SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER TEST DRIVE MEME

[indigo_events]

➞ Post with a character you wish to test drive in this game's setting.
➞ Tag other people's starters and thread out shenanigans!
➞ Invite your friends! Try out new characters! Come play with us!
➞ Have fun!

NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR TEST-DRIVE JOURNEY?
CHECK OUT ALL THE LOCATIONS WE HAVE AVAILABLE IN:

JOHTO | and | KANTO

Feel free to make various prompts in multiple locations!

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OTHER USEFUL LINKS:
NAVIGATION | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS

Comments

[lyingheart]

... You're saying this is part of a game.

[ On relative scales of bullshit, this is... well, bullshit, but her general opinion is most things are, if not for the same reasons.

A world dominated by a game meant for kids? Why not. She doesn't have to believe it, but it makes as much sense as any other explanation, and is a step up from war games and punishments for crimes from generations ago

Probably. ]

Or at least structured like one you're familiar with.

[ She refrains from pressing her hand to her forehead or giving in to unhappy laughter, instead locking it down and maintaining a blank faced stare back at Rick. ]

Are games staged like this common where you're from?

[khakhony]

[ She's got an impressive resting bitch face, he'll give her that. ]

I'm saying we're trapped in a dimension that's structured after the 1996 Japanese hit role-playing strategy game called Pokémon, short for "Pocket Monsters", really stupid, real cutesy name meant to lure in the small children it was originally targeted at with the basic concept being you build a team, battle, and win rinse and repeat with each of the three games released having all the same basic concepts with only slight alterations made to the world and the adventure. And, all taking place in Kanto which, I can assume, is the exact same as the region next to the one we're in at the moment.

[ Again, nothing Litten hasn't heard, as much as it doesn't appreciate being treated as if it's just some stupid fake construct. The little fire cat makes a leap, and to Rick's credit, he doesn't even spill any of the mysterious substance from his flask as Litten lands on his arm and shoulder, visibly digging its claws in with a hiss.

He spares the cat an annoyed look, nothing hateful or more than one would an annoying ass kitten being a little bitch, before wiping the excess drool and liquid trailing down the side of his mouth. ]

W-Wh--uuurp--ich, isn't to say it's exactly the same as the game, because in the release of the game they boasted there were only 150-151 if we're being honest here, of these little bastards in existence. Which is bullshit, considering I knew all of them and this guy and dozens of others aren't on the old charts so what I can assume is same shit, different looks. A-and yeah, games like those became really common when people wanted to ride that cash cow right off the cliff into sell-out ripoff territory, which is basically society in a nutshell right there. Someone makes it big, someone else has to steal and fuck with and twist their idea until it's just different enough for them not to be sued for but the same enough for stupid people to suck it up like it's two dollar coke lines.

[lyingheart]

When they're not eating each other alive.

[ Said very, very dryly; he's cynical, drinking something, two traits which are not all that uncommon from within or even outside the Walls.

She adjusts her pack strap, having watched the Litten's antics and wondering, briefly, if she should release her pokemon. She doesn't.

Her gaze falls back on Rick. If he's close to on it or wildly off topic, it's not necessarily important. Anything that might be relevant later on is... worth listening to rants about. She can make up time jogging the paths toward the next town. ]

What were the end goals of those games?

[khakhony]

Society is always eating itself alive, no matter what dimension or planet you travel to. And any of the ones who aren't are usually purge planets so, not somewhere you'd wanna be one night of the year or however often they've decided to purge themselves silly.

[ The real interesting places were the ones who did it bi-monthly, talk about world peace.

The hand now free of the flask that's been once again stashed away for the moment finally gives in to pet and soothe the grumbling Litten, Rick rolling his eyes at the creature with a mumble of something that sounds like "Squanch it up" before his attention is back on the girl. ]

"Gotta Catch 'Em All" was the catchphrase that made billions, and the game itself gave you incentives to collect and record data on as many of them as possible even if the gameplay left that to be an afterthought at best. You collect and battle these monsters you catch and put in tiny balls in your pockets, use them to collect Gym badges, beat the Elite Four, and become the Pokemon Champion.

