Sunday Morning Surprise

Or:
Rescuing the Rescuer

Late Saturday night I spotted it, a level 12 Japanese Golett with a nickname. How did I know the little guy had a nickname? The characters were radically different than that of a normal, un-named Golett's species name. A level 12, nicknamed, no hold item but the Trainer wanted a Landorus in exchange for this Golett.

Under normal circumstances, I might have let that go. But two things were picking at me: the fact that it was nicknamed and the fact that it was at level 12.

Now, I know what you're thinking--what the heck does level have to do with anything? The lowest level you can find one of these little guys is 1, if they've been bred. But you can also spot them at level 10, if they happen to come from the Dream World. Because of this, I decided to take the risk; I'd try and make the trade and perhaps I'd get another Dream Worlder.

Since I had no Landorus of my own, I offered up a Kyurem, hoping that someone would take some pity on me and surrender a Landorus that I could use. A couple of hours passed. Nothing. I couldn't wait all night so I went to bed, hoping that I'd get my answer in the morning.

Early Sunday morning, I awoke and after rolling over several times, I managed to doze off again. I'll refer to that as mistake number one.

Don't ask me why but my mind decided to play tricks on me. I ended up trapped in a horrible nightmare; one that involved myself along with a group of others, trapped in a room and trying to disarm a bomb. We weren't having any luck with it, either.

I knew I was dreaming. I knew that what I was experiencing wasn't real and several times, I woke myself up in order to stare at the ceiling and dismiss that awful dream. But each and every time I went back to sleep, I was back among that group of people, a warning claxon screaming in my ears and a timer slowly ticking down to zero as I frantically tried snipping wires to a large and armed bomb, knowing that the effort was fruitless. No matter how many times I brought myself out of that dream, my mind simply restarted the whole process. Again, I awoke and again, I stared at the ceiling, shaking.

"CHECK YOUR TRADE!"

That voice in the back of my mind started shouting loudly. I shook my head, refusing to doze off again. I grabbed my DS, turned it on and hit the GTS. Not a moment later, I saw a Poke Ball drop from the sky.

I had finally gotten the Landorus. Now I just needed to find the Golett.

The Golett was still there. I traded immediately and when it landed in my party, I took a look at it.

'Twas a Dream Worlder all right, but the Trainer decided to reteach the little guy Astonish and let him forget his Elemental Punch. No big deal; I'll grab some shards on Black 2 and give him ThunderPunch when I trade him over, I think. No harm, no foul. But it was his nickname that caused me to scratch my head: どぐう. "Wonder what that means," I managed to mumble as I dozed off again, my game saved and my DS powered off.

Thanks to Prime, I found out that his name is Dogū. According to Wikipedia, it's a term for a humanoid figurine made of clay. Given that Golett is a golem made of clay, it fits the little guy perfectly. But in all honestly, I can't help but think it means "savior".

Puzzling over the meaning of that hirgana so early in the morning was enough to break the nightmare's hold over me; when I went back to sleep, I was greeted with a peaceful darkness. No more howling alarms, no shouting group of terrified people, no bomb, no locked down room, nothing. Just peace. Checking that trade, getting that Golett and finding myself fascinated over his name was enough to end the dream. In other words, I owe a few hours of good sleep to a small grouping of pixels.

You wouldn't believe how grateful I am for that, as silly as it seems.