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May 17th | Video

[The video turns on to show Cherrygrove City at the beach and focuses on a man that hasn't posted to any network yet. He's seemingly early middle-age with some facial scars along his cheeks half hidden by his beard, sleeves on a new button up shirt rolled up, wearing a twined snake necklace with a red string, barefoot in the sand and flanked by a Seviper, a Psyduck holding its head. Another unseen Pokemon is doing the filming. He's also surrounded by a mostly-empty box of donuts, a milkshake he's still working on, some fruit rinds and cores, a plastic container of some rice dish or another that's now down to a few grains, and a watermelon that's been reduced to hollow green hull halves.]

[He has torn through this meal in one sitting.]

So I gotta admit, I was sorta expectin' the other shoe to drop, but I ain't ever seen anything like this in a long, long time. [He has a thick southern drawl when he speaks.] I walked all the way here, three days, without a single thing attackin' me. No ambushes. No crazy four-armed assassins outa nowhere. No floating angry three-eyed women throwin' fire.

[He doesn't have any of his guns, though. That bit bothers him but as guns don't seem to be a big thing here he'll just be grabbing berries instead of scrounging for ammunition and weapons.]

Now, I guess I gotta amend that thought. I did read that supposedly there's things that'll throw fire but this lady? [He motions to the Seviper over his shoulder, who is just basking like a happy reptile in the sand.] Her name is Fortune, and she's been takin' care of everything. [He gets the gist that she's supposed to, and that it's like having a game rep going into battle for you (something he's very used to). This is so much of a better situation.]

So uh, me an' Fortune are gonna be makin' our way all to one of the bigger cities. But I read about this one called an Ekans? I really wanna get my hands on one, if someone could do me the favor. I heard there was some breeders that might be amenable.

[As he talks, he pulls out a single jade coin and walks it over his fingers. Though with some monstrous slight of hand, that one coin is followed immediately by three more being passed over his knuckles. Just a casual fidget as he talks, and someone with a keen eye might notice the coins are double-sided with two wrapped snakes that match his pendant.]

You can call me Wu Ming. ...And don't worry, I'll take care o' this mess. [He won't leave garbage on the beach. He can't afford to deal with fines right now if he's caught.]

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If you stick around, sometimes she'll even give you a scarf. Not sure if she makes them herself or... I don't know. Buys them in bulk.

[ Mom is one of the Odd Things that Annie is just glad she didn't attack when she'd woken up disoriented and, with good reason, believing that unfamiliar faces might be prepared to torture or eat her. #details

She walks toward the camera, holding out her hands to the Tentacool to collect her 'gear. ]

Considering Ghost types can come from the dearly departed citizens of this world... all sorts of creepy happens here all the time. Just not the kind I'm used to seeing. The criminal organisations here...

[ She purses her lips, letting the Sobble take over the 'gear again when they reach for it. Now there's a curious, dewy eyed Sobble studying him through the camera. ]

... seem to deal more in theft and experimentation on pokemon. Not murders or rackets asking humans for money for protection. Not even from the police.

[ Which is what really makes her squirm still, the complete lack of notable corruption. Small cases can be found where they are, but as a whole, it's jarring.

The Sobble is looking perturbed again listening to Annie. She pats their head, which does not appear to make the Sobble feel any better about theft and experimentation on pokemon. The feather it still has clutched in paw blocks part of the camera lens as it shifts and makes a low moaning sound of unhappiness in the back of its throat. ]

You're okay.

Ghosts got a whole different meaning where I'm from. [He'll probably be avoiding them based on that.]

Seems like there's a lotta subtle things here that you think too much on 'em they'll make your skin crawl. That said? Food's real good. It's been a long while since I've been able to feel filled up.

[Give him twenty minutes.]

I'm lucky it's not scarf season. [The shirt he's wearing is made of light material, but it's still a button up with long sleeves. It works to hide some of the scars he doesn't care to show, because they're not all on his face.]

[Drifter's a bit of an experimenter, but if he can help it he wouldn't want to involve any innocents. As ruthless as he is, he tends to focus his ideas on people that've live well beyond their time.] Sounds like you got quite a fusser on your hands. Real damn strange being in a place where people don't occasionally take the wild hair to kill somebody else. What's your focus, Sister? Sounds like you already got this all worked out.

