victory_road | 001 || action, video

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001 || action, video

[ACTION for Route 1, Oct 9-11]
[Fishing sounded great when he first thought of it, but now that he's finally sitting down to the task, it's. It's pretty boring. Noel is fiddling with his device, the fishing pole stuck into the dirt next to him, lure peacefully bobbing along. Behind him, a Poochyena is rolling around, occasionally yipping, growling, and running from one part of the clearing to another.]

If you don't pipe down, you'll scare all the fish away.

[Poochyena huffs, but calms down a little bit, finding a pile of leaves to rustle around in. Surprisingly, a few minutes later, the line begins to bob up and down. Noel puts the video down, tugs at the line, struggling a bit, and finally.........pulls a magikarp, flopping all over the place, from the water. He stares at it. It stares at him. He looks at Poochyena. Poochyena looks at the magikarp. There's an awkward, silent moment.]

... Maybe just vegetables for dinner, then.

[Slightly...disturbed to find his Potential Dinner staring at him in such distress, he throws the magikarp back.]

[VIDEO: Oct. 12]
[The feed turns on, capturing one of the tree-lined streets of Viridian City. The video pans slowly, capturing more greenery as it records the street. People, buildings, pokemon. It's peaceful. There's a click, followed by another one as the camera pans around to show Noel. Poochyena is sleeping on his back in the background, happily snoring away.]

Alright. I've been here a few days, so I sort of get the picture. Sounds like a lot of other people out there woke up in the same situation as me.

[Hope has answered plenty of his questions, but naturally, he doesn't have all the answers -- not when some of the questions are so totally meta. Noel frowns, looking around thoughtfully at the trees.]

... This is all real, right? I'm not sure I could dream this up if I tried.

[Poochyena stirs, rolling over and yawning. Noel looks at him, expression going from wistful to a little hopeless. Maybe even worried.]

I don't get it. Who exactly picked me for this place? I've never been good with pets.

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[Hope has you covered, Noel. He's been working at the local PokeCenter so he has the cash to get some dinner. Fast food isn't all that healthy, but he didn't exactly have a way to store fresh food nor did he own a house or apartment.

Hope comes up with a bag with a couple burgers and some fries.]

Guess it's a good thing I decided to pick something up for us. No bites?

[Since Hope wasn't in the habit of keeping his pokemon in the pokeballs, they waited patiently outside the Center before following him around again. They settled along the bank now. Including big Taejin the Onix]

[THANK GOODNESS HONESTLY. Poochyena hears --or smells, probably-- him coming before Noel does, trotting over as if one of those burgers belongs to him. Noel turns a few minutes later, first to lecture his pokemon and then to offer a bit of a smile.]

Good call.

[His face changes at the question.] ...No. No bites yet.

[What he means is "yes, there was a bite, but it was staring at me in an unnerving way so I decided not to eat it."]

This fishing thing is tougher than I thought it'd be.

[Hope keeps the bag out of reach of all the Pokemon, honestly. Digging in to pull out the wrapped up burger to hand over to Noel, followed by the fries. They already had water on them and besides, it wasn't healthy already so Hope didn't get any soda ~~did Noel even know what soda was?~~

Hope then sat down and before digging in, pulled out the Poke food he bought for his team and Poochyena. Taejin ate rocks (sure enough, the big guy was looking for yummy boulders in the water, keeping close to the shoreline]

At least you're trying. You can actually catch Pokemon that way, for the water types. They're not edible though.

[Between nomming a delicious burger --seriously, in the past several hundred years, it's as if he's forgotten how good food can taste-- and watching Taejin eat rocks, Noel doesn't notice that something is tugging at the line again.]

They're not?

[Then what's the point?!??!?!??!

He does finally notice the line bobbing up and down; he re-wraps his burger and starts reeling in whatever he's got.

...It's...another magikarp. He stares at it for a second. No -- it...it's the same magikarp. It has the same spot of discolored scales as the last one. It flops back and forth on the line, staring at him.]

You again?

Again?

[He shoos Poochyena anyway from the nownfree burger as he looked at Noel. Didn't he just say he didn't catch anything?]

Maybe you should just keep it.

[He cringes.] I think, at least. I caught one a little while ago, but...it was looking at me funny.

[As if that explains anything. At all. He frowns at the magikarp and starts fiddling with the line.]

...It still is looking at me funny.

[So he tosses it back!!!]

Ah- Noel!

[C'mon bro, it just looked all pathetic and stuff. Nothing harmful.]

It probably just wants a friend.

[did u see the way it was looking at him hope it was positively weird]

--Huh? [It's back in the water already. Noel tosses the line again, putting the fishing rod back in the water while he goes back to his food.]

... A friend? You think so?

[They can have friends???]

Why not? It's how I got Nora. The rest were from eggs.

[Including the one in his backpack.]

Nora? Which one is that?

[The line bobs again, as if something's caught on it. Noel eyes it for a moment, weighing his options. He didn't want this -- any of it. But he sure does know how it feels to be lonely, so maybe...

He grabs the fishing rod, and reels it in again. Yep. There's that same magikarp. Noel shakes his head, taking it off the line.]

Okay, okay. You win. We can be friends. Just don't make any trouble.

[Hope points to the farfetch'd with a fry.]

Bart tried to steal her leek, I gave it back and made him apologize. Nora then proceeded to basically discipline everyone like a mom, including me. [He laughed a bit.] So I named her Nora.

[He watches the pathetic fish wear Noel down and he laughed again.]

At least keep it in a PokeBall. I don't think you want it flopping about on dry land.

[Aw, he made a friend!]

What will you name it?

[Ah, family drama. A faint smile flickers across his face.] Even you, huh? That takes guts. [He's only ever seen one other person who could lecture Hope -- and that was Serah.

