Will
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Player Character
Posts: 95
Trainer Class:
Player Name: William Gray
OOC Username: Mothimistic
Arena Points: 8
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Post by Will on Apr 19, 2024 3:41:54 GMT 9
William was truly thankful for the helpful timing of the battle; he feared he would have to come out and tell the truth had Nero pressed on the subject and that would no doubt have made everything more awkward than they needed to be. Instead, he smiled and nodded, clearly delighted to be able to help.
"Snibby, heal Nero's Pokemon please," he said politely, his neck craning back slightly as he looked up into the tree where his starter sat. The grass type let out a small, high-pitched sound William had come to associate with a positive reply before the Pokemon closed its eyes to focus. Glowing little orbs akin to small fireflies or spores floated around the snivy momentarily before shooting towards the quilava, soothing its aches and healing some of the damage that the opposing liepard had done. William really did prefer the supporting role when it came to combat but he had a feeling that to properly explore what the game had to offer and to understand why Lucy had enjoyed it so much, he would eventually have to push himself out of his comfort zone and give battling a proper chance.
At the young man's answer, William smiled and nodded. "That's the rectangular one with a touch screen, right? I bought my daughter one when it came out, a black one that she immediately proceeded to decorate with stickers. She absolutely adored that thing, spending most of her allowance on games." It felt nice to mention Lucy in a context where, as far as the other person was aware, she was still alive and well. In the real world, the mere mention of her name made people look at him with pity; it had really made it all the more hard to move past the strategy and accept the lost.
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Nero
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Rival
Player Character
Posts: 153
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Jack Montague
OOC Username: Vay
Arena Points: 28
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Post by Nero on Apr 20, 2024 18:09:49 GMT 9
The grass type followed its trainer's command, and soon Quill was shaking his fur as though he was simply dislodging the pain from it, standing up tall a moment later looking refreshed and ready to finish things. A vague nod of thanks was given in the direction of the support team, before Nero pointed over to the still struggling Liepard. "Alright, you can finish it with an Ember now." The weaker fire type move blasted across the space between them and hit the cat Pokemon opposite, knocking its health down to zero at last and causing it to drop to the ground and then disappear.
With a muted cheer from both trainer and Pokemon, the battle music shifted back to the local area theme instead, and Quill came trotting back to Nero's feet. "That was easy," the young boy announced smugly, before turning back to Will and his Snivy. The old man was still talking about his daughter though, and Nero's positive mood seemed to slip quite rapidly. Oh so he'd bought her the gift she really wanted as soon as it came out? And she had an allowance? And more than all of that, he was talking about her like he cared, like he was happy that she was happy... like a father was supposed to talk about their kids. All of their kids, not just one of them, not just the better brother but the other one as well, and urgh he was getting distracted but it was too late, his victory enthusiasm was already gone.
"I really don't care," Nero replied, not knowing a better way to handle these emotions than to act dismissive and to move on. "Let's get back in the car." It was a carriage rather than a car technically but he didn't seem to be in the mood to be corrected. He whistled, and the Quilava jumped back into the traveling box with Nero quickly pulling himself up behind him. Stupid Will, stupid game...
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Will
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Player Character
Posts: 95
Trainer Class:
Player Name: William Gray
OOC Username: Mothimistic
Arena Points: 8
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Post by Will on Apr 25, 2024 3:27:37 GMT 9
"That was skillfully done," William offered, genuinely impressed with how easily battling seemed to come to the young man. The nonchalantness at which Nero had handled the battle was truly a stark contrast to how anxious and worried he felt every time he was put in a situation where he had to make Snibby fight against other Pokemon.
With the bottle over, the man held out his hands towards the three and caught the grass type as it leapt down into his arms. It pushed its large head under his chin for a snuggle before wrapping around his shoulders like a scarf, its tail doing most of the work to keep the Pokemon in place. It made William chuckle a little, even if the Pokemon was quite heavy to be carried around like that; he didn't have the heart to make Sniby go back into its pokeball when it was clear the grass type had made itself comfortable and was in the progress of dozing off.
At Nero's reply, William found his face turning a little red. He was embarrassed to have rambled on to a stranger in such a manner; especially given that Nero was undoubtedly a child. "I apologize, I did not mean to ramble," the man admitted as he followed after the other player to reach the carriage. He considered asking Nero about his family, but it felt both like a bad idea and far too personal of a question to impose on an unfamiliar young child out of the blue. Instead, as they climbed back into the cart, he found his mind drifting to a different question.
