Hello. My name is Butterfree, Dragonfree or antialiasis; I'm female, Icelandic, twenty-eight years old, have been running this website since I was twelve, and have no plans of stopping.
If you desperately want to know my real name, it is Hlín; it rhymes with "spleen" and is the name of a protector goddess in Norse mythology, as well as an alternate name for another unrelated goddess in Norse mythology. (If you think that's weird, Norse mythology also holds that a male god became pregnant with an eight-legged foal after seducing a horse.) Please don't call me Hlín online, however; I like my name just fine, but when I'm reading English, my brain is firmly in my-name-is-Butterfree mode, so being suddenly addressed by my real name just feels jarring and overly-intimate rather than friendly - imagine a stranger randomly insisting on calling you by your full name at all times, and you'll have an idea of why it feels weird.
I was born and raised in Iceland by Icelandic parents, so yes, my native language is Icelandic. I learned English from a combination of school (where we're required to study it from fifth grade or so), video games, Harry Potter and the Internet, in roughly that chronological order. I first got into Pokémon when I was ten, and I still have memories of my bizarrely wrong attempts to guess what words in Pokémon Yellow meant from the context. I was somewhat better two years later when I started this website, but not by much. By now I think I'm pretty fluent, but you be the judge of that.
I'm a kind of weird-looking nerd with long hair that's been darkening from blonde to brown, blue eyes, glasses, freckles, and a smile that tends to make me look like an axe-murderer when I'm photographed smiling. On July 3rd 2013 I married my boyfriend of twelve years and counting, Shadey (also not his real name), and we live in downtown Reykjavík with our cat.
I have a B.Sc. degree in computer science from the University of Iceland, and currently I'm employed as a programmer for a small startup, working in Python and Node.js. I may go for a Master's or Ph.D. degree at some point, but for the moment it seemed like overkill.
I usually travel to England twice a year to attend the MCM London Expo with several of my Britain-based friends; if you're going there too and would like to meet, chat or whatever, that can be arranged.
Although I enjoy programming and I imagine I will always be doing that as my main source of income, I also have a passion for writing, and I've been writing stories since I was little. Today most of my writing is in the form of Pokémon fanfiction, but one day I hope to finish some of the original story ideas that have been churning away in my brain and attempt to get them published. (This isn't quite the far-fetched high-flying dream it often is: Icelanders publish a ridiculous number of books per capita, but very few write science fiction and fantasy outside the children's section, so I think I have a pretty decent chance of being able to compete there.)
Aside from writing and computer science, I have areas of interest within a wide variety of academic fields. I'm fascinated by psychology, ethics, genetics and evolutionary biology, number theory, cryptography, astronomy, quantum physics, and more. I'm not an expert in any of these fields by any means, but I'll generally gobble up anything I can read about them and am always thrilled to improve my understanding. I also tend to find just about anything interesting when it is explained by someone who is sufficiently enthusiastic about it and is able to get across their own enthusiasm; people who are obviously doing what they love make me happy.
Otherwise, I'm pretty passionate about fiction in general. I'm thrilled by the human brain's ability to empathize with imaginary characters, be excited by imaginary situations and immerse itself in imaginary worlds, and I especially love the psychological exploration that can happen with well-written characters, where the audience can get deeply immersed in a complex person full of biases and suppressed emotions and irrational impulses and actually understand how their mind works and why without it being spelled out explicitly in the narrative. (My favorite work of fiction is the television series Breaking Bad, which does this masterfully.) Aside from that, as a writer I enjoy picking apart what works and what doesn't in a story - I look at everything with a critical eye, and analyzing its various qualities and how they come together overall is immensely interesting and illuminating for me.
