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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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?

No, but survival's the only kind of challenge that's worth hurting anyone for. I like competing with animals better when neither of us has to die, but I have to eat too. I try to make sure they die as painlessly as I can and I don't waste any of them.

But you'd still rather kill them then do this. Where nothing dies.

[She's not really impressed.]

[He's just not explaining it very well.]

Of course not! I don't want any of them to get hurt! But there's no way to keep everyone from getting hurt. I have to hurt animals to stay alive and they have to hurt plants and other animals to stay alive. If I could live without any plants or animals getting hurt I would, but I can't. If you don't need to hurt someone to stay alive or to keep other people alive then there's no reason to hurt them at all. You won't die if you don't have a badge, so there's no reason to let the Pokémon get hurt for them. The only reason I don't stop the Pokémon who travel with me from fighting at all is because they want to and the Pokémon they're fighting want to, and they're okay with getting hurt. Even though they want me to I don't go and look for more fights, I just let them fight the Pokémon that challenge us while we're walking.

Hurting things is a part of life. [What? She's a VIKING.] No matter how much you might want to avoid it.

What are you going to do when you encounter something really strong like a dragon and your pokemon aren't strong enough to fight it? We don't seem to be able to get weapons here.

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