Night of the Roses

For the past few months, so many I've lost count, I've been trying to breed for a shiny Roselia on my Pokémon Emerald game. I've doing this in the hopes of transferring said Roselia to Pokémon Pearl in order to get a shiny Roserade. I've been doing this for so long, that I was certain that I would never see any results at all. Every Roselia I hatched was plain vanilla normal.

Until this past Saturday night/Sunday morning.

After my shower this Saturday night, I decided to play a couple of rounds of Emerald. I'd hatch a couple of eggs, save up, then got to bed. You know, nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. If I had only known....

I hatched one Roselia egg. It was a male, normal color, with unspectacular stats. So, I released him and went back to hatching my other eggs.

At 12:43 am, Sunday February 25, it happened.

I hatched the second in my party. I wasn't expecting the sight that greeted me. It was a Roselia, as I had thought, but it was different.

Its green was brighter, more eye-catching. Instead of a blueish face, mine was sporting a shade of yellow. But it was the blooms that gave it away: I wasn't seeing red and blue flowers. I was staring at purple and black roses.

After all those months, my persistence had finally paid off. My brand new Roselia was shiny.

My hands shaking, I managed to give it a nickname: Blackthorn, since it's a male. Had it been female, it would have been BlackRose. After I finished typing in the name, I saved the game and did the only thing a level headed person would do: I screamed.

Prime, who was in the den, yelled "What's wrong?" I screamed back, "SHINY ROSELIA!" He tore up the stairs to get a look. I think he was a bit surprised, too. After so many months, it finally happened.

That was two days ago, and I'm still in a state of shock. Part of me simply cannot believe that I finally have that Roselia, that I'll be able to trade it over to Pearl in a few months and get a shiny Roserade. But I can turn on my Game Boy Advance SP and see it, sitting in my PC, waiting.

I'm a little disappointed that I'm no longer breeding for a shiny Roselia, but I have other projects now. I popped a female Vulpix and a male Ninetails into daycare that night.

I'm hoping for a shiny Vulpix. Sumomo if female. Argent if male. Wish me luck.

--Weasel, "This shiny hunting thing has gotten under my skin. I'm startin' to like it."