I have a major thing for fictional death, suffering and psychological trauma (another thing Breaking Bad provides in ample quantities). I'm extremely opposed to real-life violence in all its forms, but one of the things that interest me about fiction is the ability to explore and empathize with characters in extreme situations, breaking under stress, driven to do awful things, and trying to deal with awful things happening, without any actual people being hurt. I've been drawn towards these dark subjects from a very young age - as a kid, a lot of the games I played when I was alone were full of torture, suicides and brutal executions, sometimes having little other point to them, and even when I was playing with my friends, I kept attempting to convince them to have some of the characters die horribly to make things more intense. I'm not sure exactly when it started, but I do know my favorite book on the shelf at my preschool was a gorgeously illustrated watercolor picture book about horses that ended with all the horses being captured and sold to British coal mines and the main horse's eyes being gouged out because he kept being spooked by the lamps (no, I'm not sure why this book was on the shelf at my preschool), and my favorite cartoon was The Animals of Farthing Wood, which is about cute woodland animals traveling towards a new home while half of them are tragically killed on the way. Cause or effect? Who knows.
I'm relatively introverted; I feel somewhat uncomfortable and don't tend to take social initiative when surrounded by strangers, but I love being with people that I know and can get very talkative with my friends. I'm rather averse to conflict and generally try to get along and understand where people are coming from even when I disagree, though if you start a debate with me I can argue pretty fiercely. Overall I'm generally optimistic, happy and positive - something people sometimes find surprising after reading the sorts of morbid, depressing stories I write and my awfully grumpy-sounding nitpicky criticisms of things. I have a tendency to be blunt, though, and I can be snappy and irritable when tired or stressed out, something I'm slowly working on.
My brain likes to fixate rather obsessively on things when I discover I love them, whether it be TV series, books, musicians or anything else. It usually fades after a month or two, but in the meantime I tend to be annoyingly unproductive. Other things that hinder my productivity include my excessive perfectionism and my love of redoing things I've already done because I've convinced myself they're terrible rather than doing something new. If there's a dearth of updates on this website, some combination of these elements is probably to blame in addition to my full-time job.
I am an atheist - that is, I don't believe in God. I never really have (although for a time as a kid/teen I claimed and maybe somewhat convinced myself that I kinda-sorta did, pretty much because everyone else seemed to), and as I see it, when you don't start from the assumption that God exists, there's just no good reason to think so; I don't care what other people believe, though, as long as they're not trying to force it into law or school curriculums. When I was in kindergarten I made up my own religion (I was a strange kid), revolving around this king in the sky that I'd dreamt of once who talked to me and sent me messages through people with dogs, but that was more of an elaborate game of pretend.
I am a cat person. I've had a cat (well, my family, technically) since I was eight, and my husband and I had a dog for a decade, so I've gotten to know both sides, but cats are just much more my type of animal; they're low-maintenance, relatively quiet, and affectionate in a more soft and cuddly way, rather than the loud, needy, overenthusiastic affection of dogs. I still like dogs, mind you (I'm generally an animal lover), and dog intelligence in particular fascinates me, but if I had a choice of one or the other as a pet, I'd go for the cat all the way.
I'm not a fan of babies. They're kind of like dogs except louder, more dependent, not cute, and often actively repulsive. I love kids once they can talk and no longer drool or need diapers, but babies just repel me. Obviously everyone was a baby at some point and I have nothing against people having babies; I just prefer to keep my distance.
I wear my watch on my right hand and have done so since I was little. The button on the watch I had then kind of hurt my wrist on my left hand, and by moving it to the right hand, the button pointed down my arm instead of up at my wrist, solving that particular problem. Then it stuck because the right wrist was where I expected the watch to be. This occasionally confuses me when I'm trying to talk about somebody else's left or right when they're wearing a watch, because my brain automatically associates watches with right instead of left.
I have a lot of quirks regarding food. For one, my gag reflex is very sensitive to certain textures and if I eat something with the wrong texture it will do everything it can to get it away; in particular, I'm almost completely unable to swallow pills unless they're very small so that they can be washed down with water mostly without touching my tongue, and fruit and a few more fruit-textured vegetables have the same effect in addition to simply repelling me on some deep level; my brain won't even regard them as food. I'm fine with butter used in cooking and so on, but the idea of solid butter repulses me to the point that I'm squeamish about personally interacting with it in any way; I can eat it on bread, technically, but I have to try to put the fact there's butter out of my mind to get myself to do it. Meanwhile, my taste buds have very specific opinions about what kinds of food can be mixed and what kinds can't. (For example, I usually don't put any vegetables on hamburgers, because green vegetables do not go with meat, bread, or sauces; my typical hamburger is just the patty, cheese, sauce and possibly bacon. I can eat a hamburger with lettuce, and it doesn't disgust me the way fruits or butter do, but it's just not my first choice. I'm fine with eating a hamburger and vegetables separately, though, and for whatever reason in later years I've developed a taste for bell peppers and onions on pizza, which used to be right out.)