"Have you liked the Pokemon you got as a starter?" he asked, his own hand coming up to ever so gently pet the snivy taking a nap on his shoulders. "I was quite unsure if this one fit me when I first got it, but he's turned out to be quite a sweetheart."
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Nero
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Rival
Player Character
Posts: 153
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Jack Montague
OOC Username: Vay
Arena Points: 28
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Post by Nero on May 1, 2024 17:18:00 GMT 9
The compliment had been gratefully received, but it inevitably hadn't taken long for the little buzz of pride to be squashed again. It really wasn't Will's fault of course - he couldn't possibly know why Nero's mood had suddenly soured, nor what he had done to cause it. Even his own peers had always struggled with that, Nero seemingly lashing out at random when someone said something seemingly innocent and he overreacted to some hidden meaning behind it. It was nothing to do with age or understanding then, and everything to do with a fragile teen who didn't know how to handle the parade of negative thoughts he felt like he was constantly having to deal with.
His apology was ignored then, though not as a way of Nero acknowledging it was not Will's fault - just because he didn't feel like addressing it. Better to ignore and move on: that was how he dealt with everything... which was probably why nothing ever got resolved. Quill stood up on his hind legs as Will and Sniby entered the compartment, Nero stroking his head from his new position back on his previous seat. He'd always loved this middle evolution, and the fact that UNOVR didn't force you to evolve in order to progress was something he was very grateful for. Typhlosion was fine, but this little one had always ranked higher for him, even if he'd only really used it for brief portions of the game,
Will seemed to know exactly what he was thinking about, asking the right question at the right moment to get a genuine answer from the sullen Nero. "Yeah," he replied, a tiny smile tilting his lips up as he looked down at Quill. "I used to play SoulSilver all the time and I'd always pick Cyndaquil. It gets a bad rep, guess it's always compared to Charizard, but I always thought it was much cooler. All fierce looking, and a cooler colour scheme. And then I always thought Quilava was the best one. It has it's own signature move, or I guess, not officially but flame wheel always felt like a signature move. No other middle stage gets that." There was a lot of nostalgia talking, but did that even matter? Surely a lot of the players here were drawn in by nostalgia in the first place... but maybe not Will though?
He looked up from his starter towards the other player and the Snivy on his neck. "Yeah? Is sweetheart what you're looking for then?"
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Will
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Player Character
Posts: 95
Trainer Class:
Player Name: William Gray
OOC Username: Mothimistic
Arena Points: 8
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Post by Will on May 2, 2024 3:48:29 GMT 9
William listened Nero talk with genuine interest. He was familiar with Charizard, he imagined anyone who had even the basic amount of knowledge regarding the series did, but the cyndaquil line was rather unfamiliar to him. Though admittedly, based purely on appearances, he too preferred the quilava that stuck to its trainer side. It was rather cute, but William figured saying so might be taken the wrong way.
"It is a very sleek-looking Pokemon, clearly intended for speed I imagine," the older man offered, nodding in agreement upon Nero's explanation, "I never really cared for the fire dragon myself either. I believe the few times I tried the original games I picked the turtle-looking water type." Thinking back, Will wasn't sure he'd ever played long enough to fully evolve said turtle all the way. He'd admittedly been rather lost in thought, trying to remember exactly how far along he'd gotten in the game and what Pokemon he'd had in his team so Nero's question caught him off guard. For a moment he looked almost startled by the question, then a little confused before finally shaking his head. Surely Nero had asked in reference to Pokemon with sweet personalities rather than asking him if he was looking for companionship in the game. Right?
"I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for in the game," he admitted regardless, "it started off with me simply wanting to feel closer to my daughter by indulging in her hobbies, but outside of that I am quite lost. I don't particularly enjoy battles and I can't say I'm interested in collecting a large number of Pokemon either. I suppose for now I simply want to explore the setting of the game and socialize with other players on occasion." Somehow he felt like his answer was exactly what would warrant Nero to call him a boomer. Again.
"I must say, I am very impressed with the level of detail all the environments and characters have. It's almost disorienting logging off sometimes."
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Nero
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Rival
Player Character
Posts: 153
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Jack Montague
OOC Username: Vay
Arena Points: 28
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Post by Nero on May 3, 2024 3:03:53 GMT 9
Speed. Yeah, Quill was pretty agile, definitely more so than the lumbering Typhlosion. It wasn't always about raw strength after all. "I used to use Charizard a lot too, but this line definitely has it beat." Both were cooler than the Squirtle line, but for once, Nero didn't feel like teasing Will too much for that. He didn't seem to know enough about the Pokemon in question for Nero to say anything particularly cutting after all, and the tease really lost its spark when you had to over-explain it.
