victory_road | video || action for Goldenrod

Entry tags:

video || action for Goldenrod

-- Red! Hey!

[Haunter is carrying the 'gear, apparently. Following diligently after its trainer like some shaky-cam show cameraman. Haunter's claws are visible around the edges of the camera frame. While they both chase a Torracat through the tall grass just outside Goldenrod.]

[A Torracat who is engaging in epic battle with a Nidoran♀.]

Seriously!? Get --

[They don't get there in time. The battle ends, with Torracat victorious. And... a flash of light. Which clears to reveal...]

[Incineroar.]

... back... here...

[Silence. Except for, you know, Incineroar bellowing in glee. Shiro just. Slowly looks over at the camera. With the camera turning to look at him in return.]

Okay then. That happened.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Bribery.

Really.

Sure! You know, "hey Armin, there's a bookstore in the next city," "hey Armin, look at this cool Pokemon on the next route," "yo Armin, did you know there's an aquarium in Cerulean?" That kind of stuff.

Oh, that kind.

That makes more sense then, I guess.

I mean, a new book would probably work as a bribe too. I should try that the next time he doesn't want to go hiking.

And what happens when the books get too heavy to cart around with you guys?

Good question. We're actually starting to reach that point.

[Someone ~~Jean~~ has a growing collection of Stephen Kringler books.]

Maybe rent a locker somewhere or something?

Why not go big? I hear people are buying houses in Goldenrod a lot.

Really? I didn't know people around here could do that.

[It's definitely an idea, though...]

But not Goldenrod. Goldenrod is kind of small, and there isn't room for Armin to let his whale out.

I was surprised too.

[He actually laughs.]

Okay, you're the first person to say that -- but I get why. Maybe you guys should invest in a houseboat.

[The rare Shiro Laugh appears! Achievement unlocked!]

A houseboat?

[Is that like... a house that's also a boat? Jean ponders it for a second, then laughs and shakes his head.]

That wouldn't work. Bertolt gets seasick.

[Dad Laugh Achieved!]

Yeah -- a floating house. Sometimes they float, sometimes they stay tied onto a dock.

You guys all going to stay together, huh?

That... wow. That's cool and weird at the same time.

[Just imagine, a floating house.]

Yeah, why wouldn't we? We've been together for this long, no real reason to change now.

[Not like any of them are hiding some horrible, monstrous betrayal or anything...]

Is it? Not something you've heard of before?

[Boy just wait until they inevitably talk about space travel.]

I'm glad you guys could be here together, then. It always helps to have people at your backs.

We don't have oceans in our world. None of the water is big enough to float a house in it.

[Don't blow his mind too soon, Shiro.]

It does. I know it made living here a lot easier when we all showed up at the same time.

No ocean? Really? What about lakes?

[What the heck.]

... yeah. I bet it did.

Lakes and rivers, sure, but nobody lived on them! Just merchant ships going by sometimes.

You should have seen us when we saw the ocean for the first time here. It was crazy.

[There may have been tears. And tasting the water. It's just as salty as advertised.]

Are you sure? Maybe someone lived on one of those ships.

[He's sort of teasing, though.]

I'm sorry I missed it. You guys are really into oceanography, huh?

No, they just went up and down the rivers. They'd dock in towns.

Armin more than me. I think the ocean is pretty cool and all, but him... he's crazy about it.

Huh. You'd think someone would figure living on them would be easier.

... yeah, I've noticed. He talks about it like I do space exploration.

What? Space exploration? What's that?

[Oh no, Jean, now you've gone and done it!]

[JUST. GRINS.]

You know those stars you see at night? It means going up there. Seeing what's out there.

What?

[Sorry, Shiro, but that sounds too wild to be believed.]

You've been up in the stars? Are they a lot closer than they look?

[He laughs again, shaking his head. Yeah that was pretty much the reaction Armin had, too.]

I have, and no, they're even further away than they look. Millions of years away, some of them.

[These are kids who were amazed by hot showers and refrigerators; it's not hard to impress them with technology, especially when talking about something as outlandish as space exploration.]

How can something be millions of years away? That's not how you measure distance.

[Gosh, Shiro, next you're going to be telling Jean that you made the Kessel Run in under twelve parsecs.]

They're that far away. It's like... if you turned on a light at that distance, with nothing to obstruct it?

It would take millions of years for us, on this planet, to be able to see that light come on.

[HE THINKS THIS IS REALLY COOL, OKAY JEAN, SORRY.]

If you tried putting it in miles? Or anything else? It's just too far.

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