I love Pokemon.

I have since I first saw the anime at age 8. It wasn't too long before I got into the games too. I didn't have a Gameboy, but I did have an N64 and in time I got to play Blue through Pokemon Studium. The series means a lot to me. I've put so much time into the games. Every new generation is so exciting. It happens so rarely.

When gen 6 came out a few years ago I didn't have anyone to share it with. I didn't have any friends at the time. But I do now. This year I became friends with two people who are very dear to me, Diddgery and Buttwings, who happen to both love the series as much as me. In fact, I remember it being ne of the things I bonded with Buttwings over when we had our first conversation. It may also have been the first game I played together with Didge. I was so excited to be able to share this experience with them.

But I didn't get to. Not how I wanted, anyway. For reasons unknown to me The European release is 5 days beind the rest of the world. I've yet to get my copy and haven't been able to join in. It was a little heartbreaking, to be honest. It's weird how much the Pokemon series emphasises friendship and sharing what we love with others (it's part of the reason why trading and battling have been in the series since the start and why they've been promoting Sun and Moon with videos of a kid making friends in a new home through Pokemon), yet I've not been able to share in the experiece with them how I wanted to.

I had this picture I wanted to draw a while ago that planned to do at some point. It would have been the 3 of us with our starter pokemon as if starting our journeys. But since I knew of the difference in release it lost it's charm. I don't know where they are in their games, but I'm guessing their starters have evolved already and I haven't even got my copy of the game.

But I still got to share in the build up. We'd talk about every bit of news, speculate, get excited together. It was really nice.

So, the old idea didn't work for me anymore. There's a reason I'm not in this one. But still, this series has an imporant place to me in my friendship with these two. I value all the time we spent talking bout ie. I loved seeing how thrilled they were by the two Pokemon their characters are dressing up as here. So I wanted to do this instead.