The Day Care Center: a staple of every region, where lazy trainers send their Pokemon to level up without them, and amateur Breeders send pairs of Pokemon to learn about who works, who doesn’t, and how much time it really takes to get an egg. We were lucky enough to meet up with the Daycare Woman of Johto, who gives us her stance on breeding, making a profit, and kids today.
Ole Schooler: What’s the strangest Pokemon someone has asked you to raise?
Daycare Woman: Well, dear, there have been any number of Pokemon I didn’t know about I’ve had to raise. Lots of those foreign types, you know. Generally I look at their teeth, put them in with whatever they look the most like, then use the internets in the corner there to find out what they are. Honestly, if that old geezer Oak gave me a Pokedex, why, I’d have it filled up for him in no time! But the strangest? Well, there was this one trainer, favored soul, that managed to catch all three of the legendary beasts. You know, Suicune, Raikou, Entei, the true legends. Well, she tried to drop all of them off at the same time! Said she couldn’t deal with the way they stared at her! I gave her my best glare and said sweetie, if you don’t want the elemental beasts staring at you all the time, perhaps you should let them go. She stormed out saying that wasn’t the point. Didn’t see her come in again.
OS: Do you regularly see legendary Pokemon?
DW: My goodness, no! Most trainers don’t have the, oh, what is it, the soul required to appease and catch a legend. Those that do, well, they keep that legend with them, if they’re smart. The only thing that keeps them around is being paid attention to. A trainer drops off a legend here, well, if I recognize it, I warn them. Then I take them, put them in a separate pen, try and keep them comfortable. They’re generally well-behaved for as long as they stay. But sometimes they get out, and I never see them again. I have a non-guarantee on legends, they get out, it’s not my fault.
OS: So you could be keeping a whole slew of legendary Pokemon in the back woods, and we’d never know?
DW: Nonsense, dear, I’d never be able to feed them all.
OS: Let’s talk about something near and dear to many serious trainers: breeding. How did you get started?
DW: Well, when I was a young lass, I had all the boys after me, but the man who would become the Daycare Man had the most determined glint in his eye. He took me out for dinner once, and–
OS: Er, Pokemon Breeding, ma’am.
DW: I was getting to that! Young people, no respect for a story. Anyway, he took me out for dinner once, and brought his Jolteon along, well, lots of Goldenrod boys get Eevees growing up, and he had enough money to evolve it young, so it was quite the jolter! I had my Typhlosion, I had been a wandering trainer for a few years, but was planning on settling down soon. Well, we had dinner, and halfway through, we realized our Pokemon had disappeared! We suspected a Rocket plot, of course, but we found them rather quickly, all cuddled up together in a heap. Well, we put them back in their Pokeballs, and I didn’t think much more of it, but the next day, he calls me back, saying he had found an Egg with his Jolteon! What a surprise! He still says he doesn’t know how it got there, but we know the truth. So we got back together and raised it until it hatched, which it did, an adorable little Eevee, but wouldn’t you know it, there was another Egg by that time! So we kept up with it, and eventually made a nice little area for all the babies. Well, a few of my friends saw that, and they wanted to put up their Pokemon with me, see if true love sparked between ’em, so we started charging for our services. The training for levels only came after, because the Daycare Man, he loves to find the eggs, so he always had work to do, but I was getting bored with watching the same two Pokemon going–
OS: Ahah, I think we get the idea. What about Daycares in other areas? Are you connected with them at all?
DW: Oh, my, yes. They had a similar idea around the same time, I take it, and naturally other trainers talk about other Daycares they’ve been to, and we eventually got to talking on the internets together. There’s a whole page for us now!
OS: Does your husband actually know where eggs come from?
DW: Well of course he does! You don’t get to be that old and not know that!
OS: Then why does he always tell trainers he doesn’t?
DW: Insurance reasons.
OS: Beg pardon?
DW: Well, we go through a lot of eggs in a day. My husband can’t always match up the right egg to the right trainer. So, he says he doesn’t know where it comes from. That way we can’t be sued if some trainer hatches a Snubbull when they expected a Totodile.
OS: What do you do with unwanted eggs?
DW: Raise them ourselves. Then, if they’re local, we let them go in the wild. If they’re from somewhere else, we have a nice little auction site where we find them homes for the right price. It’s a good part of our income now.
OS: Not as many trainers paying for leveling up their Pokemon?
DW: It’s incredible! Ten years ago, none of these kids wanted to raise their own Pokemon, just wanted us to do it for them. Now, they just want the breeding! They complain if their Pokemon get levels! I don’t understand it! And most of them are just trying for a shiny something-or-other, and let the normal ones go right outside my door! You want to know why there’s so many Ditto around here?!
OS: Uh, I assumed you left them as stock for trainers–
DW: Nope! Inbreeders! You get them trainers giving us Pokemon to breed, well, they’re related! And then the trainers get back the egg, hatch it, and breed it with its parents! And they keep doing this, and they let go what isn’t “strong” enough, and their poor inbred genetics can’t take it, and they devolve into these lumps of goo, good for nothing but making more eggs! Disgraceful!
OS: One last question: If you could have only one Pokemon, what would it be?
DW: Well, I’d have to say Edgar, my Typhlosion. Had him since he was just a tyke. Looks just like his father, who was my first Pokemon companion, rest his soul.
Written by Ole_Schooler
“Well, we go through a lot of eggs in a day. My husband can’t always match up the right egg to the right trainer. So, he says he doesn’t know where it comes from. That way we can’t be sued if some trainer hatches a Snubbull when they expected a Totodile.”
Hahahahaha!
Definitely loved this article (:
I really enjoyed this, it definitely got a good few chuckles out of me. XD I really liked the bit on legendaries, “Insurance reasons,” and the explanation for how Ditto come about – the last one is amusing and a little horrifying. <3 My only thought was that there were a lot of exclamation points in the Daycare Woman's last big paragraph. Otherwise, this was a very neat read!
~Psychic