whateveryoueatliveitspart | [Video] [Action for Mahogany Town]

Yamask finally stayed out long enough for me to talk with him.

[After almost a year of trying to get the Pokémon who possessed him for Halloween to actually have a conversation with him, you think he'd be in a better mood. Except not, because Yamask used to be a human.]

His name's Tim Balkie, but he says that I can call him "Punk" if I want. He was 17 years old and lived in Goldenrod City. He likes listening to "punk rock" music and getting into fights, and he wanted to make it so that everyone in Johto is free and no one can tell anyone else what to do. He says he died when he got into a fight and someone hit him on the head with a baseball bat.

[Talking to the ghost of someone who died. Could this get any more depressing?]

Today's his birthday.

[It can.]

He says that he was staying in the PC Box because he'd heard that Pokémon can't die if they're in there, and he didn't want to forget about his life again like he did before we met.

[It really can.]

...I don't know how to cheer him up. I don't even know if I can. Is this even something that someone can be cheered up from?

[Anyone in Mahogany Town will be able to find him sitting under a tree with a pokéball on his lap, fiddling with the pokégear. From what it's reading aloud, he's going through the pokédex data for Yamask, specifically the moves that they can learn.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You get them a present and a card, you do something they enjoy together... The important part is that you must do it with their happiness in mind.

Hm. Grandpa and I never did anything for our birthdays. Actually, I don't know when mine is. It sounds like an interesting thing to do though.

How do you normally decide what present to give to someone?

Not knowing the exact date would make celebrating it more complicated. Though I guess you could just pick one.

If you know there's something they want or enjoy, you try to get or make it for them. In his case, you could look for items related to his favorite punk rock groups. A poster or a video, maybe.

It doesn't seem important to keep track of how old you are.

What would he do with something like that though?

[Ash may have gathered that Apollo has only the vaguest ideas about how other humans act. He's a potential candidate for the world's most inept gift-giver.]

You say he wants to keep remembering his life, right? Having a physical object that reminds him of it would help. Besides, I bet he can enjoy his favorite music just as much in a Pokémon's body.

[Yeah, he's kinda starting to get that part.]

Hm. He did put some music on my gear while he was controlling my body. Maybe if I get him something to do with whoever made that music he'll like it? He probably wouldn't have gotten music that he didn't like.

Definitely. And I'm sure that just the effort you're putting in trying to help him will make him happy, too.

Do you think so? Even if I can't do anything that helps?

Of course. They do say it's the thought that counts.

They do? I would think that actually doing something would count more.

Wouldn't that be unfair to those who really want to act but can't? What if you really wanted to make him happy, but he refused to tell you what he likes?

I would probably keep asking him like I've been doing.

I think that I understand what you mean though.

Asking until you get answer can work sometimes, but there are people who won't say a word until it's too late. For those cases too, trying is sometimes the best we can do.