20 Sided Stories

POKÉMON! Pen & Paper Version

Bonus Halloween Special (w/ Chad Ellis of Station Blue)

Air Date: October 28, 2018

[Suspenseful music throughout.]

Sage G.C.: The following skit has absolutely no affiliation with Nintendo, The Pokémon Company, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., or anything in the official Pokémon franchise whatsoever. It is a non-profit, fan-made parody piece created in fair use.

And quick content warning. While our stuff is typically focused on comedy, this is a horror story. So if you aren’t in the mood to be a little bit disturbed, maybe come back later or just feel free to skip it entirely. However, if you are in the mood for some terror and spooks, then you have come to the right place.

[Suspenseful music crescendos and fades out.]

Jessica Dahlgren: Thank you and welcome to 20 Sided Stories!

Bonus Halloween Special (w/ Chad Ellis of Station Blue)

[Crickets chirp and owls hoot in the background. Suspenseful music plays throughout.]

Narrator: Candace, Skip, and Xander, Pokémon trainer team otherwise known as “The Dream Police”, are continuing their travels through the rural routes of Kanto.

[The trio walk along a dirt road.]

Xander: Hey, we know where we are, right?

Candace: [irked] Yeah! Of course we know where we are… I think.

Skip: It’s getting late. We should prob’ly just set up camp if we can find a clearing.

Candace: Yeah. Pixie’s getting really restless.

Narrator: Their current Route is unclear. But luckily, just ahead of them is the burning orange of a cozy campfire.

Candace: GASP! You guys see that?

Skip: That wasn’t us, was it?

Candace: No, it’s probably a Backpacker! Let’s go!

[She hurries ahead and the others follow.]

Xander: God, I hope they don’t wanna fight. [irked] Everybody always wants to fight.

Candace: Hello, sir!

Matthew: Ahh! Uh, oh. Pokémon trainers. Hey, there. I’m Matthew. Matthew Leads.

Xander: [mumbles] Wait a second… Aw, [yells] is this a crossover episode?

[Suspenseful music intensifies.]

Candace: I’m Candace!

Skip: And I’m Skip!

Xander: [sighs] Xander.

Skip: Sorry to bother you, but we’re lookin’ for a place to camp and, well, it looks like you have lots o’ space around your fire. But if it’s too much trouble, we can—

Matthew: Oh, no! Yeah, of course. Please, uh, settle in.

[Light-hearted music starts. Rustling from clothes, sleeping bags, and dirt as the trio settles in beside the fire.]

Skip: What brings you out here?

Matthew: In the woods? I’m a Backpacker. So I just travel around. Stray wherever the wind takes me. I usually prefer the cold.

Candace: [sighs, content] It’s so cozy here. But also spooky. I feel like we’re about to start sharing scary stories.

Matthew: [chuckles] I know a few.

Candace: Oooo! Spooky story, spooky story!

Xander: Can we just go to bed?

Matthew: Have you heard the one about Lavender Town Syndrome?

[Music stops. A beat passes while crickets chirp and owls hoot.]

Xander: [quietly] Lavender Town. That was…that was where all that weird stuff happened, right?

Skip: [fearful] What’s the “syndrome” part?

Candace: Maybe we could just hear another one. I—

[Suspenseful music plays. The fire crackles.]

Matthew: It all—

[Candace gasps.]

—started seven years ago. Lavender Town was known for being small, mostly rural. The place where you’d stop after a trek through the Rock Tunnel. Throughout its history, it garnered fame through its graveyard known as the Pokémon Tower.

[A door slams in the distance.]

This is where people from all across Kanto came to pay respects for their fallen companions. In many ways, it signifies the loss of innocence, as many kids did not know that there was a fate beyond fainting. Pokémon can die, and this sad truth became part of the town and its legacy.

Because the Tower contained so many graves, and Lavender Town withheld so much sadness, reported sightings of ghosts became common over time. Especially from children.

Candace: Like my Gastly!

Matthew: More than that, some ghosts couldn’t be identified by the naked eye. They needed a Silph Scope to be seen.

Candace and Skip: Ooooo.