I get random nosebleeds. It's kind of on and off - sometimes I don't get any for a while, and then I start getting them almost every day. It runs in the family; my dad and my brother were that way too. Interestingly, Shadey is the same, even though we're not related (well, not to a greater degree than any other pair of Icelanders, at any rate).
I don't drink, even though I legally can. At some point when I was a toddler my mom gave me leftover beer by accident because she thought it was apple juice, and I apparently hated it; I like to joke that that's why I've avoided alcohol since. Really, though, I've just never seen the appeal. Conveniently, this is also something Shadey is with me on.
If, for some reason, you are interested in following my personal blather, there are mainly two places to do that:
I have a Twitter, which I tend to use as a dumping ground for whatever is on my mind. This includes incoherent reactions to what's happening in some TV show I'm watching or a video game I'm playing, programming frustrations, links to amusing stuff on the Internet, what I'm doing, or what's going on in my life. I go through phases of not tweeting much and phases of tweeting quite a bit; it's kind of erratic. Occasionally I talk about something I'm doing for this website, but only occasionally - for TCoD stuff, follow the Cave of Dragonflies Twitter account.
And although the site irritates me massively on a number of levels, I also have a Tumblr blog which these days serves as my main personal outlet on the Internet - it contains everything from rambles about Breaking Bad to silly reblogs to writing frustrations to my deranged dreams. When I make site-related posts, I tag them with #TCoD, so you can see just them here.
Please note that because they're personal and not officially connected to this site, my Twitter and Tumblr may occasionally contain significantly stronger language than you would find here (outside of Morphic, at any rate), or discuss/link to otherwise not-entirely-kid-friendly content - nothing that should scar any children for life, I hope, but if you don't think you should see it, don't go there.
Well, that was a lot of rambling about myself. Hope I didn't bore you to tears. To make it up to you, have a secret link clue!
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl give a welcome return to one of my favorite features from FireRed and LeafGreen, the Vs. Seeker. While they unfortunately were too lazy to make a jumping-up-and-down sprite for each trainer and you can no longer see the little X over the heads of those trainers who don't want to battle, it is still good for the same thing: rebattling trainers with Pokémon of varying levels, types, and Effort Points. Simply stand somewhere close to trainers and use the VS Seeker, and if they are interested in rebattling you, they will get two exclamation marks above their heads and start spinning around on the spot, after which you can simply talk to them to rebattle their Pokémon.
Again, this section shows the trainers' final teams. They should all have been unlocked when you have caught or defeated Heatran in Stark Mountain. If you battle a trainer and the Pokémon are lower-leveled than shown here, you either need to complete the Heatran quest or simply rebattle the trainer again. (If they're higher-leveled, on the other hand, this is a mistake on my part - please contact me with the name of the trainer.) The experience for each Pokémon is given, as well as the Effort Points (shorthanded as HP for Hit Points, ATK for Attack, DEF for Defense, SPA for Special Attack, SPD for Special Defense and SPE for Speed), and the total EXP and Effort Points for each trainer is also shown. Since D/P introduced the power items (Power Weight, Power Bracer, Power Belt, Power Lens, Power Band and Power Anklet for HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense and Speed, respectively), the total effort point section for each trainer also shows how many extra Effort Points in all you will gain in the relevant stat if your Pokémon is holding a power item (in case you don't know how they work, every time your Pokémon gains any Effort Points, it will also gain four extra in the power item's particular stat).
Location: Route 203, east of Jubilife City. Head straight east along the route, up the two stairs ignoring the people on your way, and finally you'll come to her as she stands in the middle of the road.
