Mission: Burying the Past in Zompania

[lucetimods]

Who: Anyone who volunteered
What: A very special mission that will bring you honor. Or maybe just traumatic memories. Whatever.
When: July 20th - July 24th
Where: Zompania, or what's left of it
Summary: Mission detailed here. There are graves to dig and buildings to raze, and plenty more for the volunteers to stay busy with.
Rating: PG-13 for probable mentions of gore and other sad things

Direct further questions here!

Comments

[capturespecialist]

Definitely. [She covers her face when the building gives a final puff of dusty debris - she's glad to have gotten that out of the way without any issues - even if she doesn't have to. It's not like it's going to get in her eyes with these suits. She waits for the last brick to drop before she starts on again.] My legs are my tools when it comes to catching, and I still have the habit of doing a lot with them even without kicking pokéballs. I broke my arms when I was a kid, so... I kind of had to get used to it.

[generalflirt]

[ She took that seriously? ]

Uh, sure.

[comicallyheroic]

Who knows. I know how I feel, though. I don't like leaving a memory like this open. Better to close it up tight so you can move on.

[capturespecialist]

[He asked her, so --

um. Very carefully, because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings if he was--] You weren't being serious, were you? [Because she

she doesn't actually know how to start this. Or where to. Sure, he's done a lot of really nice things for her - among others - but it's a little... weird to just go saying those, isn't it.]

[pokeboy]

[ Oh.

...Oh, that sounds like it would've been painful. He's broken an arm before (okay, twice), and even felt like he's broken his ribs thanks to his primeape, but. ]

How did you do that?

[ Perhaps it's too personal, but Red can't help but to be the nosy kid he's always been in his heart. At least, hopefully the story's just that she fell out of a tree and landed on both of her arms. ]

[capturespecialist]

[Not quite that simple.]

I was a kid and I was training on Mt. Mortar. [That's... easy enough, right.]

[generalflirt]

[ Oh. ... He didn't expect that. He gets very, very, very tense in this moment, and then ... he speaks. when he speaks, he's talking a little distantly, as if he's talking about someone else: ]

I could say that "Masaomi Kida" and "Yori Kida" have had a strained relationship.

[generalflirt]

[ ... A... haha ] No... not really. I mean, if you wanted to, no man would oppose a cute girl singing their praises, but this isn't really the place, is it?

[ No, he wasn't serious.

Yes, he would seriously like it ]

[capturespecialist]

[


well. frick. She needs to sleep. That's all she's getting out of this. She needs to sleep.]

[pokeboy]

[ He notes the distance - with the way Masaomi phrases it, how could Red not? How awkward it is, and it almost makes him want to question it, but. There's a length of silence before Red can think to say something though, to try and not make the conversation die on such a weird note. Uh. Hm. ]

Sorry. [ Yeah, he should probably say that. Now, back to names? Back to names. ] My mom didn't pick the name -- my dad did. [ He scrapes at the dirt that had been forgotten for a while there. ] That's what they tell me, anyway.

[generalflirt]

[ He's... not going to get it, is he? It'd have been nice...

He looks a little sheepish, looking away from her to smile at Monlee and Megaree before looking back at her, trying to itch his head and failing because. Suits ]

[pokeboy]

You trained on a mountain? [ wow. Kind of cool??? ] How old were you? Did you stay there for long?

[capturespecialist]

Six, and for a couple of months. Actually, I used to go there periodically until I was finished with my training -- Mama'd bring me up.

[It was fun! Most...ly...]

[hotboss]

[Touch him and you will find yourself buried six feet into the ground.]

...Giovanni.

[capturespecialist]

[...okay.]

You're really nice. [Wow, gee, so eloquent Crystal.] I think it's really amazing you've gotten to be as close to Linda [and she'll glance at the Pikachu here -- she's said something similar before, but it bears repeating] as you have, and you've trained her to do all sorts of things. It shows you're good at connecting to others and understanding them

[though obviously, she doesn't know if it's always been that way - she's just assuming it has]

and... [Okay.] And I know that too, personally, because... I might've griped about you not seeming like you were taking anything seriously [which wasn't fair and okay that's in the past, not important to the moment] but I think that's a good quality, too. Sometimes. It's situationally good.

[Ergh, how does she put it --?

She sighs, slumping her shoulders. Whatever.]

I'm no good at this. [Rather: She's good at it when the situation isn't asked of her.]

[pokeboy]

Wow. [ Wow. ] You've wanted to be a trainer since that long?

