victory_road | [Video]

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_{[The video is dark and out of focus at first. The Poke'Gear is pointed at a pitiful little fire that is being contained inside of a metal bucket. It doesn't give off much light but it does illuminate JW's Doduo who is peacefully loafed for the night, still with his saddle on.]

[JW's cameraman skills still haven't improved as part of one finger obscures a corner of the lense once again. Cloth brushes against the mic and the grouchy man's breathing is...hesitant almost? He certainly doesn't launch right into his broadcast like he did last time. When he does speak, he is tense.]}

It's been a while. Got sick of waiting around for fish so I headed north. Caught a duck with eyebrows.

_{[A hand comes into view clutching a Great Ball. JW's got a few bandaids on his fingers. JW starts to speak again but Pokemon cry cuts through the night and JW can hardly stop himself from gasping. To those more seasoned, it's easily identified as a couple of Skorupi having a territorial scuffle.]}

Uh--! Saw...some of those weird bug kids battling each other with a Metapod. Look, I'm shit at this magic cock fighting whatever but even I know that wasn't going to go anywhere so I stepped in and--

_{[JW pauses again as he is cut off by the ominous and gelatinous sound of a Gulpin mating call somewhere out in the dark. The camera jostles as JW tries to keep it steady and look behind himself. One of Skipper and Gilligan's heads lifts but doesn't seem too alarmed. JW hurriedly carries on with his stream-of-consciousness.]}

Look, I gotta ask. Why the hell do half of you have your hair dyed green and pink and whatever? Did I miss something before I got here? Some movement I'm not aware of? _{[A bird call echoes in the dark and JW raises his voice to speak over it.]} I saw a toddler in a stroller with purple hair before I left Olive Vine! WHO IS DYING BABY HAIR? Gilligan, what are you--

_{[The feed cuts.]}

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I take it such colors don't occur naturally in your world? Where I'm from, while uncommon, that sort of thing isn't unheard of; I presumed it was similar here.

*nevermind that his world has magic and such too to explain a lot of it....*

Um, because dying your hair is fun?

[Have a teenage girl with teal hair.]

_{[The video is facing him this time. There are pine needles in his hair and on his shirt.]}

Nawp. Nothin' wild like that back home unless you pay good money for it.

_{[He can't see very well but he can see that blob of color on his screen has a face attached to it.]}

I'm sure it is but there's so much of it here. Is it some religious thing...

Maybe it's a fashion trend that got really popular?

I mean look at this place. The entire world is pretty much devoted to one concept. If hair dye suddenly became 'stylish', or something. I wouldn't be surprised if half the people here decided to change their hair colour because of that.

I see... What is there, then, if I might ask?

_{[JW's eyes leave the screen as a noise in the dark gets his attention.]}

I guess. Kind of fucked up this world is so big on trends. Don't get me wrong, I was there when bell-bottoms started to be a thing but it was nothing like this. I don't like it.

You got your brown, black, blonde, and red--and not red like blood red. Red like the way copper is red or the way rust is red.

Interesting. All of those exist where I'm from, but there's still others beside that.

*he was born with his own silvery hair exactly the color it is now, for one*

I don't think anything is like this level of obsession on one thing. Nothing you can really do though. Unless you have, like a way to stop everyone in the world here from spending all their time on pokemon.

Which, probably not.

So, you can either fight it and make yourself miserable, or just figure out what parts you like and ignore the rest. Personally, I'm exploring and doing the scavenger hunt at the moment.

_{[This kid has one hell of a level head on her shoulders. He hasn't really thought about what he does like about this place. There's not much.]}

I'll get back to you if I find something.

_{[A grunt--not dismissive, just...a grunt. JW is pondering over how--in his recent and very rapid experience of being thrown out of one world and into another--that would be the one thing that stuck out with so many people here from so many places.]}

Coulda been weirder. Coulda been the number of legs ya'll have instead.

[This place is remarkably chill compared to her world/life. It's a lot easier to be calm here. Also, natural optimist.]

