explosivecombat | 002. [Text/Action for Route 44]

002. [Text/Action for Route 44]

[TEXT]

And a good evening to you, Johto.

Conversations with a few of you have shed some interesting light on opinions of exactly what it is we do here. The mandates we've received from the faceless entities that have brought us here make it very plain that we're supposed to humor them, to collect these 'badges' and essentially wander around for no real reason other than training these creatures and strengthening them - not so much a militaristic society as it is battle culture, if you will. However, others refer to these creatures as 'pets' or 'companions'; while I suppose the act of training these things may lead to bonds being formed, such people seem to have a different view of this world entirely.

I ask, then: from whatever standpoint you hold, be it one geared more toward companionship or more toward advancement - at what point does it become acceptable to you to release these creatures back into the wilderness? Surely there are some that aren't exactly battle-capable, or at least not as capable as others may be, and effort goes into their training; when do you decide that continuing to train them is no longer granting you benefit equal to the effort you're putting in?

I'll grant that "never" may be a perfectly valid answer, should your tendencies lean that way.

[ACTION]

[Well, whatever Kimblee was going on about before, it's clearly not affecting his relations with his own Pokémon any; he's currently standing beneath one of those trees on Route 43, though the white coat he's usually wearing makes him a bit obvious. He's always been a bit curious regarding what these things will do when not given orders, and he's keeping an eye on what appears to be a new member of his team from a distance; judging from the Swinub he's watching from a short distance away, apparently the answer is "generally snuffle about, and occasionally roll around for no real reason."

Of course, he seems to have another new one with him today - he did purchase two eggs from Xanxus, after all, and as a result Kimblee is now the proud owner of what seems to be the smuggest Vulpix on the planet.

...it doesn't help that Kimblee doesn't seem to have put the fox down since he hatched it, instead choosing to carry it around like a somewhat oversized cat. Seriously, Ernst Stavro Blofeld would look at him and tell him he's spoiling the damn thing.

His life, his choices, etc.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But that makes no sense whatsoever. Surely you have to see where that makes no sense whatsoever.

[Admittedly, a lot of things about this world make no sense whatsoever, but that is completely beside the point.]

I'm not arguing that point. No, it doesn't make any sense. What about this world does make any sense, Kimbley? We're utilizing chimeras to fight, we have no idea how we got here or why we're here, and Mustang's been promoted. Nothing makes sense here!

[...Yes, that last one was definitely related to this world, shut up.]

[...you know, he was all set to agree with you until that last one - ]

Oh? Am I to assume you have some sort of personal vendetta against our esteemed Brigadier General, Archer?

[Hang on, this is both interesting and relevant and will allow his brain some time to stop crying.]

"Esteemed Brigadier General," Kimbley? Don't flatter him.

[...No, seriously, it sounds weird. Can we not.]

It's hardly a personal vendetta. I simply can't stand the man. This one seems to be a bit smarter than the version I know, but even more self-centered and obnoxious.

[Subject change? Sure why not! Because when isn't it a good time to rant about Mustang?]

[So the basic strategy here is "when in doubt, talk shit about Roy Mustang."

...good Archer, best partner.]

I'm not sure if I prefer the arrogance or the self-flagellating he was doing the last time I saw him in person; either way, he's definitely from my version of Amestris, judging by the reception he's giving me.

[Of course he's the best~! It's a good thing you finally realized! Because you're not getting rid of him anytime soon.]

Yes, he didn't even recognize me. Evidently I don't exist in your world. [That... might almost sound sulky.] What the hell did he even do in your world to earn a promotion? ...I suppose you weren't working all that closely with him; when was the last time you saw him?

To say I wasn't working closely with him is an understatement; I haven't seen the man in person since Ishval. My work kept me away from Central until very recently, for the most part, which is perfectly fine in my opinion - I was perfectly content to spend some time away from it.

However, to offer you another understatement, even back then we never got along - conflicting ideologies and the like.

[What is up with your pronunciation anyway? It's Ishbal. How many times do we have to go over this?]

I see. That's understandable of course; you're quite lucky you've never had to work very closely with him. It was horrible. I doubt this version would be any better.

[What's wrong with his pronunciation? He just doesn't share your speech impediment, obviously.]

...this really does sound like a personal vendetta, you know. Is there a story behind it?

[What speech impediment? Clearly you're the one with the issue here!]