Location: Route 203, east of Jubilife City. Head straight east along the route, up the two stairs ignoring the people on your way, past the Lass, and finally through the next patch of grass. Sebastian is standing there.
Location: Route 207, above Oreburgh City. Go up from the town, into that pit, up the mudslide on your bike, and then turn right. Walk past the Camper and Picnicker on either side of the road towards the entrance to Mount Coronet. He will be standing fairly close to the cave, below the main path.
Location: Route 208. Head west from Hearthome City, go through the tall grass and then up the stairs above it. Move on right once you're on the mountain and then down. There will be a Hiker there; this is Jonathan.
Location: Route 209, below Solaceon Town. Head straight down the 'breeding route' from the town to the very bottom of the route - he's jogging horizontally by the trees there.
Location: Route 212. The rich couple are standing together, one tile apart, on the right side of the road inside the garden in front of the Pokémon Mansion. He's the guy on the left.
Location: Route 212, west of Pastoria City. Walk left from Pastoria, go down past the NPC just after you enter the route, and then a little left until you come to two Cuttable trees below the road. Cut past those, go up the stairs, get on your Bicycle and go all the way up the bike-bridge, get down the stairs on the left, and then go on left past those trees until you come to a Parasol Lady. Go down past her, jump off the ledge, go a bit down past the other Parasol Lady there, and then go onto the pier on the left. Walk left, past the Fisherman there, take the lower pier where it splits, and then once you're back on dry land, Dominique will be standing just there.
Location: Route 210, above Solaceon Town. If you go north from the town, go into the extra-tall grass on the left and walk forward there into that little trail of bare ground before the mudslide. Get on your Bicycle in that strip of ground and then press on up to get up the mudslide, then take that narrow path through the grass on the right. He's standing to the left of a ledge. Oh, and for a nice bit of in-game humour, beat him and then talk to him afterwards.
Location: Route 210, east of Celestic Town. Go down those stairs, on right across the bridge, past the Bird Keeper below, and then up the south stairs on the right. Go right and cross the bridge up, then take the next bridge right. Finally, go past the Ace Trainer and down the stairs on the right, past the Double Team running around, and down the second stairs on the right. Then walk on right, through the grass, and he'll be there in hiding. Remember to talk to him before using the Vs. Seeker.
Location: Route 217, west of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her until you come to a house. A bit below the house, close to the forest edge on the left, you'll find what looks like a dark bump in the snow. It is actually Ethan hiding. You need to talk to the bump to make him reveal himself before the Vs. Seeker will pick him up as a trainer. Note that if you're training against him, the best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker is inside the aforementioned house, since there you can run.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), and then head on to the right, past the two trainers on your way and under two bridges until you come to one trainer standing just by a patch of grass; that's Blake.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs, and then Rock Climb on the wall above you. From there, go on to the right, past the Black Belt you'll find, and he'll be skiing around a little further ahead. It is best to recharge your Vs. Seeker close to the wall you climbed, since there you can run.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, and just by that welcoming Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), he will be standing in the grass patch. It is best to recharge the Vs. Seeker in that narrow path to Route 217.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs, past that Skier, and she'll be standing above the next flight of stairs. The best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker is actually in the stairs themselves, since there you can run.
Location: Route 217, west of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Don't go down here; instead, walk a bit on right towards those two trees standing together, get to around the right edge of the right tree, and then go down from that point. There will be a male Skier skiing around there; that's him. Note that the best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker if you're battling him is the narrow path towards Route 216 below, where you can actually run, although admittedly it's far enough down that most of the steps will go into the journey there and back, and if you want to heal your Pokémon, you should definitely go down to the lodge on Route 216 instead of back to Snowpoint.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs, and then Rock Climb on the wall above you. From there, go on to the right, past the Black Belt you'll find, and she'll be skiing around a bit above. It is best to recharge your Vs. Seeker close to the wall you climbed, since there you can run.
