IC Inbox

[feathersfly]

"Hey, you've reached Hawks! Guess I'm busy right now. Drop me a message and I'll get back to you."

Comments

After Hawks posts his first thing to the network

[fingersandteeth]

We're not really a normal support group and we didn't lose *limbs*, but my partner and I can relate to having our bodies altered by this world.

You should come do lunch or have supper with us before you leave Goldenrod—or if you have already, next time you're in town. Let me get you the address of our business.

[A moment later, the Fight Club address will appear in a new message.]

Let me know when is good for you and I'll talk to Thace. I've got things I'd like to talk about with you on our home turf.

[feathersfly]

yeah, i remember you mentioning you're not normally human. i had too many questions about my own circumstances at the time to really get into that, but don't mistake that for missing it. or disinterest. i just need to find my own feet first before i can afford to get too deep into other people's situations, yknow?

i haven't left goldenrod yet. i'm taking things kinda slow for now. i'm known for generally moving way too fast, but i don't think even i can rush adjusting to a new world and the loss of my wings. besides, my wings are a good chunk of my speed and capabilities gone anyway. add to that i don't have any real concrete goals to work towards rn. seems like hero work mostly isn't needed in this world, and most of the instances when it is...well, you get why that'll present difficulties for me.

just how secure are these messages, btw? [Read: can we openly talk about being Rockets here?]

[fingersandteeth]

How secure do you keep your Pokegear? I don't think our private messages are remotely monitored, especially since our administrators don't seem to know about the otherworlders only channels, but if you don't have a screen lock set up, you should make sure you don't let it out of your sight.

And that's perfectly fair, Hawks. You were in a stressful situation and you set aside the less immediate things for later. I didn't yet have an easily available way to take down the human illusion for you when we talked anyway—that came later that day.

(Technically I'm a former human who was turned into something else twelve years ago and then made human again in this world, but my partner, Thace, was always a space alien until he came here.)

[feathersfly]

i've got no reason to leave it lying around. it stays with me full time and it's got a lock screen.

so what lies behind the human illusion, can i ask? i feel like if you weren't willing to tell me, you could've just avoided mentioning you weren't human in the first place.

[fingersandteeth]

Longer fingers, for one. I've got an extra joint's worth normally. Fangs of a sort—all my teeth are much sharper than this usually. Pointed ears. The eyes are particularly inhuman: they're slit-pupilled and reflective like a cat's, but the sclera is dark.

Luckily for me, Thace finds it all very handsome.

[Not that it technically matters when they're human most of the time.]

[feathersfly]

oh, the finger thing definitely gives some cryptid vibes. are slightly longer fingers actually useful to have in any way? i'm having a hard time thinking of situations where they wouldn't be more hindrance than help, considering the modern world's designed around differently structured hands. and then losing the extra joints must've required some adjusting.

that said, losing parts of your body you're accustomed to having sounds more similar to what i'm going through than you billed it. a difference you're constantly feeling, where you need time to adjust to how it's changed your body and how it feels being in it.

guess i missed my chance to see the real you in person for the next while. not that vampire longfingers would've been a comforting introduction to this place, granted, so maybe it's better that one's gonna wait.

[fingersandteeth]

They can drain people's... energy, I suppose you might call it, which I can then use to heal myself, but yeah, they're less useful for mundane things. And without the ones I was used to, I dropped things *all the time* during my training week. It took me a few weeks to stop being so clumsy and I still try to avoid pickpocketing when I can, because of how badly I did at training at it.

Anyway, when the fall/winter weird weekend comes around, I'll be happy to show you my true self then. There's a couple of ways to do it and one should be feasible.

[feathersfly]

i was gonna say, i bet that was fun to get used to. but you said you used to be human, right? so you probably had to adjust to them being longer, too, at some point. fun times all around, huh?

ngl, i was thinking of how convenient my feathers would be for pickpocketing if i still had them, and that would've been as low impact a crime as i'd feel comfortable casually doing to maintain appearances. and then my wings get stolen so i can't even pull any slick moves. i'm a lot more deft with my feathers than anything else.

anyway, it's up to you. i've got no objections to seeing it, but you don't have to if you'd rather not. or if it's a pain to do.

[fingersandteeth]

Well, one of the ways definitely is a pain for me, but luckily it's the last-ditch method. The easiest way for *me* is if *you* voluntarily slept on top of a grave overnight, because there's a few kinds of people who *can* see through the illusion automatically and people who've done that are one of them. But I'm not going to actually ask you to do that, unless you really want to. Otherwise, there's a pledge we can make over a rose where you'll owe me a favor or if I'm lucky, the weird weekend will make a path to the Hedge again next time and I can grab some hedgefruit to feed you. Probably murmurleaf or ertwen considering the season.

(Honestly, I probably should just show you the painting Shinobu did of my real face when you come over for supper.)

But yeah, it was an adjustment on both ends, although much more so to losing them, since the changes to my body weren't exactly instantaneous when I got them.

As far as maintaining appearances goes... honestly, it's not like they're monitoring us 24/7 and the people who process our quota don't usually bother to follow-up on how we got them, mostly because everyone in that division seems pretty burnt out. There's a fair number of us that catch our quota pokemon out in the wild and then just lie through our teeth about originally stealing them. That's what I do these days.

Most of the actual crime I do for our employers is, well, the big, showy jobs that one does for a special reward. Robbing a bank, say, or stealing the mascot of the local baseball team. Though I wouldn't recommend trying the second. The admins were very pleased in the immediate aftermath, but the city went *insane* trying to find poor Fuzzles and myself and the other two new recruits who'd pulled it off went from the heroes of the hour to those idiots that threw the city into a panic. We ended up having to stage a fake mascot recovery with the help of one of our younger colleagues as the 'rescuing hero' just to get things to calm down.