Xander: A what?

Matthew: Eventually, some kids recalled hearing the ghosts whispering at night. Overactive imaginations, most parents assumed. So life went on as normal.

But everything changed when Trainer Red showed up seven years ago. You’ve heard of Trainer Red, right?

Skip: Of course!

Matthew: Around that time, stress was at its highest. Villagers were starting to hear the distant lament of lonely Cubone—

[The sad, distant howl of a Cubone in the distance.]

—crying at the moon for its mother, a Marowak.

If you didn’t know, every Cubone wears the skull of its dead mother as a helmet, as most Marowaks cannot survive the hatching of their offspring.

Over time, the sound of nightly mourning became much more than sadness.

[A tree cracks as it falls in the distance. Howling is heard.]

A ghostly howl began calling back in return to the Cubone’s cries. This worsened at every midnight—

[A clock chimes.]

—and ghostly sighting increased to a horrifying rate.

[Eerie whispers and laughter.]

Wispy figures with no pupils and wide, wide grins. Seen but for a moment and then vanishing with echoed laughter.

Kids again could not rest and were hearing these sounds every day and every night.

[Eerie whispers and clock chimes fade out.]

[Footsteps echo on a wood floor.]

When he visited Lavender Town, Trainer Red was able to identify a ghost when inside the Pokémon Tower.

[Eerie howl.]

It was a Marowak. Distressed over the loss of her son, Cubone. Through battle, Trainer Red defeated the ghost and her spirit faded, calming for eternity.

But no one had ever done this in Kanto before. The screamings only worsened after Trainer Red’s departure of Lavender Town, as the spirits of other Pokémon yearned for the same deletion given to the Marowak.

But no one came.

Instead, the Tower was forever flooded with these floating, perturbed ghouls. Citizens of Kanto were visiting the Tower less and less.

[Distant construction noises.]

And as it turns out, Lavender Town City Council had already secretly been preparing to convert the graveyard into a radio tower. They wanted to remove the legacy of dead Pokémon and spirits for good. And that’s when the suicides began.

[Eerie music begins. Ghostly child laughter echoes throughout.]

Over the course of a few weeks, the oft-ignored and restless children began committing suicide.

[A howl rings out.]

Deliberate hangings.

[Rope stretches.]

Jumping the Tower.

[Whoosh, splat!]

Stabbing one another with horrid cries of desperation.

[Multiple wet thuds.]

The final death toll was somewhere between one and two hundred. This is the unfortunate event we refer to as Lavender Town Syndrome.

[Eerie music and ghostly laugher crescendos. Laughter fades out.]

The radio tower was never finished and thus contact with residents of the town ceased. If you passed through, I’m sure you recall the high-pitched ringing.

[High-pitched ringing begins.]

Subtle but present. Humming in the back of your skull. Many say that these frequencies come from inside the radio tower and its unfinished telecoms. That it plays a song so sad, so sharp, and so dissonant that only young children can hear it. As you grow older, your ears develop. The sound escapes and cannot be heard.

But what others say, and what I believe, is that the sound of Lavender Town is actually the ghoulish cries from all the deceased Pokémon in the Tower, screaming and yearning for an escape from purgatory.

[Music slowly fades out. The crackling fire, owls, and crickets are heard again.]

Maybe it’s both. Maybe it’s neither. But to this day, most folks steer clear of Lavender Town in fear of that aural buzzing noise. The more you are exposed, the more the syndrome takes over.

It is said that, overwhelmed with sadness and guilt, many parents who lost their children turned to the cult of Channelers who lived inside the Pokémon Tower, and that, to this very day, they indulge in dark rituals, attempting to contact another realm and desperate to hear back from their forgotten children and Pokémon.

But no one knows if these rituals have ever been successful. More than likely, their souls will be lost forever.

[Eerie music fades out completely.]

[A beat passes in tense silence while crickets chirp and the fire crackles.]

[Skip and Xander shout over each other.]

Xander: Jesus Christ that was depressing!

Skip: That was a horrible story!

Candace: Oh my god! I don’t wanna die!

Skip: Thanks, mister!