Good, plentiful, and varied. No complaints for having enough food for everyone, at all times.

[ It is not a guarantee she takes for granted. Just as no one from home, or from a life where they'd known starvation, ever took for granted.

The Sobble has calmed down, Annie breathing out in a short, sharp snort. ]

My focus? Making it through each day. Figuring out battle strategies, weighing in the different factors, hoping something unexpected will come up for the satisfaction of remembering no plans survive engagement perfectly intact... that's to keep occupied. It keeps my team focused, too.

Never? [See, if Drifter were a different man, he'd think maybe he finally died and went to heaven. But he's founded the latter half of his life on getting by in any way possible, some of those ways most decidedly not virtuous. Thus that is out of the realm of possibility.]

[Food all the time though? Sounds like it.]

They're sellin' alcohol too, even if it's a little rare. It's even pretty good. The kind you'd drink and not the kind you'd use for fuel.

You know what? [He gestures at the screen.] I bet you're a damn good show in competitive matches. I run games where I'm from? You got the people that go out there and don't know what they're doin' and have no plan against competitors. But a woman like you? Woo! I bet you'd tear down a playing field.

[But he's saying that, and his camera turns to the pokemon that's been holding it. There's an Espurr there, and she just stares. Not just a little bit. She has a creepy china doll fixed look on her face.]

Orin! Orin, I'm over here. Stop that. You're gonna give her nightmares or somethin'!

Outside of extenuating natural disaster circumstances, and even with those, pokemon provide avenues to solutions my home dimension would envy.

[ Then again, her home dimension would have loved to weaponise all the pokemon for their own ends, and that's with her cynically thinking about each and every nation she knew. Better yet, pokemon could probably be taught to take out Titans, and would have the advantage of being able to get close. Titans only reacted to humans, not to other animal species.

It is, thankfully, a moot point. ]

... What are your thoughts on mead?

[ She asks offhand, thinking about the bottles from her first batch still left over, and the second. Even divide between her and Thida, for a beverage she is now very legally able to obtain. Just not at the time.

She properly studies him through the 'gear when he talks about games back home; being a damn good show. Tearing down playing fields. Oh yes: she'd been all those things, but for stakes costing lives, and to limited benefits. ]

Never been much of a showman at heart. Nor all that good at teamwork.

[ Is all she says instead.

The Espurr, on the other hand... Annie's head tips to the side, and if anything, something about her features softens just a fraction. Creepy staring? From a feline like pokemon. Creepy staring doesn't get under her skin with that furry face, and she stares back, also unblinking. The Sobble lifts their head to join in, only to duck back offscreen soon after, very unnerved. ]

You're cute. You're an Espurr?

[ Addressing Orin without thinking about it. After all, Pokemon are aware enough that she does tend to talk to them when they're a focus, instead of around them. ]

[Orin continues to stare, and slowly, slowly tilts her head as her eyes trail to the little crying Sobble. She doesn't say anything yet, though. When the Sobble disappears, she looks back to Annie. It's Drifter's voice that speaks in the background.] Yeah, she's an Espurr. Practically caught herself. Wanted to follow us right from the start. [And he's very, very confused by this.]

Depends on whether you're using city grain or what random farmers manage to grow. I ain't tried what they got here, though. I bet it's considerably different from either. I'll have to make a point of it. You know where to get somethin' good?

[He's one hundred percent going to take some samples home from work. He has been already, but he's been working his way through the wines. He's probably eventually going to open yet another bar at this rate, with the hopes this one doesn't get completely trashed.]

[To her credit, though, the lady that trashed it was pretty impressive. He can let bygones be bygones. (Even named one of his gun designs that.)]

Why not? For lack of a good team? Or for lack of people bein' able to keep up?

[ Why are cats, or cat like Pokemon, so good? So cute? So endearing, those fluffy little assholes? Alas, she's just ended up with one giant fluffy asshole with poor impulse control.

Jaeger really had been more cute as a cub than an adult fire lion... ]

I make no claims. You're in Cherrygrove? Think you'll be there for the rest of the day at least?

