bravenewworld

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012

[action, Residential District]
[Sometime in the early evening, there comes a brief rumble of footsteps from one of the towers in the shabbier part of the Residential District before the door bursts open and a small horde of Pokemon stampedes out.

This is shortly followed by a roiling cloud of smoke and a young teenaged boy carrying a pan of fire. ...It was probably a pan of something meant to be edible at some point, but now it's mostly just a pan of fire.

He lobs it as far away from them as possible the moment he makes it to relative safety, coughing and spluttering.]

Someone use Water Gun!

[Sentret, Teddiursa, Togetic, Drifloon, Purrloin, Bagon, Espeon, and Cottonee slowly turn to stare at their trainer.]

...I've got to make friends with a Water type.

[While he works on that, he takes off his oven mitts and begins to beat at the flames with them instead. Good thing cobblestone isn't flammable. ...Well. It's probably not.]

[video, public, much later]
Hi, everyone. ...Um.

It's been a while since everything that happened now. I hope everyone's been able to recover from their injuries - if you still need medical assistance for any reason, please come by the Medical Center. Or I'd be happy to come over and see you, too.

I guess I wanted to ask... what exactly was Sanctuary making and who... saw them? I didn't really understand too much of what was going on, but I feel like... we ought to be telling the Council how we feel about all of this, too, right? Won't they be taking some part in the decisions, too?

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[He responds with a firm nod.]

I do.

[And since that seems like a vaguely unsatisfactory reply...]

In the last year, there's been all kinds of things that we can't understand or that... we'd rather not think about so much. But there's just going to be more. I'd rather not ignore it.

[That is a satisfactory answer. She folds her arms and Privates the feed just in case someone who doesn't wanna know is watching.

And that done, she just says it, right out. No frills.]

They were doing something really, really wrong. Experimenting on people, like Gigas does to make their Enhanced. Only, I'm not entirely sure those people? Still had free will when they were done.

[And Lucas, hearing this, has nothing to say for a few moments as he nods slowly.]

I see. I'd been hearing rumors about zombies and... that sort of thing.

[The truth went a ways into explaining those stories, at least.]

So they used people... to make weapons.

It seems like that's how trouble always starts, isn't it? Using things that oughtn't to be used as weapons, because... they think they can control it, somehow.

[Yuuna keeps silent, letting him think on his own time. Reaching somewhere off camera, she pulls a Pokemon into view, a Pachirisu that seems as intent on hugging her as she is on it. Denkiri had become a pretty solid little companion of late, offering a great many necessary hugs all round the Sugasawa household.]

That is, yeah. The things they were doing...I don't even want to describe it, because I don't know how they did it. I hear it was magic, but I've seen magic. My girlfriend uses magic...but this was something completely different. Something vile, not even on the same continent as Merrill's. I don't know what they thought they were doing, but they definitely made weapons.

[She takes a breath.]

We...she and I and some friends? We fought them.

[Another quiet nod in response.]

...It must have been awful.

[He'd fought an Enhanced during the battle - had wound up hurting her pretty badly without meaning to. He carried some residual guilt about the incident, but of course, it was easily rationalized that if he hadn't fought back, she would have hurt many others in a manner much worse.

But fighting someone that had been turned into some...thing. There was no satisfaction or moralizing out of that. They simply had to be stopped... but they still held the shape of humans.]

You saw them, then - you really think there's no saving them?

[Yuuna shrugs her shoulders at that, closing her eyes and sighing somewhat helplessly. It's a little hard to think on, and Denki uses a non-shocking nuzzle when he feels trainer freeze up.]

It wasn't fun, I'll say that. I mean...I was scared. [She pats the Pokemon, frowning deeply. It was really strange, thinking back on the events. How she'd parried hands that were basically swords, fought to free Gigan soldiers from nets...it was just...nightmarish, like something out of a fever dream. And all she really could remember was the feeling of adrenaline and the certainty that there was something there that needed to be stopped.]

And as for that, I...have no idea. I know the ones I saw were little better than shells. They didn't have hands, they had claws, and they were being used to try and capture more soldiers. For...well...presumably the same experiments.

Honestly? I'm not really sure that they were alive enough to be saved. I'm really not.

I'm sure anyone would have been.

[Lucas, being Lucas, had a long history in being terrified of innocuous things that he had only gotten over in the last few years.]

