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drstonetrivia · 5 months

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Ukyo Traitor Theory

(This was made based on chapter 214, entirely for fun, and shouldn't be taken seriously haha)

Anyone who enjoys mysteries or crime thrillers knows that in order to convince a jury that someone is guilty, you need to establish three things: the means, the motive, and the opportunity of the crime.

First, the means. What allowed Ukyo to commit the crime of activating the medusa? Here, his ears are a great asset: it gained him the knowledge of how to activate the medusa, and the ability to listen in on any conversations that the participants may have thought were private.

His other great ability is being trustworthy. In the Empire, Tsukasa instantly trusted him enough for him to become one of the big 3, even though Ukyo was against his killing. He later becomes one of the wise generals despite having more of a support role compared to the others.

There's no reason for Ukyo to have consistently been the one entrusted with the medusa. If they needed a fighter to protect it, why not choose Kohaku? If they just needed to keep it hidden, why not Gen, who already hides many things on his person?

This brings us to the second point— the opportunity. Ukyo's ears allow him a wider range than most to find out whether or not someone's approaching, and as the sole protector of the medusa in several cases, Ukyo has had many opportunities to either examine it or activate it.

For brevity's sake, lets assume the command was spoken after the 7.5 year timeskip. This means the earliest they acquired the medusa again was chapter 206. Ukyo seemed to be the first one on the scene, and in the chaos could have easily done something with the medusa.

The medusa isn't shown until chapter 209, where it's revealed that Ukyo and Yo had delivered the medusa by themselves. This gives Ukyo countless opportunities when Yo was asleep to meddle with the device. Oddly, Ukyo's also been in charge of locking the medusa up twice.

Now this does require Ukyo to have actually said the command to the device at some point. For long-scale commands like Chelsea said, he could have done it on the way from the US. On a shorter scale, we know he can open the safes since he was the one to lock them inside.

In the unlikely case there was always someone else around the medusa with him, he did have access to several key items (this is a bit of an extreme case, however…): a crystal radio earring similar to the one on Treasure Island, a radio transmitter, and a recording device.

As the radio operator on the ship and on land, Ukyo would not be out of place borrowing the radio equipment. He also would have had the ability to lower the range of the radio waves so fewer places would pick it up.

Why does he need radio equipment? To send a recording of his chosen command to himself at a specific time.

Where's he getting the recording equipment from? Given he was just in Corn City, he could have borrowed Minami's or Xeno's setup, since both of them have them.

The last thing he needs is a way of quietly delivering the recording to the medusa itself, and what better way than to use the easy-to-make crystal radio earring slipped into his little archer cuffs. As long as he holds the device, it'll be close enough to whisper the command.

The final requirement is motive. Why would Ukyo betray his friends and put them in danger? The truth here may be the opposite: he knows that the petrification beam won't hurt anyone, and the sudden uncertainty surrounding the device may force Senku to stay on Earth longer.

We also know that Chrome wants to avoid the "hard and fast" route so they can build a return rocket. Given how loud Chrome is, I doubt Ukyo missed all of his yelling. By causing a delay, Ukyo can give them the time they need to save their friends from doing something risky.

So to recap: Ukyo has the means, motive, and opportunity to activate the medusa, as well as being the only wise general to have fallen to the sidelines (they literally sent him away to Corn City!)

Obviously, he's the most suspicious! Why doubt it!?

The truth is, the way the story is being constructed right now is leading you to that conclusion, which could mean it's a red herring. This wouldn't have been the first time someone's acted suspiciously and it been nothing: Gen with Senku's birthday, and Ukyo's introduction.

If you didn't catch Ukyo's "menacing look" in the last chapter, this chapter makes it obvious. Ukyo is gone when the beam hits, and is only shown checking on the medusa. He doesn't join in on the discussion despite being there, and only comments when the device is brought up.

Those are also his only lines in the whole chapter, and he's still sticking close to the device while Kaseki works on it, hovering behind him. For the rest of the chapter, he's absent.

As a tangent, you may have noticed that Gen's presence was heavily felt this chapter, perhaps moreso than Senku's. This is because Gen tends to be the vessel for the readers' questions, and the reader has a lot of them right now. He's also one of the most empathetic characters.

Gen's role here is to get the reader on his side and suspecting a traitor. The panel of Gen posed at the doorway, immediately followed by him questioning Yo forces us to think of Gen's motives here. Gen first goes to Yo who, by most accounts, is much less trustworthy than Ukyo.

He then openly has a conversation with Senku, along one of the newest members of their posse: Chelsea. Who is also known for blurting things out.

His choice of people to trust by telling them his suspicion again forces us to consider other characters.

From how Gen acts, we can see that he likely suspects Ukyo, but at no point did he actually state it outright.

So what's the narrative effect being created here? Ukyo is being separated from the "main" group— the ones in focus in most of the panels & sharing their thoughts freely. With Gen remarking that someone could have done it at any time, our thoughts go to the first candidate: Ukyo.

Is Ukyo a suspect? Yes. Does the story want us to believe that? Yes. Is he the one who did it? We can't know.

(Personally I think it'd be funny if it was Gen, simply because he's the one suspecting people haha!)

#trivia #dr stone #chapters #214 #ukyo saionji

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trainsinanime · 11 months

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tell me about french train headlights

They're all the same! Or at least they were, from the mid-1950s to about the early 1990s. They all look like this:

Okay, some context for why I find this interesting. Suppose you see a picture of a train, especially one made in the second half of the 20th century, and you want to know where the train is from. The key trick to telling this at a glance is having a bit of autism, but more specifically, the headlights.

In Europe, all major and many minor countries used to have their own government-owned railroad and their own train-building industry, which would build trains to the specifications of their railroad company. There has always been some exporting going on, but for the most part, the trains you'd find in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and so on would be all completely different. This has changed drastically over the past 20ish years.

One thing about this old model is that railroad companies would standardise certain parts within their fleets, especially small parts that need servicing and replacing every now and then. It saves on how many different types of spare parts you need to have.

Headlights are the most notable among these by far: Every train needs to have some of them. All trains have basically the same requirements for their headlights, no matter how fast or slow or whatever they are. Before LEDs, you needed to service the headlights regularly to replace the light bulbs, and as glass parts at the front of a fast moving vehicle, they can get damaged, so spare parts logistics are an issue. And most importantly, we as railfans can easily see them. So you get something like this:

As a result, basically all railroad companies in post-war Europe standardised their head- and taillights for all or most of their trains. And all of them had completely different ideas. Fundamentally, all of them agreed that you need white headlights and red taillights, and since modern trains are easily reversible, you put both of them next to each other.