[ If so, she can probably get something flown his way that day. If only because the whimsy suits her in the moment.

His question about teams isn't answered straight away. She looks away from the camera, lost in thought. ]

Both. Neither. I wouldn't have made it to where I was if I couldn't work with a team, but I wouldn't say it was any distinct pleasure. People make shitty calls, and I'm a follower, not a leader. No good at being responsible for others.

[ She's a better lone wolf, but she knows it, and knows just as well that she's not a leader. She can be a team asset, but inspiration? H a h. Mostly, she calls everything bullshit, then goes along where others lead anyway. This place has been all about being on her own, aside from when Marco traveled with her for a while. That was a kind of penance and nightmare. Traveling with someone she helped get directly killed by Titans? Maybe Armin isn't the only emotional masochist from back home. ]

Or something.

[It's been a while since he was around anything fluffy and not possessed with the overwhelming urge to try and use it for a meal (it's more desperation in a bad situation than an intention to be cruel). But knowing food is plentiful and he doesn't have to cook it himself makes it easier just to make friends with the little monsters. He picks up Orin finally and puts her in his lap. So mostly what Annie sees is the Espurr's staring face as she tilts her head the other way, white shirt, and that pair of twined jade snakes.]

Ah. One of my game types I host requires an 'Invader' to sabotage the opposing team. The invader works on their own to benefit their team. Works out pretty well. Lets someone work on their own but still help out in their own way while everyone else is going coordination and coop to win, defending against the opposition.

Always trying to improve how things work, though. I'll think on it. See if I can come up with some new rules and new games.

[He scratches the top of the Espurr's head, and finally she does the distinctly catlike thing of bumping her head up against his hand. He'd respect her problems, if he knew. And possibly empathize some, since most of his life has been living one lie or another at this point. Befriending a lot of people that ended up dead either by his hand or someone elses, and knowing it would be happening too.]

[But Annie said something real important there.]

Yeah, I'm in Cherrygrove. Plan to be here a few days, takin' it easy before I start making that big go to Goldenrod.

[ She watches the Espurr, continuing the staring contest with no particular aim to make it a contest, only blinking at the word Invader. Some part of her is darkly amused, wondering what Bertolt or Armin would make of it, if they paid attention to this conversation on the network. So many public statements, and then one unintentionally close to a reality she wasn't sharing with people at large.

Oh no. Had to protect what she could here, since she could do jack shit about it elsewhere. Failure as a soldier and a warrior though she may be, she doesn't need to fail to allow people their happinesses where they can find them.

Still, it's an apt calling. Being the Invader is not so far off from a truth she'd been trained for most her life. Also preferable, really, to being the hammer brought down on the population: another truth she'd trained for most her life. Was it better being a nine year old used as an instrument to crush an opposing nation, or an eleven year old used to infiltrate an isolated, ignorant kingdom, hoping to steal back the royal family's trump card and lead to what would be the eradication of her people? Which really, was going to happen eventually anyway. ]

Seems like the kind of position I could manage.

[ No humour in her voice, dry or otherwise, but an almost absent acknowledgement of possibility. As for Cherrygrove: ]

It's a decent stretch of road to walk. Anyway, that makes it easier on the Pidgey Post. Expect something headed your way later this afternoon.

Well! Thank you kindly. Didn't expect a bag and a gift. Best starting line-up I think I've run into in... well, hell. A long time.

[He'll make a note of that.]

Seems like the match setups here are a little limited. Maybe by the time I get to Goldenrod I could start working on a plan to change some thing sup. Come up with some light armor or somethin'.

Think you'd be open to me bouncing some ideas off ya? Seems like you got your bearings around here.

... You can. I don't promise to have insightful answers.

[ Or any answers, really, but she doesn't mind listening, which is what she takes this as a request for, based on past experiences. ]

I respond faster to text over most things, if that matters. Either way, good luck.

[ There's no particular motive for sending what she has in mind, other than also not needing to keep the mead to herself. She and Thida aren't going to be drinking all of it, and while she's given some to Krieg and Bertolt... yeah. Still more made, and even more brewing. ]

Probably would sit on the thank you's until you have it.

