[Video]

[heir_conditioned]

[Alright he's figured out how to do video at least. After being ousted from a home that he is pretty sure it got implied he lived in by someone named 'Mom' who certainly isn't his mother or look anything like him. The two toned hair being the one indicator. The fact that he remembers his mother and that this is not his mother is another good indicator.

Or maybe this is the culmination of how many times he's been knocked around. Maybe this is a fever dream.]

Good afternoon everyone.

A local man said he wanted to fight me and then presented a small rat. I think his implication was he wanted me to fight his pet. I don't condone animal abuse so I won't be doing that. However, any time I step near to pass by, he insists I should be battling "him". Each time it's the rat. Does anyone have a number or a contact for a humane society? I don't think I'm comfortable leaving it in his care.

Thank you.

[It takes one or two times of tapping at the screen before he shuts it off, but he gets there.]

Comments

Video

[feathersfly]

[Well, look who it is!]

Hey, Shouto! You don't have to worry about the animal abuse angle. These creatures here - they're called pokémon - are just about as smart as people, even if they can't talk. If that rat didn't want to cooperate, he wouldn't.

Also, you're not supposed to fight the rat. You're supposed to command your own pokémon to fight the rat. It's kind of like having them do a training battle. And they're actually pretty into it. It helps them grow. That's why they pair up with humans - to help them get stronger. As long as their trainers take good care of them, and the pokémon are on board with what you're asking them to do, there's nothing abusive about it.

It's good that you were worried about it, though! Any pokémon you end up taking care of are gonna be in good hands.

Has anybody explained to you that we're not actually in our own world anymore? Because that's a big part of what's tripping you up here. This place operates under some different rules from back home.

Video

[heir_conditioned]

[Oh. Oh no. Oh yes but also oh no. If Hawks is here... The thoughts of his family in his mind aside, he's glad for this affirmation and especially from Hawks. There's things he's not thrilled having heard, but he's also learned about the dark underbelly of their chosen profession, all of them.]

Thank you. That's helpful and the clarification I needed. I didn't know what to think if this was just standard, letting dogfights happen in the open daily. I did fight him, my teacup did. We won.

[He's not as monologue-y but he's sure at least glad one of the pros is around. That makes it less likely they won't find a way home. The compliment, too, is a little emboldening and nice to hear. Shoto is going to do his damnedest to protect any of them under his proverbial wing.]

A few of my classmates are here, Midoriya mentioned this is a place called Johto... Someone else said they were from another dimension, but I wasn't sure. Do you mean the rules of raising and fighting with pokemon?

[feathersfly]

Teacup, huh? That's an unusual pokémon, but I can't say I haven't seen weirder since I've been here. Glad you won, though!

But yeah, it just seems to be a fact of life here. As long as the pokémon themselves are okay with it - and they're plenty intelligent enough to communicate what they're not okay with - then I figure it can't really be a bad thing. And a lot of them are wild-caught, so it's not like they've been trained into being okay with it - it really seems to be something they're universally on board with.

Midoriya...that's Deku, right? Sorry, I mostly know you guys by your hero names. But yeah, I more meant that this place just doesn't work the way our world does, considering all the big differences. Pokémon being the biggest one, obviously. All animals in this world - and 'animal' can be a loose term, like with your teacup - are apparently pokémon. Considering how different pokémon are from the animals we're used to, if there's any animal abuse going on in this world, it's not going to take the same forms it would take in ours.

It's not just the pokémon, though. They've got technology here that we don't have back home, for instance. Their society's built around integrating pokémon and their symbiotic relationships with humans into everyday life, which means their whole civilization has a totally different thrust than ours. And, of course...there's no quirks here. People don't have them, and those of us who do have them have lost them. Temporarily, at least.