But do you make the white and red lights the same size (West Germany, Netherlands) or different sizes (Austria, East Germany)? Are they separate things, or do you combine them into one assembly (UK, Switzerland)? Do you make them anything approaching normal sized or gigantic (Poland)? Maybe I'll do an overview post over these later, but I don't have enough pictures in my library right now and I'd have to scour Wikipedia for them later.

The French headlight design shown here is in many ways just one of many, but also interesting in its own right: The actual lenses for red and white are the same size, but the white headlight gets this huge lens assembly that makes it look much more prominent. You can clearly see that different French designers had very different ideas about whether you the center-lines (most of them), or the bottom of the lens assembly. Why is the headlight lens so big, and what are the metal was around the bottom half of the circle? I have no clue. My guess is to put some coloured glass panes in, but I have no idea why you'd need that. Also, note that the red taillight classically has a fresnel lens, that's unique as far as I can tell.

I've taken all these pictures in the Cité du Train, the big central French railroad museum in Mulhouse. (That's why I was posting about traveling to Basel early this weekend. Mulhouse is actually really close to Basel, and going via Switzerland is the most practical—and most scenic—route for me) The oldest locomotive I could find with these headlights was CC-7107:

During high speed trails in the early 1950s, this locomotive reached a speed of 326 km/h (203 mph). That made it only second best behind the other locomotive at the trials, BB-9004:

This one reached 331 km/h (206 mph), a world record that would not be beaten for a long time. The difference was nothing to do with technical performance. Instead, both locomotives melted their pantograph, the part on top that touches the overhead line to get power, at around 320 km/h (200 mph). BB-9004 had a second one that it could lift up to continue accelerating, while CC-7107 only had the one. For a long time, SNCF pretended that both locomotives had reached 331 km/h, to protect the reputation of both manufacturers.

What's notable for our purposes is that BB-9004 has different headlights. As far as I can tell, these seem to be an earlier standard design, also found e.g. on the CC-65001 diesel locomotive:

And even on steam locomotives, like this class 141 R:

So CC-7107 lost on the high speed world record, but it was the way of the future when it came to headlights. These headlights then started cropping up everywhere. From the detail pictures I've shown you above, we have e.g. Le Petit Gris (the small grey one, an EMU for suburban services in Paris):

A CC-6500, dressed up with a nameplate for the express train it was hauling. Fun fact: One locomotive of this type (not this one) was used in the US for a while, as Amtrak was trying out new electric locomotives to use. They weren't happy with it and bought a Swedish one instead, mostly because this locomotive's suspension did not work well with the American track quality.

A Z 2200, a diesel railcar for rural lines designed to be cheap first, second and third.

A BB-26000, which feels altogether way to new to be in this museum.

It's from the 1980s, so I guess the first are reaching retirement age. But at the same time: The train I took from Basel to Mulhouse was still pulled by one of these BB-26000.

Other favourites include the BB-25600 with its rare diagonal light arrangement:

Or the really terribly lit gas turbine train RTG, which puts the headlight on stalks:

Fun fact: Amtrak did end up buying a few these. They didn't use the same white headlights (although they did use the same stalks), but they did use the same fresnel lens red taillights.

And the headlights went all the way up to the top. To the TGV. Only these headlights aren't very aerodynamic, so for their high-speed train, SNCF decided to cover them up.

As far as I can tell, SNCF used these headlights in the TGVs up to the Réseau series, including the Eurostar. That meant that they're also found, though behind faded glass, on the TGV Atlantique 325 in the outdoor area. Number 325 is notable because it was involved in another high speed trail, and reached 515.3 km/h (320.3 mph) on May 18th, 1990.

That was a world record, of course; in fact only the French ever exceeded 500 km/h on conventional railroads. So these headlights did get their world record after all. They didn't get to keep it for long, though. In 2007, a newer TGV reached 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph). That one is still in service, though, and it was equipped with newer LED headlights. I think it's highly unlikely that this record will be broken anytime soon, but if anyone does, I wouldn't be surprised if it were the French again, they like that sort of stuff.

Some final odds an ends with the headlights, though: Here's CC-40101, which isn't actually relevant, I just like the way it looks.

Designed for service in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with four different voltages and four different train control systems, and that with mid-1960s technology. It wasn't quite as successful as hoped, and in service it only ever reached Belgium, but still, look at that design. The front is supposed to evoke an athlete, a sprinter about to start, but this type of design has instead become known as "Nez cassé", broken nose.

BB-9291 shows a rare early version without red tail lights at all. Someone thought they were saving money.

This small work train has a free-standing version of the headlight, which shows us how deep it really is. Apparently, the French headlight is actually not that deep, and isn't that a nice summary for this post?

And a personal favourite of mine, I even bought a T-Shirt with it on it, the Z 600:

The design, in particular the side windows (recessed instead of flush, no outside visible gasket) says Swiss, the headlight and SNCF logo says French, it's narrow gauge and it has a third rail to provide power. Just all around a weird little train, for the weird little line known as the Mont-Blanc Express from France via Switzerland to the bottom of the Mont-Blanc mountain. The train was built in Switzerland, experts of building small trains for mountains, but for the French part of that rail line, so it got French headlights.

Headlights with exporting is a fun topic in its own right. Do you keep the headlights from the country of origin, or demand your own? You will find both approaches. Both Portugal and the Netherlands bought very similar electric locomotives from France. Portugal has French headlights, the Netherlands insisted on (less interesting) dutch ones.

These days, of course, you will still find these headlights, but they're getting rarer. They stopped being used in new trains around the mid-1990s. What's more, the ones you do find, like on this MI-84 in Paris, probably don't have the fresnel lens taillight anymore. Instead, those were replaced with LEDs.

LED lights for railroads make a lot of sense. They last forever and require less power. And since most railroads have standardised their head- and taillights, you just need to design one replacement light for most of France, and then keep building that one until SNCF stops giving you money.

(Since we're showing a picture from Paris, a quick note: These headlights were never used on passenger-carrying trains for the Paris metro. However, some work trains do have them.)

These days, standard headlights are completely gone. LEDs don't need a lot of replacing, and they give you much more freedom to do things like shapes and patterns and designs. Also, we don't have the "one country, one railroad, one rail industry" pattern anymore. Instead now we have multi-national rail conglomerates. Alstom is technically French, but arguably just as much German, ever since they bought Bombardier's rail division, nominally Canadian. Stadler is Swiss, except for the stuff they build in Germany or Poland or Belarus or Hungary or…, and some of their most interesting products right now are built and designed in Spain.