Xander: [mumbles] Oh, okay.

Skip: We just wanted to have fun! And now we’re all sad!

Candace: [yells] You need medication!

Xander: Just awful!

Skip: Let’s go, guys. We’ll make our own campfire.

[Cap twists off a canteen.]

Candace: No more fire for you!

[The fire hisses as Candace dumps water on it.]

Matthew: I was using that.

Candace: [mockingly] Oh, I’m sorry! I thought you said you liked the cold. [scoffs]

[Footsteps crunch on dirt as the trio leaves. Their conversation fades into the distance.]

Xander: You know, maybe some of that stuff was important.

Skip: What a jerk. Right, guys?

Candace: Seriously, the worst story I’ve ever heard. I actually miss my parents now.

Skip: Me too.

Xander: Okay…

[A Poké Ball wiggles nearby.]

Matthew: Come out, Cubone.

[Cubone exits its Poké Ball and whimpers pitifully.]

I know. I know, buddy. It’s gonna be okay. They’ll learn soon enough.

[Eerie music crescendos and fades out.]

Interview with Chad Ellis and Credits

[Eerie music plays quietly throughout.]

Sage G.C.: Hello!

My name is Sage G.C., I’m the sound designer and director of 20 Sided Stories, and I’m joined by…

Chad Ellis: Chad Ellis. I’m the creator and voice actor for Station Blue.

Sage: Yeah, he played Matthew Leads in this episode, which is the lead protagonist of his show, and I don’t know if you wanna talk about that?

Chad: Sure! Yeah, so Station Blue’s all about that guy Matthew you heard. He’s a 20-something who takes a job as a caretaker of a research station in Antarctica.

The first season follows him alone there for six weeks dealing with all sorts of things that you would expect in Antarctica. There are storms, there’s him goin’ through his past, and then…I don’t- you’ve listened to the show. What d’you think they need to know?

Sage: Yeah, no. Chad’s doin’ really great stuff with the show. I had the pleasure of writing some of the music for the show. So there is, like, a teeny little hint of bias. But I don’t ever hear the episodes before they release or anything. And I just made sure to stay caught up and I really like what he’s doing with it.

It’s got a lot of really good atmosphere, which is something that’s really important to me. So if you want somethin’ spooky right now, hit up Station Blue. Really good stuff. You just got, like, a big download number, didn’t you?

Chad: Yeah! We just hit 100,000 downloads and counting!

Sage: Yeah, that’s insane.

Chad: So show’s doin’ really well.

Sage: That’s awesome, man. Well, anyway, yeah, we thought it’d be fun to collaborate on this little Halloween episode.

20 Sided Stories still on hiatus, unfortunately, but I am chipping away at episodes 9-16 whenever I have the time. So for all my listeners, thank you so much for being patient and for all your kind words. And to all the new people who are showin’ up listening to the older stuff, that’s been super awesome to hear too.

And of course, thank you, Chad, so much for being a part of this.

Chad: Of course. And I gotta shoutout since it’s Halloween time. Season two of 20 Sided Stories, Victoria is one of my favorite pieces of audio ever. It’s got ghosts, it’s got all that Victoria antics. It has frickin’, what is it? Buchanan. What’s Kate’s character?

Sage: Matilda Buchanan.

Chad: Matilda Buchanan is one of the greatest characters in all of actual play.

Sage: Yeah, Twitter really made it clear that she is the best thing we’ve done. [chuckles]

Chad: Oh, she’s wonderful.

Sage: Awesome, so credits.

Xander played by Travis Reaves.

Candace played by Jessica Dahlgren.

Skip played by Greg Reasoner.

I was the Narrator in the beginning, and obviously,

Chad Ellis was Matthew Leads.

Pokémon themes that you heard by Junichi Masuda, obviously the original composer of Pokémon.

But I made the original arrangements and cover versions that you hear here, as well as additional music and sound design and stuff like that.

So thank you guys so much for listening to this. Hope you enjoyed our little bonus episode. 20 Sided Stories will resume shortly. Thank you, Chad.

Chad: Heck yeah.

[Music fades out.]