[ti]open[/ti][003] Choose Your Fighter!!!

Taylor had almost certainly played for too long yesterday, but the game had her hooked! With her chores for the day once again complete, she hooked herself back into UNOVR and had a browse of the remaining tutorials. She’d made her way through the first and second so far, so the logical next step was the third.

It took a few moments to load into the environment, but once she did, the audio assault was instant. "Whoa, wha-" It only took a moment of wildly spinning in an extremely confused circle to realise that someone seemed to be being pursued by the game’s rival. The way he powerwalked away from the confrontation made Taylor laugh, and she hastened to catch up with the stranger.

"Hey, I think this guy’s part of the third tutorial," she offered, falling into step with the other player. "We’re meant to battle him in pairs – wanna team up?" A blunt offer, to be sure, but Taylor never had been particularly shy or reticent with strangers. Unsolicited advice, who? You mean friendly helpfullness, right! As she spoke, the rival remained on their tail, flailing his arms and occasionally strumming his guitar as he vied for their attention. Turns out the tutorial NPCs did not appreciate being ignored! It was kind of cute, honestly.

The deadpan answer shocked a burst of amusement out of Taylor, and the combination of that with the Litten’s response had her biting back laughter. The player’s defeated sigh and the feline’s triumphant victory cry had her soundly losing the battle, and she bit her lip to try and keep her amusement from the stranger’s notice. Laughing at people tended to make for quite a poor first impression!

The laughter turned into puzzlement as the stranger began marching towards the NPC. She blinked in confusion, not catching on to just what was going on until far too late. It took far longer than it should’ve for Taylor to clock how the other player had misunderstood; they were all lucky the Litten had been quicker than her, and had taken steps to avert the impending disaster! Particularly the NPC!

“OH!” She gasped as understanding finally hit, and hastened to the stranger’s side, laying a hand lightly on his arm. This guy really wasn’t used to how Pokémon games worked, huh? “Sorry, I should have been more clear-“ not that she’d expected to need to be in here, but hey, lesson learned! “We’re supposed to have our Pokémon battle his – that’s how fighting works here! I don’t think the age rating would allow for player on player - or NPC - brawling!” This last was accompanied by a grin.

“Is this your first time in a Pokémon game?” The idea baffled Taylor, the Eevee plushie she kept on a shelf beside her gaming setup was clear evidence that it wasn’t hers. Not that the other player could see that, but still!

Taylor was left blinking in owlish surprise at the correction. “Oh!” she chuckled with a shrug. “I stand corrected then; that’s honestly pretty neat!” The fact that the other player thought they needed to physically fight the rival themselves made a little more sense now. “Fair enough! I’m pretty sure this one’s meant to be a Pokémon battle though.” Although in fairness, she’d already been proved wrong once, so wouldn’t be too surprised if it happened again.

A nod was given in response to the question. “Aye, it’s a weird concept at first, right?” The grass-type’s shout was well-timed, and the young woman gestured in the feline’s direction, chuckling. “As you can see, they enjoy it. It’s best not to think of them as animals – rather as very tiny, often fluffy fighters.” Of course, they were really code, but maybe this would make it make sense to the other player? “If they didn’t want to fight, they could quite easily refuse – it’s not like we can much stand against tiny, flame-breathing monsters, right?” A moment of thought. "It's not like dog fighting or anything - they can communicate their wants and needs with us in a way that pets out in the real world can't. I guess the idea boils down to informed consent?" As much as it could, for coded AI creatures, at least.

To help illustrate the point, she crouched down to Mumble’s level. “You wanna try a battle, bud?” The enthusiastic, wordless squawking was clearly an affirmative, and the little Piplup bounced his way over to stand beside Kitten. Taylor stood back up to her full height with a shrug to Verai. “If you’re uncomfortable with it, I’m sure you don’t have to have them fight – this is all optional.” Internally, she did wonder if his starter would accept such a decision, but Taylor could certainly see why the VR experience might make it feel wrong to allow battling. She waited, not wanting to push forward with the tutorial before he’d had a chance to come to terms with the idea and make a choice either way. The rival NPC seemed to sense that there was some deliberation happening too, and idled in place, merely quietly strumming his guitar now and then.

Charmed, Taylor decided that she really liked this guy. He seemed very careful and serious, polite in the extreme and there was something extraordinarily endearing in that. He gave off some serious dad energy. One of those, we must protect this one’s innocence at all costs, kinda deals. Assuming that what was likely a grown ass adult probably wouldn’t appreciate hearing this, she simply smiled and nodded at the thanks, keeping the observation to herself. “Of course!”

Kitten’s affirmative shrieking prompted a harmonised echo from Mumble. Was his opinion being asked, here? Absolutely not. Did he know why we were yelling? No siree. Was he going to join in regardless. You betcha!

As the rival released his two Pokémon, Taylor nodded to herself absently. A Blitzle and a Chimchar – not the worst matchup against a Piplup and Sprigatito, but also not the worst. Things looked a little more positive as the first attacks were launched; the fire-type targeting Mumble and the electric-type aiming for Kitten. If the rival wasn’t coded to take type strengths and weaknesses into account in this initial fight, then their chances of winning looked a lot more positive.

The twin bursts of flame landed soundly but didn’t deal too much damage to the Piplup. <My turn, my turn!> The water-type cried, before taking a deep, deep breath. Holding it for a moment, his eyes glowed briefly blue, before the tiny beak opened and a stream of cold, high-pressure water shot towards the Chimchar.

