Casefile 002 - Video / Action for Olivine

[used_fireblast]

[In the aftermath of the mess with Lugia and the radio signal, Harry has decided it's time to figure out just how all this battling and capture stuff people keep talking about works. Lara is standing ready, or rather bouncing excitedly that she finally gets to attack something besides the back of Harry's head. Their target - a Magikarp slowly flopping its way back towards the ocean. Harry looks less than enthused.]

I actually need to fight this thing? Looks like it's about to keel over on its own anyway...

Smoo!

I feel like I'm beating up a kid for his lunch money or something.

[Harry pulls out a Pokeball, looking briefly between it and the sad little Magikarp. Maybe he doesn't need to actually fight it?]

Uh... go. Catch. Thing.

[Harry tosses the ball experimentally at the Magikarp. Predictably, it does nothing, and the fish's flailing tail smacks the ball back at Harry, sending it painfully into his forehead. Harry bites back some profanities, and Lara looks far more smug than should be possible for a baby Pokemon.]

Ow- hell's bells...

Chum!

Yes yes, I bow to your superior wisdom. Uh...

[Harry realizes he isn't sure how to actually initiate battle.]

...Go-go Gadget Pokemon?

SMOOCHUM!

[It's apparently good enough, as Lara dives at the Magikarp with an unhealthy gusto and the battle music starts on. Harry is just a bit horrified at her apparent enthusiasm for violence. He looks at the Pokegear, scanning the information about Smoochum's abilities.]

Yeah. Pound attack. Keep doing that, I guess.

SMOO!

Lick? That just sounds wrong... they really market these things to kids?

[Lara takes her cue from Harry, giving the Magikarp a Lick attack, leaving it shuddering in paralysis. Harry grimaces a bit, tossing the Pokeball again. There's a flash of light, and the Pokeball falls to the ground. It shakes once, twice, three times... and is still.]

-click-

SMOO~

[Lara triumphantly grabs the Pokeball and holds it aloft, a brief 'Item Get' motif playing in the background music.]

I refuse to believe that actually worked.

Smoochu.

[Harry is clearly just jealous of her success, in Lara's opinion.]

---

Okay, I just managed to catch one of these things...

[The camera turns away from Harry for a moment to point at a Magikarp splashing around in the surf near Olivine city. Lara is in the shallows as well, splashing back at the Magikarp. The fish appears oblivious to the game, but this hasn't deterred the Smoochum. The camera shifts back to Harry.]

All it's done so far is... that. I figured it was from being on land, but it's still not doing anything even in the water. These things do anything outside of being sashimi?

Comments

[Action]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Heather's never exactly been a fan of the beach, but hey, when in Rome...]

[Of course, she's not the one who'll FIRST be stumbling in on Harry's first catch-- she's a little further down the coast.]

[Instead... Have an incredibly sand-covered, shaggy-haired DOG running down the beach at you, guys. He wants to be friends!]</sub>

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Lara spots the approaching Growlithe first, and promptly waddles towards it at high speeds, the Magikarp's pokeball held triumphantly aloft.]

Get back here with- oh, hell's bells.

[The Smoochum is surprisingly fast, but Harry holds the distinct advantage of being tall like a freak, with a stride to match. Harry scoops up the escaping Pokemon, attempting to tug the Pokeball free from its grip.]

[And then he sees Cujo.]

Uh-

[He knows enough about dogs to know that running might not be a good idea, especially since the dogs here can do god-knows-what.]

[Action]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Yeah, there's a LOT of things a dog can do to something the size of a beanie baby. ... Namely, mostly things that dogs often do to ACTUAL beanie babies. Chew to shreds, bury, shake around...]

[But fortunately, Cujo is a pretty well-behaved dog when it comes to treatment of his fellow living things. At least when it comes to the 'not mauling them' part.]