Pretty sure you can at least manage better than that rocket fuel. But I'll get back to you with a better critique when I've emptied the bottle.

[The Espurr finally makes a noise. Still staring, of course. But it's the tiniest little 'purr!', worthy of a kitten, not really befitting of an animal trying to bore a hole through someone with the intensity of how it's looking.]

[Annie's probably winning this staring contest.]

[ The creepy staring ends up being bizarrely cute... because of that tiniest purr, somehow, when it manages to get picked up on audio. ]

Good to keep expectations low. Means they're likely to be met.

[ But does anyone actually win this staring contest? ]

So what is your bar set to? Seems like sooner or later you can get spoiled in a place like this.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. [Just that sometimes it ends up taking a necessary edge way.] Just it lends to differ'nt sorta mindset.

[There's a slither of scales behind Orin, though, as Fortune decides to lay over Drifter's lap. And that earns a big 'oof' cause the snake is a good hundred pounds without trying. Orin pays it absolutely no mind, whatever, and pretty much blocks out the view because now she's trying to see all around Annie.]

Mine? Somewhere around "is this survivable."

[ Everything's been a yes on that count, which continues to be rather surprising.

The Tentacool's tentacle arm waves across the camera, plucking the 'gear away from Annie and bobbing it all as they float on away. Glimpses of Annie, the Sobble tucked up under her arm, the Absol coming through the brush to stand near her, and the Gogoat lying on its stomach, head turned to watch the Tentacool floating past.

Annie doesn't try to understand how this works, just accepts that it does. Then again, that's why the Tentacool goes back into her ball more often than not. Dehydration is still a problem. ]

The things I'm used to seeing people do, that kind of blind following and idealism, doesn't have the same level of bite-back or corruption here as what I'm used to. Not sure if that's a bar, but it's still unsettling. Doesn't feel real.

I'm gettin' that feeling too. The one where everything seems so good it's wrong? Best I can put it. [He's not nearly as hungry as normal, thanks to all the food.]

[But the near dehydrated wild eyed and heavily affectionate animals are surreal enough to counterbalance the sheer optimist false-ness of the place. Something isn't plainly good when it's also so damned weird.]

I'm not exposed enough yet to make many determinations, but it does seem like your highest levels of authority ain't quite ready to implement a police state or it's not gonna disrupt into wild bloody anarchy.

It just seems...

Hell, it seems... is satisfactory the word I'm looking for? I mean, it's not exactly 'satisfyin'' but people seem to be fine enough believin' in the best in everyone else. [Which is really, really strange.]

[ The camera steadies out, bobbing less while the Tentacool decides what to show. Right now, the shift goes toward the Gogoat still watching, blinking slowly up at the Tentacool. The Gogoat's carrying gear, but not looking too laden down. She looks content where she is, nestled amoungst the grasses in the lee side of a tree. ]

Might help to point out the things which make it feel more concrete. Like our travel restrictions or our job limitations. How we can't own businesses, but in theory, can earn our way to a gym of our own in a separate league just for those of us from outside dimensions. How we might not... really seem to die, but I doubt we can reproduce, either. How anything other than this world's idea of normal human is nullified, changing species and abilities for people who arrive here.

[ The Gogoat turns her head toward Annie, who's still off camera. The egg in the Gogoat's nestled forelegs becomes evident again. ]

The markets and stores are stocked with meat, but there's no evidence of where it comes from. No one really eats pokemon, though you can. Legendary pokemon have immense power that can remake... who knows. Reality, probably, depending on who or what they are. They exist, or some number of them do, somewhere on this world. There are Pokemon born from the souls of people born to this world who've died in various unpleasant or unhappy ways. It's not common, but it can happen.

[ She sighs, because to her these are in fact weirdly stabilizing points, but they're also relatively useless and meaningless. She's talking with a kind of pointd cadence, letting the words flow, then winding down into a silence that's easier on her end.

