victory_road | 001//video;

[The video feed starts and focuses on a young, thin, tanned skinned teenager with a Yamask laying over his shoulder. One might use the stereotypical term "exotic" to describe him. He softly clears his throat before speaking.]

Ah, hello. My name is-

[The boy pauses, obviously mulling something over in his mind.

I don't need to hide who I am here. Even if there is someone I might know, they all know who I am now so...]

-Marik. I just arrived the other day and I'm currently traveling along Route 29.

[He looks around at the area off screen.]

I've never seen so much green before! The grass is so soft and the way the wind blows through the trees... It's all so wonderful.

[I never thought I'd get to experience any of this.. Domino City had pockets of greenery here and there but still place is so different.]

I'm afraid I'm still not 100% certain on how things work here but I've got the jidst of it. The music is going to take some getting used to, that's for sure. Is there some speaker system it's coming from...?

[Another pause as he debates whether or not to ask the question that pops into his head.]

Hn... Is there another way to catch pokemon? Other than fighting and weakening them, I mean. It seems... kind of cruel to beat the poor thing up and then stuff it into a pokeball. I'm honestly just used to handling cards, not live animals.

[He mutters to himself]

It's still strange to think that these are real creatures and not just holograms...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is. Though we don't have it where I am from.

I've heard that in some worlds it's associated with a certain religion, but here, it just seems to be a winter celebration involving gifts. And Santa, of course.

[Who is, in fact, a real actual person.]

Edited 2022-05-25 02:26 (UTC)

We don't celebrate it but it is from my world. Gifts do sound nice...

... I have no idea who Santa is though.

Oh, he's a person who goes around on Christmas to bring gifts to all the children. I'm... I'm not certain if he is entirely human, though he looks the part. He is very kind though.

[What is Santa? Maybe a pokemon? No human can visit all the children in the world in a single night, right? Armin'd dismiss his existence as just a nice story, except. You know. He has met him.]

Last Christmas, we had to help him when Team Rocket tried to interfere with Christmas.

You've met him? Did he explain why he gives out gifts...?

And what's Team Rocket?

Not in person. And unfortunately, there wasn't much time for asking questions.

Team Rocket is the biggest criminal organisation around these parts. They commit all sorts of crimes, but one thing you should especially look out for is them trying to steal your pokemon. They often target people with rare or powerful pokemon so they can either use them themselves or sell them on the black market.

Then do we know he's real? It could have been a hologram.

[Marik raises a hand to rest on Chenzira's head, in both an effort to sort of protect him and to comfort him at the new information.

How ironic that he did the same thing back in his world with Duel Monsters cards. That was cards though, not living creatures. (He's done quite a lot more than that personally buuuttt we'll just gloss over that for now.)]

And nothing has been done about them? Or at least nothing successful, I assume.

[Armin just blinks.]

A-- A hologram?

[He's not familiar with that technology.]

People have... tried, but they are a big organisation, so it's difficult to act against them as an individual. Additionally, they are very good at... keeping their higher-ups separate from the grunts you might run into on the street. So even if they are arrested, they don't know anything about who is actually behind everything.

It's sort of like a video feed, like what we're using to see each other, except it doesn't need a screen. It just appears as is.

[It's obvious Marik gets lost in thought for a bit as Armin speaks. His mind wanders, trying to plot how he could organize something to take them down.

... If he had the Millennium items, he could easily do it.

He shakes his head.]

There are ways of making people talk. The police must not be... as serious as they should be about this.

There are ways, yes. But those come with the question of what we believe can be justified in order to catch a criminal.

Plus, as I said, it'd not that they won't talk, it's that they do not know anything. You cannot force a person to tell you something they do not know.

So they claim. How do the police know they're telling the truth?