.004 Δ [Video]

[ratherbelocky]

Goooood evening, residents of Johto. It's a lovely, drizzly January day, and I've got a question you folks might be able to answer for me. Consider it an informal poll.

[York looks comfortable and cozy as he lounges around his house, still wearing his ugly Christmas sweater.]

Now, I understand that this place just isn't equipped to support a Grifball League, but there's got to be more to life than just hockey and baseball. Are there Pokémon Olympics or something I should tune into? And, hey, what kind of sports did you guys have back in your worlds? Were they fun? Would you recreate 'em here if you could?

[He rubs his chin for a moment, then adds:]

If anyone around Goldenrod's interested in forming some kind of low-key community sports team--y'know, something for people, not Pokémon--let me know. I might be able to help us get something set up before baseball season starts.

Comments

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[grapeeater]

That's good. Fighting can be... rough. And even if you think you're fighting for the right side, you may not be.

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[ratherbelocky]

[York takes a long pause before he answers.]

Yeah.

Turned out I wasn't.

You live and learn, right?

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[grapeeater]

[Well now isn't this interesting...]

I can understand that entirely.

You can't go back, but... well. You can try to clean up the mess, right?

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[ratherbelocky]

Uh, yeah, not so much anymore.

Though I guess I did have a pretty big hand in the first phase of stopping it, so I can take some credit for how things turned out in the end.

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[grapeeater]

... Oh. Well.

That's good, at least. That you managed to stop a little of it...

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[ratherbelocky]

I crashed a whole spaceship.

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[grapeeater]

I helped something from another world help invade my world.

I... haven't been able to fix any of it yet.

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[ratherbelocky]

Aliens?

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[grapeeater]

In the sense that they aren't humans from our planet, yes. In the sense that they're from space, no. They're from another world that got invaded by something that's trying to invade ours through cracks in reality. And... I thought helping them would be the best way to do what I thought I needed to do.

I was wrong.

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[ratherbelocky]

Oh. Yeah. That's a hard place to be in.

We all thought we were doing the right thing.

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[grapeeater]

Everyone always does. It's only afterwards that you figure out what was staring you in the face the whole time.

private text; RvB S9-10 spoilers ahoy

[ratherbelocky]

The Director of PFL was lying to us the whole time. Told us we were the good guys, that we were special ops against the Insurrectionists. Rebels against the United Earth Government, I mean. It was a bad thing, we were already fighting the Covenant - they were aliens - just to survive. We couldn't afford to have old human-human disputes picking at our edges, too.

Turns out he'd been breaking the law for years. Tortured the Project's one smart AI until it tore itself apart to produce the "fragment" personalities he needed for his experiments, used us to steal private property. Killed and hurt a lot of people just doing their jobs.

He did a lot of damage before some of us started to catch on. And even then, not everyone believed us.

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[grapeeater]

That... that's pretty terrible. ... 'Sorry' doesn't cut it, huh?

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[ratherbelocky]

Hey, you're not him. And I hear he and the rest of the Project get taken down eventually. But the things we've done, the echoes'll linger for a damn long time.

Good and bad.

I'da liked to have done more while I had a chance, but it's good to know that what I did do mattered, in the end. I hope you manage to find some peace, at least, man.

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[grapeeater]

[It takes him a little bit to respond, because... what do you even say to that? He's totally not crying a little. Totallly.]

If the world's not destroyed after I go back, maybe.

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[ratherbelocky]

Well, yeah, I imagine if everything's completely gone, then you're probably off the hook.

[York, what the fuck kind of thing is that to say??]

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[grapeeater]

Yeah, though that means I didn't do what I was supposed to do.

'We stain our hands so others don't have to'. No one should have to clean up my mess.

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[ratherbelocky]

Yeah. Well, sometimes it's unavoidable. Cleaning up others' shit, having to leave your own for others to deal with eventually. That's the world we live in, where we're all connected in ways we don't even know.

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[grapeeater]

True. But I've always been taught that people with power have a responsibility to face things for the people who don't have power.

... I don't know if that's the way to go anymore, though.

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[ratherbelocky]

Dunno if I'll be much help figuring that one out. That's sort of the whole idea behind maintaining a military force, you know? Protecting the innocent and so on.

I will say that a big part of my job was helping other people act with their full power, though. Would that sort of philosophy sit better with you, dude?

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[grapeeater]

... Maybe. I don't know what sort of philosophy I should believe in anymore.

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[ratherbelocky]

Believe me, I know the feeling. Guess it's just a matter of paying attention and seeing what you end up thinking about the world, now.

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[grapeeater]

I'm trying to focus on here for now, at least. It's easier to manage.

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[ratherbelocky]

Yeah, for sure. No sense dwelling on the things we can't change while we're in this crazy place.

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[grapeeater]

Yeah. Even if things look bad here sometimes, they tend to turn out okay.