⊕ 001 & action option

[unabates]

[ he's not into showing his face off. once he verifies there's a public network and an audio option, he begins to opt for that. but then he looks at all the videos of people and their pokemon, and decides o a different option.

the video opens on the sandy beaches of cherrygrove. his rockruff, bandit, is in the surf, chasing what looks like a stick. he brings it back to jack, who pets his head and then throws it again. his location will also ping as cherrygrove. ]

The name's Jack.

[ his voice is distinctly older, and very rough. it sounds like he may have damaged his throat at some point in his life. his hand, when he throws the stick or pets bandit, is gloved. ]

I've been looking around this place and it looks like the consensus is that people can't go home on their own. I'm not here to ask how to get home, since it seems like that's been covered pretty well.

I wanna talk to those of you that have gone home, or know people that did. And... for those that don't, how you're dealing with not being able to.

[ he ends the video on that note, throwing the stick again for bandit. ]

( cherrygrove )

[ for those actually in his vicinity, they can likely hear jack make the post. other than that, he's spending some time on the beach, playing with bandit and getting his energy out. he's just as open to a battle if you two have similarly leveled pokemon.

or maybe bandit, with all his energy, comes running up to your pokemon and headbutts them. at which point jack follows. ]

Bandit. Come back here.

[ the wagging of his tail doesn't amuse jack. ]

Sorry about him.

Comments

[meteorman]

Uh.

He didn't give me his name.

[Dora...? Is this a specific famous ghost he doesn't know about? Possible. There may be a whole roster of cryptids in Jack's world that don't exist in his own.]

He was more of a Jasper the Agreeable Ghost sort of type.

[unabates]

[ jack shakes his head a little, giving a chuckle. ]

No, it's - Dora the Explorer was a show from when I was a kid. She was always travelling around and stopping people from stealing her things.

[ so, g-rated adventurer ghost was clearly the explanation here. ]

What kind of G-rated adventures did Jasper wanna drag you around on?

[meteorman]

I don't know. He never got that far before a pair of category twos came and chased him off.

[And thank god for that.]

Really all that I learned from him was that I was glad ghosts were not my primary area of study. And to not take a ghost to a rave unless you're interested in seeing what a ghost's skeleton looks like.

... I did not take him to a rave. [SHOULD PROBABLY... CLARIFY...] The blacklight was one I had with me for not-at-all rave-related purposes.

[unabates]

[ jack gives a little quirk of his eyebrow, taking a drink as ford hastens to explain that he didn't actually take him to a rave. ]

I would have questions on what exactly you were studying about ghosts, if you were taking them to raves.

[ but, he smirks a little. ]

Were the category twos more trouble or did they leave you alone?

[meteorman]

They were mostly after the category one. It was the Dream Hipster that was a real issue.

[Not that he sounds particularly uh... traumatized? Mostly just disgruntled.]

A being that can shape dreams is one thing but a being that can shape dreams and is insufferable about it is another. Do you know how aggravating it is to be having a nightmare that keeps stopping and starting so some blowhard with a bad complexion can ask you if you got his heavy-handed symbolism?

[unabates]

Sounds like a dead film school reject on your hands there.

[ jack takes another sip and then rests his cheek against his hand, elbow on the table. ]

Nice to know that even ghosts and monsters can have egos. Guess that makes them easier to catch or stop?

[meteorman]

Sometimes. Hubris is certainly one of the easiest flaws to take advantage of.

[That's how they got Bill, after all. It's also kind of a heavy statement even in a fairly-innocuous context so instead of following up on that thought he downs the rest of his Paloma. He also makes no move to immediately order a second drink. Food, maybe? He'll think about it.]

Unless it's unicorns. Don't even bother with unicorns. It will never be worth it.

[unabates]

You're not wrong.

[ but jack can sense that's a subject not to touch, at least. he takes another sip of his drink, assessing if he'll need to order a fourth.

of course, he feels a little.. weighty, already. it's an odd sensation he's not used to feeling so fast. it makes him frown, but he ignores it for the moment. ]

Regular horses are already assholes, so I doubt giving one a pointy stick on its head would improve its attitude.

[meteorman]

It does not. All you get are pastel equines that think they can tell if you're a good person just by looking at you. As if 'good' is an easily-defined absolute and morality isn't relative.

[unabates]

No, see, you have to meet the asshole pointy horse's scale of good. Which, considering the legends about them - probably isn't that great in the first place.

[ he has to blink slowly after he says that. his body is already feeling heavy, much heavier than it usually would after a couple of drinks. at the same time, his head feels like it's much higher up.

he frowns deeply, and cuts off whatever ford was saying in response by placing a hand on his shoulder. ]

Ford. Buddy. Do they do anything to you when you arrive here? Say if you had somethin' changed about you.

[meteorman]

[Uh.

Ford looks down at the hand on his shoulder and then back at the man who just drank a lot of straight whiskey very quickly. His expression goes distinctly owlish.]

As far as I'm aware, changes upon arrival mainly hit those who weren't human before intake. Several among our number used to be of another species altogether and were given human bodies on arrival.

[He's met several aliens that he got to be really unhappy about not being able to meet as aliens. That's one of the reasons he's not too jazzed about the idea of Jheselbraum showing up here. Sure, he'd have a huge crush on her regardless, but if she's not ten feet tall with seven eyes and no nose then what's really the point?]

Then there's removal of weapons, which you already know about-- this covers built-in bionic enhancements; I know a man with a metal arm that functions as an arm but not much else, when it used to have extra capabilities.

[It made arm-wrestling that man a lot less of a challenge than it could have been, which was sad.]

