Fifth Draft

*Note: This is the first in a new style of blog post I want to try out. Not too long, most likely about nothing, and really just a way for me to get down something that’s too long for other social media sites. I only put this note here to signify the start of a new thing. I like signifiers. They make things feel important. *

I’ve been playing Pokémon for over 25 years and it, thankfully, is something I now get to share with my sons. Turns out, I also get to share my insanity with my sons, as well.

Pokémon came out with a game, Legends: Arceus, set in the distant past. The entire game has a feudal Japan feel to it, where the Pokémon of the land are not your friends and there’s a sense of danger every time you venture out. It’s partially open-world, but not completely, as there’s areas of the map you can zap to but you still need to return to the home village before leaving again.

I honestly like it more than Pokémon Scarlet/Violet’s true open-world set-up.

But in this dangerous old land, there’s creatures called “Alphas,” Pokémon that are larger, scarier, and stronger than a typical version of that same Pokémon.

They have glowing red eyes, they make more echoed roars, and they have a special mark signifying they were Alphas of the past. I almost have a complete Pokédex of each type of available Pokémon in the game. That’s the checklist in my Bullet Journal is for.

Whenever I hope on to play, my sons and I hunt, knock down trees, break open rocks, sleep, wait for weather patterns to change, and space-time distortions to open up. We’re looking for the right Alpha. Along the way we practice first-sound pronunciation as well as end-sound pronunciation, since that’s what they’re working on in preschool. Learning happens all the time as long as you let it.

And this is a pretty magical time with my boys.

Thanks for reading,

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