01 voice/video & action

[pokeboy]

[ action / forest & town ]

[ A Add another number to the newbie arrival for this month. Red thankfully has friendly company to help him realise what the heck is on his back, and also to rip some holes in his shirt so he can stop wearing nothing over his chest. He's carrying the rest of the clothes though, he's not messing around with changing out in a forest at this time.

Maybe you're lurking around in the forest for whatever, and wow what is that big thing you see through the trees? Or wow, what's that faint, pleasant smell in the air?

But they'll also be found in the town, with the boy and his three pokémon finding themselves led there thanks to a good pair of ears.

They're free to approach, or maybe Red will approach your character should they not seem to be in a rush. ]

Uh, excuse me?

[ B A little trouble may or may not occur. Did somebody say something about Luceti and cookies??? Who's cooking? Because that aforementioned big round guy? Red was led to the town by Pikachu's ears and Snorlax's impressive Food Is Here senses. So if anybody is baking right now, the snorlax might juuust try to circle around your house (or wherever it is you're cooking), to try and find the source and how to get to the source.

What is that shadow creeping outside your kitchen window? What is that rattling on your door knob? Are you not even in a house with food? Well, you may not be so alone for long...

Hi, sexy food havers.

Restaurants are also not safe. ]

[ voice/video ]

[ Red may or may not really get this thing already. Either way he, with maybe the head of one of his pokémon peeking at the side, will be looking at the book in bewilderment. ]

Uh... Hello?

[ A+ work, Red. ]

Comments

[needlepricked]

( His logic is interesting to hear spelled out as he works his way through the possibility coming to mind. Annie doesn't find it that far off from the truth, all things told. Her replys is likewise spartan. )

More or less. ( She glances up at Snorlax again. She's glad the big blue guy doesn't look all that interested in being aggressive. ) You've also been drafted into the Malnosso's minor skirmish war.

[pokeboy1]

( Snorlax is only half-interested in the conversation going on right now. They've been walking around like this for a while, and all the excitement isn't actually leading to anything he can understand or do anything with.

Heck. With the way they're speaking now, he's even thinking about sitting down. Which he might just do behind them, with a loud-ish thud, after Red speaks. )

Skirmish war? ( War is hardly a word Red hears about, if ever. He actually jumps a little when Snorlax behind him sits down so loudly, and he looks at him for a second before looking back round to the woman. Pikachu and Saur are both too young to really understand the word war, and look towards Red as well - though Pikachu might spring over to Snorlax to speak to him, if nothing extreme occurs in response to the pokémon's sitting down. )

[needlepricked]

( Annie actually startles backward, ending up on top of the bench she'd been sitting on earlier and looking between Snorlax and Red with a look of obvious caution. That she tries to play it like she's just chilling up here on a bench now is more about her body-language than any actual disguise to the fact she jumped up here in response to the big thump of the blue guy. )

With less than four hundred fighters with no real sense of group cohesion, I don't know what else you'd call it. This isn't all out war, though it might count as an ambush style of warfare if the Third Party doesn't see an attack coming.

( She's not sure if that's the case, but her readings are so far incomplete. )

[pokeboy1]

( When Red looks back, there Annie already is on top of the bench, and he can't help but to look at her in total bemusement. The fact that she just goes on speaking adds to that. )

So... somebody wants us to... fight against something? A Third Party?

( He starts off a little slow there, part of him having to want to ask about the sudden shift in position, but. He'll hold that question back. For now. )

[needlepricked]

The Third Party.

( It's a minor correction, delivered with an aim to clarify instead of allow to remain uncertain. )

That's the basic idea.

[pokeboy]

( Whether a third party or the third party, it makes no sense despite how straightforward it seems. His expression stutters - talks about wars, ambushes? Malnossos? )

Wait, where did you hear about this? Did someone tell you that? ( He stops, but then remembers a name- ) Where's the one running all of this?? Mal- nosso?

[needlepricked]

( She brushes her hangs behind one ear, stifling any sense of irritation. Adults and children alike could be expected to ask these sorts of questions in these kinds of situations. As nonchalantly as she can, Annie steps back down off the bench. )

The Malnosso stay out of our cage most of the time. They converse by journal - you may have seen one close to where you first woke. If not, it will find you later.

( More and more disturbing magics all around. )

I've learned what I have from the people here already, and from the journal I mentioned. Past that, you have to make your own decisions on what it is you believe, and to what extent.

[pokeboy]

( Oh, a journal? Remembering the book he picked up, he looks at his small bundle. Maybe he should have looked at that earlier? )

Oh.. it's kinda weird... ( Talking to himself, his lips press together in a frown, but he looks back to Annie. ) Thanks. Uh, I don't think I really get it, but...

( Standing around and getting it all explained by a stranger is probably weird too. Red pauses, but- )

Can I ask you one more thing? Have you seen any creatures you've never seen before? Pokémon? There's two small ones, about Pikachu's size- ( He points to the pikachu beside him ) -brown and blue, and then a red charmeleon about my size.

[needlepricked]

( She looks openly curious for a moment after his question, looking back at Snorlax and the two smaller ones by Red's side. )

Not so far. Is that what these three are? Pokiemon? ( Glancing to Pikachu. ) Pikachu is that one's name?