And, if you have time and absolutely no life to speak of, grind for hours to catch as many of these little bastards as you can until you fill every page of an electronic Pokemon encyclopedia given to you by an old man too lazy to get off his own ass and do it himself so he has to live vicariously through a ten-year-old his grandson picks on. And there's something about overthrowing an evil organization known as Team Rocket, but, again, side-quests annoyingly tied into the main quest because back then they didn't know the meaning of a singular linear plotline that didn't have its head up its own ass.

[lyingheart]

[ It's sad how she finds that statement both believable and also depressing. Wow! Life sure sucks in a whole variety of places! ]

Are you making an educated guess, or talking from experience?

[ And how do these places feel about... year long surprise purges? Meanwhile, as his explanation of the games and their goals goes on, her expression grows increasingly more disbelieving. Not that it's so absurd, but so, well, comparably pointless. Sifting through everything that's less applicable, she settles on slowly asking two question. ]

... Okay. Is there any reason someone wants to become this Pokemon Champion? And what objectives could anything like this Team Rocket have?

[ Does it involve infiltrating things, because she will stay well, happily clear. Just normal. ]

[khakhony]

Experience all the way here, this place is just another weekend getaway for me, I've seen a lot worse and more fucked up dimensions to be stuck in. I figure either I'll find my own way out of here once I get bored, or my grandson or granddaughter will realize they need something from me and find wherever I left my portal gun and come get me, so, really, nothing that matters much.

[ And because it's fucking Pokemon, he doesn't foresee himself getting bored anytime soon, especially as he thinks back on the games and the goals and how those could relate to this world. ]

The Champion is like, bragging rights. You get to wave your achievements over your head and tell everyone to kiss your ass, you're better than them and you've got the title to prove it.

[ Which means that's exactly what his goal here is going to be, he can appreciate the thought behind it more than most what with his compulsive need to be better than everyone around him at everything. ]

A-And Team Rocket, is pr--uuurrrpr--etty basic. Some guy who was a Gym Leader in Kanto ran the whole operation, with their main goals being stealing and collecting rare pokemon by any means necessary, and generally being your regular run of the mill thugs running shady businesses and scamming people for their own ends. So, if they are around in this dimension, they won't be hard to miss if you know what you're looking for. Black uniforms with a giant red "R" across the front is usually dead giveaway.

[lyingheart]

[ Lying, crazy, truthful, or anything inbetween, all it really means is if what he says is true, he has an escape plan. Good on him, and his grandchildren. Tracking down drunkards because you need something is apparently consistent enough between places.

Either way, if his information is good, it tells her she wants to avoid this Pokemon Champion title, as it has no value other than being ostentatious, and if she wants to be part of the backdrop, keep it simple, stupid. Not hard to guess, and not far off what she'd been thinking, but something she might be able to fact check once she's in town. ]

... They wear uniforms. Obvious uniforms.

[ Run of the mill thugs indeed, and she might have found it funny, given how uniformed institutions had an abundance of abuse and shady characters and deals going on behind the bright and shiny facade, but it's just tiring. At least these goons on the low levels will be easy to pick out and avoid. It's the ones who understand the concept of subtly that'd be more difficult to spot, though she might guess at how the obvious ones tried picking targets.

She wonders if any of them can fight, or if only their pokemon could. Small statured, female, and slight along with being a lone wanderer? This is going to be a bother. ]

So kind of them, if that ends up being true here.

[khakhony]

Granted, this was a video game we're talking about here, and not one really geared towards the highest common denominator, so the whole walking around with a bright red neon target on their asses might not be the way things roll here, but, who knows. I've seen stupider shit.

[ Whether or not she decides to believe a word he says is no matter to him. He's full of shit on the best of days, but he says what he does because he knows he's right and anyone who thinks he's wrong is wrong themselves and will inevitably realize what a jackass they were for even daring to think they knew better than him. There's always a margin for error, sure, but that's what memory guns are for.

Shit, he needs to make a new one of those. Or look into some Pokemon hypnosis bullshit, should have the same effect if done right. ]

[lyingheart]

No end to the depths of stupidity.

[ Or the depths of which people will follow a status-quo, but hey, it is what it is. She shrugs her pack off her shoulder, unzipping it to push things around until she finds what she wants in order to wipe the dried blood off her leg. She manages it while standing up, foot planted against a decent sized stone. ]

What kind of pokemon is the one hanging around you?