ratherbelocky | .004 Δ [Video]

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

wing_attack

Yeah, I can understand that. It's easier for someone to just point you where to go sometimes.

From:

ratherbelocky

Yeah. That and, well. If Carolina was our number one, I was always her second. You know what I mean? If she needed something done, she turned to me. That's the kind of setup I work best in. North's sort of the same, in his own way. We need someone to support, and Carolina's good at forging forward.

From:

wing_attack

Yeah. I was always air support and intel, Ax was technology, Cassie worried about ethics, Marco was the cynic who pointed out weaknesses in plans, Jake was the leader and... and Rachel was the... main fighter...

[His expression darkens for a moment, before he pulls himself back.]

Anyway, we all had our skills.

From:

ratherbelocky

[York catches that, but, well. He's not gonna push the kid. He understands.]

Yeah. We were like that, too. We all had our specialties. Carolina was our leader and our best at CQC, North and Wyoming were snipers...

[He trails off, not for any difficult memory, but because he just. Misses it powerfully, sometimes. How good they'd been, when they'd been good.]

From:

wing_attack

Yeah we... usually just used different morphs. We just got comfortable with a role and stuck with it.

From:

ratherbelocky

Yeah. That's normal, I think. We trained all the time to be sort of well-rounded so we could cover each other if someone got hurt, but, well.

[He sounds a little proud, a little wistful.]

Nobody could do what I did.

From:

wing_attack

I'm guessing it wasn't just 'being second in command', then?

From:

ratherbelocky

Well, I like to think I was the best at that, too, but nah. My job was infiltration. I was the only locksmith on our squad.

From:

wing_attack

Oh, okay. Yeah, we'd usually morph cockroach or flea for something like that.

From:

ratherbelocky

[He laughs.]

That mighta made it easier sometimes, yeah! I had to do things the old-fashioned way until I got Delta.

From:

wing_attack

Delta?

From:

ratherbelocky

My AI partner. They were all named after Greek letters, same way we were all named after U.S. states.

From:

wing_attack

Oh. Huh. I... guess I never thought AI would get to that point, but different worlds and all...

[Maybe the Andalites have some.]

From:

ratherbelocky

I am from pretty far in the future, you know. Five hundred years make a difference.

From:

wing_attack

That. That's a very good point.

From:

ratherbelocky

Anyway, D could be a real pain in the neck, but we ended up working our differences out. He was a big help after my eye got hurt.

From:

wing_attack

Yeah, I can imagine. Losing depth perception seems like it could be deadly for a soldier.

From:

ratherbelocky

Y'know, that's bad enough on its own, but really the worst is losing your peripheral vision? I'da had a way easier time after that if I could've spotted hostile movement off my left like I used to.

From:

wing_attack

That's a good point. ... Makes me really glad that morphing heals, otherwise we'd all have been dead a bunch of times over.

From:

ratherbelocky

[York's quiet a moment.]

Your team...was it all kids your age?

[The leader was someone Tobias met at school...]

From:

wing_attack

Yeah. I don't actually know how old Ax is in terms of years on his planet, but it's about the same as us, yeah.

The... Auxiliary ones were a bunch of different ages. Mostly our age still, though. Some a little younger. ... We told them what they were getting into, but they...

[Well.]

From:

ratherbelocky

...Look. I know I said there's no such thing as 'young to be fighting,' but...

It's different when it's only kids fighting, you know?

From:

wing_attack

... I know. It sucks, but... we only got the military involved recently. It only ended up as open war in the past few months at home. We couldn't be sure they'd be on our side, and... we wanted to minimize casualties. The Yeerks were a lot more advanced technologically.

From:

ratherbelocky

That's how it was for us, too. Being outgunned, I mean. Covenant tech was, and still is, something we don't really understand. But we had every human planet and colony backing us.

Shit, man. No wonder you don't want to go back. I wouldn't, either.