> Oh hey! Looks like you already know about type weaknesses, huh? Don’t go thinking that means you’ll win!

Largely ignoring the dialogue from the rival NPC, Taylor couldn’t help a laugh at Verai’s question, though she did her best to smother it. “Yeah, apparently!” She rolled a shrug in response to the other player’s conflicted expression and sent a sympathetic grin his way. “Best guess? I’d assume they don’t feel pain the same way we do.” She certainly hadn’t met a Pokemon here in UNOVR yet that had seemed put off by the prospect of pain or battles ending in fainting.

PIPLUP ATTACKS CHIMCHAR: HYDRO PUMP (WATER)
qreHdGX_1d50+35
+10 (rarity) +5 (pkmn refresh) +20 (supereffective)

mumble used hydro pump (tank charge)
foe's chimchar took 67 damage
mumble took 10 damage

Health
Kitten 123/150
Mumble 246/300
Chimchar 63/150
Blitzle 208/250

By this point, the rival seemed to have grown bored of being ignored by the players, and merely stood watching the fight, strumming his guitar grumpily now and then. Absorbed in conversation with the other player, Taylor found that she was content to allow Mumble to make his own choice of moves. If this was more than a tutorial battle, she’d make sure to be more involved. Besides, since the Litten seemed happy to decide her own attacks, Mumble was great at following an example. Taking the initiative… not so much. But following along with what someone else was doing? He was stellar at that! The fact that the moves he was using happened to be landing super effective hits was mostly coincidence, rather than conscious choice.

The Piplup scowled at the opposing Pokémon as Kitten stayed down for moment. <STOP HURTING MY FRIEN-> His words were cut off by a second blast of fire knocking him flat on his ass, and he was left blinking around a little confusedly. The water-type likely would have switched targets to the Blitzle, but that last blow had left him muddled, and he defaulted back to returning the shots aimed his way. This time it was a beam of bubbles that left his beak. A little less impressive in power perhaps, but they seemed effective enough.

Taylor had been silent for a moment as she watched the fight, just needing to make sure that the Piplup remained on task, but now she rolled a shoulder in a shrug. “I guess so,” she mused, thoughtful. “I think in the past it’s always been very clear that they’re characters in a game – this is the first time they’ve seemed so real, so it’s a dilemma that’s only become more relevant recently.” Of course, there’d always been debate around the Pokémon franchise as to how ethics would apply if it were real. But really this was the first time it had ever been so easy to see the creatures as sentient. “It’d be interesting to see if there are some who hate battling,” She continued to muse, humming in consideration. “I’ve not met many here yet, to get a decent sample size. That might ease the dilemma a little, no? To see that their personalities dictate their preferences more than their code?”

PIPLUP ATTACKS CHIMCHAR: BUBBLEBEAM (WATER)
ga8D6akx1d50+35
+10 (rarity) +5 (pkmn refresh) +20 (supereffective)

mumble used bubblebeam (tank charge)
foe's chimchar took 76 damage
mumble took 10 damage

Health
Kitten 213/300
Mumble 195/300
Chimchar 0/150
Blitzle 144/250

The Chimchar fell to the ground with a soft thud, and Mumble raised his flippers to the sky in an approximation of a victory pose. After only a moment of celebration though, he was interrupted by the furious Litten. The shock almost had him falling on his ass, but he pinwheeled his flippers and managed to stay upright. Once he processed the words, he scowled at the Blitzle again and nodded frantically.

Once again, he screamed at the equine pokemon. “STAY AWAY FROM MY FRIEND!” It would seem the fire-type’s shouting was rubbing off on the little penguin, along with her enthusiasm for the fight. Scowl firmly set and looking extremely strange and out of place on his little blue face, the tiny penguin whipped up a Whirlpool around the opposing Blitzle, aiming to trap it in place so that it couldn’t harm Kitten further.

PIPLUP ATTACKS BLITZLE: WHIRLPOOL (WATER)
MJGLrdiW1d50+15
+10 (rarity) +5 (pkmn refresh)

mumble used whirlpool (tank charge)
foe's blitzle took 16 damage
mumble took 10 damage

Health
Kitten 174/300
Mumble 185/300
Chimchar 0/150
Blitzle 65/250

<NO. BAD HORSE!> Came Mumble’s shouted admonishment when the Blitzle stubbornly refused to fall down and instead shocked Kitten again. He quite agreed with the fire-type’s outrage over the whole thing, conveniently forgetting, just for the moment, that the whole point of a battle was to fight.

“Almost there guys, you’re doing great!” Taylor called out, both trying to encourage the pair and guide Mumble away from the looming all-out tantrum. It seemed to work for the water-type at least, morphing his fury into determination as he barralled towards the now soggy Blitzle. He should probably be trying for an attack with a little more finesse than a straight-up Pound of flailing flippers, but if it got the job done, Taylor wouldn't complain!

PIPLUP ATTACKS BLITZLE: POUND (NORMAL)
ygdJfIBH1d50+15
+10 (rarity) +5 (pkmn refresh)

mumble used pound (tank charge)
foe's blitzle took 58 damage
mumble took 10 damage

Health
Kitten 143/300
Mumble 175/300
Chimchar 0/150
Blitzle 0/250