☆78☆ [Video]

[tearsofademon]

[Today, Ryner is broadcasting from the kitchen. (Gasp, shock, horror.) He's at the counter with a cutting board, and appears to be slicing an apple. Nothing big.]

So. Those new Pokemon that've been showing up. Pretty much on schedule, honestly. Been a couple years since the last time there was a batch of new species, I'm sure there'll be more to come in this one...

[A certain Clefairy is in the background, sitting at the kitchen table, peering over the top of the table and staring at Ryner's back in a manner that suggests that she's suspicious of this whole proceeding. Ryner is ignoring her.]

How much do you want to bet they're from a region that nobody's mentioned before, but has definitely been here the entire time? Even though there aren't any maps that have ever mentioned it. Not that anybody here'll ever get to visit there anyway even if they wanted to, but the cartographers could at least do their jobs, right?

[Someone's still salty about Alola, apparently...

There's a distinctly Yanma-ish buzz from off camera, and Ryner catches a lightly tossed spice jar.]

Ahh, you're saying I should add cinnamon, huh? You think he'll like that, Rey?

[An affirmative buzz as Ryner opens the jar.]

All right, guess you're the expert. Just let me know when.

[The feed cuts out - it's likely that another mon is working the camera - as Ryner starts sprinkling cinnamon on the sliced up apples.]

Comments

[forsaintcecilia]

Something like this has happened before?

[Kazuki isn't exactly a newbie, but he definitely hasn't been as long as the oldest residents. Behind him is a Slurpuff that is trying to get in on the action, interested by the pie-baking going on.]

[tearsofademon]

[It's not even baking... it's literally that he's slicing up an apple and putting cinnamon on it. This can barely be called cooking at all.

And yet his Clefairy is still concerned.]

Yeah, a few times. The last time was about three years ago, give or take.

[forsaintcecilia]

[Lol, I see apples and cinnamon and I immediately assume pie! Still, Sticky is interested in any kind of cooking.]

Oh! Are you one of the ones that've been here for a really long time?

[tearsofademon]

[It would probably make more sense to make pie, but Ryner is a lazybutt ^^;]

Eight and a half years tomorrow. Depending on how you count the couple of comas, anyway.

Pretty sure there are still a couple people around who've been here longer, but...

[forsaintcecilia]

[Apples are good if you bake them on the stove with sugar and cinnamon! Sticky blabbers at the Clefairy. To him, everything is better with sugar.]

Oh, wow. That's about as long as I've heard! Still, a couple of years since that last happened... That's fast for whole new species to appear. Pokemon really are mysterious.

[tearsofademon]

[The Clefairy bitterly mutters something under her breath about how her dear partner should just ask Marian to do this instead of working in the kitchen himself. ...There may be a history.]

That's one word for it... You'd think there'd be some clue as to where they all keep coming from by now, but nope.

[forsaintcecilia]

[But cooking is so much fun! My trainer cooks with me all the time! Sticky confidently replies.]

A friend and I were talking about it, and I thought, maybe how the jellyfish monsters appeared last year might have something to do with it? They showed up out of thin air too.

[tearsofademon]

[My dear partner shouldn't be cooking. ...There's definitely a history there, Rose seems super adamant about this.]

...I guess that's one possibility. Ahh, I don't think those creatures really wanted to be here, so if it has been their doing the whole time, it's probably all a big accident, but...

[forsaintcecilia]

[Why not? Sticky's tongue lolled out of his mouth.]

It could be an accident. No one knows why that happened last year.

I just feel bad for the little guys. None of them seem to have a clue about where they are.

[tearsofademon]

[Because he shouldn't! She's being very immature about this, and that minor outburst is enough to make Ryner pause and sigh - or is the sigh because of the conversation he's a part of - but.]

...Yeah. They're lost, and scared, and there's no way to help them get back to... wherever they're from.

[and like hell he trusts the Aether Foundation, he hasn't trusted any scientist-adjacent types since the Shedinja incident]

One of those rabbit ones is holed up under our front porch right now, actually.

[forsaintcecilia]

[Sticky is absolutely puzzled, but doesn't press any further. He only makes a small noise in question.]