The end result of that is this:

That's a company I saw at a trade fair (Innotrans, Berlin, 2022) that makes LED train headlights, and specifically they make… all of them? Okay, I'm exaggerating, but this is a great picture to drive a European rail fan insane as they try to assign the different headlights to different trains. You get Stuttgart trams, German (and Turkish) high speed trains, lots and lots of Swiss stuff. Nothing specifically French that I could tell, but at least the German high speed train regularly travels to Paris.

The standard headlights, or their LED variants, were still in use for work trains until fairly recently. There are not that many companies that make rail grinders or ballast tampers, and those tend to just use whatever headlight their customer tells them to. But these days they go for shaped LED headlights as well, because they're just better, and because thanks to European standardisation, a headlight approved in one country can (generally) be used in all European countries.

(All pictures © me, feel free to use them under CC-BY-SA 3.0 DE if you want)

#trains #railroads #sncf #france #alstom #alsthom

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reccyls · 8 months

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Ikemen Sengoku Birthday Event Guide

Starting from this year (2023 in JP, 2024 for EN), Ikemen Sengoku is implementing a new format for birthday events compared to previous years. This new event type is called a Banquet Event and it has a couple of quirks, hopefully I can explain how the event plays in this post.

Basically, Ikemen Sengoku is going to be taking some elements from Ikepri's party events, but not all of them. First of all, you can't earn the birthday CG for free: you still need to buy that from a 900 coin set as usual, and it comes with all the normal stuff: the story, the CG, some castle avatar items, etc. The main difference is that the story of this event is earned slightly differently from a story event, in that you do battles/lessons to earn points and raise your Banquet Level, which at certain milestones will give you the event story to be saved into your collection. There are other milestones like avatar items and item rewards (closet space, gold, castle gacha tokens, and boyfriend gacha tokens)

How to play is explained below:

Like the Ikepri and Ikevamp birthday events, you do lessons/glam-offs/etc whatever it's called in order to earn points to raise your Banquet Level. What is new to Ikesen is that owning certain themes will increase the points you get from doing battles, just like how having cards of the birthday character will give you bonus points in Ikepri's party events.

Differences from normal story events:

Uses its own stamina system; you can't use normal parfaits or shaved ice to restore stamina. Thus it will run concurrently with other events and not interfere with the stamina needed for those

There is no event friend system here

You do not read the event story and then pass checks. You will instead raise your party level, and at certain thresholds, the event story will be given to you and saved in your collection

The number of points you get per battle can be increased if you own certain themes

Similarities with normal story events:

Lucky time schedule works as normal. There are 2x and 3x lucky times

There are items you can buy that give you event points, as well as items to buy that refill your stamina

You can win or draw event battles like usual. Draws give you half the points of a win.

This is what the game looks like when you enter an event battle:

The deck of cards at the bottom is the list of themes you have that give bonus points. In my case, I only have 1 theme of Masamune that gives bonus points, which is this year's birthday story. As you can see, it gives me +3 points.

The game will automatically select any themes you have that give the highest point bonuses, so you don't have to worry about going through your collection to see if you have something or not.

One thing of note is that there are lucky times (currently there is a 2x lucky time active in the screenshot). As with usual story events, they double the points you get, but they only double the base points. Bonuses from themes are not doubled. To put it in a numerical example:

Winning a battle gives 100 points normally. So if I won a battle, I would get 103 points, since I have a +3 bonus.

During a 2x lucky time, only the 100 points are doubled. Thus I get (100 x2) + 3 = 203 points. I do not get (100 + 3) x2 = 206 points.

Bonus Themes

So, which themes give bonuses exactly? Here is the list for Masamune's birthday event:

(yes I haven't done Masamune's route yet, sssh)

To summarize, you can get the bonus themes from the following:

Buying themes included in special birthday sets

Prize themes from previous years' birthday events (these are ranking rewards for JP, but I believe they were turned into Early Clear rewards for EN?)

This year and last year's birthday story CGs

Pulling them from the special birthday boyfriend gacha

Main route CGs (only the main route counts, the eternal route CG, the extra CG added to the main route, and sequel CGs don't)

So, what are the rewards and the milestones? I don't have a super clear idea of the number of points you need for everything yet, but here is the list of rewards for each party level:

I saw someone on Twitter imply that you need around 25,000 points total to reach the 4th part of the story, but I'll be back to edit this (and reblog with an update) if/when I get close in order to confirm it.

Meanwhile, here are all the avatar items for each level, as well as the early clear bonuses:

Early Clear Bonuses:

Is it F2P?

From my experience and a bit of guessing, I think that it'll be possible to achieve all 4 parts of the story as F2P. However, I'm not sure how much further you can get beyond that. Getting points can be pretty difficult, especially since you can't use normal stamina or glamor items to raise your banquet level.

I'll update here at the end of the event with how far I managed to get, simulating what it'd be like as someone who only played Masamune's route and didn't buy any sets/stories or get any themes from the birthday gacha.

I don't feel like I explained this very well at all so if anyone has any questions or if there's anything about this event that's unclear, please feel free to ask!

#ikemen sengoku #birthday event guide

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gayhomolesbian · 6 months

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at a restaurant I've passed millions of times all my life called sarah janes. i got calamari and a burger and hoo boy that was amazing. the birger wasn't very customizable, but that's okay, because it was one of the best burgers I've ever had. if it were very customizable, it would be an easy 9.7/10, but it's not, so just 9/10. now, as for the calamari HOO BOY HOWDY, that was the second best calamari I've ever had, first best was the calamari at my cousin's wedding which had an authentic italian say it was the best he'd ever had. if you're ever on route 206 by raritan in new jersey (in the evenings only sadly), take a stop down at sarah janes, and have yourself some damn good food.

#food #new jersey #bor ger

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cubic-watermelon · 9 months

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My Shining Pearl Artlocke Nuzlocke challenge

I did this when the games came out. I was trying to make the game hard because I already knew it was going to be too easy.

Here are my rules:

-Catch only the first Pokémon in each area; -Name them; (naming theme - villagers from animal crossing) -draw them; -fainting = death; -draw how they died; -no items in battle; -no legendaries; -level cap = to next leader’s ace; -game mode = set; -no in-game trades; -dupes clause, for the sake of variety.

Starter: Turtwig Name: Flora Nature: Rash Ability: Overgrow

Route 201: Starly Name: Apollo Nature: Naughty Ability: Keen eye

Route 202: nothing... a kricketot fainted to a crit by Apollo.

