barring emergencies

[the_very_best]

Bella's not sure where she has wandered. She thought she was about to walk into a shop, but this appears to be an unattended bar. With none of the windows associated with the shop she thought she was entering. It could be an elaborate psychic assault of some kind, but it doesn't feel very... assault-y... and she was in the middle of a town and doesn't think any humans want to sic their 'mon on her. It's strange. She approaches the bar, looking around warily, hand hovering near her belt.

with Max (Benedict)

with Earth and Lightning (kappa)

with Ann and Sabrina (kuuskytkolme)

Comments

[pythbox]

Lightning makes what in context can probably be assumed to be a rude gesture in Zag's direction. Earth gives him a mildly reproving look.

[the_very_best]

"Rachis is flying-type and they're vulnerable to electric attacks," explains the trainer, hopping off her barstool to pet her bird. "Hey, pretty girl, he doesn't wanna hurt you. You wanna go back?"

"Pidge," says the 'mon.

The girl interprets this as a yes and puts her back in her ball.

[pythbox]

"Nor could he have hurt her if he wanted to," says Earth.

"You shut up," says Lightning.

[the_very_best]

"No? You aren't as lightningy as you look?"

[pythbox]

Lightning makes a rude gesture at Earth, who ignores it.

"We're magically prevented from causing harm to most things," Earth explains.

[the_very_best]

"Oh. Huh. ...Uh, why?"

[pythbox]

"It's standard practice, when humans are dealing with elementals, to magically prevent us from doing anything they might not like us to."

[the_very_best]

"That... sounds... very carefully phrased?"

[pythbox]

"Does it?" He shrugs. "I'm not used to having to explain this, and it's hard to find the right words."

"So don't bother," suggests Lightning.

[the_very_best]

The girl puts Branch and Juu away and picks up Zag again and sits back down. "All the explanations that are coming to mind are literally from fantasy books, I don't know how to interpret what you're saying or if it'd offend you if I guessed wrong."

[pythbox]

"Assume I am impossible to offend," says Earth. "And that Lightning is so fundamentally offended by the situation itself that anything you say isn't going to make a difference one way or another."

"Pretty much," says Lightning.

[the_very_best]

"Okay, so - are elementals really dangerous without the magic on you, or something, and that's a deal you have to make to get anything from humans, or...?"

[pythbox]

"We don't get anything from humans," says Lightning.

"Accidentally releasing elementals has tended to be very dangerous in the past, but I don't think that's nearly as unavoidable as most humans seem to believe. If they didn't bind us to amulets and force us to do magic for them, perhaps we'd be less inclined to act out destructively when unexpectedly given the opportunity."

[the_very_best]

"Oh."

[pythbox]

"Yes," says Earth.

[the_very_best]

"There's... probably nothing I can do about that, is there?"

[pythbox]

"Well, not unless you want to steal a bunch of amulets, bring them here, and break them," says Lightning.

"Which we're not even sure you can do, because you probably can't do magic," says Earth. "Stealing a bunch of amulets and bringing them here without breaking them would be a dubious improvement at best."

[the_very_best]

"All I've got going for me is my 'mon and I don't know how your world's magic would interact with them."

[pythbox]

"I doubt they could break an amulet," says Earth. "And I certainly don't know any ways to find out that don't involve stealing one first."

[the_very_best]

"I take it amulets don't break unless you do magic to them."

[pythbox]

"I've never heard of an amulet breaking while it wasn't being used. As far as I know, it's not possible. And I don't think you can use an amulet, because there's no reason to think you can do any magic at all if it doesn't even exist in your world."

[the_very_best]

"Yeah, probably. That sucks. I wonder if - Bar, can people go to other people's worlds from here?"

If a native of the destination world holds the door, yes.

"I don't know how much that would help, but..."

[pythbox]

"If we went to yours, you mean? I'm not sure it would," says Earth. "It might be better to wait here and see if someone else shows up who seems like they could break an amulet and wouldn't mind stealing one."

[the_very_best]

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm not sure how much you'd like it in my world anyway, somebody might throw a Pokéball at you and wild 'mon would probably attack you and just like you don't know if I can do magic I don't know if you can train 'mon, the ability to do that varies even in my world among humans."

[pythbox]

"That too, yes," says Earth. "Although elementals are immortal, so being attacked by wild 'mon might still be preferable to what we get at home."