[9] Video/Action for near Goldenrod - "Who are we doing it versus?"

[lieutenantantichrist]

[The video comes up on Blake on the outskirts of Route 35. There's a beat-up Chikorita sitting on a fencepost, letting out small distressed noises and looking nauseous. Blake's got the Gear set up on the next post over, and he's spraying the pokemon with an Antidote with one hand while he holds the guidebook open with the other. He's muttering to himself and squinting at the book in the fading light as the sun sets.]

Fire does extra damage to grass, that makes sense, grass burns easy. Grass does extra to ground, plants...grow from the ground. Electric does less damage to grass-- doesn't lightning hit trees a lot? Ahh, whatever. Here it is.

[He drops the empty Antidote bottle and jabs his finger at the book.]

Poison does double to plants. How's that supposed to make sense? You can't cyanide somebody's geraniums!

[He throws his hands up. Behind him, the Chikorita gets up and shakes itself off.]

And the rest of these- bugs beat psychics? Ice beats birds? Fighting beats rocks? How do the rest of you remember all this crap?

Comments

[video]

[quickattackjack]

Some of those are a little odd...best stretch I can make for flying and ice is birds fly south for the winter? Psychic's weaknesses make sense because people are afraid of those things.

Fighting and rock..._{[BIG SHRUG. He's got nothing there. Jack has never seen a kung fu movie.]}

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Lots of things that can't fly don't like being frozen solid either.

What kind of mind reader is scared of caterpillars? Size of housecats or not.

[This one Blake is firm on.] You can't punch a rock. Doesn't work.

[Not that he's tried or anything.]

[Video]

[arrogantalloy]

Only because cyanide would be overdoing it a little. But sure, you could do it, especially when Herbicide is well. A poison.

And I tend to remember it by well, remembering, but mostly because it's all on the device if you know where to look.

[Video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

So's a lot of things. It should do double on anything that dies when you stuff it full of arsenic, too, and that's everything.

Yeah, in the phone. I was trying to look up this shit in the middle of a fight, and by the time I had it some spiky rat'd stuck its quills in Billy Bob.

[video]

[istheindustry]

My, my - just look who it is! And just as lovely a ray of sunshine as ever; it's been quite some time, my dear.

[Hello there, Blake - it's good to see you in some ways. Some. Incredibly schadenfreude-ish ways.]

And if you have yet to find poison that can kill plants, then either you're using the wrong poison or you ought to sell those geraniums for a profit, you'd make a killing.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[That white makeup. That shit-eating smirk. That hat.]

[Blake's face takes on a look of long, long suffering. He groans from the bottom of his heart.]

You again?

[He rubs his temple and tries to stay on track.]

The point is poison kills anything. Why should plants be special?

[video]

[captainash]

The Fighting/Rock match-up could have something to do with all those martial artists proving their strength by punching cement, maybe?

[Actually, he has no idea.]

The one I don't get is Ghost-types being weak against Dark-types. Aren't ghosts supposed to hide in dark places, looking for people to frighten?

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

For Bruce Lee, maybe. Anybody else, that's a good way to prove yourself into a broken hand.

Huh, you're right. What do they do, hang around in the sunlight? That makes even less sense than the rest.

Hell, even less sense than there being ghost-breed animals to begin with.

[necessaryrisks]

You get used to memorizing them after a while. It's no different from things taught in a class, with a less sensible amount of physics.

I guess they're thinking something along the lines of pesticides? Those get really poisonous for plants.

[lieutenantantichrist]

Eventually? Kid, it's been months, and I still can't remember if Balloon is weak to Strawberry-Flavored or whatever the hell.

[Blake was not very good at classes.]

How was I supposed to guess a spiky bunny rabbit would work like a can of weed killer?

[There's an offended Chikorita! from by Blake's feet.] I'm not calling you a weed.

[radeonthecity]

[So there are strengths and weaknesses like that? That could explain why trying to get his Charmander to burn a Shellos with Ember was so hard. And why its counterattack was so damaging.]

Unless poison is like the corruption that using black mana sometimes makes. Plants are the first things to die then.

Ice beating birds doesn't make sense though. And anything beats rocks if it can hit hard enough.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Lesson of the day: slugs don't burn good.]

Black corruption what now?

[It would fit for a punk to be weirdly racist.]

I can't say I've ever tries throwing ice cubes at pigeons. Never seemed like it would come up. Rocks, that's another thing. I can't remember what works on them and what doesn't for shit.

[video]

[easy_as_cake]

But you totally can poison plants. Just... not usually with the same things that poison people or animals. But look at it this way, fire and ice and all of that represent different elements and parts of the world. Plants are life. Poison usually kind of gets in the way of life. You know?

If you've ever seen a bird in a storm, you'd know they aren't very strong against getting hit by lightning or hail. And lightning does hit trees a lot, but it doesn't really do a lot of damage by itself, it's the fires it starts that burn down forests.

They all make sense if you look at them right.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Lots of things get in the way of life, and they don't get to do double damage to everything. You don't see anybody giving a bonus to heart disease.

I haven't, during a storm anybody with half a brain is inside. If I'm out in it it's because I've got more important things to do that brainwashing.

You mean if you look at them crazy.

Video

[nasa_dreams]

Weed killer's a poison.

Anyway, you could just write out a cheat sheet.

