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

[can_i_help]

"And what's a Pokémon?"

[the_very_best]

"Just - out in the wild. Wherever, except usually not in the middle of cities. Pokémon are creatures that can move around but aren't humans."

[can_i_stay]

"You just described animals. Okay, humans are a subset of animals, but you just described animals."

She looks around in bewilderment. "Bar! You seem to have at least some kind of explanation for everything. What is going on in here?"

[the_very_best]

Pokémon have several properties in common with each other that do not apply to conventional animals. Bella's world does not have any population of conventional animals except to the extent that humans count.

"What's an... animal?"

An animal is like a Pokémon except that they typically come in a wider variety of species, have a much smaller lower bound on their size, do not evolve in the way you are accustomed to Pokémon doing, are weaker and more fragile, usually do not respond as well to training by humans, cannot go into Pokéballs or PC storage, and usually do not produce anything you would recognize as an "attack".

[can_i_help]

"Just... How do you not know what an animal is? Bar? And Bella's world? Does she have her own personal world or something?"

[the_very_best]

Many other people also live in her world, but you do not. Her world does not contain animals as you understand them.

"So that explains why you were confused before about Pokéballs..."

[can_i_help]

"So you mean like parallel universes or something?"

A smile spreads on her face.

[can_i_stay]

Ann rolls her eyes and looks at Bella.

"So if you don't have animals, do you eat those Pokémon things? How animal-like... come to think of it, you don't have any idea what's animal-like. How different are Pokémon from humans?"

[the_very_best]

"Uh, some people eat some kinds of Pokémon, but I don't, most people don't. Some of them give milk or eggs or other edible stuff but I wouldn't eat an actually butchered 'mon. We eat plants - not plantlike 'mon, just regular plants. And 'mon are generally not as smart as humans, although they vary a lot, and they can make attacks and they're tougher and stronger and they evolve and they work with Pokéballs." She puts Juu back in her ball and the ball back on her belt.

[can_i_stay]

"For the record, where we live most humans eat some animals, and I don't think there are many animals nobody's tried eating. Animals can be smart too, I think there was a woman who taught a gorilla to sign, that's the smartest I know of. Of course most species of animal are universally dumb. And as far as I remember most living things in the planet are bugs, both in number and mass, and they have too tiny brains to have anything else but instincts."

[can_i_help]

"That's all well and good, but there are so many more important things. Like attacks? Evolve? How do Pokéballs work? Please explain."

[the_very_best]

"Uh, I don't know how Pokéballs work, I'm not an engineer, I tried making my own out of an Apricorn once but it didn't work. Pokémon fight a lot - each other, mostly, if one attacks an undefended human the human's in a lot of trouble so we try really hard to avoid that - and they do it with, well, attacks, which are more powerful and often flashier than the kind of thing you learn if you go to a martial arts class for humans. I mean, some 'mon do things humans can learn as martial arts, but they're better and more natural at it, and humans cannot breathe fire. My 'mon are all already fully evolved so I can't really show you it happening, but -" She releases another creature, pets it, and says, "This is Dusk, and this," she taps a few buttons on her watch and displays the screen, "is one of his baby pictures. He evolved and now he's an Umbreon instead of an Eevee."

[can_i_stay]

"They look so different... Only a few animals change shape that drastically. It's called metamorphosis, and I don't think anything that has any kind of skeleton can-"

[can_i_help]

Sabrina interrupts her.

"Stop talking science, I don't think she cares. Anyway, how many of those do you have? What can they do?"

[the_very_best]

"I have six, which is the most anybody can have active at once unless they're herd 'mon or extremely tame or something. What they can do is... pretty vague. Rachis can carry me around flying? Branch and Fireflower carry me around on the ground? Zag can swim?"

[can_i_help]

"No, I meant like attacks and such. Can you show us?"

[the_very_best]

"Uh, sure, I guess. If there's somewhere to do it. Bar, is there a good place for my 'mon to spar?"

Try the back yard.

Bella picks up Dusk and heads for the back door.

[can_i_stay]

The two follow after her.

[the_very_best]

"Dusk versus..." Bella looks around at the backyard, the lake, the forest. "Mm, let's say Branch." She tosses a ball; a deer with antlers in summer foliage pops out. She pets him. He's considerably bigger than Dusk. "Sparring time, boys! Get warmed up, I'll cue you."

Dusk takes to this instruction more readily than Branch does; he pounces on the larger Pokémon, nips him on the ear, leaps off. Branch halfheartedly aims a kick, which Dusk dodges.

"Come on, you can do better than that, Branch. Horns, you've got horns."

Branch bows his head and manages to catch Dusk on his horns and toss him into the air. Dusk rights himself in midair and lands on Branch's back, nips his neck, jumps off.

"Dig," Bella says, "gently," and suddenly Dusk is underground with astonishing speed. Branch dances nervously around the environs of the hole, and is knocked over by an equally rapid ascent under his feet; Dusk pounces on him while he's prone, lightly nips Branch's foreleg, and jumps away again. Branch gets up.

"Horn Leech," Bella says, "again, gently, gently," and Branch aims his horns at Dusk, who yelps indignantly when they connect; Branch looks leafier and less bitten. "Solar Beam," she adds, squinting up at the cloudy sky. Branch starts glowing. "Faint Attack -" Dusk jukes left, then zigzags around to leap up and kick Branch in the head. Branch retaliates by aiming the glowing at Dusk, who is driven a few feet backwards by the blast but gets right up again and obeys Bella's "Shadow Ball" order. This does nothing whatsoever to Branch, apparently, but it looks very impressive, Dusk forming a wad of spherical darkness that passes completely through Branch's torso and dissipates before it hits the ground. "Return -" Branch obeys, but misses; Dusk takes advantage of the confusion to sneak in a scratch to Branch's flank.

"Psychic." Dusk dances away from Branch for optimal range; the scenery distorts slightly and Branch whines. "Megahorn." Branch scoops up Dusk in his horns again, more emphatically than before, and flings him; he lands on the ground, conscious but a little the worse for wear. "Good. Stop," commands Bella, and Branch begins unconcernedly eating grass. Dusk trots over to her to be picked up.

[can_i_help]

Both of the sisters clap at the show.

"That was interesting. Veeery interesting."

Ann opens her mouth, but Sabrina elbows her in the ribcage without even looking.

"I want one of those. Scratch that, I need one of those. Also, Lucy would love it."

[can_i_stay]

Ann laughs.

"You're absolutely right. She would give it a silly name, cuddle it and take it everywhere with her."

[can_i_help]

"So, how can I get my hands on one of those?"

[the_very_best]

"Uh, you can catch them or buy them or get them as presents - I'm really attached to all six of mine, though."

[can_i_help]

"In your world, right? First we'd need access to it. And currency. Did you come here through the door too or is there some other method?"

[the_very_best]

"Through the door. I thought it was a shop."