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]

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?

play pkmn b&w annie, i hear it deals with this topic

[pokeboy]

( In a way, or simply completely, it's questioning a way of Red's society that the boy hasn't ever considered before. Team Rocket are bad because they hurt pokémon. Trainers aren't bad even though their pokémon get hurt in fights co-ordinated by them because they love their pokémon.

Also, Red totally didn't think any of that at all and isn't seeing things the way Annie sees them either. )

A lot are. Lots of pokémon all come from the wild so, they're always fighting there. Pokémon keep us protected from other pokémon because it gets really dangerous outside of towns.

( He points a hand to the ivysaur who has been standing there beside him the whole time. ) I couldn't leave home 'til the professor gave me Saur.

skips ahead to x&y instead, wonders wtf is wrong with this whole world

[needlepricked]

( She can't say she equates a fight for survival as an innate enjoyment of fighting. If anything, to her, that's a part of nature being capitalized on by mankind. Is that inherently good or bad? She isn't in a position to say. Pokemon don't sound as if they're all bred and raised to be a certain way in captivity, and training wild creatures to respond to domestication doesn't sound any worse than what people try to do with their environment when surviving off it where she's from.

Few animals have a practical use outside of the horses used in the military. The rest are largely owned by the rich, or raised for meat. There are fewer of both these days. )

They're so aggressive in the wild they attack people unprovoked?

( She's surprised all over again. Being trapped in your village due to outside forces being dangerous... yes, that she can understand. It's painting a very vicious picture of the world around humanity in Red's world.

Wow. That sucks, Red. )

learn about pokémon ~and~ fashion

[pokeboy]

( Unfortunately for finding an understanding in Red's world, it's not entirely the same. Whoops. )

Some do... ( He pauses, thinking - it makes it sound dangerous, and can be... but. )

But it's not all bad! There's lots of pokémon and they're all different. Some'll attack you if you even look at them, like mankeys and primeapes. But then there's pidgeys that'll fly away most of the time if you get near them.

( Another slight pause. ) I'm probably making it sound even more confusing and weird... I've never had to talk about it before. I've been a trainer for months now, but I'm still learning a lot about the world.

( And then suddenly a little afterwards,



Snorlax shamelessly falls backwards and starts snoring due to all this talking he doesn't care about. )

why is all the fashion filled with belly exposing shirts she is confused

[needlepricked]

( So birds fly away, and things with odd names will attack on sight. Annie really doesn't see how that's helping make it seem more welcoming. He hadn't left home until he'd had a tamed guardian pokémon assigned to him. It's pretty crazy!

What she does file away is the apparent variety. She begins to suspect pokémon is another word for "semi-intelligent to fully intelligent animals." She appreciates the shorthand. )

I'm not sure if you are or aren't. It is confusing, but that's to be expected. Being here will be confusing too.

( And then Snorlax falls back and Annie flinches again because freaking giant animal falling down - but hey, this time she didn't jump on the bench? )