ve been so worried. I’ve spent every waking moment trying to find a way to set you free. It must have been awful. I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through. But it’s okay now. “

He hugged her tightly. She hugged him back.

“You’re safe! This is incredible ...”

She was crying now. But it was different from before. The relief was overwhelming. Behind her, she heard the Aerodactyl cheering.

It really is going to be alright. I’m home.

And as the tears rolled down her cheeks, she smiled.

~

So that’s how I escaped. I have now recovered fully, and I am recording this final message standing just outside the boundary of this place. My brother sends his greetings. It really is possible to escape! I have done so myself. I include Luke’s instructions on how to fashion a Teleport Gem. A single Pokémon should be able to fashion a device that is long-range enough to let you leave. You can all escape!

There is one more thing I want to say. After I discovered the failure of the escape orb, I gave up on myself. I lost hope, and in doing so I almost lost out on my chance to escape. I understand why I behaved as I did, and I no longer feel ashamed by it, but I want to make sure no-one ever has to go through what I did unnecessarily.

Please, you must understand. There is always hope. Remember that. Even in the darkest hours of the blackest day. Without hope, what are we but shadows, thistledown caught in a storm? Doubt is natural part of life, but never let it control you; it is only through hope that we can help ourselves.

When you make it out, why not come and find me? I would be interested to finally meet those others who I know must be trapped somewhere in Pitfall Valley. My brother and I work for Team Rangers now. Drop a note by their headquarters in Pokémon Square and we will come and meet you.

I have so much more that I want to say, but I’m not sure it would be useful right now. You have a very important task to perform, and I do not want to keep you from it. I wish you the very best of luck.

See you in the sunshine.

~
~

This work came with its own unique challenge. One of the real perks of my singing job is that it provides me with a house. This is great, but the downside is that the Cathedral has all the control over the property. A few weeks ago, they decided to perform a complete renovation of the place. This is great, of course. Whilst it’s underway, they’ve moved me into a University room. The room, however, has a broken internet terminal. I guess that’s why it’s vacant. And as the University is installing a wireless network over all its buildings in the new year, they’re not going to fix it. I can pick up a faint wireless signal on one of the windowsills, but it’s not really in a position where I can work. It’s weak enough that watching videos is just about possible, but anything more advanced than that doesn’t work too well. Skype gets very upset.

It’s a small thing, but it means that I’ve mostly had to find references ahead of time. I’ve occasionally been able to coax something out of the network for the moments when I’ve been really stuck, but there were occasions where I’ve had to improvise. By chance, I picked up Pokédex 3D Pro right before I moved in. This has actually turned out to be very helpful in filling in some of the gaps. The overall arrangement has been good practice for me, I think. It’s been good not to always have a source available for comparison – it’s made me think about things a little more critically.

This story wasn’t quite what I was expecting to write next. I felt nostalgic for Blue Rescue Team after writing On the Bluff, and so I went back and spent a fair amount of time tying up some loose ends. I’ve worked through more or less everything except for the Level 1 dungeons now, which I’m saving for a rainy day. I actually went into this particular mission quite late on. Southern Island was one of the last friend areas I purchased; I wasn’t aware there was an event tied to it! I found the whole scene where the two Eon Pokémon unite really beautiful, and I knew that I wanted to create some art based on it.

This story actually isn’t how I envisioned the event when I played the game originally. It was only when I started thinking about Latias’s point of view when working on the image that I realised quite what a difficult a position she was really in. That’s how the story took a dark turn.

I would like to clarify something about the ‘moral’ of this piece. The final section is written from Laura’s viewpoint and, given the sudden resolution of the events causing her distress, she’s naturally going to say that hope is always a good thing. Like any other emotion, I think hope can be both a constructive and a destructive thing. Hopelessness is never good, but it’s one thing to say that and quite another to put it into practice.

This image features a full Rangers rescue team, but you’ll note that Sebastian is absent. The Linoone is usually my third team member, but I’ve been giving him the occasional mission off recently. This is mainly because I’ve been going through the 99 floor dungeons a few times, and I wanted to use them as an opportunity to level up some other Pokémon. The team in the story is the team I used for this dungeon – I wasn’t expecting the make some art based on the mission when I went into it! Alan has actually been immensely useful. Through a levelling-up quirk, he’s managed to learn Flamethrower twice. This makes him really quite powerful, and he has a habit of dispatching enemies before I can even get to them, even quite far into dungeons.

The items the team are wearing are those they used in-game. Alan is wearing a Mobility Scarf, which makes him even more powerful. Luke is wearing a Stamina Band. Stan is wearing a Pecha Scarf, which to be honest is a little bit of a throwback to the early game. I should probably give him something more useful. Anne is wearing a Defence Scarf more or less solely because it was the first hold item she came across. I chose the colour of Luke and Stan’s items for a very particular reason. The Pecha Scarf is mentioned in-game as being pink. By coincidence, my aura colour in Explorers of Sky is Fuchsia, so I chose this colour for both items. I strictly used Crayola’s definition of fuchsia rather than full-on magenta/fuchsia as the bright colour hurt my eyes. I actually tend to think of the stamina band as pink anyway due to the colour of the generic held-item sprite.

The Pokémon Square mosaic is almost an accurate representation of the in-game design. I made a slight change to the region around the brown stones in the outer circle as the scale I used in this image would have placed the stones slightly too close together otherwise.

This image was a little quicker to make due to my experience with On the Bluff. One thing I was reminded of was just how useful blurring effects are. There were some quite complicated shapes in this piece that blurring made much easier to shade.

Escape orbs actually work perfectly well in Pitfall Valley in-game. I added their failure as otherwise escape seemed too easy. Why bring the Teleport Gem to the dungeon at all if an escape orb (and thus presumably the rescue badges) would work just as well? Also, the comment about Fractals doesn’t end up answering Laura’s complaint about the infinite nature of the dungeon. Matter isn’t continuous, so any physical fractal will eventually have some kind of resolution limit. This could mean that the dungeon is not infinite, though, just very large. Probably a better explanation would be to say that the mystery dungeon has an interesting property of linking together all its many-worlds realisations. That way, there’s no limit to the amount of construction material, and you don’t run into problems with conservation of energy.

The models in Pokédex 3D pro, along with images from Bulbapedia, were consulted for all six Pokémon. Latias and Latios, along with the Pokémon Square mosaic, were modelled on in-game sprites from Blue Rescue Team. The Charmeleon was modelled on Zippo from the Pokémon anime episodes ‘A Parent Trapped!’ and ‘Oaknapped’. The Mudkip is modelled on Mudkip from the Pokémon anime episodes ‘In the Knicker of Time‘ and ‘A Mudkip Mission’. Why is the Mudkip on the Pokédex so sad in this second episode? The Treecko is modelled on Treecko from the anime episode ‘Tree’s a Crowd’. The Aerodactyl was modelled on Aerodactyl from the anime episodes ‘Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon’ and ‘Putting the Air back in Aerodactyl’.

This deviation brought to you by my lab’s internet connection!