[So when he rushes up to them in a spray of sand and saltwater, he comes skidding to a halt in a play-bow, staring straight up at Lara and Harry with that quintessential dog "8D" face on.]</sub>

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Okay, tiger-doggy wants to play. So at least it's probably not going to tear Harry's face off, at least not intentionally. Still, strange dog. Animal. Poke-thingy. Best keep a firm grip on the icey-chew toy.]

[Harry slowly squats down, extending a hand for Cujo to sniff at. Lara's still squirming, still keeping the Pokeball with a surprising grip for something that small.]

Hey there, Tigger. You got an owner?

[Lara manages to slip out of Harry's arm, plopping onto the sand and zipping over towards Cujo, showing off the Pokeball.]



Oh, sh-

[Action]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Yes, yes he did have an owner! She's just apparently... um... not... noticing that her dog is harassing somebody right now.]

[Cujo immediately investigates the proffered hand with a giant wet nose, before attempting to give it a thorough licking, tail whipping back and forth.]

[But when Lara slips out of Harry's grasp and goes running towards him, he bounds backwards, tongue flapping out. OH BOY, OH BOY, PLAYMATE. And even better, she has a BALL. Lara has his complete and total attention.]</sub>

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

Lara-

[Harry reaches out to once more attempt to pluck the Pokeball from the Smoochum's grip, now that it's become apparent that Cujo isn't immediately likely to use her as a squeak-toy. He does, however, seem quite fixated on the trapped Magikarp; Harry's pretty sure being trapped in a little ball forever because someone damaged it in a game of fetch would be really unpleasant even for a braindead fish.]

I'm sure you love playing ball as much as your namesake, but lemme keep that nice and safe and we'll find a stick or something-

[Lara interrupts Harry by taking the only -to her- logical action. Tossing the ball joyfully into the air for Cujo to chase. At Harry.]



Oh, hell's bells-

[Action]

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Fetching was, of course, what Cujo did best.]

[That is, when he wasn't doing best at licking, turning in circles, jumping on people, taking up most of the bed, or barking at nothing.]

[But for the moment, fetching was all that was on his mind. And luckily for Harry, number three on that list of things Cujo was good at just so happened to be included in this package!]

[Please enjoy the forty-or-so pounds of PURE DOG careening in your general direction, Harry.]</sub>

Re: [Action] I lack a true 'oh crap' icon. I must correct this.

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry's brain, as happened so often, seemed to be working against him. Lara threw the Pokeball and Harry, on instinct, snaked out a hand and caught it.]

[Right as Cujo leaped for it as well. Hardly the biggest thing to tackle Harry, but the Growlithe had the distinct advantage of catching him off-guard.]

[Harry goes down in a mess of overenthusiastic dog, making a valiant effort to untangle himself and protect the Pokeball.]

[Action] YES YOU SHOULD.

[foolishwren]

<sub>[OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY YAY BALL KISSES BALL FRIEND BALL BALL BALL BALL oh hey sand is kind of nasty-tasting BALL OH BOY.]

[That was more or less a summary of what was going through Cujo's head as he wrestled with the (ex?) wizard, dolloping generous amounts of slobber onto Harry's face between attempts at snagging the ball.]</sub>

Re: [Action] I have access to Photoshop again, I'll have to get on that.

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry is doing his best to get tiger-doggy to settle down and stop trying slobber him to death, which amounts to a fair bit of sputtering and unsuccessful attempts to modify the little bit of martial arts training he had for use against dogs. The end result was slightly less humiliating than the Mold Demon Incident, but mostly because there were no witnesses.]



[Lara is doing her part to help from the sidelines. Wherein "help" is defined as egging on Cujo as much as possible.]

Sit! Oh, hell-

[And the Pokeball slips from Harry's grasp...]

[Action] WOOO. You an artist?

[foolishwren]

<sub>[The moment that ball leaves Harry's hands, Cujo is on it like a cheap suit. He snatches it up in his jaws and proceeds to immediately dance out of reach, tail high and flagging. Lara's cheering, like any good egg-onner, is pretty much just making everything worse for poor Harry.]

