Empty words, wicked games

[tearsofademon]

Who: Ryner and Sion
Where: Ryner and Sion's house in Ecruteak
When: May 17, shortly after the Type: Null announcement
Summary: The co-leaders of the Collegiate Gym discuss Silph Co.'s latest announcement.
Rating: ...I mean, this is LOLH, and discussion of canon atrocities is probably going to come up in this log because reasons. So... PG for now?
Log:

To be completely fair, Ryner hasn't trusted Johto's scientists further than he can throw them since... well, since the Shedinja incident, really. While naturally caused Shedinja will not have this ability, Professor Oak had said. He'd never bothered to clarify where they had come from, or how he had known what kind of special Pokeball to get Kurt to make to contain them. (Ryner still has one of those black pokeballs stashed in his inventory somewhere, unused. Probably never will be.) There was definitely something he'd known and hadn't mentioned.

Combine that with the chronic lack of research availability around these parts, as well as multiple cases of oh this other land mass was totally always here and in contact with us despite how no document has ever mentioned it once, really! in the last few years, and Ryner was not exactly keen on the local scientific authorities.

That said, this was a new one. And yet too familiar at the same time.

Fully customizable. Made-to-order. Beta-testing. As if they were objects, not living things.

Well, if there was any doubt before that Pokemon Experimentation was going on, and not just by the local organizations of ill refute...

He finished this sip of tea before letting out a tired sigh. "Man, this is such a pain in the ass..."

Comments

[dreamsofahero]

Sion glanced up, wondering what was on Ryner's mind now. Oh, he could think of plenty of things that his friend would classify as "a pain in the ass," certainly, but the question was always which one. Especially since usually Ryner wasn't the brooding sort.

"What now?" Sion asked, eyebrow raised.

[tearsofademon]

"You've seen that announcement, right?" There was no reason to dance around the point with Sion. "The one from Silph Co."

He, if no one else, would understand exactly what was wrong with this picture.

[dreamsofahero]

"The manufactured pokemon." Sion did indeed jump straight to the issue. "What in particular about it?" He could think of quite a few things to comment on, himself...

[tearsofademon]

"Everything," he groaned, leaning forward to put his head in his hands. At least with Porygon, he assumed the computer code had grown sentient by accident or something, and Silph Co. just took credit for the findings because they could. Computer code was similar enough to magic, albeit on a more limited scale. It wasn't that outlandish for a country where horses were on fire.

But these were clearly purposeful experiments, made solely for the purpose of dancing to the whims of beings who wanted to play gods, lives brought into existence and molded solely for the sake of some twisted variety of 'progress' or something.

How much pain did the ones deemed 'failures' suffer, he couldn't help but wonder.

...And if he was honest with himself, he'd already come to a decision, but. "And on top of that, being a gym leader is gonna make things even more needlessly complicated," he said, not looking up.

[dreamsofahero]

That was a rather vague, but not precisely surprising response. Not that Ryner struck Sion as being evasive, more just the usual difficulty in expressing himself, really. But that was beside the point; what had really caught Sion's attention were the implications of that last remark.

"What do you have in mind that you'd need to be so concerned about that?"

[tearsofademon]

He took a breath to settle himself as he worked out how to phrase it, before glancing up at Sion, expression tired and somewhat overwhelmed, but with a hint of determination.

"...How long should I wait? I don't want to give the impression that I support what they're doing or anything. At all. Because I don't. But if I wait too long, they'll probably start to wonder why the new gym that wants to get its foot in the door with supporting the latest research took so long. And I don't want to attract their attention more than I have to, if I can help it."

And yet not going at all was apparently off the table. How odd, for Ryner to actively decide to adopt a Pokemon like this. But then, this was a special case, wasn't it.

[dreamsofahero]

"... I see."

Sion didn't give an immediate answer beyond that. Ryner's question merited some thought, after all.

"I imagine that waiting at least a few weeks would appear to be acting in a prudent manner. Someone who's interested but skeptical, or at least wise enough not to commit to something blindly, would presumably take at least that long to review the available information, perhaps even research a few things, before coming to a decision. Then, if one wants to make sure any preparations are in place to accommodate any issues a new, unknown pokemon might present, that would take some time, as well. The gym may emphasize research and learning, but in an orderly fashion.

"But if you don't want to wait too long, either, then you probably would want to do so within two months at the most. Any longer and it may appear that you aren't that interested."

[tearsofademon]

He let his head fall deeper into his hands again, though more to rest his temples on his fingers than to actually bury his face. "Okay," he uttered, working through Sion's words.

That all made sense. Doing one's due diligence to make sure everything was ready to take the Type: Null in would only be expected, right? Not jumping on the band wagon eagerly without looking, while still not waiting too long. Watching to see what can be expected, and preparing so that there aren't any unforeseen disasters or anything.

(How did Sion stay so level-headed about this, Ryner would never know, but he was grateful for it. He himself could only picture Arua, and Peria, and everyone he'd ever known who'd been treated as mere objects, toys, tools by humanity, by the gods, by the world...)

(...this paled in comparison to everything he had to go through back home as king on a daily basis, and Ryner couldn't even do this without freezing up. How the hell did Sion do it.)

"...Okay," he managed to say again. "I'll... do it end of June, then. A day trip to Saffron, or something. About six weeks should be okay then, right?"