victory_road | 1st Match // [video | action] New Bark Town

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1st Match // [video | action] New Bark Town

[The video feed starts off with an eye.

Just one, surrounded by what looks like a mask. After a moment, the eye pulls away and the rest of the mask, which completely covers the owner's face minus the one eye, is revealed.

The voice underneath the mask is guttural and growling, but perfectly audible despite the barrier.]

Mother said to have fun and be careful.

[He rolls his eye and grumbles a bit, quietly at first but quickly growing louder. As he speaks he changes from his indoor voice to his outdoor voice, barking out the words louder and louder as he brings the camera close to his face again:]

How can I HAVE FUN WITHOUT MY AXE!??

[Somebody mad.]

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[Grimer tea parties are the main cause of death for every vegetable and herb Cecil has ever planted. Is Krieg truly willing to participate in mass plant murder, when the victims can't even scream or fight back?]

That she is. Why, when we first met she looked so much like a pink little stubby-armed star, I feared she'd be unable to hit the Rattatas on the road.

[Rosie sticks her tongue at her trainer playfully, but is otherwise quite happy to chatter at Krieg.]

[Uh, yes? Grimers are really cute, okay??

And so is dat Clefable.]

Fairy?

[This all sounds slightly more complicated than "apply corrosion to armor and electricity to shields...Best start getting everything straight ASAP.]

[His beloved Rosie being equated with a Grimer would break Cecil's heart. And send him reaching for the nearest kitchen knife. Or both.]

That's right. A pure fairy-type, though that's a relatively recent development. Completely immune to Dragon-type attacks, luckily for her, but she'd be ill-equiped to fight against a Zubat or a Klink.

[Except that whole 'level 100' thing, of course.]

[Hah! Krieg would like to see that. The knife bit, anyway.

He squints a bit, trying to take in all the new words and remember what the guy had just said about fairy-type weaknesses. Just give him a second, he's got this--!]

Poison and Steel?

[Those sound more Krieg's style, TBH.]

That's right, though Zubat is also a Flying-type, as its name implies. However, Fairy and Flying are neutral against each other, so she'd not be disadvantaged twice over.

[Cecil sounds delighted, both by the opportunity to teach and by Krieg's ability to follow along.]

[Hey, he'll follow along until the cows come home, just as long as things stay interesting!

...And now it's time to flip the device around to focus away from Krieg's face and on something much more photogenic. A Torchic!

The Torchic's back is to the camera currently and its little butt is up in the air as it pecks and worries at something in the ground, but it's still clearly a Torchic.

~~And also still more easy on the eyes than Krieg's Psycho mask~~]

What about this?

[~~Yeah, he'll take a Torchic butt over the mask any day.~~]

Congratulations, you are the proud trainer of a Torchic. Currently a Fire-type, but upon evolving into Combusken, it'll also gain the Fighting-type. That'll add a weakness to Flying- and Psychic-types, but remove its current disadvantage against rocks. Ground and water remain a danger at all times.

[Yeah, okay, crap, this is way, way more complicated than "apply fire to flesh" and "slag whatever moves." This is starting to get "gun stat comparison"-level complex.]

Nghh...Too many numbers! How many are there!?

[When he says "numbers", he means "types", but Cecil seems like a smart guy who will probably figure that out no problem.]

[There are two possible ways to understand that, and Cecil has decided not to pick and choose.]

There are eighteen types, covering over 600 species. Though not every potential type combination can be found in nature, and those that are are not evenly spread.

[Yeah, he misses his own eight element system, too.]

[Yup, that's officially too many numbers.]

Gnnngghhg...!

[Break it down. Just focus on the little bird.

He lets out a huff of frustrated breath, and the Torchic stops its endeavors in the dirt to waddle up to its trainer to see what's wrong. In the process it sticks its little face up to the camera. Please enjoy those cute button eyes, Cecil.]

Fine fine fine! Rock, water, and ground are bad now, water, ground, psychic, and flying are bad later.

Everything else will burn?

[Enjoy them he does, and he even offers a little wave of the hand in return.]

Mostly, with bugs, plants, steel and ice burning particularly well. ...Or melting, I suppose. Fire-types and dragons will resist it, but their attacks will merely be neutral in return, and kicking them will still be an option.

