TUTORIAL 004 - WHATS THE CATCH?

"Huh..." Alright, so, here's the thing... The Captain had just been minding his own business, messing around with his UI as one does when one doesn't have a damn clue what one's doing in this game, and then suddenly... Poof! This tutorial thing pops up when pressing one of the little icons.

"Maaaaan, the hell? There's a tutorial for that? Sure would've been helpful when I spent like an hour figurin' how to find those damn Pokeh-ball-things." The Captain sighs, yet a chuckle escapes his lips, because truth be told, he still kind of struggles with it. Hell... He struggles with just about everything in this game, let's be honest. " 'Right! So... Tutorial me up!"

MEET UP WITH YOUR TUTORIAL PARTNER AND CAPTURE A POKEMON SUCCESSFULLY

"Oh... YO!" Of course, The Captain doesn't bother with looking at any maps. Instead, he looks around, waving at the first person he sees. That would be a woman with silver hair and animal ears (Twinsies?!). He calls out loudly, giving her a smirk. "ARE YOU MY TUTORIAL PARTNER?"

This is going to go great, clearly.

The Captain thinks so, at least.

The Captain, as is all too suitable for his name, is dressed in a pirate getup, his coat being adorned by golden seashells. He even has a cool tricorn hat, but ever since he had discovered that having dog ears and wearing hats is like wearing two hats at once — AKA uncomfortable and annoying — said hat has remained in the ether of his inventory for the most part. Also because he's not entirely sure of how to open his inventory even now, but let's not go in on that.

"Sure, thing... Wolf!" He agrees, grinning all too radiantly as he reads the name. Ah, so that's what it is: wolf ears and a wolf's tail! His are more dog-inspired (particularly to mimic Remy's own Australian Kelpie), as is perhaps made evident by the light and completely unintentional wag of a tail. Funny how those animal features just seem to go along with the player's emotions, right?

"Do you think any Pokémon will do or that we'll have to catch an specific one?" He wonders, looking around in search for potentially-catchable wildlife.

"Hmm..." Those canine ears of his drop for a second or two, perhaps reflecting how he's confused about the task at hand and giving some thought to what they're supposed to do. Yet, once those two second pass, they perk up once more, for our Captain is ever one to be confident in his action.

"Alright, well... Only one way to find out!" He smirks, and bringing a Pokéball out from somewhere in the inner pockets of his nice pirate coat, he clicks its button to release a Mudkip. "Happy, on your guard. We might have a battle coming."

<'Eep!'> The Mudkip agrees with a nod, taking quick steps to stand at The Captain's side. Once this is done, The Captain himself steps forward... directly into the tall grass.

"[...]use scratch... gently?" Wolf had said, but the catfight that ensues when a little purple cat pops out of the grass it had been hiding amongst isn't really much of a catfight at all. One swipe and done. Knockout.

"Damn, you're a tough little one. Nicely done." The Captain congratulates his companion's Pokémon with a short-lived laugh. Short-lived because when he reaches for a Pokéball as he has previously done for captures, something else appears... this time out of thin air. It's pink and blocky and it doesn't really look like a proper animal at all, and here and there, parts of it fade into little blocks only to reappear within seconds. It speaks to them in a way that reminds The Captain of the little clip that used to appear when opening a Word doc. Clippy? Was that its name? What happened to that little guy, anyway?

'It looks like you're trying to catch a Pokémon. Would you like help?'

"I-..." He looks at Wolf, shrugging in pure confusion. Is this the actual tutorial part of all of this? Had it just been slow to appear or something? "Well... Sure? It's already kinda dead so..."

'Great!'

Is that actually great?!

'If you want to catch a Pokémon, they must be at less that 10% of their max. HP or knocked out. Here, throw this at it!'

Spheres materialise before them, not unlike those Pokéballs The Captain had previously used to catch Pokémon, but where those are red and white, these ones appear as if made out of solid gold. They seem just as light to him, though.

"You know what... Sure, why not."

In acceptance, he chucks the ball towards the unconscious cat, and the floating pink blocky chirps:

'Activating the Golden Pokeball to catch a Pokémon costs -25 BYTES.' Aw, man. His bytes! That's like... the game's money, right? Maybe he shouldn't 'aw, man' when he doesn't even know what this thing is talking about. 'Up to two players can catch a copy of the wild Pokémon!'

"Guess that's your cue, Wolf." The Captain adds then, smiling despite the oddity of the situation. Honestly, it's kind of funny to him.