Occasionally a few things slip through; oddly-colored eyes, sharp teeth, but that tends to be it. It's a defense mechanism, a self-regulation algorithm the universe uses so that newcomers don't violate the local laws of normalcy. Many universes have them; it's far better to assimilate while on vacation than find yourself as, say, a 3D being in a 2D world. I would not like to repeat that experience.

[unabates]

[ that is... a lot for jack to take in when the whiskey is hitting him all at once. he can't say he hears all of it, but he absorbs most of what ford is talking about. the universe equalizes.

it makes normal. which jack has not been for nearly five decades. he squeezes ford's shoulder a little, before he lets go, putting that hand against his forehead. ]

So - if you were the subject of genetic changes and enhancement, it'd wipe those changes out. Right?

[meteorman]

I... imagine so. I haven't personally seen such a case.

Before right now, I assume.

[Stanford Pines: able to read between the lines, very occasionally, when it's not anything to do with interpersonal matters.]

We should get some food in you before you fall of your stool.

[WHERE'S THAT AIPOM]

[unabates]

You like science. Now you get to do the observation thing.

[ he, very nearly, doesn't get through observation without fucking it up. He braces both his elbows on the bar, covering his face. ]

Water, too.

[ under his breath: ] A damn idiot is what I am.

[meteorman]

[This is not a science he was expecting to do tonight but alright, here we go.

The Aipom scampers over and Ford puts in an order for a water, some edamame and some karaage. The Aipom takes one look at Jack and seems to get why; no doubt it's seen that particular slump before.]

If it makes you feel better I had no idea that wasn't simply your normal baseline. My old college roommate was probably a third your weight and that was around his usual pace.

I just assumed it was a farm boy thing. Something in the corn that makes you immune.

[Is that... farm racist?]

[unabates]

[ jack... actually looks up from his hands and gives ford a bit of a side eye for that. then he manages a laugh, but stops pretty quickly. everything's too heavy - don't need to fall off. ]

My normal baseline is a whole bottle, and I wouldn't even be here. If I knew I was back to where I was before...

[ he would have paced himself.

also, ya farm boy racist. ]

Side effect of the changes. Alcohol's a poison, and all that.

[meteorman]

Anything can be a poison in sufficient quantities.

[Good, great, what a good thing to say. He's saved having to answer for it when Jack's water arrives. The food's probably going to be a bit longer, but in the meantime the water should help.]

So your 'changes' -- they enabled you to repel toxic substances?

[Seems useful. Ford could have probably made use of that all those times he had to figure out if something on an alien planet was deadly or edible by just putting it in his mouth.]

[unabates]

[ jack obligingly takes a deep drink of the water, at least. he's not about this life either, sorry ford.

at least, ford asking questions jack can answer helps keep him focused. ]

One of many things they do - did. Superior strength, superior healing, survivability. I could be shot in the heart and get up minutes later, and be healed in an hour. You could drop me from the desert into Antarctica and I would be able to adjust, no problem.

[meteorman]

Really?

[Neat! Any possible awkwardness is completely forgotten in the wake of how cool that is. Ford is already reaching into one of the many, many pockets in his coat for one of his several notebooks and a pen. Gotta note this down.]

Do you know roughly what your upper and lower temperature limits were? Were you able to go longer without food or water? Could you regrow limbs, or did your self-healing only extend to repairing damaged structures and not to producing new ones?

[AAAAAAAAAAA]

[unabates]

[ jack shakes his head a little bit, grimacing. ]

Sorry - I was the subject, not the scientist. I know I could last longer in freezing than a human could, and basically never got heatstroke.

We could, but we generally had a higher caloric intake. I never lost a limb, but I survived a building being blown up and dropped on me - so, maybe.

[meteorman]

Fascinating.

That you bear scars indicates the healing factor wasn't perfect -- unless you were given those prior to the beginning of the experiment?

[Either option is interesting. Perfect healing means a body that barely changes. Would that cut into aging? Surely not, unless Jack is even older than he looks or began the treatment very late in life. Healing that leaves scars implies an imperfect method, or perhaps a lack of concern for efficacy beyond what would be necessary for survival. But some scars can restrict mobility; would those be wiped away?

Why can't this place just leave all the cool stuff intact so he can study it properly. It's such a pain.]

[unabates]

Most of them are after it. The threshold seems to be "should have killed me" for leaving one.

[ again, see: building should have rightly killed him.

either way, for the moment the aipom spares him by bringing the ordered edamame, at the very least. jack gives it a thanks, pulling it towards himself and grabbing a few to stuff into his mouth.

ugh. ]

[meteorman]

Oh, you should--

[Wince.]

You'll want to take them out of the pod first.

That does make sense, though. With so much energy going toward keeping you alive there must be very little left over to go toward preventing a scar.

[Even with boosted healing capabilities, there must be only so much to go around. It needs to be rationed properly.]

MONCH MONCH

[unabates]

... Right.

[ well, a couple of these are crushed. don't look as jack as he SPITS THEM BACK OUT IN HIS HAND and begins pulling them open. drunk idiot.

jack makes a grunt of agreement. ]

There were a hundred of us that went through that program. By the end of it we were less than ten.

Probably checked the limb part on the other guys.

LOV THE CRONCH

[meteorman]

Yeesh.

[Is that about the mangled beans or the implication? Maybe a little of both.]

Congratulations on being one of the lucky ones.

[He lowers his pen, flipping it idly back and forth across his fingers. This raises a lot of other questions and he can't decide which is the most important.]

... What exactly were they preparing you to fight?