Video

[lieutenantantichrist]

How was I supposed to know that purple thing was full of Agent Orange?

There's something like fifteen different kinds of these things. What am I supposed to do, make a chart?

[Video]

[crackpotcrocker]

[Look who's in the dim light observing, his white shirt and glasses reflect the dim lighting.]

What's the matter with you?! You can poison plants and WHERE THE HECK DID YOU COME UP WITH TREE WITH GROUND?! Ground is cement or dirt.

But in a world filled with Pokemon, who CARES! The basic elements mean - NOTHING!
Why dark, dragon, ghost and PSYCHIC overrides most of the others! [Because they're paranormal and out win logic, obviously! Someone is face twitching though that's not noticeable.]

[Video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

I said tree's grass- shit, I don't know. I can't keep track of any of this crap. Trying to keep it all straight would drive you...

[Blake gets a closer look at the guy on the screen, with his bugging eyes, twitching, and sudden bursts of shouting.]

[he sighs.]

Nuts.

[video]

[throw_stone]

What seems to be the oddest is the fact ground does nothing to birds.
[Yes, the oddest. Guess what type moves his Stunfisk starting with.]
Even if they land, it still seems to not bother them.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Yeah, that'd make sense if it was when they were in the air, but they can stand there staring at you and it still doesn't do a damn thing. It's like saying hey, you've been on an airplane a couple times in your life, now nobody can hit you with mud.

voice

[godaime]

Yes, but most lightning doesn't hit or affect grass. It might start a fire, but that's why fire attacks are super effective against ground. Organic compositions can't conduct lightning.

Geraniums, and other plants, are susceptible to poisons and pesticides that can harm then and other organic life material. Poison isn't just for people.

Bugs seem to not have enough mental power to actually affect, ice can freeze birds who move south for the winter and a strong punch trumps any rock. It's mostly innate except for the ... odder exceptions. [ Tsunade knows too much about biology to struggle with this. ]

voice

[lieutenantantichrist]

You can't set dirt on fire, that much I know. I've seen one guy try. Arsonists get bored and experimental, too. We got him while he was still trying to get it started, though. I smelled like gasoline for days.

What are you, a biology teacher?

[Something is off about that last part.]

Punching rocks doesn't work, lady.

video

[readapts]

After you battle so much... I think you just end up picking it up. At least, that's how it's been for me.

Um, not all of them, though. Mostly just for the types I have.

[And he's wound up with mostly electric and steel...]

video

[lieutenantantichrist]

You got it already?

[Blake is bemused. He's been here a lot longer than this kid and is a lot slower on the uptake.]

I'm getting different kinds of types all over the place. Not even trying to. I just picked up an egg that hatched into some kind of fighting frog. You wouldn't believe how ugly this thing is.

How's the animal collecting going for you, [shit what was her name] Cheryl?

[Video]

[itsjustdust]

Issues Blake?

[He's looking a bit better than last time you guys talked.]

[Video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[He's still muttering to himself.] Fighting against dark, flying against poison, rock against bug...

[He gives the kid on the screen a look] Yeah, a couple.

video

[healium]

It actually makes a bit of sense if you look at all of their weaknesses, at least for some of them. Psychic types are weak to bugs, dark types and ghosts... so if you look at it as a strong will, common fears are bugs, the dark, and ghosts.

Electric still hurts grass because it causes sparks, which cause the fire, which cause the bonus damage in a way there. [Tapping her chin, she thinks more.]

Then with ice beating birds, most birds go south for winters to avoid the chill, and extreme martial artists break boulders as a show of strength. Ice beating dragons could be an example of how an ice age potentially took out dinosaurs, at least from my world.

video

[lieutenantantichrist]

How do you get strong will from psychic? What they should be weak to is anybody who's not a rube.

[Blake can follow the logic, but...] That's reaching pretty hard, kid.

[Something else is odd.] Sure the ice age killed the dinosaurs. What kind of world still has tyrannosaurs running around?

[usedshooshpap]

You expect this shit to make sense?

[lieutenantantichrist]

It could have the decency to try. Like this one.

[He jabs his finger at the guidebook.]

Fire beats ice. Nice and simple. Why can't they all be like that?

[text]

[triptoprofiling]

Strategy wasn't your strong point to begin with. Why not stick to what you know?

[text]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Screw you, Norman.

You try figuring out that fighting does half damage to bugs without being told.

video;

[superordinary]

[ 'sup, Blake, have a Japanese teenager. ]

I learned the type advantages from battling a lot...after a while, it comes naturally. [ Granted, he played the games as a kid so he didn't have much trouble memorizing what's super effective against what. Though he still slips up from time to time when dual-typed Pokémon are involved. ]

I think Poison is strong against Grass because plants are sensitive to pollution, and birds are weak to Ice because they tend to migrate during the winter. I can't think of a good explanation for Bug being strong against Psychic, though...

video;

[lieutenantantichrist]

[That's half the damn population, isn't it?]

How long's a while supposed to be?

[Blake's a slow, slow learner when it comes to these things. It took him weeks to deal with them existing.]

You can argue for anything if you're gonna stretch the logic far enough. You could say people step on bugs with shoes made out of leather, so bugs should be weak to cows.

[Ah hell, is he actually thinking about this crap?]

Maybe when people meditate they let ants crawl on them. Or something.