Dirk Strider (Ultimate) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
uber_marionettist) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
victory_road2019-07-13 11:36 pm
uber_marionettist) wrote in victory_road2019-07-13 11:36 pm
Entry tags:
[CLOSED]
Who: Carly Nagisa and Dirk Strider
Where: Union Cave
When: July 12th (ish)
Summary: Carly yells a lot and Dirk treats Carly like an NPC
Rating: PG-13 because Dirk sometimes says "fuck"
You expected there to be more. More to this. The routes between towns are clear, besides the tedious proliferation of new battle pets to defeat or 'collect,' a progression that's as predictable as it is apparently deliberate. This game really wants you to expand your team. It's disincentivised, however, by the obvious superiority of bred Pokemon to those wild-caught. Superficially, it makes sense. Unlocking the ability to dramatically improve and optimise your monsters as the game progresses is a familiar concept. But the fact that it's been made available to you from the very first hour?
Something is rotten, and once again it's embedded in the game itself. You can smell it--a rancid scent, some sickly failure of implicit structure, meant to be broken open. Waiting for it. Just in case, you've caught a couple new faces. To keep up appearances, yes, but also for insurance.
Because somewhere in it all, you know there's more. It's not obvious the way it was in Sburb. No endless chains of puzzles, no labyrinthine quests that you can see, no staring your own (im)mortality in the face. There are temples, and clues... in that, it's still like Sburb, you guess. But the caves are barren stone and crowds of bats with not much else. You've been given to understand that the clouds of poisonous gas and the skeletal hordes, the innumerable and unmistakable signs of impotence and void that characterised your session were not typical of Sburb, of course, but it's still just so empty. Empty in a different way, one that creaks and shifts uncomfortably in the background machinery your thoughts.
Another form of the sensation you refuse to call madness, but which is definitely maddening, so you keep yourself moving, your eyes fixed forward. It's not really enough to keep things 'chill,' but you've always been an excellent actor.
All of that, and you picked up a person on the way, too.
So that's been fun.
You met previously. She's exactly like she was on the Pokegear, which is to say, equally stuck on unintelligible details, making up rules whole cloth and crafting entire tapestries of illogical design. It's like she was programmed for it. What a surprise. It's still kind of impressive, but actively obstructive in a way you've already committed to ignoring. The current one is about taking the most direct path through the cave.
You descend the stairs, tuning her out completely.
Where: Union Cave
When: July 12th (ish)
Summary: Carly yells a lot and Dirk treats Carly like an NPC
Rating: PG-13 because Dirk sometimes says "fuck"
You expected there to be more. More to this. The routes between towns are clear, besides the tedious proliferation of new battle pets to defeat or 'collect,' a progression that's as predictable as it is apparently deliberate. This game really wants you to expand your team. It's disincentivised, however, by the obvious superiority of bred Pokemon to those wild-caught. Superficially, it makes sense. Unlocking the ability to dramatically improve and optimise your monsters as the game progresses is a familiar concept. But the fact that it's been made available to you from the very first hour?
Something is rotten, and once again it's embedded in the game itself. You can smell it--a rancid scent, some sickly failure of implicit structure, meant to be broken open. Waiting for it. Just in case, you've caught a couple new faces. To keep up appearances, yes, but also for insurance.
Because somewhere in it all, you know there's more. It's not obvious the way it was in Sburb. No endless chains of puzzles, no labyrinthine quests that you can see, no staring your own (im)mortality in the face. There are temples, and clues... in that, it's still like Sburb, you guess. But the caves are barren stone and crowds of bats with not much else. You've been given to understand that the clouds of poisonous gas and the skeletal hordes, the innumerable and unmistakable signs of impotence and void that characterised your session were not typical of Sburb, of course, but it's still just so empty. Empty in a different way, one that creaks and shifts uncomfortably in the background machinery your thoughts.
Another form of the sensation you refuse to call madness, but which is definitely maddening, so you keep yourself moving, your eyes fixed forward. It's not really enough to keep things 'chill,' but you've always been an excellent actor.
All of that, and you picked up a person on the way, too.
So that's been fun.