[Once he's JUST beyond arm's reach, he drops into the universal play-bow, butt wiggling. The body language is universal: CHASE MEEEEEEEE.]</sub>

Re: [Action] Artist by choice and education, cashier by economy.

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, explitive...

[Harry slowly picks himself up, crouching and trying not to startle the tigerdoggy into bolting. That he just wants to play is very clear, but Harry's got personal experience in how rough overenthusiastic dogs can be with toys.]

Hey, okay there Hobbes, why don't you just hand that over and I'll get a nice treat for you...

[Probably not buying it. All right then, time for bait and switch. Moving slowly, Harry reaches into his pack and pulls out another Pokeball, this one empty of any crunchable inhabitants.]

[He holds it up for Cujo to see]

See the ball, boy? You want this one instead? Want the ball?

[Action] Ahhh. I feel you there-- that's going to be me as soon as I graduate.

[foolishwren]

<sub>[Promises of treats did little to nothing (it was honestly unclear just how much Cujo understood of plain English)-- but the sight of another ball? That was a totally different story.]

[The Growlithe skidded to a halt in the sand, staring back at Harry wide-eyed, the Pokeball still in his mouth.]

[He.... he wanted it. He wanted it real bad. Oh please throw it please please please please.]</sub>

Re: [Action] I've been looking for internships. Fun times.

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[All right, he'd gotten tigerdog's attention. That was good, step one successfully completed. Step two... Harry wasn't sure, beyond keeping Cujo interested in the empty Pokeball. Step three was profit! getting the wall-eyed fish back.]

You like the ball, boy? Huh?

[Harry tosses the empty in his hand a bit, acting like he might be about to throw it.]

Just drop the other one and you can-




[Lara rushes past Harry, attempting to prompt Cujo into a game of chase. With Harry. Her legs are far too short to do it properly herself, naturally.]

[Action] Oh jeez, GOOD LUCK. D: What's your major, out of curiosity?

[foolishwren]

<sub>[YES. YES HE LIKED THE BALL VERY MUCH.]

[Almost hypnotized, the dog took a few steps forward, tail wagging hopefully, eyes locked squarely onto the empty ball.]

[... Well, until Lara broke his trance, anyway.]</sub>

WUFF!

_{[AAAAAND HERE HE COMES LIKE A SHOT RUBBER BAND-- ... well, until the cavalry arrives, anyway.]}

CUJO! HEY! Leave that poor guy alone!

_{[At long last, there's Cujo's trainer, jogging down the beach towards them. And flailing. Just a little.]}

Re: [Action] Graphic Design, though I like Illustration, too. You?

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

Hey! Heel!

[As Cujo takes off, Lara does her best to keep up. Harry does a bit better, hastily scooping Lara up to keep her out of further trouble before taking off after the tigerdoggy. He's got a lot of experience running, admittedly usually AWAY from something, but the sand still made it tough going.]

[And... there was someone who knew the tiger-thing, apparently. Trainer, probably. In this case, the cavalry.]

[Normally, Harry didn't object to other people hoarding the Big Damn Heroes moments, but in this case it was a little embarrassing. Getting rescued from a game of fetch gone wrong.]

If anyone asks, this was all part of some master plan, got it?

[Action] Animation for me, but if Illustration was offered where I go, that's what I'd be doing, too

[foolishwren]

_{[Heather comes to a halt a short distance away, panting slightly and watching her dog hightail it down the shoreline. He wouldn't go TOO far before coming back, she knew-- chasing him just made it worse. So she turns to Harry instead.]}

Your secret's safe with me, Beastmaster.

_{[Yeah, she'd seen at least part of the epic struggle-- she'd just been too far away to get there in time.]}

Er-- sorry about that. He's... a little special. He didn't hurt you or your Pokemon any, did he?

