victory_road | 1st Ω [Action for New Bark Town/Video]

[Action; New Bark Town]

[Fresh green grass. A breeze that carries no hint of smog or pollution or any other manner of nastiness in the air. People happily walking around unarmed and seemingly unworried over the potential of being jumped or mugged even in broad daylight.

This was not Pandora.

Not that it took any of these observations for Athena to conclude that something was very wrong. Just the feeling of the sun on her face as she drowsily awoke earlier (ugh, Janey was right, she was starting to lose her edge) was enough to send alarm bells blaring through her head. After all, her and Janey's place in Hollow Point wasn't the worst, but it was far enough away from the cave entrance that they don't really get much sun. That put Athena instantly on alert, and she practically bowled "mom" over before she could even open her mouth and instinctively grabbing the pack - she didn't even care whose it was - by the door and heading outside.

So here she was now, pacing in the middle of town like an angry kraggon, looking for anything familiar... but there was nothing. She couldn't even see Elpis's broken surface in the sky, so there was no way this was Pandora. One of the Edens, maybe...? But which one, they were all better than Pandora, so she couldn't tell by just one glance in one town...

Okay... okay. She had to find her bearings. She could do that. First, check the pack for anything that could be of use. Pulling it off her shoulder and tugging it open, Athena began sifting through the contents; food, a change of clothes (pfft, like hell she was going to get rid of her armor in an unknown location), what looked like some basic medical supplies, a... red and white ball? That catches her attention.

She set her bag down so she could examine the ball more closely. Round, one button on the middle... some kind of robot? At first glance, it reminded her of Gortys before she had been activated, so maybe if she pushed the button...

And then she promptly dropped it as the ball burst into light, every one of her battle instincts flaring to life as her brain screamed grenade! But damnit, she had no guns, no shield or sword....

Wait.

Sword?

Okay... yeah. That was definitely a sword floating in front of Athena. Staring at her.]

What the...

[She reached out to grab it by the hilt, but surprisingly enough, it dodged out of the way of her hand! Frowning, Athena tried to grab it again. And again it dodged. Her frown then morphs into a full-blown scowl, and she lunges for the thing.]

Argh-- get back here!

[Video]

[OKAY EVERYTHING'S UNDER CONTROL, EVERYTHING'S COOL. Except... not. So when the video flickers on, the rather annoyed, severe face of a young woman can be seen front and center.]

I'll give whatever dirty lowlife responsible for this ten seconds to identify themselves before I start hunting them down. Believe me, you don't want that.

[There's a pause, and her frown deepens if that's even possible. This... kidnapping, or whatever it was, had happened in her home. Said home was crappy, sure, but it had been damn secure. Athena herself had made sure of it. So if whoever-it-was had been able to get her without a problem, then the other occupant of the house could possibly be...]

Springs. As soon as you see this, echo me.

[She doesn't sound worried, but the edge in her eyes fades a little, and she reaches up to run a finger along a gleaming silver ring hanging from a chain around her neck. She blinks, realizing what she just did, before she practically shoves the ring under her shirt and out of view.]

If anyone can direct me to the nearest fast-travel station, the information will be much appreciated. [There's a pause, and the curious eye of a Honedge peeks on-screen with a gleam of curiosity. The woman glances at it, scowls, and pushes it away from the camera.] Also, the nearest gun vendor.

[Because this isn't the first odd creature she's seen so far, so she's not taking any chances. If she can't have Xiphos and Aspis, or at the very least any of her more advanced guns, she'll have to make due.]

Finally, if anyone familiar to me is viewing this, I will update my status as soon as I find my bearings in this bizarre town, and we can arrange a meetup then. Until then:

Athena, out.

[Click. The video finishes.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[Whoop doop excuse me, VETERAN COMING THRU.]}

Hate to be the fifth or sixth bearer of bad news, but as someone who's been here awhile, I can confirm.

No weapons. Pokemon only.

And if you decide to go improv and start carving spears or whatever, just know that's not gonna go over well with the police, and as much as I hate to say it, they do have big fire-breathing dogs that will absolutely kick your ass.

I don't like it either, but them's the breaks.

You get used to it after awhile.

A fire-breathing dog? That's it? I've fought bigger, and badder, and come out without a scratch.

Yeah, so have I, but not with my bare hands.

What are you gonna do, slap all the bus-sized policedogs to death?

If they try and attack me first, simply for wanting a better method of defending myself? Of course.

And you're gonna get owned, is what I'm saying.

The entire culture here is based around training these animals and as much as I don't respect these cops as far as I can throw them, you bet their unkillable technicolor beasts who've been trained their whole lives for this kind of thing will wipe the floor with a newbie who isn't even using their Pokemon.

Like, work with me, lady.

So what exactly makes these monsters any different from normal monsters? I've been trained my whole life to fight and kill everything I was directed at, and I don't see much difference in the things you're telling me about and what I've fought.

Look, I'm not going to go picking fights I don't think will help me get what I need, but if I need to defend myself, I'm not just going to rely on a monster.

What makes them different is that they're borderline revered here.

This whole world revolves around them. And because of that, they're your most effective line of defense against anything that might possibly want to pick a fight with you.

S'not to say that you can't fight on your own, hell knows I've gotten into some pretty remarkable fisticuffs in my time here, but if you really want to defend yourself, you need to focus on raising that monster.

To be entirely honest, given the kinds of crazy shit these things survive, I'm not even sure traditional weapons would work on them. Unless you brought a nuke with you or something.

Fresh out of nukes, and it looks like my rocket launcher was stolen along with all my other gear, so there goes the next best thing.

[she.... she really doesn't sound like she's joking...]

So what exactly do we have to deal with on this planet, that makes near-immortal monsters necessary companions?

_{[Heather's definitely gotten the impression that this lady means business.]}

Other near-immortal monsters, mostly.

You don't want to be out hiking and then wind up getting squashed by a giant snake made of rocks. But at the same time, the people here would also rather you not shoot the giant rock snake with a rocket launcher.

Giant rock snakes? Sounds like home. [Well, kraggons are more like lizards than snakes, but whatever. DETAILS.] Do they breathe fire and ice too?

[Avoiding getting crushed is easy enough to avoid. But dealing with element-spewing monsters without Aspis or her other shield... she's gotta be prepared here.]

And just what else is out there, aside from rock snakes, fire dogs, and floating swords?

Not that I've seen, but then again, I've never trained one of those.

As for the rest, anything and everything you could imagine, pretty much. My brother has a pink fox with weird flesh feelers that will try and take food right out of your mouth while you're eating.

The lady of the house has a sparkly blue hellhound and a spherical seal that literally gets around by rolling like a ball.

And our pool is full of sharks and my giant alligator that can shoot jets of water strong enough to punch through a wall.

Basically if you don't wind up with a personal zoo straight out of a Doctor Seuss book after being here awhile, you're doing something wrong.

... Can you tell me more about these creatures?

[She's not curious. She just. Wants to prepare herself. That's totally it. If she's going to be stuck here and if she's going to be forced to adapt to this way of living and fighting, then she might as well get a head-start on learning everything she can about it.

That's totally the only reason. Yep. No sense of curiosity at all.

... The ones I mentioned specifically, or just in general?

_{[One good thing about being here long enough is the ability to literally be an information dispenser if you have to, even if you're not the bookish type to have been sitting down and researching the whole time.]}

'Cause I mean, if you want I could tell you the meaning behind the dumb nickname of every Pokemon in this house, like a crazy cat lady, but I'm guessing you want, uh... broader information.