I WANNA BE THE VERY BEST, OR MARGINALLY OKAAAY~

[trustycrowbar]

Who: Gordon Freeman, Pokemon Trainers, NOT-pokemon trainers, people happening by.
What: Gordon becomes a grown-ass pokemon trainer
When: Late afternoon, after class, several weeks after his network post
Where: Gordon's teaching lab, outside in tall grass, other locations
Warnings: BALLS.

[A: Gordon's teaching lab]

Gordon has been busy. He's taken several weekends of Pokemon Training classes after his post to the network, and while he was the oldest in the room by five years (AND THAT INCLUDED THE TEACHER) he's wrapped his head around the technology and theory of pokemon training. He can even name more than ten of them without help, which was more than he could say when he started all of this.

Now they'd cheerfully alerted him that he was ready to catch any pokemon he wanted, provided it was low enough level. So he bought a handful of pokeballs of different types on the way back from the class. Now it's after physics class, and those around the science building can hear his voice echoing down the hallway from the lab.

"Come on, Maxwell! You said you wanted to fight alongside me, and this is how we can do that! Just get into the pokeball and then--"

BZAPP!

"GH! Dammit, STOP that!"

[B: The woods just on the border of the school]

Now it's dusk, and eventually he's convinced his pokemon into going along with this whole "training" thing. Now this grown-ass man is sneaking around in purple-hued autumn tall grass like some kind of auburn big cat in jeans. Someone do something before he makes an idiot out of himself.

Comments

[trustycrowbar]

Jon catches Gordon in mid-admonishment to a little floating plasma pokemon in the air, his hair still a little frizzy from his last bit of static discharge. Both he and the pokemon turn when he says that, and the pokemon chirps a satisfied 'See? Told you.' kind of noise.

"They don't?" Gordon adds, ignoring the peanut gallery. "Then what's the advantage of having them in pokeballs in the first place?" He's trying not to sound exasperated, but it's not quite working.

[jonny_talbain]

"The benefit is almost entirely on the Trainer's end of the partnership." Jon replied, letting himself in and walking over to get a better look at the Rotom. He could understand Pokémon speech just fine and he shot the electric ghost a small smirk. "They're registered with your Trainer I.D. once you catch them in a Pokéball, and there are some places - even in the Pokémon regions - where it's inappropriate to have them out of their Pokéball. Other than that I've found there's no advantage at all. Especially not on their end. And I'm sure you can understand how unappealing and frustrating that might be for an intelligent and sensitive creature. Or ghost."

[trustycrowbar]

Gordon grumbles. They didn't mention THAT in the classes. Well, they mentioned the trainer ID thing, and implied that they'd mostly just stay in their balls forever if you let them. It must have been one of those bullshit sets of social cues that aren't explicitly stated, just learned from birth if you were born there.

"...You don't say." He finally adds, as Maxwell the Rotom giggles and chimes happily at the compliment. Gordon looks up at him.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I didn't know you didn't like it in there. You don't mind hiding out in most of my OTHER electronics, so I didn't think this would be any different!"

He has no idea if Maxwell can understand him. Meanwhile Jon hears from the beeps and squeaks in response a chiptune equivalent of 'It's boring in there! All your other stuff has GAMES in em.'

[jonny_talbain]

"He says all your other gear has games in it, and the Pokéball is boring." Jon relayed. Hey, at least Gordon was TRYING, right? Jon would definitely give him credit for that.

"...ah, being not entirely Human myself, I can understand a good number of different creatures. Pokémon are among them. Most Pokémon can understand Human speech extremely well. That would, I believe, include your Partner here." He turned to Maxwell. "Isn't that right, chum?"

[trustycrowbar]

Ching! Yup that's right 8D

"...He really does hate being bored." Gordon concedes with a small snort of a laugh. "At least I know you can understand me, now. All right! You don't have to go into the pokeball if you don't want to. UNLESS you get yourself hurt. Do we have an understanding?"

...Bing bing. ⌐.⌐

[jonny_talbain]

Jon smiled. He liked acting as kind of a facilitator between people and Pokémon. It felt good to help one understand the other a little better.

"I'm unsure what he eats... but I've found bribes involving food can sweeten the deal a little bit."

There wasn't much Riwane wouldn't do if he offered to take her out for barbecue.

[trustycrowbar]

"He actually eats current that flows into the lab. It would take... some doing to figure out how to make electricity more palatable."

He muses on this, as he watches his Rotom float towards the workbench and proceed to start sculpting with the iron filings in the magnetism lab.

"Hm. Maybe I can offer him batteries..."

[jonny_talbain]

"Aye. It's not my favored afternoon tea." Jon replied. Hey, he'd been electrocuted before. Frankly, it wasone of the least appetizing things he could think of.

"Batteries might work, I suppose. I'd offer more suggestions but I'm hardly the tech-savvy sort."

[trustycrowbar]

"He seems to prefer DC current, which is why he spends so much time in those machines I suppose." He explains further.

In the meantime, Maxwell has already completed his sculpture, which is a fuzzy mess that's vaguely Gordon-shaped.

"It might work, especially out in the field where there aren't too many sources of power."

[jonny_talbain]

Jon looked at the sculpture and was visibly impressed. He had the artistic ability of a boiled potato, so, any outpouring of creativity seemed somewhat miraculous to him. He'd never expected the Rotom to produce something like that.

"...oh. Certainly. What about something like those crank-driven flashlights or radios? It would be one item you ought to be able to re-use and generate power with constantly. Save you carrying around and disposing of a bunch of individual batteries."