video / text

[thatwasours]

{ VIDEO }

 

[a man in his late thirties comes onto the feed. his bag is open next to him with the contents ruffled through, and there's an open Pokéball on the ground. the lower left sleeve of his trenchcoat is also leaking blood from what looks like puncture marks (a bite wound?) and is slightly singed, but he doesn't appear to be paying it much mind.]

 

I read the handbook, but there's one thing I'm not getting. These creatures-- Pokémon --are they pets, or are they weapons? The information here contradicts itself. It says here that friendship is an important part of raising the things, but as far as I'm aware, you don't usually make nice with animals you're teaching to cockfight.

 

And what kind of anarchistic society is this that the person with the strongest Pokemon wins every possible interpersonal conflict? All right, so it's not that different from most third-world countries, or your average political standoff, but seeing that kind of thing on an individual, culturally-encouraged level is a little disturbing. [he lets out a snort of disapproval.] Might makes right, I guess.
 
 

 

 

{ TEXT, LOCKED TO SELF AT 30% }

 

LOVE DETERRENCE

 

[the clumsy, highly experimental nature of the lock makes it fairly obvious that this is someone trying to work out how to filter and hack.]

Comments

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

They're both, depending on how you use them, though just treating them as weapons will likely make them resent you. As for battles, it's not always pure strength - it tends to also rely on strategy, type matchups, and creative thinking. It is a bit strange that it's so ingrained in the culture here, but I suppose as newcomers we don't really have a huge say in what the local culture is.

[Video]

[thatwasours]

That...

[he bites back 'we'll pretend, for a moment, that that paradox makes sense']

All right, so what kind of animal would trust me if I continued to put it in dangerous situations? Even humans will build up resentment if they know you're putting them in the line of fire for your own protection. Every time I throw that ball, I'm asking whatever's inside to get hurt so I don't have to. They might be animals, but they must be smart enough to grasp that they're not gaining anything from this.

I'm not trying to change the culture here, and I don't think I could. I'm just just trying to make sense of how things ended up this way, with all conflicts between humans being handled by proxy battles between animals.

[Video]

[crouching_sin]

Believe it or not, most of them tend to enjoy battling and becoming stronger. They seem to have a natural drive for it. Just why that is, I'm not sure. Every time I've asked the Pokemon I have that can speak, she's just been confused as to why I would think they don't. Certainly, some Pokemon are less aggressive and eager to fight than others, but on the whole they seem to enjoy battling.

What they gain from it is experience and growth, new abilities, and sometimes changing into another form. It's an odd method of evolution and building up of strength, but that seems to be how things go around here.

[thatwasours]

[he was going to argue about the ethics of breeding animals with an innate drive for fighting, but--]

You... have one that talks?

[crouching_sin]

Telepathically, but yes. Some Psychic-types can do that. They can even direct it into the Pokegear to communicate like we do. One moment...

[He turns away for a moment, and a Gardevoir floats over to stand next to him.]

Hello there.

[thatwasours]

[oh, holy shit has Kaz had enough of psychic and paranormal abilities in his own world. if there's anything further to the psychic link than speech, the Gardevoir immediate receives a healthy dose of apprehension, wariness, and various flashes of a floating red-headed kid with a gas mask, generally against a background of destruction and things on fire.]

[his voice comes out in a breathless gasp.]

You're kidding.

Uh. So you really can talk.

[crouching_sin]

[Fortunately for Kaz, she keeps it light for people who aren't her trainer and who aren't immediately around them. No need for flashbacks of That Kid.]

Yes. My name is Alice - at least, that's the name he gave me.

[Naoya smiles a little bit, shrugging his shoulder.]

She reminded me of a little girl I knew once upon a time.

In any case... yes, it's very strange to us that humans don't want to battle as we do.

[thatwasours]

Really...? I mean... I'd say it's the opposite. That you want to battle like we do.

[it takes him a moment to adjust to the surreal situation of talking to a green psychic creature, but it's not long before he's back in Full Monologue Mode. sounding, as usual, like he swallowed half a library to spit it back up in convenient exposition dump.]

Depending who you ask, you could say humans have an intrinsic desire to fight. We've always had a healthy appetite for violence and destruction, and while there's outliers on either side, the omnipresent nature of war in the history of humankind is pretty clear about the fact we're consistently willing to do terrible things to advance our own situation.

And some of us-- more than a lot of us wants to admit, I think --have an innate taste for violence. End up addicted to the fight, always wanting to get stronger or get bigger thrills. Or just because they don't know what to do with themselves besides fighting. Everybody's got their own reasons, but once they have the taste of blood in their mouths? Not a lot of 'em go home.

But with as much violence that goes on between animals, it always seems to have some kind of purpose. Survival, mostly. And although a small minority of animals have been known to enact violence for its own sake-- some wild chimpanzees, for example --that's the exception, not the rule.

