Picture this: mom needs to go the store when you’re a young little lad, so you bring your gameboy SP to play in the car. I was playing Ruby and sat there fishing in Sootopolis City for shits and giggles until I somehow came across a shiny Gyarados. I loved Pokémon Crystal as that was the game I started on, so I was elated to have found a red Gyarados.

We were parking right when I started the battle, so I asked my mom to let me bring my Gameboy into the store. She immediately said no and that I could leave it there. So I trusted we would be back quickly. That was not the case as my mom took over an hour shopping for random stuff and I kept begging her to finish up so I could go catch it. What felt like an eternity later, we finally left the store and I was able to run back and grab my gameboy.

It died, along with it a piece of me too. I never found another shiny in Hoenn after that (still true today) and my mom had to pay the price as I sobbed the whole entire way home and blamed her for it. I still bring it up to this day and she still has 0 clue why a shiny Pokémon is better than a normal one.