Even his fairly simple question seemed to have been taken an odd way by the other player. He'd meant it in the cliche way that NPCs on the games often asked it - do you prefer cool Pokemon or cute ones? And maybe at a stretch, he was almost asking if Will was just playing to collect cute creatures if he didn't like the battle aspects? But the answer was surprisingly in depth, Nero turning to look out of the window to watch the orange leaves go by as he half- listened to the answer. He could sort of empathise though. He didn't entirely know what kept dragging him back to the game either. Lack of anything better to do really, which wasn't much of a reason in itself. Exploring was fun though. Nero had spent so many hours just walking around here already...
He let out a small huff of amusement as Will's musings shifted to the environments specifically. "They say we won't log off at all in the future, right? That everyone will move to being plugged in at all times? The metaverse or whatever?" He shrugged, too young to really worry about abstract futures like that, or at least to really envision what that would mean. "I don't think that sounds so bad to be honest. You can do things here that you can't do in the real world. Everyone's equal, you know? Everyone gets a fair chance." And stupid mistakes didn't haunt you forever either...
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Will
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Player Character
Posts: 95
Trainer Class:
Player Name: William Gray
OOC Username: Mothimistic
Arena Points: 8
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Post by Will on May 4, 2024 21:28:28 GMT 9
William shifted in his seat, the weight of the snivy around his neck admittedly slightly uncomfortable, but not unmanageable. He couldn't help but wonder if the Snivy would be sad when it evolved; Pokemon tended to grow larger when they evolved after all so it was unlikely William could carry the grass type on his shoulders once that happened. Should he even evolve it if that were the case?
With a slight shake of his head, William refocused on the conversation. His brows furrowed slightly at the thought of being constantly plugged in; even this single game had become such a major way of escapism for the man that he on occasion forgot to take care of himself so the thought of everyone, always, being connected like that seemed like a bad idea. While he certainly was aware of the impact his new hobby was having on him, he couldn't imagine everyone else being so self-aware.
"I think I must disagree. It is too easy to get lost in games like this and accidentally negate your actual physical health and needs," he admitted, almost nervously fidgeting with his fingers as he spoke. "Not to even mention how quickly companies would monetize something like that to sell ads and endorse their products. It wouldn't take long for features to be locked behind a paywall, only making equality more difficult to obtain." It was the sad truth of the fact, though Will felt bad almost as soon as he'd said his peace. He hadn't meant to sound so negative or like he was dismissing Nero 's hope for digital equality.
[Glitch]T82kyOtu1d100 1d100
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Nero
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Rival
Player Character
Posts: 153
Trainer Class:
Player Name: Jack Montague
OOC Username: Vay
Arena Points: 28
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Post by Nero on May 10, 2024 5:54:56 GMT 9
Rationally, Nero knew not to get annoyed at Will for what he said. Rationally, he knew the man didn't know his circumstances or the real motivation behind his words and probably would have said something very different if he had. Rationally, he knew that what Will was saying was very practical and realistic and Nero would probably agree with him under other circumstances.
But Nero was never rational when it came to his accident, when it came to what it had cost him and what he would give to get it back. Will had no way of knowing that his words would be interpreted as slashing down a hope of a future where Nero didn't have to be held back by a disability he had not yet come to terms with, but that was how Nero heard them. And he couldn't hold back the fury that flooded his system so rapidly that it caught even him off guard as he launched himself up from his seat to point an accusatory finger towards Will's face.
"What the fuck is your probl-"
Before he could even finish the word, the flashing parts of the overlay suddenly seemed to lock into position and a very unpleasant electronic sound blasted into Nero's ear, cutting him off as he instinctively reached to press his hands to his ears and hit the headset instead. The screen went black a moment later, the sound thankfully stopping, and then Nero was left in darkness...
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A moment later, Jack was pulling the headset off, the game refusing to come back or even to reload no matter what he did. Turning the whole system off and on again would probably fix it, but he was still brimming with frustration at Will's popping of his utopian bubble and now he had nowhere to aim that at. In a childish but slightly soothing gesture, he threw the headset down onto his bed, the controllers joining it a moment later as he untangled himself from the rest of the WorldView console in what was more or less just a tantrum. Will was lucky to avoid the repercussions of his words, and Nero certainly didn't feel like going back in to deliver them with a strange delay now. His anger was already quickly fading away, replaced with a gloominess that always overtook him when he disconnected but was much worse today. His shoulders sagged as he leaned back against his pillows, deciding to just sleep the day away if he couldn't play his game. It was only late afternoon but fuck it, what else was he going to do with his time?
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