[Which means that no, fighting fire with fire is not a valid strategy.]

[He laughs when Cecil suggests kicking his opponents.]

Mnahahahaha! Good enough.

[Not so complicated after all, see? He can definitely manage that much.]

[Should he clarify that the chicken will be doing the kicking? ...No, that's obviously not necessary.]

I know it's not quite as satisfying as a proper fight with appropriate weapons, but I've no doubt that you'll find your Pokémon's talents suitably impressive and useful. Barring a few exceptions.

[But Krieg wants to do the kicking!!]

What exceptions?

[Is this gonna be info overload again? Maybe. No way to know without asking, though!]

Certain species, such as Magikarp, Beldum and Tynamo, have very limited movesets until they evolve, leaving them unable to deal with most opponents. And then you have species such as Ditto, with talents better suited for non-combat purposes.

[In a moment of great mercy, he decides not to say what, exactly, Ditto is best suited for.]

[There's that "Magikarp" one, again, huh.]

Mngg....I think I'll just stick with the chicken.

[And anyway, he's still not into this whole cockfighting thing. If that's something other people wanna do, fine. He'll just keep his little chicken friend, since it's obviously attached to him, and not worry about the rest.]

There's no need for you to capture or buy any other Pokémon if you prefer to keep your team small, yes. Though I must warn you that eggs tend to magically appear in our rooms whether we want them or not, especially near Christmas.

[Or even mere days ago.]

[...Oh, for the love of--!]

Eggs?

[That's got him to look away from his device and over to his Torchic.

...Okay yeah he can see that. At some future time. His little buddy is some kind of weird mutant chicken, after all. But for now surely Murder Chicken is far too young and small to lay eggs.

~~Also, Murder Chicken is male but Krieg is unaware of that currently, so w/e.~~

Also, another important question, since Cecil brought it up:]

When is Christmas?

[The kind thing to do would be to warn the unsuspecting newcomer about the eggs. The kinder thing to do would be to not brake his mind on his very first day.

Cecil feels merely kind today.]

Eggs, yes. All Pokémon come from eggs, even the ones you'd expect to be mammal or inanimate. Plenty can be bought from the Breeding Center or breeders, but there's also... well, the Christmas eggs. That's still four months away, though.

[In Cecil's defense, Krieg's mind is already broken...whether or not he'll retain any of this information is up in the air regardless of whatever weirdness Cecil decides to throw at him.

Although, this is Krieg. The weirder some random bit of trivia is, the more likely he is to remember it.]

Christmas eggs like Christmas presents?

[He's kind of stuck on "Christmas" now. Which, to be fair, is probably a good side-track at this point.]

[So Krieg would be more likely to remember it if Cecil mentioned all that sweet lion-on-snake egg-making?

...Yeah, no. Let's not.]

Exactly. Sometimes we receive practical items instead, some years we are invaded by Pokémon swarms or freak snowstorms... There was also one apocalypse, but that one technically ended a little before the day itself.

[His tone is slightly too upbeat to fit a conversation about a Christmas apocalypse.]

[Krieg is all about apocalypses, though, Christmas ones or otherwise!]

Mnahahaha! Sounds like Mercenary Day! Explosions make great presents!

[Among other things. New guns, new grenades, and new shields are always nice, too!]

...They make such terrible messes, though.

[He does not want to know what is Mercenary Day, or why explosions are considered a present for it. In ignorance lies happiness?]

Well, perhaps you'll someday receive the Explosion TM as a gift. I doubt the Torchic line can learn it, however.

The mess is part of the fun!

[Cecil is a very good person to tolerate all of Krieg's oddness so patiently.

Especially considering what Krieg's about to say next, his one visible eye lit up like that of a small child on Christmas Day.]

The monsters can explode?

[Knowing that a large part of the oddness cannot be acted upon due to the world's rules helps a lot with that.

This discussion is now reaching alarming levels, though.]

Some, yes. But it is an unpleasant experience that leaves them unable to battle until they've been treated at a Pokémon Center, and it tends to sour their opinion of their trainer besides.

[Think of the innocent exploding creatures.]

[video]

fuelthefire - 2016-10-06 20:29 (UTC) - Expand

[video]

paladinlost - 2016-10-07 02:23 (UTC) - Expand

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