[ It's the youngest Red's heard about ever - or maybe not, but it's the first time he's paid attention and been involved in a conversation where it comes up. He knew there were younger people than him interested in being trainers, but he never thought on it.

And Crystal wasn't that young right now. She was much older. ]

[capturespecialist]

[Being a trainer... She hmms, not agreeing but not disagreeing.]

I've wanted to be a pro-catcher since that long. [A very gentle correction.] I'm not interesting in training pokémon, or battling, or anything like that.

[pokeboy]

Just catching them? [ Okay, and that's the first time he's heard about that. Sooo, she... ]

What do you do afterwards? Do you release them?

[hotboss]

[Faint sparkles of sleep powder get swept up in the chaos as the sandstorm continues to rage. He hears Kangaskhan roar over the noise, signaling she's inhaled the powder. She might get a few more enraged punches in, but she'll topple into sleep soon enough.

Red's not the only one feeling around for limbs. The insulated suits are more fortunate than ever; a sandstorm mixed with sleep powder would knock out everyone in the area in seconds. He ducks low, feeling pebbles fly and bounce against his mask, hand out feeling for something in the dust. His other silently plucks all three pokeballs from his belt, which roll away and disappear in the winds.

If Red's still searching for him, Giovanni will gladly help, once he gets his hand wrapped around Red's ankle.]

[capturespecialist]

[Haha!]

I give them to my client! [It's good work. Really...] I've been contracted to Professor Oak since I was eleven though, and even if I don't go out and catch them as often as I did in the beginning, they still all go to him when I do. The first year was hard because it was my first job and I had to build my credibility - I couldn't just ride on Mama's credit, after all.

[...She should be working on wrecking more, but she's having a better time talking about this. She'll probably get back to it if there's a lull.]

[pokeboy]

[ Old man, you're still on the floor? That makes it easier to find Giovanni, at least. But Red's first instinct isn't to see what it is that's got him; that comes second to trying to pull his foot free so that, when he does look, it's only a glimpse that he gets before Giovanni is successful in pulling him back to the ground.

It's less of a pleasant landing that it had been being thrown off from Venusaur, and it's hard to reorganise himself into a position he wants to be. All he can think to do first is to try and swing his legs, using his free leg to attempt to smack into Giovanni's hand. ]

[disastergirl]

[The sight was familiar, although her mind was sluggish enough to keep her from connecting the dots. Had she frightened Pikachu by getting too close? She was already starting to back off, and she would have left entirely if someone else hadn't also appeared.]

Oh... Did I wake you guys?

[She was almost surprised by the sound of her own voice.]

[pokeboy]

[ Giving pokémon to clients - sounds like trading, until then she brings up Professor Oak and who cares about that thought. Had a conversation about Professor Oak come up before? When the two of them had first spoken to each other? Or was he thinking about Luke Skywalker talking about him?

But it still puzzles him, right then, despite knowing how weird and confusing Luceti made things be. ]

That's weird to hear -- I mean, not you, not your job, I just - I forgot we talked about that before. [ right, he's remembering now ] You got asked by Professor Oak to work on his pokédex, and me and his grandson got asked back in my world.

1/2

[generalflirt]

[ That truth makes his eyes go wide a little. He's surprised that she continued after he said that he wasn't serious - and he's more surprised at the idea that he's kind. At the idea that someone from the pokémon world - the same world as Green-san - would praise him about his bond with Linda. Both of those concepts are borderline believable to him. Good at connecting to people, good at understanding people? What a fucking joke. He's never been good at connecting to people, he's been distant from them. He's never been trustworthy, he's a thug with a shady history, and even now he's way, way, way less of a hero than the person in front of him.

Because Gold would never date someone anywhere less than that high point.

And she likes him. She thinks he's kind. She thinks that he's a good trainer. She thinks he's a good trainer.

Linda, for her part, looks angry at Crystal for a moment for how tense Masaomi is for about half a second until she looks up at his face, and then just looks concerned at him. Because what she can see through the suit is that he looks taken aback of all things. ]

[generalflirt]

[ ... Situationally good. Hah. ]

... The sort of language I have is what people tell when they don't know what else to say, or they can't express what they really want. It's easier, sometimes, to tell a very pretty thing which might not necessarily be the truth that's in a man's heart, because the truth that's locked in there is often too complicated, or too painful to be understood. And because of that, I know I'm not always going to be the one who's relied on.

[ Not taking it seriously, huh... ]

But I probably shouldn't be, either.