Route 204: Bidoof Name: Chip Nature: Gentle Ability: Simple

Route 218: Magikarp Name: Hopkins Nature: Gentle Ability: Swift swim

Route 203: Kricketot Name: Piper Nature: Hasty Ability: Shed skin

First Death: Chip I was grinding near Oreburgh Gate. Chip as already in the red and I wanted to go back to heal. ran into a starly and it didn't let me run. I was looking forward to using Chip more. His abiliti was good NGL. RIP

Oreburgh gate: Zubat Name: Celeste Nature: Sassy Ability: Inner focus

Route 207: Geodude Name: Renée Nature: Sassy Ability: Rock head

Oreburgh mine: Onix Name: Spike Nature: Quiet Ability: Sturdy

Piper evolved into DELELELEWOOOOOOOOP. Her ability is now Swarm.

going into the first Gym, this is my team. I have a flawless strategy, don't worry. (spam the "do grass damage" button)

I ended up just using Piper. She’s holding a metronome so I just spammed rock smash for an easy win.

Apollo Evolved and gained the ability intimidate.

Valley Windworks: Buizel Name: Marina Nature: Bold Ability: Swift Swim

Flora evolved.

Route 205: Pachirisu Name: Tasha Nature: Lax Ability: Pickup

This is my team for the grass Gym. I didn't catch anything on route 211 because Celeste decided to kill a meditite encounter, so, no new mon and no fire type...

Celeste and Piper had a little trouble with Roserade but we did it with my BIG BRAIN tactics! who needs fire types? then Celeste evolved... and a level later she evolved again! Now that I have a Crobat I can safely say this run is in the bag!

Hopkins evolved and now I have a killing machine with intimidate!

btw, I didn't catch anything on route 211 and 206 because Celeste likes crits.

Wayward cave: Bronzor (Gible spawns here btw...) Name: Clay Nature: Naughty Ability: Levitate

Renée evolved and I'm very surprised, I never used geodude before, she's quite good.

then, I remembered the old Chateau and went back to get me a mon.

Old Chateau: Gastly Name: Lucky Nature: Adamant Ability: Levitate

Mount Coronet: Meditite Name: Poncho Nature: Serious Ability: Pure power

route 208 - Psyduck died to a crit. route 209 - didn't find a new mon yes. Dupes Clause.

Route 210: Ponyta Name: Victoria Nature: Careful Ability: Flash fire

I went into the 3rd gym with this team but a bit weaker. Beat it with Apollo, Hopkins and Celeste but it wasn’t easy.

death 2 - Lucky. He died to a Mime Jr. of all things... I was leveling him up and I thought he could take on a shitty Mime Jr. RIP

A guy gave an egg to me in hearthome, it hatched:

Hearthome city: Happiny Name: Merengue Nature: Quirky Ability: Serene grace

Route 209: Bonsly Name: Coco Nature: Careful Ability: Rock head

Finally found a fossil undergrownd: Oreburg City: Shieldon Name: Rhonda Nature: Timid Ability: Sturdy

Happiny shoved a rock into her cooch and evolved.

And that's the end of part one! To be continued!

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/cubic-watermelon/724830775856513024/my-trash-dump

#pokemon #shining #pearl #nuzlocke #artlocke #I don't feel like naming all the pokemon I posted here sorry #art

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guerrerense · 7 months

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flickr

Waddling Thru The Weeds por David Blazejewski Por Flickr: Pan Am blue GP40-2W MEC 516 waddles thru the weeds in North Street yard as CSXT's ex Pan Am local BO-1 runs around the spacers before heading put to the Rousselot plant in Peabody to pick up the very last empty tank car. The venerable facility is closing later this year after operation in some form for 206 years and with rail service for 173 of those! Once they couple to the other end they will start out the 2 1/4 mile journey along the old Boston and Maine Railroad's Danvers and South Reading Branches to the plant which is the very last rail served customer on this line or in fact the last anywhere off the old Eastern Route north of Everett. Once they head back to Boston there might never be another freight train seen on the rails east of Everett Junction unless by some miracle other freight rail customers come along in the future. It was a sad and historic day indeed....but I'm grateful I was able to witness it and document it with so many others. Thanks to Conductor Maher for making the classy signs that adorned the front and rear of 516 on this day. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi... Salem, Massachusetts Thursday August 31, 2023

#flickr

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w-armansky-blog · 2 months

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“Ich habe in Venezuela viel verhandelt, das stimmt, aber ich habe dort auch eine neue Leidenschaft entdeckt: das Fliegen.

Man muss wissen, dass meine Familie und ich in unserer Freizeit zwei Aktivitäten hatten: den Berg und das Meer.

Um die Kondition für die Aufstiege zu erhalten, erklomm ich jeden Morgen um 6 Uhr den Berghang des Avilas, des Bergmassivs über Caracas. Der Strand war dem Wochenende vorbehalten. Ich hatte mein Offshore-Boot in Porto La Cruz verankert, mehr als 300 Kilometer vom Caracas entfernt. Jeden Freitagabend nach der Arbeit nahm ich das Auto, um stundenlang auf steilen Straßen zu fahren - es gab noch keine Autobahn- und endlich gegen 23 Uhr am Hafen anzukommen, auf dem Boot zu schlafen und am nächsten Morgen bi La Tortuga zu navigieren, eine erhaltene und unbewohnte Insel ein unberührtes Stück Natur. Trotz der beiden Motoren des Bootes brauchte es zwei Stunden Navigation, um an der Insel anzudocken, wenn das Wetter günstig war. Und wenn das Meer unruhig war, konnte man fünf Stunden brauchen! Eine immer sportliche und manchmal ziemlich mühsame Strecke. Und dann, am Sonntagabend, musste ich auf der gleichen Route nach Caracas zurückkehren…

An einem Samstag, an dem die Überquerung besonders schwierig gewesen war, ruhte ich mich ein bisschen am Ufer aus, als ich ein Flugzeug brummen hörte, es sich nähern und elegant auf dem Strand landen sah. Ich ging zum Piloten, um zu fragen, woher er kam. "Von Caracas, ich bin vor 25 Minuten gestartet."

Ich war verblüfft. Ich komme her für den Tag, präzisierte der Pilot. Am Ende des Nachmittags kehre ich zurück nach Hause. Und ich, ich verbrachte Stunden im Auto und Stunden auf dem Boot, um endlich diesen Strand zu erreichen! Am Montagmorgen, zurück in Caracas, meldete ich mich beim Aeroclub an: Ich wollte meine Pilotenlizenz so schnell wie möglich erwerben. Jeden Morgen besuchte ich sehr früh einen praktischen und theoretischen Kurs, und drei Monate später, nachdem ich 50 Stunden für meine Lizenz geflogen war, landete ich selbst auf dem Strand von La Tortuga!