As I said, it isn't. Once Mustang was transferred to Central, I had the... pleasure of working with him on numerous occasions. Unsurprisingly, he ignored the majority of his work and it was left to me to finish everything. Naturally he was given all the credit.

[...Totally not a personal vendetta.]

[...Ar...cher...]

...you have no idea what a personal vendetta actually is, do you?

Of course I do. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that he irritates me that much.

[...Shut... up...]

[...well, that's mind-numbingly stupid, isn't it.]

...whether he knows or not, it is what it is.

[Oh, well there's that expression again. What did he say this time...?]

That doesn't mean I have to acknowledge it.

[...SHUT UP.]

[...really?]

You're such a child sometimes.

[He is not--!]

[...Well. Okay, maybe sometimes. Shut up.]

...May I have my chimeras back, then?

[Let's just... ignore that!]

[...really?]

...yes, of course.

[And he'll just be locating those and handing them back to you; hope you don't mind the resetting of that happiness thing, w h o o p s.

However, once you have your chimeras back, Kimblee will just be glancing down at his own; sissyfox over there seems to have realized that his human has been talking to someone else without him, and as such he's no longer interested in figuring out where the opponent from his Epic First Battle went - he needs to be the center of attention, damn it, so clearly this means Kimblee needs to be annoyed into submission with more coat-pawing and barking. This totally always works, except when it doesn't and Kimblee simply recalls him to the capsule; this is apparently not one of the latter times, however, and Kimblee picks the fox up without chiding it.

Dorian seems rather content with this - that battle was difficult, okay.]

So it would appear there's some sort of limit preventing us from having more than six...the implications are a bit disquieting there, I have to admit.

[...Oh dammit, that's going to prove to be horrible once he realizes he needs the damn bat to be happy. But for the time being, he's content to let both out of the capsules, allowing the Murkrow to resettle herself on his shoulder - she doesn't seem particularly fazed at the trade. The bat continues to sulk behind Archer.]

[As for that fox? It's possibly the most pathetic thing Archer has seen in awhile. It's kind of cute despite being so... useless.]

Of course they are. I'd rather not imagine what happened to that... thing you captured.

[...oh, give it time, you. He's going to put this thing through hell once it gets to a point where it's not just failing its way through life and can survive being put through hell.]

I'm honestly more bothered by the implication that whatever...system is running this happens to know how many chimeras we have on our person at any given time - I mean, two of those weren't even mine, and yet it knew that I had six of them on me.

[...Sure, Kimblee. Sure.]

...Perhaps it has something to do with the technology of this world? The communication devices can't be the only advancements they have here. Perhaps there's some way of keeping track of the number of capsules you have?

And then it just happens to cause...whatever that was from a distance?

If that's the case, then I should hope this world continues to be charitable - if it can keep track of our chimeras like that, there's nothing to say that it won't decide to do that to the creatures we already own.

I suppose so, unless you have some other theory that would explain what we just witnessed.

[That, however, is a very good point, and not one Archer is very fond of entertaining.]

I doubt it would leave us entirely without protection of some sort. We were given a chimera to start out with here; why would someone - or something - take that away?

Well, you did mention that it may be a technological advancement that's responsible; technology is hardly flawless, and it can be controlled by whomever has enough basic skill to control it. I imagine this is more complex than most, but technically speaking, couldn't someone simply... [...what the hell is the word he wants. Gesticulating, gesticulating, clearly if we draw awkward circles in the air a word will happen - ] ...I don't know, take over the system somehow?

[Well if you're expecting him to come up with a word for you, you're sorely mistaken. Archer just stares blankly until Kimblee finally comes up with some way to describe what it is he's talking about.]

Oh, yes I suppose that would be possible... That would certainly make it easy to obtain whatever chimeras one wants... But if that were the case, then surely this "Team Rocket" would have devised a way to do it by now. Unless they're all completely incompetent...

[Someone else should really take over and run the damn organization. Someone who is actually capable of such things! Someone like... say... Archer! ...Haha, yeah right, he has more important things to do back home.]

[...Archer, don't you even...]

...I'll grant you that much, though I can't say anything for the general intelligence of the organization as a whole. I'm not particularly impressed with what I've seen so far, however.

[...that may or may not have been a really backhanded insult; moving on!]

Perhaps they'll surprise me yet.

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