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i used to dream in the dark of palisades park

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POSTED ON May 13, 2022 23:33:49 GMT
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This was originally a spoiler, but I realized that I read the Recruitment mission wrong, so now it's a mistake. I'll keep mistakes in this thread whenever the mistake has too much writing in it and/or too much effort behind it and/or it seems too high quality for me to completely scrap.

- GUY takes Kobe to a secluded cliffside area. his rotom fuses with a video camera and records.

"Your last test is to kill me, Kobe."

- he knows that the recruiters choose the tests, and that decision isn't forced. he is confused enough to completely freeze up. GUY walks over, bending down into a squat, as if Kobe were a kid, yet speaking up to him.

"I expected as much. Fix your—"

- Kobe backs away. He says don't do that. He says you can stop pretending now. He says if you're keeping up the act for the camera it isn't necessary.

"Do you remember when I told you we have many good kids in Rocket? I used to be one of them. I'm not pretending. This is exactly who Rocket knows me to be, and it's the reason why they will trust me with what I'm trying to do here. I told them that your test would be a do or die for me, but they think it's gonna be a battle or something. Like who comes out the strongest. I'm recording this so they can know that I want you to be my successor."

- in the car ride over, GUY gave Kobe a Rocket hat. Kobe throws that hat on the ground and palms his face. GUY sits.

"When I called you a good kid, Kobe, you probably thought I was lying. I just meant it in a nonconventional way. Not righteousness, but that there are certain things that you desired, but never got, but still somehow hope for. And you have that in spite of it clicking for you that no matter where you turn, and no matter how much goodness it seems you're gaining from others, you're virtually always being exploited. As you said, nobody cares, yes?

To have both such goodness and knowledge made me fit for Rocket. It will make you fit for Rocket. Because while yes, Rocket sucks, everything outside of it also sucks. You will exploited here, and exploited there, and so it comes to down, very simply, to where you put your loyalty and why. It makes me a bit unique as a recruiting officer. This ethic is rather signature among my boys, as I call them. I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain, Kobe. I used to be a good kid, but the goodness never left. But I'm an adult now, and I've lived long enough, and well enough. I know that you care, Kobe, but shake my sack and it call it Jessica, you know?"

- Long Story Short, Kobe tells yamask to possession of GUY and to make GUY shoot himself. Afterwards, he picks up the gun and finishes the job. Some other stuff happens after that, but I'm not in danger of forgetting any of it. It's really things like quotes that I have trouble remembering.
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POSTED ON May 14, 2022 4:49:45 GMT
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This is my second memory-mistake, also due to misreading the Recruitment mission (at least as far as I can tell). This post and the thread that it was gonna be part of was gonna occur 6 years in the past.

Thirteen is an age of great scrutiny and ignorance. There is much that should be studied at that age, and much more that goes neglected.

Much that should be learned, but much more that gets forgotten.

Thirteen year old Kobe stood behind a neighborhood recreation center, learning much about his yamask, and about fun and freedom and longing — and forgetting much more about responsibility, and about love and understanding and priority.

His yamask attacked, clinched the win, and he clenched the air in his fist. "You're a king, dude. I'd probably fist bump you if you weren't so ghosty."

An image: "You can. He can solidify enough for it to work," Kobe interpreted.

Telepathy in a maturing psychic type was kind of odd. Ralts used to use words, but her thoughts were now closer to symbols, ash became more dexterous at accurately projecting what she was seeing in her mind. It was something he had to grow accustomed to. Made him think that many of the old religions were so symbolic because of humans and psychic types bonding. Made him think that his parents could be in the right.

He waved her off: "It was a joke, ralts."

An image: "I see. In that case," and she held out a fist to him, staring at him with her no eyes. He reached for her head flap and she stopped.

He found yamask's pokeball, aimed it, fired off that vintage red laser, and herded yamask back to the rec center's entrance. Waiting for them was the man who had became something like a mentor to Kobe over the past two years, Jacob C. Ruddebager. They fist bumped, but Kobe wore a stiff expression because he knew what was coming.

"You said that you would try."

He looked at Jacob's gallade and thought: "Stop snitching on me."

He told Jacob he was sorry. "I did good, though, right?"

Jacob did the 'eh' thing with his hands. "Without ralts, do you even know if you have the mental stamina for a battle?"

"I'm gonna need it my whole life. It doesn't matter."

Jacob asked if he wanted to need it for his whole life, so Kobe checked out, mentally. Jacob was the one person he grew to never want to talk back to, nor did he ever want to cast himself as a victim where Jacob could hear. The air twirled, catching hold of Jacob's sigh. Gallade and ralts seemed to be having something like a good conversation. Kobe remained silent.

"I want to take you somewhere, Kobe. A restaurant — to eat, and to talk about your future, beyond just talking about ralts. Life is more than rebelling and crutches."

Going anywhere with Jacob was always nice, subject matters aside. They only had him in the city on weekends, so except for those exceptions where Jacob personally scooped Kobe up and taught him more about pokemon and battling, and sometimes even tidbits about politics, Kobe only 2-3 days with him. He agreed, putting his parents and their house somewhere distant within the back of his mind.
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POSTED ON May 19, 2022 4:11:45 GMT
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This is ralts's explanation to Kaida about how her telepathy works, and how her ability to speak human language works.

These quotes are for this thread.

In language words, she says: "This is a somewhat difficult thing to explain. But let us start with this: have you noticed that pokemon seem to have a general ability to understand human language, even beyond commanding them to use their moves? I theorize that we all have some fundamental grasp of human language. Only humans seem to develop beyond necessity — credit to arceus, I suppose, if theories that it is Creator are indeed true. My access to telepathy, I theorize, of course, expands my range of necessity."

She continues: "Originally, I only used language words. I grew to use what Kobe calls "the images". I've taught him that the images are illusory, but he still insists on that term. He is stupid, in ways that are fabulously endearing, as you have seen. To run off with yamask. He is great bother — and thus very great at being defeated. He will hopefully not forget his sneakery."

She apologizes, saying: "The point, alas. The image is how you interpret the, so to speak, raw emotions that I send you. Think, that once heated arguments begin, your kind expresses nothing but emotion, but still manages to speak words. Somehow, the emotions are not simply vocalizations, as with pokemon, but are words. I came to believe that is what speaking is all the time — it just isn't obvious."

Finally, she reaches the point: "Speaking to your ekans is as simple as learning how to see its emotions in a comprehensive way. As a pokemon, it will always be able to translate yours well enough. Perhaps, you won't even see an "image", per say. Perhaps you never saw one the first time. I don't know such things unless you allow it."

And the last thing: "I have to warn you about the feedback loop. I don't know if it's likely from the first few moments, or few instances, even, of contact, but it is worth mentioning. It is sometimes the case that you can feel emotions from the other being in the connection and end up drowning in them. Particularly with 'negative' emotions. It is a circle of confirmation. A circle jerk, in Kobe's words. It feels really really swell, but alas — it loops. You do not simply empathetically feel what the other being feels; you become a conduit for that feeling, and in that intimacy, you both confirm one another as right. Feeling right when wrong is addicting, especially in a feedback loop. It is the stuff of mobbery. Very dangerous."