004. [Text/Action for Goldenrod City]

[neurotoxined]

[TEXT]

[Well. As much as GLaDOS likes to think she can handle things completely and utterly by herself with absolutely zero assistance from anyone else, thank you very much, sometimes there are things that are just...completely baffling. As much as she tries to work certain things out, it just isn't going to happen.

So there's going to be a brief text to the network sent out sometime in the morning aka this post is forward-dated to a time that isn't "unholy o'clock", rather blunt and to the point and...surprisingly free of sarcasm.]

Since a lot of you have probably been here long enough to figure out that sometimes people leave this place with no warning whatsoever, I have to wonder - does it mean something when you get an animal and/or property from someone who's left, or does this place just do that randomly?

Because I got something a while ago. It's been annoying me ever since, for a lot of reasons. I didn't like the idiot I got it from, so I don't think it's anything related to that.


[ACTION]

[And in news surprisingly unrelated to anything that she just posted, today is actually something of a rare occasion, given that GLaDOS is actually outside; she's found a square where she thinks she'll be alone for the most part - an assumption that can really only end in tears and pain, because she has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer when it comes to keeping her location concealed and said square is located rather near the Center she tends to work at in her spare time.

Either way, she's parked on a bench that she's cleared most of the snow off of, and it seems she's caught something recently - a Rotom is buzzing around her shoulders rather contentedly, causing the ends of her hair to frizz upwards a bit, though she doesn't pay it much mind for the time being. Her attention is focused elsewhere – namely, on the Koffing in front of her, which is currently poisoning the living shit out of her Mareep, from the look of it.

She's got a notebook lying open in her lap, though she's leaning forward so far that it's more or less a moot point; once in a while she seems to remember it's there and scrawls some notes down. She seems to be waiting for something; her Mareep is...seeming not too happy and is pretty much lying down on the ground by this point, looking at her in the most pathetic manner possible.

Well...she actually will look up once in a while toward that Rotom, which seems to give a grand total of zero damns about the apparent slow death-by-toxins in front of it; GLaDOS is humming a bit as she observes, and once in a while there's a noise from the creature next to her - the same melody repeated back, just staticky and strange, as though it's being played through a damn Tesla coil. She smirks at it, then goes back to rather gleefully torturing her sheep.

Science is going well today, it seems.]

Comments

[ text ]

[getthehorns]

okay. so either they DID like you enough to leave you a pokemon, or they at least respected you enough to leave you a pokemon.

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[neurotoxined]

I can see that second one. If I tilt my head and squint really hard.

He was supposed to respect me, he just did a really bad job of it.

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[getthehorns]

i dunno. maybe he really did and just didn't want to show it. people are funny like that.

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[neurotoxined]

Something you have experience with, or are you just taking wild guesses?

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[getthehorns]

little bit of both

[text]

[usedsuperpower]

sometimes just knowing person is enough.

[text]

[neurotoxined]

Good to know, I guess - any sort of attachment being implied would just be strange, so if it's random like that, then fine. He probably had no friends anyway.

[text]

[usedsuperpower]

hee hee... Stitch been here a long long time. have seen people get pokemon like that from enemies.

[text]

[neurotoxined]

Enemies, huh? Made enough to know yourself, or is it just something you've "seen"?

At least the one I got seems to be behaving. I'm guessing that it was too low-leveled for the moron to rub off - it was a baby when I got it. Or whatever passes for babies here.

[Action. No escape. Not ever.]

[itsjustdust]

[Her being unsubtle and him being a ninja means that he could come right up behind her shoulder, even lean over her back a bit, and be far too close when he started talking to alert her to his presence.]

Soooo, is this supposed to be an endurance test or do you just hate your pokemon?

[neurotoxined]

[...murrrrrrrekjwhsdjgdfjfjh what - ]

Hey. Hey!

[And she will just be jerking back abruptly, hopefully you're ninja enough to avoid the collision with her shoulder there because what the hell, bro]

What do you think you're doing?

[itsjustdust]

[Yep it's all good. He's totally done that to people before and it never fails to be amusing. Have a grin as he stands up like he didn't just startle the hell out of you.]

Well... there's a whole list of answers to that, so I'll go with 'asking you what you're doing' yeah?

[neurotoxined]

[Hmph. Excuse her while she just bats her hair down a bit - no, really, Rotom, go away for a moment - and goes back to acting like she totally meant to do whatever it is she just did.]

That's...acceptable. Maybe.

As for whether I hate her, of course I hate her. That doesn't have anything to do with what I'm doing.

[text]

[darkenedgales]

[... Ha, funny you mentioned it, really. Especially for someone who's recently discovered their best friend is gone and was left in charge of some of his Pokémon. Idly skimming the network was supposed to be an escape from thinking about that, but apparently, no such luck.]

means they entrusted you with their wishes

[At least that's what he likes to believe.]

[text]

[neurotoxined]

What's that supposed to mean?

I guess it's one thing if you're friends with the person. Something else entirely if there's nothing like that going on. Somehow I don't think this idiot would have entrusted me with much.

[text]

[darkenedgales]

yeah it's more likely if you're friends

but I guess you had some sort of bond anyway

[text]

[neurotoxined]

[...and that is greeted with a hell of a pause.]

Something like that, actually.

I mean, not all bonds are necessarily good ones, right?

text

[licentious]

Usually, Pokémon belonging to the departed are given to people that they've formed close bonds with. However, cases of pokémon randomly ending up with a rival or complete strangers are not uncommon, meaning that they can practically end up with people just because whoever sends them to other people thought it'd be "amusing".

text

[neurotoxined]

So it's like everything else in this place, then. Good to know, I guess. Annoying, but good to know.

I'm going to assume you've been here a while.

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[licentious]

Yes. Johto is rather formulaic when you get down to it.

I have. I've been here for about a year and a half now, but I like to keep a low profile compared to all of the other long lasting big names. My name is Isabella, and it's nice to meet you. [ Standard niceness that will develop into Feelings of Mutual Sociopathic Respect later on. ]

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[neurotoxined]

Caroline.

I guess this just begs the question of what you've found to do with yourself for a year and a half, especially if you're keeping a "low profile." Or is what you do what requires that in the first place?

[Text]

[begetsvengeance]

If you didn't like the idiot who had it, maybe all it means is whoever is calling the shots here has a sick sense of humor.

[Text]

[neurotoxined]

You say it like that hasn't been obvious from the start. Seeing as we're here to begin with and all. "Sick sense of humor" is putting it a bit lightly. But it's a valid point.

[Text]

[begetsvengeance]

Most people are a bit slow on the uptake, so I've learned to break down the obvious for them. It's a pain, sure, but it's better than having to say everything twice.

Besides, we could be here for different reason and the screwing with us is only a bonus.

[Text]

[neurotoxined]

While I'm not going to assume that "screwing with us" is the entire point, it's pretty much the only obvious one so far.

Been here a while, or just a fast learner?