Re: [Action] Animation for me, but if Illustration was offered where I go, that's what I'd be doing,

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[And the cavalry was actually close enough to hear him. Ah well. Maybe he could claim that the comment was part of some sort of master plan, too.]

Beastmaster, huh? Long as it's the first one and not the sequel.

Not unless you think he's likely to eat that Pokeball, no. Just my dignity. ...And that's been in and out of traction since 2002 or so.

[Action]

[foolishwren]

Fair enough. Sequels are usually bad news, anyway.

And uh... nnno, he's-- yeah, he's not the one anybody needs to be worried about in terms of, uh... ball-chomping. _{[Sure, she'd had to extract more than one of her possessions from his jaws via Tug-of-War Deathmatch, but he was usually pretty good about not ruining things... now, her Totodile, on the other hand...]}

Hang on, I'll see if I can get it back're something... CUJO! HEY! Get back here!

_{[The little orange blob far down the beach stopped getting smaller for a second as Cujo paused to look back at the two trainers.]}

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

...Yeah, not even touching that one.




Anyway, thanks for the help. I have enough trouble keeping this one out of trouble. Dunno what I'll do if she gets too big to pick up.

[Lara looks a bit indignant, and chews a little at Harry's hand to make her displeasure known.]

Uh- we talked over the Gear thing, right? Don't think I ever got around to introducing myself. Name's Harry Dresden.

[Action]

[foolishwren]

_{[Heather lets out a quiet hiss as Cujo loses interest and goes running off again.]}

Ugh, stupid dog-- sorry, he'll come back as soon as he realizes we're not chasing him. Anyway, uh--

Oh. Hey, we did! Didn't recognize you at first. Harry, huh?

_{[She sticks out a hand.]}

I'm Heather. Mason.

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry considers waving the empty ball around to try tempting Cujo back, but that might just spur him to greater heights of hyperactivity. He makes a note to give Mouse a carton of Milk Bones when he gets home, for being such a mellow pet.]

[For the moment, he settles for shaking Heather's hand.]

You said you've been here around a year, right? The animals going nuts and making a giant rainstorm, is that a regular thing?

[Action]

[foolishwren]

_{[She's got a firm-as-hell grip-- one of those classic teen 'haha I'm tough so I'm squeezing hard to make a point!' handshakes. She picked up that habit somewhere during early high school and just never grew out of it.]}

Well, not the storm, specifically, but... weird things happen every so often here. That was one in a line of many.

_{[She holds up one arm, which has a fairly nasty still-healing wound over one elbow.]}

Probably the most painful, though.

_{[GUESS WHOSE TOTODILE HAS TO WEAR A MUZZLE NOW.]}

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

All right, then. Regular weirdness I can deal with.

...It hasn't rained frogs or anything since you've been here, has it?

[Harry winces a little in sympathy as she shows him the wound. He's been injured enough to have a decent idea of how much that probably hurt.]

Ouch. A wild one, or..?

[Action]

[foolishwren]

Rained frogs? Nope. Everything got covered in the stuff that blue-raspberry Jolly Ranchers are made of last summer, though.

_{[THAT HAD BEEN FUN. NOT.]}

And nope, one of mine. Always been bitey, but that little episode took me by surprise.

Re: [Action]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Repeat wince action. Lara's been a bit... overenthusiastic, at times, but nothing that serious. And the worst any of his pets at home did was drag home decapitated mice to leave as little warnings on his bedsheets.]

I know what you mean. Lara managed to smack me good on the head the other day. Didn't think she was physically capable of hitting that hard.

[He glances down at the Smoochum, still being held.]

It ever starts hailing around here, you're going straight back into the ball.



[She looks annoyed, and gives his hand a brief, pins-and-needles inducing Lick.]