Location: Route 217, west of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Don't go down here; instead, walk a bit on right towards those two trees standing together, and then go down from that point. There will be a male Skier skiing around and somewhat to the left a dark bump in the snow; that's Antonio in hiding. You need to talk to the bump to make him reveal himself before the Vs. Seeker will pick him up as a trainer. Note that the best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker if you're battling him is the narrow path towards Route 216 below, where you can actually run, although admittedly it's far enough down that most of the steps will go into the journey there and back, and if you want to heal your Pokémon, you should definitely go down to the lodge on Route 216 instead of back to Snowpoint.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs, past that Skier, up the next flight of stairs, and then up the long stairs on the top wall. Cross that bridge downwards and then walk on right; she'll be standing in your way towards the next bridge. Recharge the Vs. Seeker by running back and forth on the bridge itself if training against her.
Location: Route 223, the sea route south of Victory Road. Go down the waterfall, past the male Swimmer there, and a bit further down, she'll be swimming around.
Location: Route 222, west of Sunyshore City. Go west from the town and just go on straight left, onto the beach, and go on past the rock with the Tuber standing next to it. If you go down to the shore here and then go on left, he's the first Fisherman you see there.
Location: Route 222, west of Sunyshore City. Go west from the town and just go on straight left, onto the beach, and go on past the rock with the Tuber standing next to it. If you go down to the shore there and then go on left, he's the second Fisherman you see there.
Location: Route 223, the sea route south of Victory Road. Go down the waterfall, past the male Swimmer there, and a bit further down, she'll be floating still on the left near an exit from that open area you're in.
Location: Route 223, the sea route south of Victory Road. Go down the waterfall and he's the first trainer you see, swimming back and forth.
Location: Route 212, west of Pastoria City. Walk left from Pastoria, go down past the NPC just after you enter the route, and then a little left until you come to two Cuttable trees below the road. Cut past those, go up the stairs, get on your Bicycle and go all the way up the bike-bridge, get down the stairs on the left, and then go on left a little until you come to a Scientist standing by the trees a little above you. That's him.
Location: Route 217, west of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. He'll be standing by that path. Note that the best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker if you're battling him is in the actual path, since you can run there, and if you want to heal your Pokémon, you should definitely go down to the lodge on Route 216 instead of back to Snowpoint.
Location: Route 217, west of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Do so, staying with the forest just on your left. When you've passed a few trees, the area will open up a bit more and allow you to go into a pocket of snowy land above to your left; she's the only trainer in that area. Note that the best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker if you're battling her is the narrow path towards Route 216 below, where you can actually run, although admittedly it's far enough down that most of the steps will go into the journey there and back, and if you want to heal your Pokémon, you should definitely go down to the lodge on Route 216 instead of back to Snowpoint.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs and he'll be skiing around there. The best place to recharge the Vs. Seeker is actually in the stairs, since there you can run.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs, and then Rock Climb on the wall above you. From there, go on to the right, past the Black Belt and two Skiers on the way, and she'll be skiing around near the right mountainside. It is technically best to recharge your Vs. Seeker close to the wall you climbed, since there you can run, but it's just about fifty steps over there anyway, so you might as well just walk around close to her where the snow isn't too deep.
Location: Route 212, west of Pastoria City. Walk left from Pastoria, go down past the NPC just after you enter the route, and then a little left until you come to two Cuttable trees below the road. Cut past those, go up the stairs, get on your Bicycle and go all the way up the bike-bridge, get down the stairs on the left, and then go on left past those trees until you come to a Parasol Lady. Go down past her, jump off the ledge, go a bit down past the other Parasol Lady there, and then go onto the pier on the left. Walk left, past the Fisherman there, take the lower pier where it splits, and then once you're back on dry land, go a bit up and then left again, up under the bike-bridge and then finally turn left when you get to some grass with a clear path through it. He'll be standing there. Remember that you can only battle Policemen at night.
Location: Route 229, north of Resort Area. From the Pokémon Center, turn right through that little gap in the fence and then go straight north through the grass to the bit of non-grassy area. She'll be at the top left corner of that area.
