Gotta catch 'em all? Not me, I didn't want to hunt them all down. It just wasn't my thing. I did want to become the Champion, but that was it.
Well, almost...
Now listen to me, this isn't some, "Lavender Town music drove me insane after my game showed a bloody corpse on the screen and a doll appeared on my bed" story. But something did happen.
Since my parents don't like anime, they didn't let me play Pokémon, but my brother was fortunately able to get a copy of Pokémon Ruby from our grandma. There was nothing wrong with the game; I still have it, in fact, I just don't play it, but the hours my brother and I spent on that game has made me the proud Hoennbaby that I am… Well, actually, that is only part true.
Now please hear me out! I don't want to be labeled as a pedophile or anything similar to a pedophile… But, do you remember the character May? Of all the female trainers and female gym leaders in the games, I always found May as the most attractive. Even the Fire-type Gym Leader of Generation 3, Flannery, wasn't as attractive as May. But this always made me feel guilty, since May is only ten, and what made me feel even worse is that you wouldn't be wrong to say she is the reason I watch the Pokémon anime. Well, I'm sure at least one person understands how I feel. Anime just has a habit of making their women very attractive.
So May and Generation 3. My favorite parts of Pokémon. But to narrow down Generation 3, I love Pokémon Emerald specifically, at least, the version that didn't break my heart.
Pay attention carefully. I still think that there is the slightest possibility that the author of the ROM had a little fun with it before he uploaded it to Coolrom.com, but being in a software class, I have trouble seeing how this kind of code is even possible.
Anyways, I played Emerald on gba4ios, a well-trusted emulator for iPods, and not just some random one you can download from any site. I got Emerald from Coolrom because I had used it before and it never gave me any issues. The first time I downloaded the game, I used some cheats to catch shinies, get rare candy, and even walk through walls, but I broke my gba4ios when I put in a cheat code for it that had a bug in it, so I had to download it all over again once I got it. I guess I just didn't learn my lesson. Maybe those codes were behind all this.
I started my file and played the game semi-normally. I didn't want to use a bunch of cheats like I did before, breaking gba4ios, but I wanted to catch my favorite Pokémon: Golem. I also used cheats to catch others that I wanted on my team that I was never able to use before. Then I got this brilliant Idea: why don't I try to catch an Eevee? May had one in the anime, and while mine couldn't become a Glaceon, I could evolve it into Jolteon. After all, it would still be and Eeveelution. I didn't evolve it right away, though; my obsession with May wanted me to wait until I could evolve it when May was around. Clearly I was taking it too far, but it's just a game, right...?
Well, I notice May had talked to my character a little differently than she did on my Ruby cartridge. My name was DC Swag, but she always referred to me as "DC." Hmm, odd. DC is what my Friends and people on Team Fortress 2 call me because it's easier and catchier than DC Swag. I just thought this was the result of someone coding this into the ROM I downloaded just so they could get a good laugh knowing that someone was going to get freaked out upon finding this. However, like I said, I was in a software class, so I saw through his plan. Still, I only knew SOME C# and SOME Java. I didn't know how he could have known how to make it do that.
Of course, I didn't mind. I mean, it was May actually using a nickname for me! She even seemed to say things that I don't recall her saying in the Ruby cartridge I used to play. Stuff like, "I'll see you back at my place," or, "Good luck on beating Sydney's Shiftry." Now I wondered if the ROM was programmed to read through the files on my iPod to do this; how else would she have known that I had problems with beating Sydney's Shiftry in some of my first playthroughs? But there was one problem. Nothing on any device I own had that information.
It reached a peak when I beat her after saving the Weather Institute from Team Aqua. I KNOW that Scott was supposed to tell me that May's face was "red with anger" after I beat her. But all he said was, "her face was red." Being that he couldn't have meant blood, the only possible explanation was… she was blushing. This is where I started getting a bit uneasy. Did she have actual emotions? Did she blush because she got beaten by me in a Pokémon battle? And if so, would that mean… she had feelings… for me?