I'd assumed you were being groomed as weapons for human conflicts, but... maybe your kind are more humanlike than I'm giving them credit for, if you have that same drive.

[that is certainly. one very dismal way to look at it.]

[crouching_sin]

[She listens, and watches the man speak, noting her trainer's feelings get... uncomfortable. Naoya keeps his expression steady, but he's not enjoying this turn of events as much as he thought he would.]

Large-scale combat with Pokemon... I'm told that's rare. I think humans have used Pokemon as tools of war before... but from what I've seen it tends to be more one on one combat. Many have the drive to be stronger, but not to do 'terrible things'. My trainer has told me about war, and the things that some humans do... it sounds horrible. We don't fight and conquer like the people that he's told me about. But we're not like the animals he's told me about, either. Some Pokemon are more humanlike than others, but... well.

They seem to fall in between humans and animals. Like dolphins, or chimpanzees, or any number of other animals that could be considered truly sapient rather than sentient.

Something like that, yes...

[thatwasours]

'Sapience'. Huh.

[Kaz mulls that information over for a long moment.]

You talk about war like it's a rarity here. Is that true? I've only been here a few minutes, but Pokémon clearly have incredible capabilities. What kind of government can keep social order when the average person has access to... well, what my world would consider military-grade weapons? I'm not trying to offend you, but-- I mean. You're psychic.

[and, because he abruptly feels like he's being rude for leaving the other human out of the conversation, he looks at Naoya on the video feed and addresses him instead.]

And you, you're not from here, either. Where are you from?

[crouching_sin]

It seems to be. And the government here is... very light compared to what my trainer says is common where he's from. I'm sorry I don't know more... compared to a human, I'm not very old, even though I'm at the final evolutionary stage of my species.

Me? Japan.

[It's not technically a lie...]

[thatwasours]

It's all right. You've still helped a lot-- I've got a better picture of what's going on here, now.

[okay, well, not a good one, but as good of one as he's going to get until he does some digging of his own, probably.]

[but he smiles a little at the fact that Naoya's from Japan.]

Really. What part? I grew up in Yokosuka, not far from the base.

[crouching_sin]

Good. And ah... I was living Aoyama, though I was working in Shinagawa. I'm a programmer by trade.

[thatwasours]

I didn't know programming had become an actual career outside the military and PFs. Sure, computers are becoming affordable for civilian businesses, but...

What do you program? Something to automate industrial work?

[read: I haven't been in a first world country for at least five years and it's still 1984 in my world]

[crouching_sin]

... It's 2009 in my world. Computers are quite common - in fact...

[He tilts over and grabs his COMP off of his desk, holding it up to show Kaz.]

This has a computer chip inside of it. It's what I programmed for. Normally, they're used for games and email - electronic mail - but my program was... different. It's called the Demon Summoning App - 'app' being short for 'application', which is another word for a program.

[thatwasours]

I'm guessing that thing isn't worth anywhere near what it would cost R&D to make it back home. I had something a little bit like it made for field operations but that was... three million, easy.

[he smiles a little and shakes his head. it's nice to see military-created things not being used as tools for war.]

Games and personal communication. Really. So what makes your app different?

[because there's no way the Demon Summoning App is exactly what it says on the tin, right?]

[crouching_sin]

No, not even remotely. About fifteen thousand yen, last I checked. Which would be... something between a hundred fifty and two hundred dollars.

[He smirks a little bit. So it wasn't obvious?]

It uses raw emotional energy and a digital drawing tool to create summoning circles and bring forth demons to make contracts with. This is something I was commissioned to make, mind. Demons were going to be breaking through anyway, and the group wanted their members to at least have a fighting chance of surviving. And what better to fight demons than with demons? ... A bit like a Pokemon battle, but much more deadly.

1/2

[thatwasours]

Demons.

[several seconds of disbelieving silence]

2/2

[thatwasours]

Guess I don't have a whole lot of stones to throw, with everything that's happening here.

So training creatures to kill isn't new to you, I'm assuming?

[crouching_sin]

It's not, but Pokemon seem less interested in killing, generally, than demons.

There's also the fact that Pokemon is a video game in my world.

[thatwasours]

That explains a lot.

[Pokemon. Pocket... monsters...]

It's a children's game, isn't it?

[crouching_sin]

It is. Marketed all over.

[thatwasours]

All right. That's...

[he doesn't say what, exactly, that is, and just takes a deep breath. wow, this place is a trip.]

So. You mentioned demons. How does the app work, exactly? Are demons purely physical beings, or are they something else?

[crouching_sin]

No, they're partially made up of a material called Magnetite, which is... partly dark matter and partly pure magic. But they're physical enough that they can definitely kill you.

[thatwasours]

And the app does what? Render dark matter able to interact with ordinary matter?

That's an impressive feat for a device the size of your palm.