You met previously. She's exactly like she was on the Pokegear, which is to say, equally stuck on unintelligible details, making up rules whole cloth and crafting entire tapestries of illogical design. It's like she was programmed for it. What a surprise. It's still kind of impressive, but actively obstructive in a way you've already committed to ignoring. The current one is about taking the most direct path through the cave.
You descend the stairs, tuning her out completely.
no subject
..Well he's SOMETHING. He's definitely something, just as much in person as he is online. But, there's something to be said about travelling with company and that something is one part an alibi and another part...
....mmmmmaybe friendship? At this point she's determined he's not intentionally a bit of a dick, but he's absolutely spectacular at unintentionally being a bit of a dick, and that just adds a bit of atmosphere to everything.
"Anyway, it's really important we keep on the right path," she's saying worriedly, "Because we want to get to the next town in case something happens! It's all well and good to start exploring, but we should at least have options in case of an emergen... ...Heh?" She looks down to where her Salandit and Mimikyu both have been tugging at her pant leg, the Joltik on her head simply chilling in 'ponytail' position.
Carly turns.
Dirk....
Is not there.
"HEEEEEHHH!!! D-D- ...DIRK!!!" Carly runs for the stairs. "DIRK, WHAT ARE YOU DOING..!!"
no subject
Nominally, this is far too pedestrian a scenario to warrant that kind of callback, but in fact, the excessively trivial stage is exactly the corollary under which it's permitted. The only way it would be more appropriate is if you also had occasion to acknowledge, perhaps as a bit of background text, that
this is stupid.Unfortunately, short of falling down the stairs--
Oh, but there you go. Ass over teakettle, heel over head. Said head having been so distracted with the nuances and vagaries of applied narrative awareness that your environmental awareness took a real hit, and the aforementioned heel... well, it found a nice, round pebble of opportunity on which to make its move. Between your scrapes and bruises and the not-insignificant risk of mild concussion, you have slipped and fallen directly into the metatextual window of opportunity. It's almost worth the gritty, slightly-metallic taste sensation of cave dust in your mouth. Almost.
But, lying there at the base of the stairs, you stubbornly decide to take your dubiously-earned victory when it's offered.
Ahem.
How can she possibly hope to stop you when you're already gone?
no subject
Who decided to take track.
The point is that she's not falling head first down a flight of stairs unlike someone. "HAUHHH! Dirk! Dirk, are you alright down there!?" she yelps fearfully, quickly coming down to the man's side. "Oh god what if you died..."
That would probably be better for Carly, ultimately.
no subject
"No such luck."
You can't die, remember? Of course you do. You can't forget it.
Sitting up, you roll up to your feet with practised ease, even real grace.
"You want something done about me, you'll have to do it yourself."
no subject
....
Carly goes from frantic to stonefaced in the blink of an eye. She immediately looks to Dirk with the most unimpressed flat state she can possibly muster.
"...Dirk, you better not make me get Acorn out to carry you back up there..." ... "And I'm not making Hei-chan do it either, just so that's clear! Don't be that dramatic!"
no subject
"Acorn doesn't do favours," you say out loud, and there's finality in your words. You turn on your heel, heading away from the stairs.
You're not going back upstairs until you're done downstairs. And considering you only just got here--
no subject
no subject
Like something shifted and reflected You a little more strongly. Not you, but You.
"And you should'a thought of that before you followed me in here."
no subject
no subject
You know you have some bad habits. Some of them are just 'bad,' some of them are really bad. And others?
Yeah.
You know.
"What, afraid I'll scratch up the fresh coat of paint on my human suit?" And who are you fooling with that, really?
"I'll have you know I'm eminently qualified for taking an underground stroll." By yourself, you don't say. But you're thinking it.
no subject
She crosses her arms though. She knows she can't argue forever. If Dirk was going to cave, he would have done it now.
And that assumes he's the type to cave, which, she's pretty sure by now he isn't.
So. "Hahhhhhhh." One long, long sigh later, and she adjusts her glasses to hold her pokegear in the dark. She should really install some kind of flashlight app. They have to have one of those right? "Fine...if you're going to wander, I'm going to use that pool over there for something then got it?" She's got dishes to wash. And also, herself.