It's why I decided to volunteer at the Aether Foundation. To help take care of them all and get them situated... One of the rabbits came home with me too! He likes playing soccer, and he won't fight any other Pokemon for any reason.

[tearsofademon]

[Sorry Rose is unhelpful...]

I've got too much to worry about at the gym to volunteer much outside my own house, myself...

[Not the whole reason, but not a lie.]

But soccer, huh. That's one of those sports with balls, right? If passing a ball under there might get him to open up a little, then maybe...

[forsaintcecilia]

Oh, you run a gym? I've heard of some of us from other worlds opening gyms, but I haven't met one of their leaders before.

Yeah, it's the one with the black and white ball. The rules are simple-- you just have to kick the ball into a big goal while avoiding the other team's defenses. The trick is that you can't touch the ball with your hands. Only the goal-keeper is allowed to do that.

[tearsofademon]

Yeah, Sion and me. ...Well, it was mostly Sion's idea, but I'm there to make sure he doesn't kill himself from overwork. It's the Collegiate Gym, around Ecruteak. We run classes and have a library we're constantly expanding, too, so if you ever wanna stop by, feel free.

[There are some more Yanma sounds from off camera that sound approving, and Ryner glances in that direction.]

Hm, that sort of game doesn't sound too complicated... Could be worth a shot.

[forsaintcecilia]

That sounds like it'd be a fun trip! I'll stop by the next time I'm in Johto. Don't expect a challenge though, I'm a hopeless battler.

You want to try it out? I haven't had anyone to scrimmage with since I got here!

[tearsofademon]

That's fine - not everything has to be about battling, after all.

Ah, you play it yourself, then?

[forsaintcecilia]

Yeah! I'm not on a team or anything, but I love to play all sorts of sports in my spare time. Basketball is my favorite, but I'm not bad at soccer either.

[lyingheart]

I'm not convinced cartographers have any incentive to be accurate outside of their region, really. There's clear enough evidence that this world should be well mapped out, but between our own traveling restrictions and how apparently non-Pokémon powered flight is kept out of reach, what's there really to say?

[ she says from off camera, because she's lining things up to take a lovely photograph of a rock. it's a pretty rock, surrounded by flowers, greenery, and striated with different kinds of sediment into a wave like form. a still frame freezes on camera for a moment, then they image is recording live again. ]

[tearsofademon]

For those of us from other worlds, maybe. Some of the locals have been known to move about the world fine.

[That's a fancy rock, but he's not going to comment.]

It's lazy, is what I think. And I know what lazy looks like.

[thegreenhornet]

Why do the people in this world seem to know jackshit about everything around them?

[First they don't know stuff about Pokemon, and now they don't know the world? Seriously?]

[tearsofademon]

Either their cartographers are really lazy - lazier than me, even - or they've got some kind of mental thing going on, are my guesses.

...Honestly I'd rather option one.

[thegreenhornet]

...there are a lot of Psychic-type Pokemon in the world who can do stuff like rewrite memories and stuff.

[Britt, don't get paranoid about them]

[tearsofademon]

[...okay yes there's a reason there aren't many psychic types in this house but---]

One Pokemon doing that to one person, okay, sure I guess. But to do something of the scale of this entire world... It would have to be a lot of very powerful ones, all working together - and I mean a lot, and really powerful - to keep it up for nearly a decade at least without stopping.

[and while such sorts of scary-powerful things are technically feasible - only only need look at some things he's caught up in back home...]

Just seems like an awful lot of work, and for no reason. What's that saying? Most of the time, better to attribute something to incompetence rather than malice?

[thegreenhornet]

[It has to be a lot of incompetence, geez...]

This is so stupid. I doubt in my world we know everything but at least we know where the countries are!

[...]

Except a couple, uh, places that are kind of hard to find...

[Places like Atlantis that may not even exist]

[tearsofademon]

[it's better if it's incompetence; conspiracy would be a massive pain]

I mean, if it was just one or two small places that were out of the way and stayed hidden, that'd be fine. But at least when those end up found, people usually have the decency not to pretend they've always known that they're there...

[thegreenhornet]

The tourism industry in this world must be in shambles, I almost feel bad for them.

[Seriously]

Of course they would. Everyone's gotta pretend they're not idiots.