Noch heute liebe ich das Fliegen innig! Der Start, das immer wechselnde Wetter, die Landung, die Handhabung des Flugzeugs, das weckt sehr starke Emotionen. Ich kaufte mir dann ein kleines Sechs-Plätze-Flugzeug, eine Cessna 206 Turbo, und entdeckte Venezuela von oben; die riesigen Wasserfälle von Salto Angel im Amazonas und die Weitläufigkeit des Canaimas im Süden des Landes … „

source: https://www.schweizer-illustrierte.ch/stars/schweiz/ex-nestle-chef-peter-brabeck-mit-helifliegen-ueberwand-ich-meinen-krebs

text: Aufstiege: Von den verschneiten Bergen bis zur Geschäftsleitung von Nestlé – eine Eroberung der Gipfel, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe

#eternal love #for #autobiography #Peter Brabeck-Letmathe #Aufstiege #flying #helicopter #pilot #aviation #Caracas #swizerland

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monsoon-of-art · 2 years

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Honestly, munchlax is perhaps the most difficult pokemon to get in Pokémon dppt. I think that from the total of honey trees only about 6 or 4 of them have the 1% of calling a munchlax, and which ones? Well that's depended on your secret trainer ID or something so yeah, wish you luck

There's a total of 4: with 2 being determined by your Trainer ID and the other two being determined by your Secret ID. Your secret ID can only be found out by catching a non-bred/non-chained shiny, which in itself is a 1/8192 chance, so essentially I only have 2 trees to work with.

I know my two trees are *somewhere* on routes 205 and 206, so I've been slathering honey on every tree I can find there. Even with the knowledge of two of my trees, it's still a 1% chance and basically I'm in hell

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underground-boss-clay · 6 months

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➰

Welp, where to even start. I suppose one of the oldest scars I got is from some of the odd jobs I did as a teenager.

So Route 206--most know it as Cyclin' Road now--took several years to get built fer... Reasons I don't know an' don't live near enough to need to know, but I was there to help with the construction an' mainly, keep people from gettin' in trouble with that cave. Y'all probably know which one--it's obviously harder to get into now, but back then the entrance was much more obvious.

Now most workers knew to avoid the cave, but you'd have some folks who thought they could just waltz in there with no problems (in most cases they ended up with lots a' problems), an' at that time, all the construction would draw Pokémon outta the cave an' cause problems that way.

So one day I'm called over because someone hadn't been seen since lunch, and turns out the feller's lunchbox got stolen by some a' the Pokémon there, and so he chased them into the cave.

All the way to the lowest level.

An' then got cornered by a Zubat swarm 'cause a' course he ain't got another Pokémon aside from his construction partner Machoke because why would you prepare like that.

Anyway, no the Zubat weren't the problem; what was were the Gible that then joined the fray, includin' the one that decided to try an' bite my leg. Wasn't hard to beat or catch, but gettin' the little bastard to stay 'n one place was... Well that took a few years a' training. And assistance.

#pokemon irl #here's the dirt #ask #anonymous #long post

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mark-mpls · 4 months

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Hope is not the same as optimism.

‘Optimism is a species of fatalism, the belief that things will get better no matter what you do. It’s a first-cousin to pessimism, one that denies human agency.’

By contrast…

‘Hope is the idea that, if you take some action, you can materially improve your circumstances and attain a new vantage point from which you can espy formerly occluded courses of action that will improve things further. You may not be able to see all the territory, much less map a route from where you are to the apex you want to achieve, but you can follow a gradient of making things better and seeing what new moves are available when you do.’

—Cory Doctorow, in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 206.

#hope #optimism #pessimism #action #cory doctorow #clarkesworld

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ihaveatheoryonthat · 2 years

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Keep the Lights On

I may still come back to this one-- I just think I’ll need a break from more long-ish-form content after Faces That You Know is complete, and kind of doubt that I’ll still have too much interest in the concept by that point in time. You never know, though.

As usual, placeholders abound. This one stays pretty cohesive, though, due to the way I was approaching it. Be aware that I was trying something... artistic with current and past tense, so it’s slightly inconsistent, but by design.

---

There is a girl lost in the Wayward Cave.

In another version of events, perhaps she might be found by a fellow explorer, but today, she is not. Today, the cave is dark and, though she professes that Flash is among her favorite moves, her Kadabra is incapable of performing it.

So when she catches sight of reflective silver, it’s the only thing she can focus on. What could it be, she wonders? Surely not a Gible. A Bronzor, then? It draws nearer, and she makes out an unexpected shape: a human emerging from the depths, even further than she’s found herself. They’re still difficult to make out, but the proximity forms a reliable silhouette. Maybe they can help Mira?

“I was catching Pokemon, and then I got lost. I’m so scared! Please, please take me to the exit!”

“Not to worry,” They say, sympathetic and reassuring, “I know the route. I’ll conduct you safely to your station.”

They offer her a hand, and Mira takes it, but nerves still wear at her. She chatters to them under her breath, talking about the moves she likes and the Pokemon she’d caught. Her guide hums in appreciation, prompts her at all the right moments; it’s nice to play support, they agree, to watch a plan come together and elevate an ally. After that, they go quiet for a little while.

Mira wonders if they’re just humoring her. Whenever they run into a wild Pokemon, they lead with a Gliscor and, while they prioritize covering Kadabra so Mira can set up her status moves, she sees the damage it can do as a physical attacker. It seems to her that they’d be just as well off attacking right off the bat. She’s not complaining, of course-- her whole strategy hinges on Kadabra not being hit-- but with a moveset that seems specifically geared toward countering the wild Pokemon here, it strikes her as strange. That’s all.

The path is long and winding, so convoluted that Mira’s not even sure they’re getting closer to the exit, but not once does her [guide] falter. Her distracted mind serves her well, and though the trip isn’t a short one, it’s over before she expects it to be.

The person tucks something into her hand and lets her go as daylight shines into the mouth of the cave, offering some kind of reassurance about a torch. Mira turns back swiftly and digs out the TM she’d found in her blind stumbling; she doesn’t have any use for Earthquake, but it will be a good fit for Gliscor.

As she does, she sees him finally, in the threshold of the cavern. Somehow, even with the light shining in, he’s cast in shadow, but she can see the lines of a beaten up coat, the high collar and scuffed buttons. He stares at the TM, puzzled in spite of the thumb running over the disk’s edge, then looks to her and nods. It’s okay that he doesn’t smile at her; Mira can tell it’s a happy look by the way the reflective eyes narrow.

She chirps a goodbye and a promise to get stronger, to be braver. He gives a low, indulgent chuckle, but when she turns to wave one last time-- just a second later-- he’s gone. All throughout the trek back across Route 206, she kneads at the sachet of bright powder in her hands.

In another reality, Mira meets a helpful trainer in her hour of need. In ours, she’s met with the Pearl Clan’s Warden of the Highlands.

