Penny Polendina (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
in4apounding) wrote2016-01-29 02:26 pm
in4apounding) wrote2016-01-29 02:26 pm
[002] - Video
Jiminy evolved today! I was honestly getting a little worried, he's been gaining levels so slowly, between the weather making it hard to train and just not having many effective attacks, I don't think there's much around here that's weak to Bug types. Not much that offers a good challenge, anyway!
[If the Kricketune in question is offended by any of that, it's not showing it. Since the video began, it's been happily chirping away away in a weirdly rhythmic tune. The overall effect is probably best described as 'hip-hop violin', accented by the Chatot hopping around excitedly and adding her own chitters and vocal contributions. Whatever your opinion, at least it's covering the usual background music?]
He's having fun with Reina, at least! I wasn't sure having them out together at the same time was a good idea since he's a bug and she's a bird, and Jiminy's level is so much lower than hers, but it looks like they've found some kind of common ground! It's sort of strange that Pokémon that would be natural enemies in the wild can get along so well once they've been captured. Do you think that's a side-effect of the Pokéballs somehow, or just comes from even really basic training? Most of my other Pokémon aren't the kind who'd seem like they'd be more inclined to fight than usual in the wild, so this is the first chance I've gotten to see something like this. I mean, Amber's a spider too, but she's also electric-type and much stronger than Reina so that's not really a fair comparison?
[Please remember to breath, Penny.]
Whatever causes it, I just think it's great that Pokémon and trainers have such a chance to make friends in so many unlikely places. I have more friends here than I ever had back home, and I'd hate to think of my Pokémon missing out on the same chance.
[If the Kricketune in question is offended by any of that, it's not showing it. Since the video began, it's been happily chirping away away in a weirdly rhythmic tune. The overall effect is probably best described as 'hip-hop violin', accented by the Chatot hopping around excitedly and adding her own chitters and vocal contributions. Whatever your opinion, at least it's covering the usual background music?]
He's having fun with Reina, at least! I wasn't sure having them out together at the same time was a good idea since he's a bug and she's a bird, and Jiminy's level is so much lower than hers, but it looks like they've found some kind of common ground! It's sort of strange that Pokémon that would be natural enemies in the wild can get along so well once they've been captured. Do you think that's a side-effect of the Pokéballs somehow, or just comes from even really basic training? Most of my other Pokémon aren't the kind who'd seem like they'd be more inclined to fight than usual in the wild, so this is the first chance I've gotten to see something like this. I mean, Amber's a spider too, but she's also electric-type and much stronger than Reina so that's not really a fair comparison?
[Please remember to breath, Penny.]
Whatever causes it, I just think it's great that Pokémon and trainers have such a chance to make friends in so many unlikely places. I have more friends here than I ever had back home, and I'd hate to think of my Pokémon missing out on the same chance.
[Video]
Yo, congrats on the tier up, J-man and D.J. Single Cent. Hey, Penny, can you ask him if I can record him for samples? T.Y.
[Yeah, he just said T.Y. out loud. He's that kind of loser.]
Re: [Video]
[Really, they're probably a room or two apart at most.]
Honestly sometimes I'm a little jealous they seem to like you more, but I just try to be happy they're learning and having fun with what they love!
[Hang on a second-]
[Video]
Um, hey, 'course they don't like me more than they like you. You're like the sweetest girl ever, I got nothing on that.
Re: [Video]
And you've got plenty on me! You're kind and brave, and you can do that musical stuff that Jiminy and Reina love so much, and you've seen so much even if a lot of the time I don't really understand it!
[Why can't she stop.]
And you have so many friends from back home, I didn't even KNOW that many people before I came here!
[Video]
H-hey, I don't have that many friends...
[He has...three? No, five, counting Karkat and the Mayor. Should he still count Terezi? He's not sure.]
But look, girl, you're friendly, look how fast you buddied up with me, and I'm not even that outgoing or anything. You'll outstrip me in popularity in no time, don't worry about it.
[Seriously, the fuck is going on with her.]
1/2
[Spoken with tones of... not quite admiration, but definitely not jealousy.]
[Sorry Dave, your cool kid persona has worked too well.]
Not that I'd trade Ruby for all the friends in the world, and you and Jade are sensational! I'm glad I met you every day I'm here! Coming here is one of the best things that's ever happened to me, and I get to share it with friends like you!
Sometimes I think if I could, I'd never go back home! I don't want to go back to not being real!
2/?
[When she manages to breath and speak again, there's a notable shake to it.]
I'm sorry. I didn't want to tell anyone that! I think- I think I need to go now, I-
[And we're on the move. The Gear is still running, but it's not pointing at anything in particular, just a blur of motion accompanied by calls of distress from Reina and Jiminy.]
I'll, um- I need to-
3/3
...Okay so it turns out this is just a closet, not the exit. Um. I think. I'll just stay in here for a while. I'd kind of like to stay forever actually.
no subject
Okay. Penny just hid herself in a closet. Obviously something is wrong, here. She said she wasn't real, back home? The fuck does that mean, is this some Davesprite bullshit?
This is a situation that requires the utmost diplomacy and care and oh god Dave is the last person who should be doing this, fuck. He gets up and pads out gingerly to the hall, talking all the while.]
