victory_road | (no subject)

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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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[ 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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