I'm sure you'll find something. This place is pretty big.

Well you're optimistic, aren't you?

_{[It's hard to tell if he's being shitty or not from his tone. He still sounds tense. Tense is the word.]}

Well, we certainly don't have creatures of various sizes that yet can somehow fit into balls the size of you fist, though.

*there's definitely far stranger things here than hair colors in his opinion*

That's me. Guilty as charged.

[Sorry, not ashamed. The fun part is....she has every reason to be a bitter cynical person but somehow isn't.]

Besides, this place is like a vacation. We'll forget about it all whenever we get dragged back to our own worlds. Which could be at any point in time. Might as well try to enjoy yourself here during the break from reality.

[Alex is team, never send me home.]

This isn't a--

_{[JW is cut off by more Skoropie chatters in the distance and hunches his shoulders. He lowers his voice to hiss into the device.]}

This isn't a vacation! This is some backwards Wonderland bullshit. Didn't you see that movie? Girl gets got!

[She shrugs slightly.]

Eh, where I'm from, anywhere not there can be considered a vacation. So yeah, I might be biased on how not bad it is here. But I don't think it's as bad as you think it is.

Also, I don't think I did see that movie. Unless there's some really dark adaptation of Alice in Wonderland I missed.

Yeah, okay, it could be worse.

_{[He drags a had down his face--not at Alex's point but to collect his nerve.]}

But it could be a lot better.

_{[He looks like he wants to continue that thought but holds back.]}

Again, biased. You take what you can get and work from there. I've learnt that lesson.

What would be better for you here? Just curious.

I'm working with it!

_{[Now he's getting a little heated. Which is what he was hoping for. If he's mad he can't be scared of GOD KNOWS WHAT out there in the dark. He starts counting the fingers on his non-gear-holding hand.]}

One-- some normal ass animals that don't breath fire when you stand too close to their nest you didn't know about. Two--cars. Three-- McDonalds. Four--while we're at it, can I get some goddamn medication? And glasses? AND PANTS THAT FIT? CAN I GET A BIG AND TALL OR A GODDAMNED JC PENNYS?

_{[JW's rant cuts off as he realizes his voice is echoing off the nearby trees and the woodland noises have stopped. His eyes roll to the treetops and he waits to see if anything descends upon him.]}

I don't want to be here.

Really? I never would have gotten that impression.

[Alex might be nice and an optimist but even she has her limits. So have some sarcasm.]

Also you know you can just buy, like most of that stuff here? Get a part time job if you don't want to fight pokemon, save up. Then you can get glasses and pants that fit. Also fast food and I have no idea about medication but I'm not a doctor. You want one of the nurses at the centers here for that.

How am I going to get a job without an address! Are they just gonna hire any random bastard with no checkable background--and by that I mean me--off the street?

_{[Why, yes, JW. Yes they will. Only he doesn't know that yet.]}

Uh...yeah?

You do realize that none of us have official backgrounds in this world? Half of the people here live in inns or hotels or just camp out. And a lot of them managed to get part time jobs.

Or they do what I do and earn money by battling the random people you meet on the routes.

_{[JW's bitter frown shatters into a blank, straight line and he blinks at her.]}

...what?

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?

_{[JW's screech startles Gilligan and Skipper in the background and he gives out a twin squawk of alarm.]}

_{[JW holds the gear way above his head and looks up at the camera.]}

I'VE BEEN TAKING LUNCH MONEY FROM STUPID BUG CATCHERS FOR MONTHS! THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

Uh.....glad to help?

[What is this, she doesn't even.]

Why, their parents, of course.

Who else would be dying their childrens' hair? It's hardly a great mystery.

_{[He's started laughing at this point. No background checks? It all made sense now! He'd met so many people who had been here so long that he just assumed that they'd been here long enough for that to just serve as their background.]}

I'm gonna sleep in a be-hed!

[Yup he's insane.....or possibly didn't bother to ask people questions about this place. Or both.]

Yeah. That's always a plus.

Ah, in case you also didn't know. The centers will put you up for like a few nights when you're in town. They have beds there too.

