lieutenantantichrist | [5]Video/Action for Violet City

[The feed comes up on Blake outside the Violet City gym. He's holding the Gear in one hand and tossing something small in the other. Behind him his Snubbull is sitting on his Mareep, both looking proud of themselves. For his part, Blake doesn't look so thrilled.]

Hell of a loaded word, "badge."

[He catches it on the toss and holds it up to the camera.]

Look at that. Does it looks like much use to you?

[He sighs and slips it in his pocket.]

Zap the crap out of a kid's birds and get a medal that lets you fly.

You know what the worst part is? It's not until right now I realized there's anything wrong with that. I'm getting used to it.

[He starts walking aimlessly down the street, Pokemon trotting after him.]

It's baseball season, not that you'd know it here. Can't remember the last time I missed Opening Day. But hell, now it's been more than a month. Just went right by. How's it even May if you're not arresting drunk idiots on Cinco de Mayo? It's not right.

[Blake looks troubled.]

It's too easy to get caught up in this animal fighting crap and forget about the real world.

[His expression shifts toward its more familiar flinty pugnacity.]

Almost everybody here's been here longer than me. Give me some proof you haven't forgotten. Tell me something about home. Anything, I don't know, something you miss.

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Yeah...they really do like puns here. It's even in their news, I don't think I'll ever get used to that.

And I used to think tabloids were bad.

Shit, you know what's another thing I miss? Tabloids. All that shit about bat-people and Elvis sightings and people having psychic connections with killers. Back when you could read a story about a dinosaur stomping on somebody's dog house and turn the page because it was bullshit, not because it happens every day.

[ he laughs a bit at that. ]

I've never seen those kinds of tabloids where I come from. They wouldn't be able to sell any copies with ridiculous stories like that.

They're better than the ones about celebrities getting fat or married. Who cares about that crap?

I don't know if they have that kind of thing in...China, or wherever.

Korea. They had those, some of my friends liked to read about that. [ he's a teenager, is that really surprising? ]

We had TV shows dedicated to showing where celebrities live and stuff like that. It makes their fans feel like they know them better, I guess. [ he only watched them because he didn't care enough to avoid watching them... ]

Korea has celebrities? [Oh Blake, you have no idea.]

We have those too. They're called stalkers.

...why wouldn't there be? [ he's kind of confused as to...where someone would get that impression. but at least he knows Korea! ]

They don't all actually stalk their idols, just some of them. [ like his best girl friend. ] Just reading about them and watching shows, a lot of girls my age liked to do that.

[Blake opens his mouth to say something about everybody looking the same]

[He closes it.]

I've never heard of any.

Good to know that those damn MTV shows about idiot celebrities are a world-wide thing.

[He's going for sarcastic, but it's such a stupid, familiar thing about the real world that it comes out kind of honest.]

Well, they're probably not known in the west.

Yeah, even here they talk about gym leaders like that. I guess it's the same idea.

Yeah, like they're something special.

[tosses the badge in his hand] They're not so tough.

They have a stronger team though, don't they?

I don't really battle much but, I'm sure there's a lot I can learn from them.

...of course, that doesn't mean I'm interested in gossip about their social life. [ it's kind of weirdly personal, especially since they're people he can actually expect to talk to at some point. ]

Yeah, heard something about some special one. I don't see the point, though. You only have to beat up the weak one for the badge.

Learn, sure. They look like the closest thing this place has to somebody in charge, and what do they talk about? Goddamn animal care.

[he nods firmly] I want to know whether they're behind all this, not who they're dating.

For people who want more of a challenge, I guess?

I don't know...they really seem like they don't know anything about that. If they did, I'm sure someone else would have gotten them to talk by now. [ because there are some crazy people here who would pound it out of them, that's the impression Joonhee gets anyways. ]

That'd mean taking all this crap seriously. Who cares who can teach their dog the best tricks? It doesn't get you much besides weird celebrity.

[And people recognizing Blake has never been a good thing for him.]

[He cracks his knuckles]

Then nobody's been trying hard enough.

[If people don't tell you what you want to know, you smack them around until they do. That's logic.]

There's not a lot of other things here, that's probably why. [ he's not interested in battling or training either beyond keeping his team healthy and happy. ]

Ah...I think it's probably just hard to keep trying after a while, some people have been here very long. [ or they just never knew how to help to begin with, like him. he's a high school student, not a hero of a fantasy novel. ]

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