victory_road | audio || optional action

--ome in! Anyone!

[Yikes, man, tone down the yelling. The voice is frantic. Rightfully so, considering the last thing he remembered was being ejected into space. This is not the planet he thought he'd wind up on. There are humans here, and it looks like Earth.]

[But there's weird animals here. And no one seems concerned about a yelling, very upset man who just appeared out of nowhere.]

I don't know what's happened! I -- I need pickup, immediately!

[Yeah, he maybe only half listened to the explanations, but seriously, things were bad a minute ago.]

Pidge! Coran! [And then, almost grudgingly:] Lance -- someone pick up! This is Shiro and something's gone wrong! I don't know where I am -- I don't know what's happened, but I need someone to answer me now!

[Give him a few minutes to calm down. To pace and refocus himself. To listen and read up on the situation. Anyone who happens by the area sometime after the basically panicked broadcast can find him in New Bark Town. Under a tree, just...]

[What is he supposed to do now?]

[There's an Aron huddled up by his leg, but he doesn't seem to pay it much attention, right now.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And if you can manage to get the Fly HM and the ability to use it, all the better. It'll help if you need to come back to New Bark Town to pick someone up.

The HM?

A special disk that allows Flying-type Pokémon to learn how to fly in battle or with a human passenger.

[A beat.]

Don't ask me why they need a disk to do that. It's a mystery for the ages.

... Right. Okay.

Seems like there's a lot we just have to accept here.

Yeah. The other option is to never stop fighting against this world's logic, and that's both unproductive and tiring.

When on an alien planet... go with the flow, huh?

Unless the flow is morally unacceptable, but that's not an issue around here, barring strong objections against newly-hatched creatures fighting.

If they want to, I don't think I could stop them.

Not unless you're willing to block them with your own body, but that just leads to pain and tears.

I think I'll let the little guy handle that kind of thing, honestly.

He'll like that. Barring a few exceptions, battling is both their job and their hobby.

A few exceptions? Like what?

A lot of Chanseys end up as nurses, while Growlithes and Kangaskhans often work for the police force. And there's always the rare individual Pokémon that just doesn't enjoy fighting.

Hopefully, I won't need to meet the police force. But I'll keep that in mind.

Don't worry, they shouldn't approach you unless you decide to skip town without keeping your job for five whole days. Or commit an actual crime.

Since neither of those sound like me, I don't think there's anything to worry about.

Good for you. Otherwise you'd have to dodge them for weeks, and that pretty much means camping out in a cave and hope they forget about you.

Wow. They sound persistent.

They are. But that's a good thing, because they show the same persistence when they have to find kids lost in a freak snowstorm.

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