Location: Route 216, south of Snowpoint City. Get through Acuity Lakefront to the entrance to Route 217 (no, I won't describe in detail how to get there; the general direction is down and left), go down through the grass patch, turn left through that narrow path and then down, past that spinning Black Belt. A female Skier will be skiing around there below when you come into the open area again. Continue down past her, past the house you'll come to, all the way down until the forest blocks your way, and then go right along the forest's edge until you can go down again. Go on downwards there until you can't get any further, and then go on to the right until you come to the narrow path that leads to Route 216. Go down that path, past the Pokémon-healing lodge (obviously where you should go to heal, rather than back to Snowpoint), on to the right, up the first flight of stairs, and then Rock Climb on the wall above you. From there, go on to the right, and you'll get to him where he's standing in the snow. It is best to recharge your Vs. Seeker close to the wall you climbed, since there you can run.
Location: Route 228, north of Resort Area. Go north from the west side of the settlement and continue up and left until you come to the sandstormy Route 228. Go up the narrow path between the mountains, turn right when you get to the first mudslide and then go up again. On the left there will be a second mudslide. Get on your bike and go up it. Take the bike bridge on the north side, then the next one right, go up the mudslide there and go on the bridge to the north there. Get down the mudslide here, and he's standing there on the right.
Location: Route 223, the sea route south of Victory Road. Go down the waterfall, past the male Swimmer there, and a bit further down, there will be a female Swimmer swimming around. Go on right, past her, and you'll be able to take a narrow path between the rocks there. He will be lurking at the end of that path.
Location: Route 223, the sea route south of Victory Road. Go down the waterfall, past the male Swimmer there, and a bit further down on the left, you'll be able to exit the open area and step onto an 'island' of shallow water that you can walk on. Go left on the island and then down, Surf those few tiles to get to the right side, and a bit further to the right there will be a Sailor (Zachariah, of course) waiting.
Location: Route 206, under Cycling Road. From Oreburgh City, go up to Route 207, up the mudslide on the right using your bike, and then on north. When you get to Route 206, you'll have two sets of stairs to go down before you get to Cycling Road; instead of going down both, only go down the first stairs and then go right, where your path will be blocked by a couple of Cuttable trees. Cut them and then continue on straight up, through the sparse grass on the way, over the bridge and through the grass on the other side, and you'll find him standing near some rocks and a tree when you're well on your way towards Wayward Cave. Yes, this is one of the least accessible Vs. Seekerable trainers in the game. Don't ask me why they decided to make his Pokémon level up out of all the trainers in the game.
Location: Route 212. The rich couple are standing together, one tile apart, on the right side of the road inside the garden in front of the Pokémon Mansion. She's the girl on the right.
Location: Route 225, west of Survival Area. Go west from the settlement and get up those stairs. Go left through the grass near the bottom and turn down at the end where you can. She's waiting just there a bit to the right.
Location: Route 224, northeast of the Pokémon League. There is a really long way to get there through Victory Road, but I really can't be bothered to detail it; as long as you know that you go in from the League side, cross the bridge, Rock Climb down, then get up the stairs that are on the north side of the rock to the left so that you can take the bridge back to the right and finally to the cave entrance there at the far right of the room, you should be able to figure out the rest of the fairly straightforward path on your own. Oh, and the room past there is foggy. So all in all you'll need Surf, Waterfall, Rock Climb and probably Defog, as well as lots and lots of walking through a cave full of wild Pokémon to get to the route in the first place. Inaccessible trainer much? At least, once you're out in open air on Route 224, you just walk up, past the Ace Trainer, through the grass, past the Veteran where the route turns right, onto the beach, past the Black Belt running around, and then up as you enter back into foresty land. Go past the Ruin Maniac's tree and then go into the grass patch on the right, up the staircase at the far end of it, and Hayden is waiting in the grass there.
Unfortunately Diamond and Pearl are a little lacking in this department. While the highest levels are higher than in FR/LG, you tend simply not to be able to get that many of them on-screen at the same time, and there is only one trainer in the entire game who has six Pokémon, and that's Fisherman Andrew the Magikarp trainer. However, there are nonetheless some fairly decent places to train high-leveled Pokémon. I don't have a lot of them listed, so if you find some, by all means contact me and tell me! To see the individual profiles of the trainers involved (along with more detailed descriptions of their locations), use your browser's search function (usually Ctrl+F) to search for the trainer's name. Remember, name only - I put these little comments in between the trainer class and the name in a few places so you'd find nothing if you searched for both! The names are all unique, so you don't have to worry about there being two different trainers with the same name.