(I did get my first promotion out of organizing said mascot theft and they didn't take it back, so that was nice. I just had to mug a lot of people to get back into their good graces.)

[feathersfly]

listen, we're friends and all? but i'm not sure we're at the 'incurring a magical debt' stage of our relationship yet. also, sleeping on a grave sounds like it's got more utility in the long run, since it'd upgrade my eyes to see through illusions like yours. correct me if i'm misunderstanding something there. not a bad payoff for a night's camping. i've never been camping.

also, i can infer a whole lot of body horror into the idea of 'not exactly instantaneously' growing extra finger joints. should we both just acknowledge that's there and never talk about it again? unless you want to, i guess. but it doesn't sound like a feel-good sort of story.

i don't suppose there's any alternatives to meeting your animal capture quota. only i'm not sure about the ethics of capturing a bunch of intelligent creatures and then handing them into servitude to a criminal organization. especially when they're going to be weapons. never mind the ethics of cute, smart animals being treated like weapons, but i'm actively arming criminals at that point. i'd almost rather just steal money for them. at least the money won't have any opinions about it.

i get the feeling you don't know much about sports, if you thought you could swipe a team's mascot and people weren't going to go wild.

[fingersandteeth]

I've never been much for organized team sports, no. I'm not against the *concept* of athletic activity--I used to enjoy watching wrestling, I still swim, lift weights and occasionally surf--but it's always been more of a solo pursuit.

And yes, regarding my fingers, that's probably for the best.

Honestly, as someone who just recently spent three weeks roughing it up Victory Road, camping is much nicer when you've got a camper van or a cabin to stay at or, at minimum, a seven-foot-tall boyfriend who doesn't mind you sleeping directly on top of him instead of the cold, hard ground. Or at least that's my distinctly middle-aged perspective--admittedly, were I younger, I'd probably mind it less. But yes, it would let you see through the illusory mask of anyone like me. Which currently is only two people including myself, but who knows how many of us will be around in roughly six months?

There actually *are* alternatives to the animal capture quota--although they involve taking certain full time jobs at the base, either here or in Celadon. The best ones are reserved for Beta-rankers and up, unfortunately--I was actually shooting for the Radio Host position at one point, but then Fight Club fell in my lap before there was a new opening at the Tower--but there's still a few anyone can take. Data Entry, Tech Maintenance, Data Collection, and Lab Animal Upkeep are the ones you'll want to volunteer for--let them know they can call me as a reference and I'll put in a good word for you.

[feathersfly]

hey, limited utility is still utility. and afaik, there's no actual downsides besides what, maybe being a little stiff the next morning? small price to pay. and i'm far from middle age still.

the alternatives don't sound too bad, beyond being stuck in one place and doing what sounds like boring work. but i'd rather do that than farm cute animals to be criminal weapons. don't suppose any of those jobs allow the freedom to travel...

[fingersandteeth]

Unfortunately, all the ones that let you get out of quota as entry level or intermediate positions are at the base here or the one in Celadon... ah hell, didn't I actually give you a whole speech about the jobs board when we first met? Damn weird weekend making everything fuzzy.

[He's paying for his relatively intact memories of all that xeno-sex with less great memories of some of the rest of it.]

[feathersfly]

think i do remember a little of that, now that you mention it. not a lot of specifics, though. is that normal? you're making it sound like it is.

so what's this job board? it wouldn't offer me any flexibility while also ducking the pokémon quota, would it?

[fingersandteeth]

There's a virtual one on the company network, the actual 'board' (i.e. bulletin board) by the mailroom, and a paper hand-out you can take home with you that they put by the actual board. And a PDF of the handout that you can download from the network. Give me a sec, I'll remote log in and grab that PDF for you.

[And he'll just do that, so Hawks can see the Rocket mission listing.]

It's definitely possible to propose other missions than the one that's listed there to the admins. Like I know Carly asked for permission to build a new base on Two Island on Sevii and I'm fairly sure as de facto administrator of the new base she doesn't have to do quota. But she's also another Beta-ranker.

Still, you can try.

[feathersfly]

hm. what's data collection? is that a field work job? i don't know how much data a guy can collect sitting on their ass in one place...that might be something i could do, if i'm able to travel. being cooped up is for chickens.

well, i guess if that job's not one for travel, i could always suggest one that is. an organization like this has to have a use for a smart guy with sharp eyes who knows how to send coded messages, moving around from place to place.

and since it'd just be ass-in-the-grass field work, i can't see anyone demanding i have a high rank for that. that's practically what grunts are for, right?

[fingersandteeth]

Hm. I'm not actually sure if it necessarily is a field job. I had a friend who did that for a while, Tyler, and he didn't actually need to leave Goldenrod for it. It might be collecting the data from other people's reports? I should have actually *asked* him what his duties were.

And yeah, you should definitely talk to the admins about a customized mission. If you show them you're willing to do your part, you can usually get them to work with you on things. (As long as you don't give them a lot of attitude anyway, not that I'll be naming names there.) Possibly they might want to prove your commitment to the team first, but I've got an idea for a money/property-only job in Kanto that we could pull together in that case.

[feathersfly]

is it normal to have friends in the group where you don't even know what their jobs actually are about?

but yeah, honestly, if it doesn't involve direct harm to people or pokémon, i'll do what i have to so they're happy. causing material and monetary damage isn't ideal, but that stuff's a lot easier to fix or replace than something alive. and if i can spin this to make my contributions here even out to some kind of net gain, then the collateral damage will ultimately have been worth it.

so, until i can swing this custom assignment...is that job we're doing going to make me temporarily exempt from my quota as a result to my involvement, and if so, for how long? if not, how do i wiggle around it until i've got an arrangement set up? will they waive the quota if i steal enough money or goods that week instead?