---

It was odd that such a young girl had made it into the depths of Wayward Cave-- even stranger that she hadn’t run into any serious trouble on the way. While her Kadabra would have the advantage over the likes of Golbat, it was still quite young; Ingo meant no offense, but he was certain it would be bested by the Alpha Crobat that called the cavern its home.

Fortunately, he’d found her in time to prevent any undue tragedy. She’d been a lovely companion on the walk to the exit-- it wasn’t often he had the opportunity to speak with someone else about battle strategy, and rarer still to hear a [strategy] beyond an all-out physical assault. Something inside of him ached at the concept.

That said, the entire debacle could have been prevented if his safety measures had been left in place; he was going to have to speak to Melli again, and didn’t relish the prospect. Absently, he continued to trace his thumb along the side of the odd disk the girl had handed him, trying to figure out the most diplomatic way to approach the problem. One of these days, he feared patience would abandon him entirely; he’d already addressed his fellow Warden in a manner far too short to be polite, and he refused to be the inciting force that rekindled the animosity between the Diamond and Pearl Clans.

He decided to take a cue from his departed passenger and turned his mind back to battle strategy, trying to distract himself from the [conflict] that would, eventually, await him. The moves she’d used to protect Kadabra were vaguely familiar, though he didn’t recognize them, exactly. Gliscor actually favored similar tactics, using Mud Bomb to inflict damage and give himself a defensive veneer of dirt; combined with his naturally high defenses, the extra bit of evasive potential gave him a wonderful opportunity to follow up with Stone Edge.

Still, it was hard to make use of the combination against Crobat. If the argument over the torches was doomed to failure, it was only [logical] to have an emergency backup plan. Maybe he would have to look into catching an Abra, himself…

----------

A phantom haunts the ruins in Celestic Town. It’s rare that anyone enters, but Carolina is the elder, and she has a duty. Ever since those Galactic fools stormed the village, she’s taken it upon herself to watch for any suspicious activity-- and suspicious this is.

The man isn’t always in the ruins, but he’s never outside of them, either. It’s as though he ceases to exist the moment he crosses into the light. Carolina’s made a point of confirming this phenomena; not only does the ghost leave without a trace, but he enters much the same. Without any way to confirm whether or not he may be present, short of camping out in the cavern, encountering him is a roll of the dice. As a matter of fact, she’s only run into him twice before, and both times, he’s seemed far more surprised than she had, apologizing profusely for his inhospitality and offering to escort her home. It’s cute that he thinks he can.

Since their first encounter, Carolina has contented herself to step back and watch. He conducts the same measures that she, herself, does here: checking the cave’s humidity, ensuring that no cracks have developed in the thick stone and flushing out any rogue Pokemon. As he works, today, she notices the Old Charm on his wrist, the purples and gold gem visible even through the [shadows] that cloak the specter.

A friend of Celestic Town, then, a protector carrying out his duties even in death.

She wonders if the Spacemen’s intrusion called him back to this plane, or if he’s been here the whole time, filling his task without ever alerting the townsfolk.

She assumes the latter. There’s never any suspicion in his eyes as he studies her-- not the way there would be if it had been desecration that interrupted his rest-- just curiosity and concern. Carolina knows that, once he’s completed his work, he’ll offer to assist her again. Someday she’ll tell him that it’s a futile effort; maybe it will even be today. It would be kind to absolve him of any further obligation when it’s a routine she’s already adopted.

His investigation of the southernmost wall concludes, and he looks to her.

“If you’ve come to study the murals, you may be interested to hear that there are others nearby. I completely understand if you’re not prepared for the extra commute today, but if and when you’d like, I can chart a course to the Moonview Arena and Cloudcap Pass.”

More murals? She’d only ever known of this one’s existence: the balanced triangle in opposition of the deity. But ‘Cloudcap Pass’ and ‘Moonview Arena’… surely those are far, far from Celestic. The poor man can’t even walk into moonlight; how can he be expected to lead the way out of this cavern?

“Not today, friend,” Carolina says, putting her plans for a humane exorcism on hold for the time being, “As you’ve said, I’m unprepared. These old bones can only take so much in one day-- I’m sure you understand?”

He gives a huff of laughter and mutters something under his breath. As he does so, his face doesn’t move.

“There’s nothing to be done for it now, but I’ll bring a map next we meet. If you can show me the distance, I can prepare accordingly.” Technically, it’s the truth. There will be plenty of preparations to make-- it’s just unlikely that her spectral friend will make it one step beyond the ruins’ threshold.

“Of course. It’s crucial to have a plan before departing for an unfamiliar station-- follow the schedule and check for safety.” His gaze wanders from where she stands to the entryway, and the harsh lines of his face soften. “Ah. It seems my presence is being requested elsewhere. If you require assistance, I would be happy to oblige, but I’ve noticed our tracks hit a junction from here; while I’m unable to escort you to your destination, if there’s anything else I can do before departing…?”

“No,” Carolina says softly, contemplating. How odd, for the ghost to have altered his script. “No, I’ll be fine to see myself home. See to it that you do the same.”

He nods to her, tipping the brim of his hat, just in time for a dark shape to fill the entryway.

“Apologies, my Lady,” He says as figure creeps nearer, a looming bipedal figure with impossibly long claws. Like the ghost, she too [idk] with an inner shade. “It wasn’t my intention to cause a delay. Our passenger doesn’t require further assistance, so if you’re ready, we’ll depart immediately.”

At the mention, The Lady’s head swivels toward Carolina, tearing her attention from the apparition for the first time since her entrance, and she stalks nearer, settling well past a comfortable distance to lean in even closer. She raises the back of one hand and tilts Carolina’s chin up for study, meeting her [?] gaze with piercing red eyes.

There’s a sigh from somewhere beyond her massive form, and the man’s hand appears at the fluffy scruff of The Lady’s neck, dragging her away. She chitters-- meaning unknown-- and relents, bobbing down briefly to rest her own chin atop his hat before swapping roles. As she urges him outside, he offers a hasty, “Have a safe journey, ma’am.” and vanishes.

Carolina’s own hand raises to her chin, where she can still feel the blunt edge of The Lady’s claws. They were solid, real-- and if the man had been able to move her, then he is as well.

She doesn’t linger, not for fear the pair might make their way back, but because she has new information to consider, plans to make and research to conduct. The alleged murals, the realization that it was The Lady’s silhouette carved into the Old Charm, the fact that her ghost might not have been a ghost after all-- she’s going to be busy for weeks, and there’s no telling when her next encounter might arrive.

Well, if she’s unable to get around to it, at least she knows someone will mind the ruins in her stead.