Notes: This is a fair place to train Grass and Electric Pokémon for the easy type advantage, but not much else. The required Surfing seriously detracts from its usefulness as a training spot, unless of course you don't mind being attacked by random Pelipper and Seel on the way there.
Notes: Two Slowbro, Linoone, Skarmory, Farfetch'd and Swellow - in other words, a very nice place for Electric-types. It's also very nicely accessible - you just need to go straight up through three tiles of tall grass and they're the first trainers you see. It's inferior to the spot below in terms of total EXP, though.
Notes: This is THE high-level training spot, pretty much. Ariana has a Chansey, which together with Blissey gives the most experience for any Pokémon in the game, and both of them have three high-leveled Pokémon. Can't go wrong with that. The only problem is that it's a little tedious to access and heal in between.
Curiously, in Diamond and Pearl there is exactly one trainer who has six Pokémon - Fisherman Andrew, the one with the six Magikarp. This means that in a twist of fate, if you are using power items, your best bet for EV training any stat except HP is battling him (for 24 total effort points in the stat you're training, or 30 if it's Speed) and then simply removing any unwanted Speed you'll get for the actual Magikarp using Tamato Berries:
However, you may not be up for this, not like growing berries or you may just not have the power items at the moment, so I'll list the alternatives anyway.
The only stat in which you'll actually never want to use Andrew. Why? Well, if you do have the power items, this girl beats him by one desired Effort Point, and doesn't give you any unwanted ones:
However, if you don't have the power items or want to get some EXP at the same time, Tuber Jared is probably what you're looking for:
Then, if you don't mind giving another Pokémon a couple of Attack effort points, this girl can be nice as well:
But of course, she's in water, which might discourage you. This guy gives two less points, but is more accessible and gives some nice EXP, and will work even better than her if you don't have power items:
But if you don't have power items, you also might as well use him, who has fewer Pokémon to beat for the same Effort Points:
This is the most Defense effort you can get out of one trainer in the game without power items, along with the far-too-inaccessible Hiker Theodore:
Is it worth it for four measly Effort Points? Not really. I recommend just going with Andrew and the power items here, or if you don't have the power items, to just train against wild Pokémon. If you have the power items but just don't like the idea of having to grow as many berries as with Andrew, this guy will also work, giving you only one unwanted Speed Effort Point for each time you battle him while giving 19 Defense ones:
But these guys will with power items give you 15 pure Defense, so that's definitely your best bet if you don't want to grow berries at all:
Fairly low-leveled, and 18 Special Attack effort points for each time you battle him. Not bad. If you're not using power items and want some EXP, you might as well use one of these two, however:
Ouch. You really should use Andrew for this. The most Special Defense effort you can get without power items is this guy, who is so inaccessible that nobody in their right mind would actually use him for effort training, and even he only gives four Effort Points:
With power items, you can get a decent 15 Special Defense effort points from this guy, but you'll have to delete some Special Attack and he's a Swimmer so you'll have to Surf to get to him:
Your next choices are these two, who will give you 11 Special Defense Effort Points with power items and three without, but they are unfortunately also Swimmers:
So yeah, Andrew or wild Pokémon are definitely the way to go. Wild Tentacool give you Special Defense, so that's not too difficult.
Seriously, 30 Speed Effort Points in one go. 60 with Pokérus. Can't come anywhere close to that. But if you don't have the power items, he is actually not your best choice. That honour goes to Ninja Boy Zach, who incidentally also gives some very nice EXP and 20 Speed Effort Points with a Power Anklet if you like level-ups:
If your Pokémon-in-training isn't strong enough to beat him, however, Fisherman Andrew is your second-best bet even without power items, so those two are all the Speed effort you'll ever need.
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