Ummm. I hate to break it to you, P, but you'll have to come out eventually for food and stuff. I mean, I guess we could work out a system in which we bring eats to your door and one of your Pokémon comes out to shuttle it back to you, kind of like a hostage exchange except without any hostages, but that still doesn't cover some other basic needs. Like, you know. Stuff you gotta do after you eat. Bathroom stuff.
[Look at all this tact he's displaying. Jesus Christ, someone save Dave Strider from himself.]
But, uh. Okay. Are you...okay? You can say no.
[Carefully, he tries the door to her room. He has a feeling this conversation probably ought to happen in person.]
no subject
[The door is unlocked, at least. Dave is immediately greeted by Jiminy, who spends about half a second posturing and trying to scare off the intruder before recognition sets in. He backs off, looking embarassed and penitent.]
[Reina is by the definitely shut closet door, hopping back and forth and giving it an occasional exploratory tap.]
I'm- not sure exactly? No. I don't think I am. I didn't want to tell anyone else that!
no subject
He closes the door behind him with a quiet click and leans against it, looking at the ceiling.]
Okay. Full disclosure, your door wasn't locked so I'm in your room now, and I'm gonna turn off the PokéGear so we can chat privately through the time-honored medium of ye olde closed door. Okay? 'Cause this shit sounds kind of heavy, and, like, probably you don't want to talk about it over the internet.
...
I mean, it sounds like you don't want to talk about it at all, but I'm. Sorta concerned? And you're my friend, so I'm not gonna just leave you shut up in a closet if you're not okay. So you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but, like. I'm here if you do. Or whatever. I don't judge.
no subject
[This is basically the exact opposite of how she would've wanted this to go. If she HAD wanted it to go at all.]
[It's another couple moments before she speaks again.]
I've told you about my father, right? And that was all true! He's a VERY nice man and I'm sure you'd all like him if you could meet him. But. Um. He didn't. Have me, the way most parents do.
[Doesn't want to say this, doesn't wanna say it, does not want-]
I wasn't born the way a real person is. My father made me in a lab, with some help from Mr. Ironwood.
no subject
TG: ........
TG: ..........................
TT: What do all these dots mean.........]
Like. Genetically? 'Cause that's not that weird...
no subject
[And misery has been replaced with confusion, if only temporarily.]
No, I mean I'm not- I WASN'T human, not until I woke up in Johto. I looked human, but inside I wasn't, I was-
[A pause as she swallows.]
I was a machine. A weapon.
[Don't say it, don't say the next part, don't say it, don't-]
A thing. Not a person.
[Not. Bitter.]
no subject
[He's not so much asking her as he is putting her words together. He mulls it over a second more, then comes over to sit against the wall next to the closet door.]
You thought for yourself and had your own friends and stuff, though, right? You told me about Ruby.
no subject
[Sitting with her own back to the door. And no longer sounding likely to start sobbing, at least.]
She was the only one that knew. Besides my father and Mr. Ironwood and some of the soldiers from Atlas, I mean. You remember when we were trying to be anonymous and it didn't work, and I said I'd been keeping something from a friend too? This was it. There was a truck, and I jumped in front of it, and that's how she found out.
[Taking a second to breath.]
And of course I could still think and feel things. But it's so different here, so much more real. I'm actually human and I can fit in, I don't just have to pretend.
no subject
[And, because Dave isn't affected by whatever's going on with Penny and half the world today, and because this is important, he actually stops to gather his thoughts and make sure he's getting it right.]
I mean, I don't know if this is gonna be helpful to you at all in general, but at least as far as I go--maybe for obvious reasons--I don't think you have to be traditionally human to be a person. You already know, half my best friends haven't been human.
[And he misses them so much.]
So I don't really know what it means for you to feel more real now, but to me, it isn't really a straight-up existential question so much as...you'd've just been different, and had a different experience of life. And there's nothing fake about that.
no subject
Thank you Dave. It means a lot to me that you think that, really.
[And an audible sniffle.]
I don't know if I can think that myself, but thank you. You're a really good friend, and I'm glad I met you.
...you don't think less of me, do you? For not believing.
no subject
[He rubs at one palm with the opposite thumb for a moment.]
Would it help you to know someone from kinda similar circumstances?
no subject
[HAVE YOU BEEN HOLDING OUT BRUH.]
no subject
[...Yeah, there's no sensible way to put this.]
Me and all my friends, we were also made in a lab. Not by our dads though, because our moms and dads got made at the same time as us.
no subject
[But still, quietly opening the closet door and scootching out because this is starting to feel a little silly. Her eyes look red.]
Did knowing that ever make you feel, you know, different?
no subject
Yeah. Kind of. I mean, it was weird, because at that point there wasn't really anybody to be different from. The four of us who survived, we were all like that.
[He picks at the fraying aglet of one of his shoelaces.]
But...we were made for a purpose, so the game could keep on perpetuating itself, and not the normal way or anything. So the stuff you said about not being real, like...a tool, and not a person. I can kind of relate.
no subject
...I'm sorry.
[The more she hears about this game, the more she kind of wants to have a word with whoever's in charge, if that's possible.]
I know for sure you're way more than that, though. I've never heard of a tool that could make music the way you do.
[Hi pot, this is kettle.]
...but, I think I see what you mean. Thank you.
no subject
See? Not fake. Just different.