52 - video/action for travelmates;

[islandshore]

[Here we have Riku. Or more specifically, we have Riku and a book. When he looks at the camera, it's with a soft chuckle. Then he starts reading off the page.]

A young man, callow and foolish in innocence came to own a sword. With it, he smote Pokémon, which gave sustenance, with carefree abandon. Those not taken as food, he discarded with no afterthought. The following year, no Pokémon appeared. Larders grew bare.

Just let that sink in for a second. A sword. Killing and eating Pokémon. Still with me?

[Then he'll continue.]

The young man, seeking the missing Pokémon, journeyed afar. Long did he search, and far and wide, too, until one did he find.

Asked he, "Why do you hide?" To which the Pokémon replied...

"If you bear your sword to bring harm upon us, with claws and fangs, we will exact a toll. From your kind, we will take our toll, for it must be done. Done it must be, and for it, I apologize."

To the skies, the young man shouted his dismay. "In having found the sword I have lost so much. Gorged with power, I grew blind to Pokémon being alive. I will never fall savage again. This sword I denounce and forsake. I plead for forgiveness, for I was but a fool."

So saying, the young man hurled the sword to the ground, snapping it. Seeing this, the Pokémon disappeared to a place beyond seeing.

[Riku snaps the book shut, placing it down. Afterwards, he shifts into a more comfortable position, arms folded over his chest.]

So, ignoring the obvious anti weapons message here, this story's pretty interesting. It's an old legend from the Sinnoh region, and if it holds any truth, it means that the people in this world used to use real weapons and actually hunted Pokémon. Plus, when you look at stuff like Skarmory's Pokédex entry, you see bits about forging swords from their feathers. You gotta wonder why they stopped and why they're so paranoid about people defending themselves.

You think it's because people abused that power?

[Either way, he's glad he swung by the library. Sometimes they actually do have interesting reads.]

Comments

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake thinks hard. That whole space of time is fuzzy and hard to get a grip on.] Something...oval. Spiky.

[Blake can agree with that. His idea of moral instruction is smacking somebody across the face and saying cut that shit out.] you got that right. Besides, if idiots are going around hitting these things with swords, they deserve to get bit in the ass.

[video]

[islandshore]

Sounds like Solrock to me. There's a matching Psychic type called Lunatone that looks like a crescent moon.

[That's as far as his knowledge goes with those species. He's never really dabbled with them.]

Even if they're hitting them in self defense?

[There's some sheepish laughter that follows. Okay, so maybe his current training regimen is pretty stupid.]

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Sure, psychic rocks come in sets like cufflinks. Why wouldn't they.

Psychic types, the whole idea has something wrong with it. I don't want anything digging around in my head, rock or not.

Self-defense is something else. Everybody's kicked a couple of those damn caterpillars. [There's something odd about that laugh.] You get in fistfights with these things a lot?

[video]

[islandshore]

I don't mind if they're just talking, but you're right. That kind of power could easily be abused. What's to stop some twisted trainer from probing our minds for our darkest secrets?

[Heh. It's like something out of a low-budget film.]

And I wouldn't call them fistfights. It's more like... heh, trying to hone in my own fighting skills.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Could they...? Great, kid, now you're gonna get me wearing a tinfoil hat.

[For a single, horrible moment, he finds himself honestly wondering if that would work.]

[dubiously] Instead of going to the gym, you're punching rock monsters.

[video]

[islandshore]

More like sparring with them. Plus, it's not like I'm doing it barehanded; I threw something together with some metal. Think of it like a blunt sword.

[One shaped like a key, but he'll leave that detail out for now.]

And before you ask, it's technically legal, as long as it stays dull.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Well, that's better than the hit trying to smack it with his fists.]

[If you tell him that, he'll just think you're nuts. That has to be the least efficient possible shape to hit somebody with. The idea makes him curious, though.]

So blunt still works, huh...That's a hell of an oversight. I've seen what somebody can do to a guy's face with a lead pipe and some determination.

[video]

[islandshore]

Exactly. Heck, you could probably kill somebody by smacking them with something like a frying pan. Not that I'd do that, but blunt objects can be just as deadly in the right hands.

[video]

[lieutenantantichrist]

[ruefully] Don't I know it. Takes a lot of work sometimes, but that doesn't stop anybody. You ever seen somebody who's been beat to death with a baseball bat? Little pieces everywhere.

[Blake this is not an appropriate conversation topic.]