punchandkiss | First Viking Assault

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First Viking Assault - [Video]

[When the camera turns on, it’s upside down, and shows a lovely pair of fur lined brown boots sitting on the ground, folded beneath a red leather skirt covered in…are those spikes? They certainly look like spikes. The camera shakes a few times, and then violently shifts to the left as though someone smacked it. And then there is a sigh.]

This can’t be right.

[The voice is female, and frustrated, and after a moment the camera moves wildly again, as it lifts up into the air, showing an image from above of a blonde teenager sitting on the grass somewhere, leaning her back against a tree, and there is a green pokemon curled up on the ground next to her chewing intently on what might be a rock. She looks like she’s about to throw the pokegear away, even make a little growl of frustration, but she happens to glance up at the last second and see that the screen is actually doing something.]

[She brings it back down, frowning at it (still upside down) as she taps the screen with her thumb a few times and finally turns it the right side over. After a few more seconds of poking and prodding, and a few more of pushing her Pokemon out of the way when it becomes a bit too curious about what’s on the shiny machine, she slumps down where she’s sitting and just stares at the screen.]

Okay. That guy. That professor said I can use this to talk to people. Other people, I mean, besides…everyone in this town…people who also woke up in a weird house with a little creature following them around, I mean.

[Some of her anger might be showing through there.]

So, hello. Hi. Whatever. I’m Astrid. I need- [She cuts off as the Axew suddenly pokes his head back into view again, and there’s more shuffling as she pushes him back off-screen.] Sit. Stay. Right there. Good boy.

Anyway. Other than some stuff that didn’t make any sense, all I know is I’ve got this guy following me around and something about training and collecting and…look, it doesn’t matter. I just need to know where Stormfly, my dragon, is…and my axe…and how to get home.

In that order. Thanks.

[Some more fumbling and after about fifteen seconds of a lovely shot of the palm of her hand, Astrid manages to turn the device off.]

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[Oh, hello, there. Nice, ah...outfit, Astrid. Have a rather neat and well-kempt teenager smiling pleasantly back at you on your screen — or just wonder where his voice is coming from, depending.]

In that order? I'd imagine it's something to the effect of, "still at home", "still at home", and "if any of us were aware of that, I highly doubt we would still be here to answer this question for you", really.

[It does take Astrid a few moments to figure out someone is actually answering her back. By then the little device is on the ground in the grass nearby, and she picks it up and peers at it for a few moments before she sees the...tiny person...on it. Now, rationally, she knew how this worked because the Professor had explained it. And from Hiccup she knew that things could look like one thing, and do something else.]

[But there's a huge difference between being told something will let people talk to you, and actually seeing it. So for several moments she just stares at the man on the screen as if she's trying to figure out what sort of magic stuck him in there. She even turns the little device around a few times as if checking to see if he's somehow standing behind it. And then she sighs and rubs at her forehead.]

...Right. I thought that might be it, about going home, it didn't make sense if people stayed here but could and...whatever. I couldn't just not ask.

[WHOA HELLO video vertigo. He actually had to look away from his own screen for a little while, since the feed was still on while she was turning the device all around like that — and he has no desire to get motion-sick while he's sitting stationary in his own living room.]

I'd also suggest you keep the jostling of your device to a minimum — that won't make you many friends, jerking it around like that.

[He adjusts his glasses, then goes on.]

I'll warn you, a message like this is almost certain to guarantee you a great deal of friendly people turning up to give you advice about your new circumstances. That said, it might be most prudent to start by concerning yourself with how to use your Gear. At the moment, you should be seeing me on the screen. A little above that, there ought to be what looks like a small glass circle with a red light nearby. Do you see something like that?

[She narrows her eyes at that piece of 'advice'...but she does stop waving the machine around, at least. For the moment, anyway.]

None of them are going to know how to get home either, are they. [She asks this in that tone of voice that indicates she can pretty much guess the answer. And then she appears to be looking for what he's telling her to look for, and after a few moments of searching she nods.]

