punchandkiss | Second Viking Assault

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Second Viking Assault - [video]

[It's hard to tell exactly where Astrid is when she turns her gear on, but there are trees around, and her Axew is visible resting against one behind her, keeping watch over two pokemon eggs. (She hasn't really gotten the hang of keeping them in pokeballs yet, it seems...mean.) Her attention isn't on them though, she's looking at the screen almost thoughtfully.]

I've been trying to get the hang of all the...little things here, so I decided to try and catch one of the wild pokemon running around on the paths. Which worked, except...

[She turns her camera around to reveal a Sentret happily sitting on the ground in front of her, bouncing up and down on her tail as she watches Astrid.]

I just picked it because it was the first one I found. And now I've caught it and I'm...not really sure what to do with it.

I mean...[She turns the camera back to her.] There are dragons here. And fire breathing dogs, and electric vermin, and so many other powerful looking creatures...

[She turns the camera back to the Sentret, who seems quite happy to be the center of attention.]

Then there's her. ...She looks like something babies sleep with. Or something bigger, stronger animals like to eat.

Do people really train these?

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[Astrid considers the creature again, then frowns.]

Wait. "She says"?

Yeah. I can talk to animals. I guess you're like everyone else and can't.

...Right.

Because that's not crazy.

Why would it be crazy?

[Completely missing how any of this could be misinterpreted.]

What could be crazy about claiming animals talk to you?

[This is Astrid's skeptical look.]

Nothing. I've always been able to talk to them.

[This is Apollo still missing her point.]

[She starts to say something, stops, and then just shakes her head.]

...Never mind. So what do they say?

[Because humoring crazy ideas is kind of a bad habit of hers.]

They'll talk about if they're getting enough food, if there are a lot of predators around, what interesting things they've seen lately, and things like that. Pokémon can talk about more complicated things than other animals can, so when I'm traveling I can ask them were I can find water or if a plant is something that I can eat or what kinds of attacks they can use or what they evolve into. They have a lot of interesting things to say. Humans would be nicer to them if they understood them.

[Well, he was certainly dedicated to this idea, if he was crazy. And she couldn't argue with what he was saying.]

...Everyone I've talked to seems to baby on their pokemon already.

[She kinda did too, a little bit.]

Some of them try and make Pokémon fight or only care about them if they think they're useful. Never make them fight if they don't want to and always make sure that the other Pokémon wants to fight too.

[Astrid frowns at that. She had been having her pokemon fighting wild ones almost since the day she had arrived, really. They seemed to enjoy it, though she didn't know if the wild ones did.]

Isn't fighting sort of the point?

A lot of them like to fight, but not all of them. There's no reason to let them hurt each other for fun. The only good reasons to fight are to defend yourself or to get food. Since you can't eat any of the animals here you shouldn't fight unless you get attacked.

But if they don't get stronger, you can't earn the badges. [Astrid is actually looking forward to that when she gets to Violet city.]

And I haven't seen any of them not want to fight...

There's no reason to get badges. [He's a breeder so he doesn't even need them to use HMs. Of course he'll need to get said HMs somehow...]

Then you just haven't met any yet.

...Why not?

[She doesn't have a clue what to say to that second part, it just seems fatalistic.]

What are they even good for?

Someone said you need them to use those special move things.

And how else will you know if you're winning this game?

[The whole thing had been explained to her as a big competition.]

I don't.

Game? This isn't a game.

...Okay.

It sure looks like a game. There are rules, and goals, and a route to follow.

There aren't any good goals here. Collecting shiny things is pointless.

You don't have to follow the routes, they're just faster.

[She shrugs.] It's a challenge. Sometimes winning a challenge is the point!

Why wouldn't you, though? They're safe enough, and pretty quick.

It should be a challenge that's worth winning then.

I usually follow them, except in places like Ilex Forest where the path keeps turning even though there are faster ways through. [Of course, he's lived in a forest his entire life so paths that are obvious to him are invisible to almost everyone else.]

Like what?

[She shrugs.] I haven't gotten there yet.

Something like hunting an animal who can kill you. Whoever wins gets to eat for the next few days.

...So you think a challenge where something has to die, is better than one where nothing has to die?

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