used_fireblast | Casefile 002A - Video; Cherrygrove City

Current Location: Cherrygrove City/Route 29

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Casefile 002A - Video; Cherrygrove City

Three days wandering in the wilderness and I'm back to civilization.

[Harry's set up somewhere at the outskirts of Cherrygrove, right at the edge of Route 29. Lara can be seen in the background, rummaging through her trainer's backpack, occasionally tossing things out past her wiggling legs.]

Relatively, anyway. This road was pretty tame for supposedly rugged wilderness. And this city looks like it could probably fit into a couple blocks of Chicago. Without making room first. Maybe into ONE if they demolished what was already there.

Hoppi?
SMOO!

[Behind Harry, a curious-looking Hoppip floats over to Lara. The startled Smoochum ungracefully pops out of the bag, scattering a few of the items within as she spins to face the newcomer.]

[Harry, focused on the Gear, remains oblivious.]

I stuck around -New Bark Town, was it?- for a couple days before I left. Tried talking to some of the people. They didn't seem quite human. Only spoke a few sentences, didn't seem quite in touch with reality emotionally, that sort of thing. And that woman that-

[He breaks off for a moment, obviously not wanting to talk too much about 'Mom'.]

The woman who's probably seen too many of those 'Lifetime' movies.

Pi-pi?

[Lara stares down the inquisitive Hoppip for a moment, looking defensive. She abruptly jumps up, planting a solid Pound attack square in the grass Pokemon's face.]

CHU!
PI-I-IP-

Anyway, I've been thinking about it, and there seems to be two possible explanations. One is that these are actual people who've been put under a serious mind-whammy. Don't think that's it, though. Something this serious wouldn't leave them nearly as coherent as they are, not for long. Second is that they're constructs of some kind. Like... robots, I guess. Artificial recreations of humans, but whatever's controlling them can't get the more subtle stuff like conversation quite right.

[Lara is back to picking through the bag, wiggling back out and producing a Pokeball. She stands over the stunned Hoppip for a moment, ball held aloft, looking like a gladiator waiting for a signal from the emperor before delivering the final blow. ]

Smoo-CHU.

[She throws the Pokeball down at the Hoppip with more force than is strictly necessary, producing the familiar pop and whoosh of dematerialization. The ball lands on the ground with a soft click, wiggling a bit in the Hoppip's feeble struggles from within.]

So anyone else noticed anything? Seen any evidence that these people actually, you know, have to do biological stuff?

[The Pokeball lets out a 'ding' to mark a successful capture, falling still. The noise is apparently enough to catch Harry's attention, as he finally turns away from the Gear for a moment.]

Lara, quit playing around with that stuff, that bag's like a black hole.
Smoo-chu~
Fine, but if you get lost in there don't expect a search party.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The nurses an' police officers seemed pretty normal to me.

Really? Hrm.

[Last time Harry had to interact with one of the Officers, he was too busy trying not to get violently carsick and praying for dear life to any God that would have him.]

I'll have to look into that further. Could be different levels of sophistication in the constructs. ...Or I could just be paranoid. It's hard to tell some days.

... nah, there's no such thing as bein' too paranoid.

I mean, they got mind-readin' Pokemon and ghosts runnin' around, right?

Hoo, that's a fun thought.

[Note to self, brush up on techniques for mental self-defense without magic.]

Living plushies who already wield the power of the elements, and can also walk through walls and read your mind. ...Why aren't these things running this place again?

... probably 'cause we're all here to feed 'em and heal 'em.

I need to find some kind of history of this place. Figure out how humans got dominant to begin with.

... that's a real good question...

What if humans used to be Pokemon, too?

Possible, I suppose. Not sure where all the fire-breathing and rock-shattering punches went if that were the case, though. Unless there were some obvious downside to it. Evolution doesn't really work that way.

DARWINIAN evolution doesn't work that way.

I didn't stay in New Bark Town for very long and it was a long time ago, so I don't really remember... But the people there didn't seem too weird to me...

[Then again, she hadn't exactly had much contact with people before that...]

Do you remember how much you talked to them? It almost felt like they were trying to answer questions, just not like anything I was actually saying.

[The next bit comes out with a bit of difficulty. It's kind of a touchy subject.]

...Did some woman claim to be your mother when you got there?

I've had normal conversations with some of the people around here. Folks around town, gym leaders...

[He shrugs.]

It's pretty inconsistent.

"Inconsistent" isn't a bad description of this place. If nothing else, there doesn't seem to be any kind of pattern in who ends up here.

Not to mention how some people return with memories and others don't.

That part I might just put down to alternate universes. Only hitch is, you go home and you don't remember THIS place.

Still weird, though. My friend Sora left, came back without memories, left again and came back with the memories from the time before he was here last.

islandshore.livejournal.com - 2011-10-24 03:04 (UTC) - Expand

I would lean more toward the artificial construct theory, myself. Though apparently some of them are capable of normal conversation if you can get them out of their preset loop.

I'll have to see what I can do with that.

[Preferably somewhere with space to run if things go pear-shaped. Poking at possible magical robo-things without knowing exactly what you're doing can lead to stuff going boom.]

[Those are the technical terms, obviously.]

Even if they don't know anything about what's happening on a conscious level, they could still have useful information.

That is quite possible, yes. I know the townspeople are capable of answering basic questions about the environment, at least.

Yeah, a lot of them seemed almost like they were trying to answer questions.

[About things that would probably be sort of obvious to any native of Johto. Or someone who'd been there for more than five minutes.]

Couldn't quite tell if they actually get that people are dropping in from different dimensions, or they just like giving random bits of advice. Sort of like a really niche version of those Magic 8-Balls.

I think I would say it's some of both. I'm sure they're aware of the general situation, but they also seem to have several lines of dialogue that they're compelled to say, regardless of what exactly you ask them.

Like an actor who's been handed a bad script and decides to improv everything he can.

Huh. There's something I hadn't considered. This is all some massive audience participation mystery put on by a really eccentric extra-dimensional acting troupe.

...That's certainly an interesting theory. Can't say I've heard that one before.

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