Noel stares at the Pokémon flopping around for a moment, looking from it pathetically back at Hope.]

...Do they really live in those things? It just...it looks so small.

[He feels bad for it!!!]

I didn't even think about names. Do they all get names?

I still have the bruise on my knee. [He said it with a laugh.]

Somehow, the technology allows for them to. We should ask if Magikarp are the type to live on dry land, otherwise it might be best for it to either remain in some body of water or the pokeball.

[He shook his head, taking a moment to take another bite of the burger.]

Up to you whether you want to name them. I wasn't naming them originally, but it seemed to be the best course of action once I started meeting others with the same pokemon as myself. Nora is considered a shiny type, so her coloration is different and easy to differentiate. But most pokemon come in the same colors.

I'm sorry. We've pretty much figured out this place-- except for that one question. Nobody knows why we're here.

I'm guessing that means nobody knows how we get home, either.

[Not that he's aching for that, exactly.]

You've figured it out, huh? Talking to Hope, it sounds like people've been here a long time. Is that the case for you?

No, we don't. Did you leave something important behind?

I just had my first year anniversary a few days ago. It's not that strange for people to be around that long at all.

Maybe. It's hard to be sure.

... A year? I guess it could be worse. But the way you say that, it sounds like not everyone is here that long.

Well, when you go back, everything will be as you left it. So you don't have to worry! I mean, I could understand if you did anyways though.

It really depends. Some people have been around for years and years, and some are only here for a month or two and then just vanish. It's totally random.

Interesting. Like time freezes while you're here, almost.

Honestly, so far "random" seems to be the best description of this place I've heard.

Pretty much. I'm glad though, because no one back home will be worried about me.

I know, right? But after you're here for awhile, you start to see the nature of things. The Pokemon world is really harmonious.

Sounds like you've got some people at home you care about a lot.

Harmonious. Yeah, I'm kind of seeing that, so far. It does seem like people depend on them here...does that go both ways?

Just family and friends. I'm sure almost everyone feels the same way.

The people here really do depend on Pokemon! Sometimes I wonder who's the real Trainer in some teams. They're so protective of us, and do so many things we can't... Maybe they pity us a little, for being plain ol' humans.

That's true. No one wants to think that they're making people worry.

They sound almost like pets, in that way. Isn't it cats that try to bring their people food? ...but I think I'd pity us too, if I had the abilities some of these guys have. I can see why they'd feel like we can't get along without them.

We must seem like wimps! [Kazuki laughs.] But I'm glad most of them are so friendly. Their world is so fascinating! And I've become such good friends with my team.

I'm sure you'll find they're much more than just pets.

It's real, but nobody knows why anyone was picked. Might as well be random, honestly.

Random, huh? Honestly, that probably makes the most sense to me anyway.

Edited 2018-10-12 21:08 (UTC)

Easiest way to explain all types of people that end up here.

... And I mean, it's not like this is a place that seems to be like... Desperately needing people from other worlds to save it, or whatever other cliche.

Has anyone counted up how many different people have come here from other places?

No, I'm not getting the idea that this place needs to be saved, either. No sense of urgency.

Not that I know of. But since when someone just up and gets sent back home seems to random too, it'd probably become outdated fast.

Right? It's almost a vacation even with the travelling.

That's fair. And if the person keeping the list leaves, it's probably done for anyway. So there's not much use in it.

A vacation? I kind of like the sound of that.

Basically.

Ha, yeah, it's a nice change of pace for me, at least.

"Change of pace" huh? I can't argue with that. Are things hectic where you come from?

So much hectic (not anymore at least), as very much in a near constant routine.

Constant routine?

Yeah, it was a lot of the same every day. School, work, try to solve a murder...

I mean, we'd just wrapped up the latter, but still.

It's a phenomena that's been happening for close to a decade. It's real, self contained, and won't stay in memory when you return home. Or return to whatever state you were in beforehand.

Overall, I doubt any of us were picked for any particular reason. You'll adapt one way or another.

Welcome to the Pokemon World.

A decade, really? And no one really knows why. Interesting.

When you say "won't stay in memory" -- does that mean there are people here who have left, and then come back?

I'm much better at hunting animals than training them, but we'll see. I'll have to figure something out.

Thanks. You've been really helpful.

Yes. People come and go. Some remember. Most don't. People can also find themselves in brief, comatose states, where in some way, they've... returned home? While also being here, only to wake up remembering time passing there in the meantime. It's not a phenomena I have a great deal of personal experience with.

[ Only secondary. Besides, she doesn't think achieving first hand knowledge would be helpful in her case. Anything she learns is bound to be Bad News. ]

It may help to think of them more like teammates you need to help train in order to improve their skills, which may or may not include helping them learn how to fight effectively. Battling is one of the most obvious things people indulge in here, but it isn't the only thing, or the only way trainers and pokemon relate to each other.

Ah, passing along information that you'll learn sooner or later just speeds up the process. I've only been here for around a month or so myself.

Honestly, as someone who's been here longer than most people, over time it feels more and more like the people who come here... need this place somehow.

Not like literally but a break from whatever they're going through in their own worlds.

Or a second chance, or something.

Maybe not everybody, but... a lot of people.

... Honestly, that makes some sense. Especially if things are really "on hold" for people back at home. It's like everything is on pause.

I can see the appeal of that...especially if people might not have a home left to go to.

Although I could already use a break from the music, to be honest.

Yeah, guilty as charged.

_{[She gives her hand an ironic little wave-- guess who basically has nothing back home except an uncertain future and probably a spot on the FBI watchlist because she was found after her father's mysterious stabbing death with like five guns and a bloody katana.]}

But OH yeah, the music-- don't worry, it really does fade into the background after awhile.

Annoying as HELL at first but I barely even notice it now.

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001 || action, video

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