May 2nd: Buddy System

- Aar was streaming a run of Sapphire along with Burning Inferno (Ruby) and Malt (shiny hunting in two third-generation games).
- Continued grinding while they did their thing.
- Chose to do the doubles battle on the bridge. It was a good thing I got my other Pokemon leveled up, but I could have just done it with Slapkins.
- Sredsa learned Sand Attack and hit a lot of critical hit Scratches.
- Sredsa and Fitz are now at Level 10. I battled one of the trainers on Route 116 to make it happen.
- While grinding, Davey evolved into Cascoon.
- Got Davey to Level 8 and Fitz to Level 11.
- Slapkins evolved into Marshtomp while helping Gary level up.
- Decided to do Roxanne's gym. Annie swept through the two gym trainers and Slapkins took out Roxanne's Pokemon without issue.
- The researcher from the woods got mugged by a Team Aqua guy and now I have to be the one to get the stuff back.
- Worked my way through Route 116 to get to the cave he was hiding in.
- An old man standing outside the cave had his Wingull stolen by the grunt. This has gone too far!
- Confronted the grunt and the battle was really easy.
- The old man turned out to be Mr. Briney! I was now able to go see him and get a ride to the next parts of the game.
- Confronted all the trainers I had skipped (most of them) on the way to getting to the cave because I wanted the XP.
- Found the researcher and was automatically required to return the stolen goods.
- Got invited up to the office of the president of Devon.
- Finally got the god damn map!
- Need to drop off a package in Slateport's shipyard.
- Steven in Dewford has mail I need to deliver.
- Got to Mr. Briney's abode and got a ride to Dewford Town.
- He pilots the boat really fast even though there are people swimming in the water, which I find really funny.
- Apparently, the game picks two random words as a catchy saying that a guy in town says. I got "good life".
- Also, a whole room full of people incorporate it into otherwise static lines. That room was comedy gold.
- Did the gym. Slapkins made short work of the first 'mon. Brawly's Makuhita took out Slapkins, Annie, and Fitz. Annie managed to set up a Leech Seed and Stun Spore, which gave Sredsa enough of an edge to finish the job.
- Went to the Granite Cave to find Steven and give him the letter. I got Flash, but none of my Pokemon were good potential candidates for the move.
> Caught: DUMPLING [M] (Makuhita)
> Caught: FINGER [M] (Aron) (This was Aar's idea)
- After stumbling around for some time, I looked up a map of the cave by asking Aar to send me the one he used.
> Caught: WILMA [F] (Sableeye)
- Delivered the letter to Steven.
- Got on the boat and headed to Slateport City.
- Made it past a bunch of beach goers who also happened to be trainers.

Having Aar around for guidance helped to streamline the process of making actual progress through the gyms and story. The first gym went very well, which was probably always going to happen due to my having a Marshtomp for the Rock-type gym. The second gym was much tougher, as only Slapkins was at the right level for it. I think I mostly just lucked out on the first attempt at it and would have needed to do more training if luck wasn't on my side.

I'm already running into the issue of having to pick who actually gets used and who is just going to be there for HMs and emotional support. Slapkins is obviously going to stay relevant. I think my current candidate for second place is Annie. I haven't used many Grass types in the past and something tells me that I'll continue to enjoy having Shroomish and, later, Breloom in my party. I think Fitz and Sredsa will lag behind but still see some action. I almost never use Bug Pokemon, so hopefully Sredsa will continue being good to have around.

Gary is going to be an HM carrier, but he's still a big help. With his Pickup trait, he'll pick up items on occasion and I can get items with that. He's picked up some really good items to have in the early game, like an Ultra Ball and Super Potion. Gary is perfect just the way he is.

I'd like to give Davey a better shot, but then I would have two Bug types and that just feels unnecessary.