---

The woman had always disappeared when he tried to lead her to safety.

Ingo had the strangest feeling that she wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with such a phenomena, but, of course, it was impossible to tell why that might be. She wasn’t a ghost-- he was as certain of that as he was that she shouldn’t have been in the Celestica Ruins on her own-- but he didn’t have words for what, exactly, was going on. It might have been easier if she was a ghost. Tricky as they could be, ghost Pokemon were still Pokemon when it came down to it, and Ingo found that they were far simpler to deal with than the humans of Hisui.

Case in point, the Noble ushering him toward the Clamberclaw Cliffs. He could see her basket from here, just outside of the territory the local colony of Gligar had claimed. In all likelihood, that meant she saw something she wanted, but couldn’t get for herself due to her role as peacekeeper-- so she was going to make him collect it in her stead. This time, at least, it was a matter of respecting boundaries. Back when he’d been learning the basics of cliffside navigation, she’d had a nasty habit of inventing reasons to convince him to scale the rocks.

Sneasler pointed insistently toward something at the base of one gnarled tree. Some manner of stone had caught her eye, today-- the mundane sort, from what he could tell. He nodded and slinked closer, keeping to the high end of the ledge for as long as he could.

Admittedly, the stakes here weren’t terribly high. It was one thing for a Pokemon to encroach on another Pokemon’s territory; it was something else for a human to trespass. He was one of the Wardens here, and the wild Pokemon tended to recognize that fact, so, while they still might take offense, the Gligar were likely to tolerate his presence, so long as he remained unobtrusive.

It didn’t hurt that Gliscor had a history with this bunch, and would be happy to start bossing them around if need be. Really, though, there was no reason for that-- not if he could just duck in, grab the stone and get out.

Patiently, Ingo waited until the Alpha Gligar’s back was turned and hoisted himself up, moving quickly, but quietly, toward the rock caught in the roots. Two of the smaller specimens watched, but seemed content to let him be if their Alpha hadn’t raised the alarm. Without pausing in his stride, he scooped the stone up and slid back down the incline, circling back around to where Sneasler was waiting for him.

When offered, she immediately grabbed the stone from him, turning it over in her paws and scrutinizing it under the warm hues of sunset. He hadn’t taken the time to look at it before, and now he understood why it had caught her fancy; it was the same sort of purple rock that was embedded into his bracer.

That would be kind-- to collect materials for when his inevitable successor crafted their own. The unearned generosity was incredibly out of character for Lady Sneasler, though, and defeated the purpose of foraging for suitable [materials] as a show of dedication. She was up to something.

As he considered her potential motivations, she began to rub the stone between her paws, sending dirt flying everywhere. Absently, Ingo sidestepped, his unknown lifetime’s worth of avoiding dust clouds coming in handy yet again. It was nice, at least, how familiar ground and poison types felt.

Eventually she was satisfied with her attempt at polishing it, and Ingo expected they would be off. He hefted her basket-- loaded, today, with crunchy salt packing the bottom and an assortment of berries above-- over one arm and waited for her to deposit her newest treasure into it. Instead, she stalked around behind him and deposited it into the pocket of his coat.

Though he knew it didn’t show in any conventional way, he smiled at her. “Your cargo is secure, my Lady.”

Sneasler’s nose scrunched and she shook her head. Carefully, she reached into the pocket with her claws-- so very mindful not to rip the fabric any more than it had already endured-- and maneuvered it back out, only lay it in Ingo’s free hand and fold his fingers over it.

“Oh. For me?” / “Lady Sneasler, I’m already your Warden. I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with this.”

She huffed fondly and patted his head through his hat, knocking it askew, but didn’t provide any further insight.

Correction. Most Hisuian Pokemon were easier to understand than their human counterparts, just not all of them.

----------

It’s 4 am, and the power has failed. During normal business hours, this would be a major setback, but as it’s obscenely early in the morning, Jackie’s urgency defaults to [idk] rather than ‘catastrophe incoming.’

Is she scheduled to be at the station this early? No. Has that ever stopped her before? Not in the slightest.

She likes it here before-slash-after hours. It’s peaceful. It’s peaceful when the trains are coming and going, too, in a different way-- during the day, it’s less about sound and more about consistency. Some people find white noise comforting; Jackie appreciates Gear Station’s ambiance in both its active and dormant forms.

Or, at least, she usually does. The aforementioned outage is putting something of a damper on that, and will start causing problems before long. Usually, the safety net that is the backup generator would have kicked in automatically, and she doesn’t know why it’s failed this morning, so she finds the flashlight on her belt and clicks it on in anticipation.

Operations for the day begin in under an hour, and if the systems haven’t had a chance to recalibrate before then, it’s going to throw everything off. If she can resolve this quickly, they can still have a perfectly normal day.

...well, mostly normal. She needn’t address the Avalugg in the otherwise empty room-- especially not when she’s lurking around the station by herself. It seems unlikely that whatever happened to Boss Ingo would strike again so long after the fact, but you never know. Jackie’s relatively sure that’s why Boss Emmet spent two solid months giving her [lurking] a run for its money.

Gear Station is peaceful these days, and that’s nice, but she misses what it used to be.

But there’s no use in dwelling on that right now; she has a job to do, even if she’s not technically on the clock.

The original power failure won’t have any roots here-- if she has to place a bet, her money is on something going screwy over at the Gym and tripping the grid-- so, instead, she heads to investigate the backup generator. When she makes it around the corner, she feels the darkness pressing down on her. The air is heavy and buzzing with ozone, and it makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Jackie is in the process of stepping away when she sees a flutter of movement down the pitch-dark hall and instinctively tries to track it with her flashlight’s beam. The flashlight, however, has suddenly gone dead.

She squints and creeps further, trying to make the shape out without giving away her position, and, eventually, her efforts pay off.

A Rowlet. A wild Rowlet. In Unova. That’s not possible on so many levels.

From where it tumbled to the floor, it spreads its wings and gives a couple of flaps, propelling itself into the air and down the corridor.

She gives chase, thinking maybe someone lost track of their Pokemon at the last minute yesterday-- surely they’ll be back for it when operating hours resume. As it glides, it weaves in and out through the solid wall, before abruptly vanishing. Jackie immediately hits the brakes, terrified and intrigued all at once-- is this it? Are they finally on the verge of figuring out what happened?-- and skids to a halt. She isn’t fast enough to stop before the point she saw Rowlet disappear, but that’s alright. She’s still very much in the station; the only difference is that the weight pressing down on her has vanished.

She looks around, her highbeam finally flickering on as she searches wildly. No Rowlet, but she expected as much.