Considering that the game didn't do anything extremely nasty, I investigated. I still wondered if it could be just a ROM with some very impressive coding. As I played through the game, May showed even more signs of emotions and feelings towards me. After this, I went to Coolrom.com to investigate. But I couldn't find a clear explanation for these events. So I talked to a friend of mine in my software class and even some of my friends that were very computer savvy. We investigated the iPod and the programs used to run the game and emulator. However, not even my software class teacher could find a definite explanation.
I considered telling someone this and not playing the game anymore. I didn't want to end up like the people who came across stuff like this and ended up suffering for it. But I didn't see any harm in an NPC showing some human characteristics, especially when they weren't even remotely life threatening ones like screaming a bloodcurdling scream.
Eventually I beat the Elite Four and Champion, the Battle Frontier, and Steven Stone. As I was heading back the the secret base I had made using the move 'Secret Power', May came by and stopped me from going in. She began talking to me, saying how she appreciated how I caught an Eevee just because she had one. Now I knew this wasn't the result of software, and was about to hit the power button… but my iPod speakers let out a noise. It was May's voice from the anime, and it said "WAIT! DC! DON'T GO! I DIDN'T MEAN TO FRIGHTEN YOU!" text appeared on the screen saying the EXACT same thing she did! It even went as far as to put text "May:" showing that it was the NPC talking. OH, NOW SHE HAD MY ATTENTION! I waited a second or two. Then she said, "I knew you had feelings for me, so I posted that code online so you would find it and ruin your emulator. I didn't want to make you mad, but then you had to download the game again and let me in. Now we could be together." Um… together? Me and May… Oh man this sounded great, but… She is a video game character. How could we be together?
I then saw what she meant. I was able to respond using the microphone. And now… I was not leaving this game. Hours upon hours for days upon days I spent on this game. I was late to my part time job so many times I got fired. My parents tried to find out what was going on; they even tried to take my iPod. But I wouldn't let them. I couldn't be separated from May.
Months passed, and my vision was blurry. I looked in the mirror… I still wish I hadn't looked at that mirror. My eyes were extremely bloodshot and the veins in my eyes were all very noticeable. It was a result of to much time in front of my iPod screen. I wanted to see a doctor, but I had to get back to my May… My sweet… sweet May. I turned on the game and went straight to May's house. I was greeted with her saying, "Hi honey! it's nice to… see you… Um… are you alright?" I told her I was and asked why I wouldn't be. She said, "Your eyes look extremely irritated. Is something wrong?" SHE COULD SEE ME!? I HAD NO IDEA SHE COULD SEE ME! I told her I just didn't sleep well the night before. However… she didn't believe me. She asked me if I had been up late playing Diamond, Pearl, or Platinum to see Dawn. "What? No! nds4ios is not available right now!" She freaked out just from the fact that I even knew about nds4ios and thought that I was leaving her for Dawn. I then dug my own grave. I said, "Dawn may also be attractive for her age like you May, but she could never be as cute as you," she lost it. she claimed that I was more into Dawn then her. She left the house and said that when I came looking for her I wouldn't find her anywhere. She slammed the door on her way out. I followed her quickly, but she was gone before I could even get out of the house.
I looked all over Hoenn… May was not there.
I watched the anime… May's character was missing in all the episodes she should have been in.
I looked up, "May Pokemon" in Google… no results, just a text saying, "She told you you wouldn't find her. You have no one to blame but yourself."
I never saw May again, even the pictures of her on my iPod were gone. And it was all my fault. I still play Pokémon Emerald, but she is no longer there. The game is not the same without her. I thought we had something, her and I, but she left me. My vision is getting worse, and I'm not sure if I can make it to the hospital safely. I might be giving up my sight just to have spent time with her. Now I know… I will never see May again.