Yes. The little light is bright red. What does it mean?

As I said, if any of us knew, I doubt we'd still be here.

[He remarks, very patiently, which has less to do with the fact that she's obviously new and more because he's sometimes just a vaguely condescending asshole beneath his otherwise courteous exterior.]

That means your camera is activated. That is, just as you can see me right now, I can also see you on my end — you have blonde hair and are wearing brown boots and a red skirt, for example. If that light were off, the camera would be deactivated, and I wouldn't be able to see you.

What I'm able to see depends on what you point the glass circle at. Right now, it's pointing at you — hence, I see you. Thus, when you shake the device around like you're in the middle of a storm at sea, it tends to make the rest of us watching it rather nauseous.

[He could see her? She reaches up to touch her hair as he mentioned it. It made sense, but it was still a little unsettling, really. She frowns at the machine and almost starts to shake it again before she remembers what he said and stops herself.]

...Okay. What's a camera, exactly?

[She considers the little glass circle carefully, so he could see her through this...somehow...and then she covers it up with her thumb, watching the screen at the same time as if she's expecting something to happen.]

[All right, so we're talking someone way out of touch with technology. At least that gives him a better idea of just how pedantic he's going to have to be with all this.

As he, y'know, talks with some wry humor to a completely black screen.]

And now that you've covered it, I can't see you anymore. Think of it as something like a window or a door. The window is the screen — letting you look at whatever is on the other side — and the camera is the "eye" of whoever is looking back at you. Right now, you're covering my eye, so I can't see you. But the eye on my device is still "open", which is why you can still see me.

[He waves, slightly, for emphasis.]

However, if I were to close your "eye", the way you're doing to me now...

[As he puts his own thumb over the camera.]

You can't see me anymore, can you?

[Astrid listens as he explains, though she doesn't take her thumb off the camera. That was useful to know, if she did this he couldn't see her. No one could, presumably. Through the...tiny window that looked at far away places.]

[Okay this was going to take some getting used to.]

[She frowns and draws her thumb away when he vanishes like that, considering the obscured screen. Not quite dark, just a giant thumb for the most part. But she nods.]

Right. Okay, I think I get it. I mean, I don't understand it, because it's crazy. But I get it.

[At least she was a fast learner.]

Edited 2012-07-22 22:01 (UTC)

I wonder how you'll take to the rest of Johto, then, if the mere workings of the Gear seem crazy. Nevertheless, you don't need to understand it to grasp the basics of working it, and the sooner you get those, the easier the rest of your stay will become. The vast majority of communication here takes place through the help of the Gear, so you'll get good at it very quickly.

[Or she won't, and she'll just flounder around like a novice for the rest of her days, but you know, either way that's really none of Yagyuu's concern.]

Now watch. I'm going to point your "eye" at something else.

[His thumb stays over the lens as the Gear shifts, and when it finally disappears, there is an Espeon on the screen, sitting primly for the camera.]

In this way, I have some control over what you see — just as you control what I see or don't see of you.

Whatever it is, I can handle it. [Astrid was adaptable, and sure if herself most of the time. She'd figure it out. Or she'd break it and then she wouldn't care. One or the other.]

[At least this part she understands. He turned the camera with his thumb over it. That made sense. That was an...interesting looking dog he had, though.]

What's-

[She cuts off as her Axew is suddenly poking up in front of her again to peer at the screen and the other Pokemon on it. He even tries to paw at it a bit, and she has to push him back down on the ground by his nose.]

I said stay there. Right there. Sit.

[And back to the camera, finally.]

What's that?

She's my partner. Much the same way that Axew is destined to be yours, I'd imagine.

[This is not entirely accurate, considering the Espeon in question was not in fact Yagyuu's starter the way that the Axew is Astrid's, but he's an asshole who plays favorites and he loves her best, so.]

Her name is Lady. She's an Espeon, a different breed of Pokemon than the one you have sitting next to you, and with different capabilities to match.

[He turns the camera back to his face, slowly this time, so she can see how it's moving.]

