the probability of finding you

Pokemon Emerald is a 2004 role-playing video game developed by Game Freak and published by The Pokemon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It's a (text-colour:#ffe066)[solitary title^^`*`^^] that acts as an enhanced version of 2002's [[Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire]]. The game takes place in the fantasy region of [[Hoenn]], where you play as a Pokemon trainer conquering the eight Gym Leaders in order to challenge the Elite Four and its Champion. there's also another plot bla bla bla Team Aqua and Magma bla bla bla the world goes through intense forced climate change bla bla bla a big fucking snake yells at a lizard and a fish to stop fighting bla bla but that's not relevant to this story as cool as it is. You get a choice between the character you play as. Their internal names are [[May]] and Brendan, but you can name them anything you want.

The Internet was a place where I could learn about how big [[the world inside of|Pokemon Emerald]] a 57mm x 35mm Game Pak could be. The Internet was a place where I could learn about how big the world inside of a 57mm x 35mm Game Pak //[[couldn't be.|ROM Hacking]]// Most importantly for this story, The Internet was a place where I could learn about how [[predictable|Random Number Generation]] the world inside of a 57mm x 35mm Game Pak could be.

the probability of finding you a docu-edutainment auto-bioblog post about this fucking thing. <img src="https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/d/da/Spr_3e_266_s.png" alt="Silcoon's shiny sprite from Pokemon Emerald" style="display: block; margin: auto;"> [[>>]]

When I was [[six]], I had the only three things every six year old in the world needs: my older brother's Game Boy Advance SP, a copy of [[Pokemon Emerald]] for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and [[unrestricted Internet access.]]

<img src="https://memorydata.xyz/the%20probability%20of%20finding%20you/hoennmap.png" alt="A screenshot of the map of Hoenn from Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald." style="display: block; margin: auto;"> It's hard not to see this fantasy island as home sometimes. I had convinced myself [[as a child|six]] that Hoenn was based off of my home state of California, because my favorite place in the game, Slateport City, was just like one of my family's vacation spots, Newport Beach. The coastline of a gentle ocean, all the other people and children having fun and relaxing on the soft sand, the tourist trap overpriced shops. They were one in the same in my mind. Slateport was Newport was Slateport. [[May]] was me, and I was a Pokemon trainer starting my journey, exploring through vast routes filled with different [[bugs and creatures.|Silcoon]]

I was always envious when watching videos of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire.

At its core, a computer knows two things: (text-style:"outline")[0] and 1. She does not know 2. She does not know 0.1. She does not know 2^^32^^. She knows binary. Yes or no. (text-style:"outline")[Black] or white. This makes her bad at being random. If she's given an input, she will give an output. She will give that exact output every time. If you tell her "32", she will say 1. If you tell her "45" she will say (text-style:"outline")[0]. [[Emerald's|Pokemon Emerald]] Random Number Generator (RNG) creates a (text-colour:#ffe066)[seed^^*^^] on startup. This seed, perhaps by mistake, is always '(text-style:"outline")[0]'. As gameplay goes on, the seed advances, the RNG state changes, and the "32" you tell her becomes "40" becomes "128" becomes "65365" becomes so on. If you know what causes that state to advance, that's when things [[get interesting.]]

A lot of the Internet content surronding Pokemon Emerald was based in ROM Hacking: modifying the game to alter its graphics, dialogue, gameplay, etc. When you're young, a ROM Hack can look particulrly convincing, especially when it's trying to be intentionally deceptive. There was this playground rumor that, if you talked to one man in Mossdeep City, if he happened to say a specific number (typically 100), he would let you get on a spaceship and you'd be able to catch (text-colour:#ffe066)[Jirachi and Deoxys^^*^^]. <img src="https://memorydata.xyz/spaceteamtomoon.png" alt="Screenshot of a YouTube video titled 'how to catch jirachi in pokemon emerald without cheat'" style="display: block; margin: auto; width: 500px;"> This was not true! But there were so many cases of fantastical things that were true, [[the existence of different-colored Pokemon with a sparkle to them,|shiny]] other mythical Pokemon hidden in the game's codes on Faraway Islands only accessible through real-life events, why would one question the possibility you could go to the moon?

<img src="https://memorydata.xyz/baby.jpg" alt="An image of a young blonde girl with blue eyes. She's posing for the camera, her front two teeth missing. She's smiling." style="display: block; margin: auto;"> This is Megan. She is me when I was six years old. Her nickname was Mea Mea (pronounced [[May May|May]]). It's hard to find her in my memories. Our memories of our childhood naturally get obscured as we age, of course, but it's really difficult to recall specific things about myself back then. A lot of people talk about stuff like their usernames on websites they played on, specific days they remember enjoying, but that stuff feels long gone to me. I miss her sometimes. I see a lot of myself inside her. The games she played stuck with me, her face, her smile. I know that she's inside of me, somewhere. I just need to [[find her.]]

<img src="https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/9/99/Emerald_May.png" alt="May from Pokemon Emerald. She has short brown hair in a green bandana, a sporty orange dress, and cycling shorts." style="display: block; margin: auto;"> wow so cool she's literally me!!! May was my starting character I'd always end up choosing. Being a girl was vital to my identity: I was the youngest of three kids, preceded by two older brothers. No matter what, I would choose the girl character in whatever games my brothers and I played. I was actively dissapointed by there being no girl characters, a relatively common occurrence in a lot of games because girls do not play video games. I would ESPECIALLY choose the blonde girl in any video game, because I was the pretty blonde princess as a child and I would always be that!!!! ^^(my hair has naturally browned now)^^ May as a rival (when you choose Brendan, the boy character, instead) got a cool, tomboy design with a soft spot for cute things like idol contests and stuffed toys, but she can also beat your ass hard if you're not careful. (text-colour:#ffe066)[May 3*] is one of the most infamous battles in Pokemon speedrunning for how devestating it can be. [[There did end up being other Pokemon trainers I attached myself to, eventually.|Yellow]]

<img src="https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/0/09/Yellow_Adventures.png" alt="Yellow from Pokemon Adventures. She has short blonde hair, a straw hat, an orange dress and jeans." style="display: block; margin: auto;"> wow so cool she's literally me!!! Yellow is a character in the Pokemon Adventures manga. Unlike most characters in the manga, she has no in-game counterpart. Yellow is childlike, sweet, and kind. She's able to use telekinesis to read the minds and emotions of Pokemon, as well as the ability to magically heal them.

In basically every Pokemon game, there's a Bug-type Pokemon you can catch at the beginning of the game. In Emerald, this bug is Wurmple. silly little guy. <3 There's a mechanic to Wurmple that doesn't apply to any other Pokemon. Most Pokemon will evolve into a stronger, pre-determined Pokemon. Other Pokemon have multiple evolution branches it can take, but those evolutions are decided by things such as what gender it is, its attack versus its defense stat, what stone you give it, etc. Wurmple is totally [[random.|Random Number Generation]] You have a 1 in 2 chance that it evolves into Silcoon, or Cascoon. Nothing you can do can decide which one it'll evolve into. By the time you have a Wurmple, it evolving into a Silcoon or Cascoon is pre-determined.