[Action]

[foolishwren]

_{[Down the beach, Cujo's starting to trot back up to them-- Heather notes this before turning back to Harry.]}

These things pack more of a punch than one would think... even the ones that look like Cabbage Patch dolls.

[video]

[exeggutorhead]

Congratulations, it's useless until level twenty.

Re: [video]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry's played enough RPGs to be familiar with leveling. Also to know that it generally requires actually doing something.]

[The fact that this place is apparently governed by game mechanics is lost among the general weirdness.]

Okay. So how do I get it to level if it can't do anything?

[video]

[exeggutorhead]

Hell if I know, I've never raised one of those things.

Try throwing it at whatever you're fighting.

Re: [video]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

Brilliant plan. Let it get strong and competent by making it hate me.

That's the basic school of thought for the Sith, isn't it?

[video]

[exeggutorhead]

[That reference earns a blank look.] The what?

And hey, you did ask. If you're nice to it the rest of the time it might wind up not hating you. [It's kind of a miracle that Envy's starter continued to like him so much.]

Re: [video]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry might pity Envy's deprivation of the Star Wars series, but he's beginning to suspect that the homunculus might not be a terribly nice person.]

[Or one of the Fae, which would probably be worse.]

So your best-case-scenario on this is basically to hope for Stockholm's syndrome.

Somehow I think I'd rather not risk it with something that'll probably be able to eat my face off once it grows up.

[video] I'm sorry I've been so insanely slow ;;

[exeggutorhead]

[Mostly behaving himself in Johto, yes. Nice person, never. Envy just laughs.]

I know someone who's raised two of them, and at least one adores him. So maybe there is a kinder way, if you're that worried about it. Or maybe she just has this 'Stockholm syndrome' too.

I don't see what's so cruel about throwing your fish at the opponent if it's going to be fighting anyway.

Re: [video] Sa'right, I've been busy lately anyway.

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry manages to facepalm in expression alone.]

Fighting generally implies some kind of... I dunno, actually do something.

Besides, I'd like it to learn to do something BESIDES be a prop in that Monty Python song.

[voice]

[tripleshuttle.livejournal.com]

[Astrotrain laughs. So far these humans are so amusing.]

You could always use it as a club.

Re: [voice]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

I'd rather suspect it's useless than give it brain damage and make SURE it's useless.

[voice]

[tripleshuttle.livejournal.com]

Reinstall a new processor when it's stronger.

[For a moment there he forgets organics don't have spare parts.]

Re: [voice]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

...
What?

[Really, there's not much else to say to that.]

I understood each individual word, but stringing them together... just, what?

[voice]

[tripleshuttle.livejournal.com]

Install. A new. Processor. Take out the broken one and put in a new o--

[OH. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!]

THAT'S RIGHT. [He laughs.] You squishies don't have spare parts.

Re: [voice]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

[Harry's not sure if Astrotrain is crazy, or just... no, crazy's all he's got.]

We generally don't, no. Been watching Battlestar Galactica a little too much?

[voice]

[tripleshuttle.livejournal.com]

Heh, your species. So funny.

[What the frag is Battlestar Galactica.]

Re: [voice]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

["Your species". There's a phrasing that twigs Harry's attention. No human's gonna talk like that, but most of the supernatural creepy crawlies Harry's met would just call them 'mortals'.]

[Curiosity is officially piqued.]

Uh... huh.

Yeah, we're a regular laugh riot. A real 'Manos The Hands of Fate'. Only intentional.

So what's that make you, then?

[voice]

[tripleshuttle.livejournal.com]

[Again Astrotrain doesn't understand the reference, but really he doesn't care. It's always amusing to listen to the humans' nonsense.]

I'm a Decepticon. And yes, you are a hilarious little species.

Re: [voice]

[used-fireblast.livejournal.com]

Deceptiwhatsits?

[Squinty-eyed look, not that Astro can see it. The term sounds familiar, but not enough to quite break Harry's brain yet.]

I think they make a cream for that now.