Everyone is saying that the professor is grinding the Pokémon into candy, but consider the following:
• The professor frantically running around with assistants, inspecting hundreds of thousands of pidgeys a day, getting bitten and screeched at while they try to figure out if this pidgey has been tagged yet so they release them back to track their migration
• Panicked interns trying to scoop the ekanses back into their tank because theyre freaking out the rattatas
• Three caterpies climbed into a vent and evolved into metapods that are too far in to reach so six underpaid college students are trying to dismantle ductwork
• Theres a big door marked “KEEP OUT” because a dozen oddish evolved into a squad of Vileplumes and until they stop releasing stun spores the entire room is just off limits
• Hundreds of researchers running on red bull and determination trying to tag and examine all the Pokemon but having to turn off the machine every once in a while to the discontent of trainers who are all getting a “Sorry, the servers are currently down” message at LEAST twice a day
• “GPS not found” flashes while returning a big group and suddenly Florida has been gifted 6,000 mankeys right in the middle of Epcot
• Someone in the back room up to their waist in stale dog treats with a bunch of little stamps. They sigh deeply at how gullible Pokemon trainers are that they think these things actually do anything other than excite the Pokemon so much they evolve
• Actual science professor surrounded by chaos and interns and a budget just too small
There’s a very old graveyard next to my uncle’s house that happens to have (apparently rare?) Pokémon. As caretaker of the lot, which has a LOT of cool texas history associated with it, he doesn’t see a ton of people come visit because it’s out in the middle of nowhere.
But recently, there’s been truckloads of college kids, teens, families, and grandparents all coming by to catch Pokémon. Some just pass through, but many accept his offer of a Coke and a lawn chair to sit and talk for a while. Once pokémon have been successfully acquired, he starts to tell them the cool history of the area, and the visitors are fascinated.
People have sent him emails and called him later, asking for more details and doing their own research on the battles fought there and the people who died. There’s now a Facebook page about it? It’s a thing-catch pokémon but more importantly ask the caretaker about Texas blood feuds.
And like, you see so much negativity about how games distract and people are mindless drones because of them. But a video game brought dozens and dozens of people to my uncle’s plot and gave him an audience of interested listeners who are taking that knowledge back to their own communities and spreading the word to come visit.