With unusually tentative steps, she goes back the way she came, until the static tingles on her skin again. Still no Rowlet, but something red flashes through the wall, the same way the little bird had swooped back and forth. She picks up the pace and reaches for the door before she’s come to a full stop.

There’s an Octillery inside-- clearly the owner of the red tentacle that waved out of the wall-- and it’s not alone. Flanking it on either side is the most furious-looking Sylveon Jackie has ever seen and a Drapion that, frankly, should not fit in the dimensions of the room. Half of it isn’t even visible, and must be phasing through into the space next door.

None of them pay her any mind, intent on the Magnezone opposite them, and it’s plain to see that the Pokemon have been going back and forth for some time. Octillery fires an Ice Beam that ignores the generators to connect with Magnezone, and Sylveon shivers-- [furious], but stunned.

She can hear the ongoing battle, Jackie realizes, but it’s hard beneath a roaring in her ears that she hadn’t even noticed up until this moment. And because she can hear it, her attention [snaps] to Magnezone’s side of the room, where a familiar voice calls out strange directions. She’s distantly aware of Magnezone moving twice in one round, knocking Octillery out before starting on Drapion, but the rampaging Pokemon in the station’s inner-workings suddenly seem unimportant.

“Boss?” She breathes and, in spite of the din surrounding them, his eyes snap to her.

In several swift strides, he abandons his post-- which was far too close to Magnezone to be safe-- and places himself between Jackie and the battle, hands hovering at her shoulders as if to turn her around and usher her away, but stopping short.

There’s a quiet urgency behind his words that almost makes her question whether she has the right person, but there’s no mistaking him at this distance. This is Boss Ingo. She can’t understand him, though. She can infer that he’s trying to ensure her safety, but his words mean nothing.

“I don’t--” She says weakly, “What?”

Behind him, the Drapion pulls off the quickest Swords Dance Jackie has ever seen, and follows it up by lunging at Magnezone, Crunching down on its leftmost eye. It glances off the steel, no lasting harm done, but it’s a solid hit. Immediately-- belying the fact that he’s been watching even as he spoke with her-- Ingo calls a series of orders over his shoulder. Magnezone fires off Flash Cannon, then its stance changes and a muted clap of Thunder rings out.

Drapion twitches, paralyzed, and tries to bite again, but fails; as Magnezone regains its bearings, a mass of purple energy gathers in its mouth as it lashes out with Shadow Ball.

Without further instruction, Magnezone finishes it off, and it falls to the floor in a massive heap.

“You understand… er, this language?” Ingo asks, haltingly, now that the biggest threat has been dealt with. When Jackie nods, the [idk] confusion leaves his expression, replaced by a stern tilt of the mouth, “You need to be mindful of the distortions; an otherwise safe station may be rendered impassable under their effects. The situation here is well in hand, but I must ask you to evacuate at once.”

“Ev--? Uh, sure, but only if you come with me!” Impulsively, she grabs the wrist lingering by her shoulder; Ingo jumps, “It only reaches the turn leading to the control room, and the Pokemon can’t get out, right? That’ll complicate operations today, but this is more important.”

Without waiting for a response, she starts to run forward, out the door, but stumbles as the Sylveon rams into her from the side. Right, she’d forgotten these Pokemon can ignore walls for some reason. She’s fine; it wasn’t a real attack, as much as it smarts. As she rights herself, Ingo calls to the Magnezone again, and it promptly fires off another Flash Cannon; the Sylveon tries to fight through the super effective move, swaying on its feet, but faints right there, one half stretching into the hallway while the other lays on the other side of the wall.

Jackie ignores her boss’s concern and drags the both of them onward, making a sharp right turn toward control. Before they can get more than a few steps in, he throws an arm back, pokeball in hand, and it recalls what’s presumably his Magnezone. What catches her attention in this is the fact that he reaches through the wall to do so and never connects with it, just as unbothered as the odd Pokemon.

She’s worked at Gear Station for years. She knows how its laid out. Still, just in case, she reaches over to touch the wall as she runs, and her fingernails scrape against the brickwork.

The howling in her ears grows louder, the pressure on her greater, and then the strange feelings lift entirely. One hand still solidly rests against the wall, the other is now empty.

Behind her, the generator roars to life.

---

There had been a lot of people in the Highlands lately. People who shouldn’t have been there. People who couldn’t have gotten so far without being noticed or attacked. It was worrisome, and, for a time, Ingo wondered if there was just some passage he was unaware of that permitted relatively safe travel into the territory.

He wasn’t so sure anymore. The others, odd though they were, had spoken Hisuian-- an odd form of it, but there were days where, despite his best efforts, his own words came out in an informal jumble, so he really couldn’t judge. This person… didn’t. There hadn’t been a flicker of comprehension on her face as he’d tried to warn her away. She hadn’t understood until he switched to the language he’d slowly been pivoting away from. It was a familiar problem, to be stranded in a land without a clue what the surrounding people were saying, and he’d been happy to ease that burden, but then, like the others, she’d disappeared.

He had guesses as to what might have happened-- he’d been trying to figure it out since the first wanderer vanished into the fading sunlight-- but nothing concrete enough to say for certain. It had seemed irresponsible to assign blame so haphazardly when he was simply a man living in the mountains, ignorant of what the greater world may have discovered. Today’s visitor, however… it was almost as if the woman was one of the Pokemon summoned by the distortion-- solid as it persisted, but whisked away once the rip in reality mended.

Could the distortions do that? Had he…? No, no. If a space-time distortion had brought him to Hisui, he would only have lingered for a few minutes.

But what if he’d left its confines? Pokemon torn from their time and place could pursue unfortunate trespassers beyond the edge of a distortion. Were they recalled before it ended? If they missed their stop, would they be left where they stood, [abandoned] by the whims of [???]?

He’d captured a Magnemite in a distortion. It had stayed by his side ever since, long after the hole in reality righted itself. Had he, unknowingly, inflicted his own pain onto it? Ingo turned Magnezone’s pokeball over in his hands, rolling it between his palms. The smoothness of tumblestone and woody apricorn grain were a nice distraction from the lingering phantasm of fingers around his wrist, and he only halted the motion to toy with its little metal clasp.

He could try to release Magnezone by way of apology, but the damage had already been done; even if he found another distortion heaving Magnemite to and fro through existence, there was no guarantee that it would take Magnezone with it as it vanished, or that it led to Magnezone’s place of origin to begin with.

No, the best he could do for Magnezone now was to look after it, to be a companion to it. Releasing it now wouldn’t be an apology, it would be abandonment.

How cruel the thought, to tear something away from its home station and leave it by the tracks.

#ihaveatheoryonthat pkmn #submas #writing scraps

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