_{[It takes a moment for JW to recognize the man from several videos ago.]}

I dunno, a baby laundering business. Laugh. That was funny--ITS YOU! Fuck you! Get outta here, cop!

_{[JW takes a break from his current high to finally look back down at his screen.]}

For free...?

_{[It had taken a little while for JW to accept that they wold heal his Doduo for free. Vets were so expensive back home.]}

Who is paying the vet if not us? I know they aint makin it out of the snack machines alone.

Yeah. I mean they probably don't want people to stay there for months. But a few nights? Yeah, that's mostly what I've been doing when I'm not camping. It's also a popular place for people to work part time from what I can tell too.

[She shrugs. The money thing had been a bit confusing for her as well. Stuff cost money but yet some stuff didn't? It's taken some time to get used to.]

I have no idea. This place is so....strange in so many different ways. I guess one of them just happens to be that they don't charge money for things like that. Which is weird but I mean this place has ghosts and animals that shoot fire.

_{[JW looks thoughtful. He really wants to believe in that. He wants to lay back and accept that parts of this world were just...generous. That there wasn't some other motive, some debt he wasn't informed of that wasn't going to sneak up and bite him in the ass but there was that horrible anxiety voice nagging at the back of his mind. What if, what if, what if.]}

We'll see.

Yeah it's a bit hard to believe until you get used to.

[That at least she gets. In her case it helped because she'd sorta given into her worse then death fate ages??? ago (multiple times???) and this, well anything is better than that. So she's incredibly biased towards just going along with this world.]

I'm Alex by the way. Good luck with getting a job.

[He does laugh. But it might not be for the reason JW was hoping.]

But I haven't even joined the force yet!

_{[JW does the mature thing and covers his camera with his thumb so that he can no longer be seen.]}

Oh come now! Don't be that way! I'm here to answer your burning questions.

[Riku snickers, arms crossed and a crooked smile on his face. Man, that's quite the question, isn't it? Ha.

He's in his twenties and has silver hair, so he probably looks like an oddball himself.]

I just got stressed at an early age and went grey.

[He pauses.]

But in all seriousness, I'm pretty sure it's just natural here. Same thing back home, right down to my best friend having naturally spiky hair. No gel required.

_{[JW opens his mouth to agree with Riku because he's well aware that's a thing, but he continues onward so JW shuts his mouth until he's done.]}

Like I was sayin' to whats-his-face, its real outta left field for that one thing to be the thing that's different between my world and this world. B'sides all the killer animals.

[WELL LOOK WHO IT IS. Envy certainly remembers the...aggressive dance partner he'd had at prom.]

[Who doesn't seem to be having the best time out in the woods in the dark.]

It's because green hair is much more interesting. People in this world just have good taste.

[As he says this he absolutely runs a hand into his hair and flips it out like a prissy teenager.]

_{[Even on the tiny screen, JW recognizes that curtain of swamp hair. He screws his mouth up into a hard frown as Envy flaunts his locks.]}

I'm half blind and I have a few opinions about your taste.

Oh, I'm sure you do.

And I'm sure all of them are wrong.

Edited 2018-07-22 04:58 (UTC)

No, I'm pretty sure I'm right. Your hair did't even match your dress! What are you trying to be, a forest nymph? You got a way to go, bucko, shove off!

Honestly, weird hair colors seem pretty common across the multiverse. Wouldn't surprise me if there's a world where not having blue or green hair is uncommon and colors like brow blond are just unheard of.

[Shrugging, he continues-]

Couldn't tell you why it's like this, but I'd say it's pretty tame overall.

Oh, my hair didn't match? I don't think you have a whole lot of room to talk after showing up at a fancy party looking like you just crawled through five dumpsters and a thrift store.

At least I brush my hair.

_{[JW draws in an enraged breath.]}

This shirt is a family heirloom! And excuse me! You do? You could have fooled me! You look like a horse!

[Okay "horse" is a new one, Envy has to admit.]

Have you ever even seen a horse?

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