She likes that the send children off to fight monsters. ]

We can't be leaders of their people, or police their people. We're refugees, and you see the evidence of it, along with our impermanence tempered by how a handful of us can linger for a decade. The people in the regions we're allowed in are accepting, even tolerant, but they're as capable of biases and prejudices based on familiarity. If most people are more trusting because their lives allow them to be, they're not persistently trusting. Crime exists here, it's just less... obviously violent than we're used to it being. And they send children off to travel on their own and fight monsters, gambling on them being able to bond well enough with a monster of their own to stay alive.

[ The camera's been lazily panning back to Annie, who's now got her Sobble friend riding in her hood, chin resting on her shoulder. Her messy bun's even messier than usual. ]

It's satisfactory, but not simple. Even if it's far too willing to believe.

So we can't die, huh? [Well that's familiar. He sounds a little dismal about that, though. Not like he's particularly suicidal, but that he's annoyed that's another mechanic of this place.]

[He read in the library that at one time Pokemon could be cleaned down to the bone and then those bones could be resurrected in water. Some Folk story. But he doesn't know how true folk tales are.]

[He listens though, considering. Alright, he can't manage the bar again. Maybe the boat, but not the bar. He can still work at bars though, and if he plays his cards right? Organize some games. Refugees or not, he doesn't want to float by.]

[Though them sending children off to fight monsters?]

[The words of a little girl hit his memory. 'I don't feel anything.' Yeah. Fewer monsters here. But enough that you don't want a dying kid thinking that. Sort of a grim thought when your lap is full of creepy staring cat and too heavy snake, though. The camera still focuses on an angle that only shows his scritching hand, Orin's face, and his coiled serpents.]

I'm not too worried about the criminals here. Sound like small time. Nothin' like I'm used to. I figure it's not worth the trouble to overreact when we've got what we want.

You come up against any of those biases?

Don't take my word on it. From my end of things, that's more theory than fact, but it seems to be a general consensus... and with the effort it takes to bring the dead here in the first place, it makes as much sense as the damned ledges being impossible to climb.

[ LEDGES. BE DAMNED. She's less irate at that lack of physics applicability these days, but it's still such nonsense. In a world with background music. Annie moves, heading over to the Gogoat and crouching down to pick up the egg. The Gogoat nuzzles her hair in the process; Annie absently pats Libera's cheek. ]

Here and there. Nothing that mattered. Kindness, [ as they've been pointing out ] has had more of an effect.

[ And she agrees the criminal element is small time. Even knowing what's happened with pokemon experimentation in the not so distant past. Is anyone ending the world? No? Are populations being wiped off the map? No? Is it only concerns for Lapras and Farfetch'd poaching? Yes. Things are worse elsewhere. Some pokemon torture rates as low on her scale of "massive acts of ill repute." ]

[This background music is getting on his last nerve. He's sure eventually it's going to be drowned out. But if it's anything like the insufferable voice of that one-horned idiot Lord Shaxx constantly droning on, it's really hard to say.]

I hope my brand of kindness doesn't go amiss, then. Not that I try to be particularly offensive. [Unless someone is pissing him off, putting him in a position where he feels threatened.] But sometimes I manage to just rub somebody the wrong way. [Like when he asks women to dance with him and gets his ass thrown, or is caught trying to pretend he's a human. Or when he panics 'cause some stalker asshole keeps threatening him and he wants out.]

Probably the beard. Nobody likes beards anymore.

Either way, thanks for the advice. Everything is so low grade seems like it'll just slide like water off this weird psychic duck thing's back. [There's a Psyduck somewhere, it speaks, but the Espurr is too busy staring at the camera to let it be seen.]

[ The fact it can be overridden with music one might slightly get to choose is nice, but it is, in fact, very irritating. There's no way to simply hear nature, or silence, in this world.

Maybe that's the secret. No silence. ]

People make asses of themselves here as easily as anywhere. You'll be fine.

[ By people, in this case, she means people born to this world. It can be applied to the refugees, but they're also far fewer than everyone else, at the end of the day. ]

... [ She breathes out in a short huff of amusement. Not that it shows in anything on camera--she doesn't smile--but the idea of facial hair being a thing people care about either way... ] Military back home seemed more fond of mustaches.

Psyduck? And you're welcome, for whatever it's worth.

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