[pokeboy]

Yeah. ( He nods, then, pointing to each one- ) He's a pikachu, she's an ivysaur, and he's a snorlax. They're all pokémon.

...You really don't know what a pokémon is? ( She's made that clear plenty of times, or at least making it obvious she doesn't know what a pokéball is.But it's more a general disbelief than suspicion that makes him ask. It's hard to believe one not knowing what a pokémon is, yet the people he's tried speaking to before also had no clue. )

[needlepricked]

( She gives a slow shake of her head. )

I've never seen anything like them before. What are they to you?

( She files the names away for later, committing what she can of all three to memory. )

[pokeboy]

To me? They're my partners.

[needlepricked]

( She doesn't find this to be that clarifying. Partner can mean many things, and the ones she's most familiar with are ones she's not personally familiar with at all. )

Partners in what?

[pokeboy]

Oh, partners in... ( Um. ) ...Everything! We do everything together, so partners in everything.

But we're a team. ( Yes, he's going to better explain. He puts a hand to his chest. ) I'm a pokémon trainer, and they're the pokémon I'm training. We're working together to take on gym leaders and help a professor with his pokédex.

[needlepricked]

( She understands the first part, as much as she can when concieving of a team primarily comprised of (semi?) intelligent animals and their trainer. They're working toward a competitive goal, and it's also not a foreign concept such as it is. )

I can't say I understand what these gym leaders do, or why you're taking them on, but I can understand your partner's importance. You'd want a team of those you can trust to work with you. ( Strengths and weaknesses, all the things you'd need to know to work tightly with a small group in order to achieve what you needed to do. )

What's your name?

[pokeboy]

( He's happy to explain about gym leaders. It's strange for people to not know about them, but under these strange circumstances it doesn't feel strange to talk about them.

But first. )

I'm Red. ( Then. ) And we're taking on gym leaders because when you get their badges, it means you can take on the Elite Four - they're the best of the best.

What's your name?

[needlepricked]

I'm Annie.

( There's usually meant to be some sort of nice to meet you, but Annie admittedly glosses over this when she can. Nice is such a relative term to a given situation. This one largely doesn't qualify - and even if it does, she's not precisely good at easy social interaction. If anything, Annie prefers remaining quiet. )

Then the meaning of forming teams and taking on these people is to be able to take on even more?

( Pardon her eyebrows slowly rising up toward her hairline. What even? Is it one giant game? )

[pokeboy]

( Her expression does make him think a moment. It is rather simple, isn't it? )

Well, if you want to... not every trainer goes after the Elite Four. But the people serious about battling, they do, because then you can take on the Champion and become the next Champion if you win.

[needlepricked]

( Her expression goes from incredulous to perplexed, trying (and failing) to keep any of how stupid that sounds off her face. it's not Red's fault, and her opinions are formed from the realities of her home. Without a tangible goal... )

What does that mean? If you're the Champion, what is it that you do?

[pokeboy]

( In the world of Titans, there are better things to do than participate in sports. )

Well, if you're Champion... you have to accept challenges from anybody who reaches you, I guess.

( It's fairly obvious that's all he knows of it. )

i'm so sorry for her everything

[needlepricked]

( Surviving is almost sporting... Under a very strange sort of understanding! Still, with Red's limited frame of context, and all he has said, she can't... hold that high of an opinion of any of this. )

Ah.

( She lapses into an awkward silence. There's no way to relate what he's talking about with her world, or the goals she's familiar with, and she doesn't have the easy social skills to fall back on that someone else, such as Armin, might.

... So she falls silent. )

i'm sorry first for all of red's annoying questions

[pokeboy]

( It's an awkward silence indeed. There's no other way Red can explain it; what he's said is already as straightforward as it can be, though maybe a few more details could be chucked in by more an more knowledgeable individual.

But it doesn't have to be too long of a silence! )

...Is that weird?

they keep me laughing, i love them all

[needlepricked]

( Annie actually knows what tact is. In many cases, she sees no reason to apply tact. This is unfortunately one of them. )

Yes. ( But she can mitigate the directness with acknowledgements! ) To me, that's weird and inexplicable. I can't understand a world like yours, but I don't need to understand your world. If it makes sense to you, then it's not weird for you. It's hard to imagine such different creatures all enjoying that kind of structured fighting.

( Hard to imagine multiple species finding it something they enjoy doing, if these pokiemon are as self aware as they seem to be. )

that face is so "holy dung that's so stupid"

[pokeboy]

( She may not have been tactful, but it wasn't insulting either. Or maybe he doesn't understand it enough for it to be? )

Not all pokémon fight! Some do, but we do different things with them too - in the last gym I visited, they liked to grow plants and flowers with their pokémon.

I mean, they fought with them too... but you can do a lot of things with pokémon!

she cannot compute this shenaniganry

[needlepricked]

( This is not the expression of a person who believes you entirely said that, Red, because how does that make sense. Or more to a point it does, people use each other for all different purposes, and use what tools are at their disposal for the same reason, so why not pokémon too?

It makes sense, for all in some way it may be lamentable. )

Are they all so naturally inclined to fight?