Speaking of which, you might have more luck with yours if you name it first.

...Right.

[He wasn't the first person to mention pokemon to her as a name for...what, every little creature she had seen running around? But that didn't make it make any more sense, did it? She shifts to consider the little animal sitting there staring happily up at her, and reached out to give him a little pat on the nose.]

I was hoping I wouldn't need to be here long enough to name him.

[But that was looking less and less likely.]

Why would giving him a name make him any less curious or rambunctious?

[It might make him slightly more willing to listen, but he'd have to learn the name first, and she'd already gotten the little guy to sit when she told him to.]

They're more intelligent than you may be giving them credit for. And naming him might be one way of letting him know that you acknowledge he's yours.

[He shrugs.]

It doesn't have to be anything particularly meaningful. Though it can be, if you like.

I'll think about it.

[Her attention is back to the camera then.[

Did you...arrive...the same way I did?

Greeted by a woman claiming to be your mother in an unfamiliar house with a backpack at your side and an enthusiastic little creature at your feet? That's the traditional pattern, yes.

[But then he pauses, musing on that a little. It's been over a year now since the day he arrived, after all, and yet he still vaguely remembers the disorientation and confusion of waking up somewhere else.]

I was fortunate enough to have friends already here, and they were able to straighten things out for me fairly quickly.

Yeah. That. I almost punched her...but she seemed so...[She just shakes her head. It had been creepy! But she couldn't actually hit someone who smiled so momishly.]

Oh. Sounds nice. I guess they found you through this thing?

[She shakes the little machine and then remembers what he said about making people dizzy.]

Sorry.

[She almost punched Mom? ...Okay, well, that definitely just scored Astrid like twenty points in Yagyuu's book. Would that everyone had such a prudent reaction to facing Mom.]

That's right. Of course, I'd made it a point of introducing myself, which made it slightly easier on them as far as finding me. Even so, you'd be surprised how close of attention people pay to this Network. Sooner or later, everyone starts checking the new broadcasts hoping to see a friendly face.

[Well she'd been surprised! And violence was Astrid's go-to problem solver.]

...Huh. I think I'd much rather go home than have somebody else be stuck here too.

Does it happen a lot?

[Hey, he's not complaining. Violence is his go-to finishing move. Usually through tennis. But hey, whatever it takes to get results.]

What, people encountering others that they already know? With startling regularity, yes. When I arrived, there were around five people here that I already knew from home; in the ensuing months, I watched another fifteen or so arrive on top of it.

Why, is there someone you're longing to see?

No. [A quick answer. Too quick? Maybe. But she wasn't going to admit anything like that to a stranger on a creepy magic window.]

I actually meant people arriving here. In 'Mom's' house.

[WELL OKAY THEN. The lady doth protest too much. Interesting, but not really of any concern to him, unless he decides to poke at it later.]

Ah. In that case, it happens just about every time, as far as I've heard.

So people from...somewhere else...just wake up in that woman's house, with her acting like she's their mother...and then they get a pet and are sent on their way?

Often?

Constantly. It's the nature of the world.

[Man, how does he explain Pokemon to someone who's baffled by the thought of a camera? Baby steps, apparently.]

There's a certain...game, I suppose you could call it, that starts out much the same way. Thanks to this world's sense of humor, people's arrivals here tend to mirror the starting conditions of that game.

[She doesn't know what to think about that fact that people come in 'constantly.' She would have to look around the town, maybe other people arrived at the same time.]

A game? What do you mean? What kind of game?

['Game' meant 'violent contact activity' to Astrid, generally.]

A rather inane one, as far as I'm concerned.

[Moving on.]

Think of it as an analogy. When you intend to play a game, there's always a certain way of setting it up such that every game starts out the same — the players stand in the same places, or one person is designated as "it", or everyone has a certain number of items to begin with, and so on. Every time you play the game, those conditions will always be the same.

Similarly, every new arrival in this world comes in under those same conditions: a greeting from "Mom", a partnership, and an instruction to go on a Pokemon journey.

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