Can I ask, if you don't mind... what you think we should do if they, um... really can't?

Would it be better if they're... released?

[he means killed]

[That's a really difficult question to answer, especially coming from a young boy. She blanches for a moment, because it's an incredibly mature one, one that she's considered the answer to privately herself. She personally doesn't know if she could do it, but then...in their position? She might not feel the same way. Killing was not something to be done lightly, if there was a scrap of hope...but if something was beyond salvation?]

I...don't know. I mean, I would hesitate to say anything should be...released...like that. But I'm really not sure that they're aware of much around them either. I know if I lost my free will, I'd rather be put in the ground, but...I don't think I'm the right person to answer that question.

I mean, I...[She shakes her head.] I don't think I have a good answer for that. What about you?

[Perhaps surprisingly, Lucas nods the slightest bit.]

I'd want it, too.

[Apparently, he's thought about this for some reason.]

...I mean. I don't know if I'd be able to do it. You'd have to be really... brave, in a way.

It's a kind of suffering I don't think anyone can really understand...

[That surprises her. That surprises her quite a lot. Lucas didn't seem like the sort of boy who'd be given to fooling around and being a dumb kid like she'd been, but it's a little bit morbid. Mature yes but also morbid.]

I agree with you there. I mean...I don't think you come out of something like that whole, or anywhere close to whole. If you come out of it at all. Trauma of that sort doesn't go away...at least I don't think it does.

[She's apparently given it thought too.]

I mean how do you treat that?

...Maybe you can't.

[A slight shake of the head. He had a very good reason for asking these questions and for pondering on such matters... but it wasn't something he felt comfortable bringing up at the moment.

After a long silence, he tries on a smile.]

But we're probably jumping too far forward. Um... We don't even know if any of that is true, right? Or how far it really extends.

Sorry to ask these kinds of things... I guess I got a little carried away.

[Yuuna returns that smile with a weak one of her own. Because what else can you do? There's only so much talk about this you can do without dwelling, and that's not something a reasonable person needs to dwell on.]

It's alright. And you're probably right. Only time will tell, Lucas.

Just keep your ear to the ground, you know?

I will.

[Though even as he says that, he realizes he has no idea what that phrase means. ...He'll sound stupid if he asks about it now, though, so he'll just go ahead and nod earnestly.]

You, too, Miss Yuuna.

...I think we could all use something a little bit more positive. Maybe we should all go on holiday or something.

[Good, earnest boy...]

Well there's the Day of Fire in Caldera coming up. I'm going, are you?

Um... I've heard a little about that, but I'm not quite sure... I guess we're all invited, right?

What's going to happen, do you know?

Oh, it's a party for the solstice. I don't know the specifics, but it should be fun!

I'll ask around, then. We've got a lot of Calderans living here now, right?

I think that means it's our first time celebrating something we've never heard about before... that's pretty exciting.

It definitely is. And...at least for me? My one year anniversary of going outside the walls.

Ooh...

[He allows a suitably impressed sound to pass from his mouth.]

Was this the war? Or -- no, that was longer than a year ago now.

Oh no, I just...didn't really go out much. I was still kinda finding my feet after school.

I see.

Well, nobody really left the city much besides the Rangers back before a few years ago, either. I was only outside because my parents were.

Rangers, I mean.

Well, that's...I did not know that.

[She herself is wearing a Ranger patch on her arm. A more recent member.]

One of the outposts?

Uh-huh.

[He hadn't noticed it, as they've been on video and the quality isn't the best. Yuuna will probably recognize that she hasn't met anyone who might have identified themselves as Lucas's parents.]

One of the furthest outposts in the Forest at the time. Actually, we even lived there together in a little cabin because my parents knew their territory so well - the Pokemon didn't mind us, either.

[He sounds a lot more cheerful when he's on this topic. ...Though it was hardly surprising, given what they were previously discussing.]

[She's perceptive enough to have a guess as to why. But given how chipper he is, it's not like she'll spoil that mood.]

Is that so? So...you've been working with Pokemon for a while, huh? Must have been really nice living all the way out there. Exciting, and cozy.

Mm-hm. Avey's been with me and -- um, since I was five.

[That was an awkward skip.]

It was a lot of fun. I miss being out there. ...I'm glad I had the chance to live in Union with all of you, but I wish I could go back and forth if I wanted to.

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