faketime | 3 ♙ video

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3 ♙ video

[It's a fine week for egg hatchery, isn't it? This video is also about that. Rather, it's a video of an egg hatching.

It begins with an egg shaking on a table of a nondescript room. Seconds later, it begins to crack and glow continuously until...]

Hm?

[Whoever is holding the 'Gear right now sounds confused. Why? Because a Magnemite just hatched from that egg and it's already floating several inches off of the table. Immediately the 'Gear holder places it down in front of the Pokemon and leaves it like that. The video of the new Pokemon rolls nearly silent, save for the faint sound of pencil on paper in the background, until the 'Gear is picked up again.

The person behind the 'Gear remains out of sight with the camera trained on the Magnemite, but begins speaking. His voice is calm and soft.]

This was supposed to be a personal video for future reverence, but I believe what just happened warrants sharing. [A hint of disbelief comes into his tone.] I was willing to overlook the strange occurrence of mammals hatching from eggs, but this is on another level. This Pokemon is clearly some sort of machine. I cannot begin to list all of the questions it raises, but the most important ones are:

One: how are machines able to produce offspring and,

Two: why are they doing so by laying eggs of all methods?

And for my own reference, are there other mechanical Pokemon like this?

[And don't get him started on wondering how it's floating on its own.

There's a slight pause, and then an exasperated sigh. He can't believe he actually had to ask those questions.]

I attempt to explain one ridiculous oddity of this world and another even more ridiculous oddity appears. This world truly is full of puzzles with no solutions.

[With that, the feed ends.]

[private video to the Rocket Frequency]

[Some time after he finished his post and wrote some more notes on the mysterious Magnemite, Dimitri decides to properly introduce himself to his other coworkers. The only ones he has really interacted with so far are the others in the Goldenrod labs. He figures there are many more out there.

So! This time he actually shows his face on camera since introducing yourself doesn't really work well otherwise. He's looking as tired and solemn as ever.]

Greetings. I am Dimitri Allen, a scientist working in the laboratories at the base in Goldenrod City. Since I have yet to meet many of you, I wanted to make a proper introduction. My specialty is in the study of space-time, but I am also proficient in working with machines and to an extent, bioengineering.

Why am I telling you this? I am currently open to small projects. If you would like something built or need work done on one of your creatures, I may be able to help. Please respond if you have any questions. Thank you.

[Short and to the point, but that's how he wanted it. He has to start somewhere if he wants to work up the ladder.]

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[...oh, well now. This is actually something reasonably up his alley - though Descole still sort of hates the fact that anything in this world could be considered "up his alley" despite having been here for a year.

Welcome to Johto, bro, it's not going to get any better.

Today he will give you video, though that isn't saying much; as usual for him, the camera is situated on the desk in front of him, focusing in on a dimly lit room, the place glowing lightly with an odd...purple aura; it's situated at something of an angle, definitely giving the indication that there's a person sitting in front of it, but said person's body is obscured by the folds of a long black cape and his face is well out of view of the camera. His hands are folded lightly on the desk in front of him, however, and his voice is...well, it's cordial enough, anyway.]

The amount of puzzles in this world does seem to vastly outweigh the solutions, but in some cases, I think we just don't have the means to solve them yet; I've been working on remedying that since my arrival. Though I can answer a few of your questions, they really only make sense in the scope of the world itself.

However, to take the easy one first - there are a few other mechanical Pokémon, I've raised several myself. The one you have there should serve you well, by the way; they've interesting evolutions.

[Dimitri wonders why this guy doesn't just use audio if he's just going to give hipster camera angles but he can't really talk after the post he just made.]

That is how I've understood it myself. The lack of clues is aggravating. How much have you uncovered in your time here?

[He's not expecting anything groundbreaking since y'know...this man is still here, but hey.

He gazes off-screen to the Magnemite, who is now floating freely around the room.]

I'm not sure what to expect, but I look forward to seeing what it'll become. Are these other mechanical Pokemon similar to Magnemite? I assume their typing is similar, at least.

[Because if it's not stupidly pretentious it's not worth doing, that's why.

However, it seems that great minds think alike ~~and apparently so do these two~~ - he just laughs softly at that first question, the sound neither joyful nor truly mocking. A bit hollow, really.]

Enough to know that we're nowhere close to working out how anything works. But I suppose that's the first step, really - knowing exactly how little you actually know about something. At any rate, you'll find that most become jaded to this place after a while - most in this organization seem more interested in exploiting this world than understanding it, from what I've seen.

I can tell you that the Steel-type is most likely what you're going to want to seek out, if you want more of those; the one I'm most familiar with is...ah, give me a moment.

[He shifts aside, turning on a light somewhere just off-screen, illuminating the room a bit more - it's one of the general nondescript rooms issued to Team Rocket employees, though there isn't much time before the screen suddenly contains...well, what appears to be a series of gears hovering in view of the camera.]

This would be one that I awakened with, in a similar manner to the eggs we received on Christmas morning; I received this one almost a year ago. Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure how they get in the eggs to begin with, or why the eggs are even necessary, as their breeding process is unusual; you'll find they aren't gendered creatures, as most of the others are.

Hah, how comforting to know.

[And expected, of course.]

I can understand why they would become jaded. [He frowns.] In fact, my own feelings for this world have been negative ever since I arrived.

But I digress. [He examines the mechanical Pokemon on the feed. So we have sentient gears now? Fascinating.] You could almost mistake that one as part of an actual machine. And yes, I don't see how a machine could have a gender. I suppose that only makes their reproduction all the more mysterious within the logic of this world.

[Because machines reproducing in the first place doesn't make sense.]

So you got one, too. Here's hoping it's useful.

[Hi there, Dimitri; she will just be hailing you with all her usual charm and social grace here.]

I don't have any projects for you at the moment. Unfortunately. But I'll keep the invitation in mind.

Oh, and speaking of invitations. I got that card of yours. It was...

[............uh]

...nice.

[Well, it was. As little as she wants to discuss the Sheep Incident of Christmas 2012, she can at least appreciate the gesture.]

[He's pretty much used to it by now, honestly.]

Hello, Caroline. I would like to hope that a mechanical Pokemon will be useful. If not, perhaps it can be upgraded or modified.

[Okay that was a long pause and it makes him wonder if she really liked it. Regardless, his tone remains positive.]

I'm glad you liked it. The Mareep you gave me is doing well, by the way. I decided to name her Mary.

[Creative, right?]

Mary...

[...that is almost deserving of a slow clap, Dimitri, A+ naming there.]

It's good that you like her, though; this place gave me one at the start. She hasn't accomplished much out of "being kind of cute sometimes," but it's hopefully something that can be worked on.

...although when it comes to working on things, I have to wonder what you're planning on doing with your sentient machine. Do you think they can be manually upgraded?

[That is actually a...suprisingly genuine question, not anything snide.]

[Mary's practically there in the species name, so why not!]

I am sure they will all be of use in one way or another eventually. Unfortunately, I haven't been training my own as often as I should... [Much to Crow's dismay.]

I have no definite plans at the moment, but I don't see why it couldn't be. Certainly there must be other ways to enhance them other than simply training them until they evolve.

[Apollo can work with a camera focused on a Pokémon, but for the moment he'll focus it on himself, so have a 13-year-old lit mostly by firelight with what looks like a cave wall behind him.]

That kind of Pokémon evolves into a Pokémon that looks like three of those stuck together. Jasmine at the Olivine City Gym has one with her. It's weak against "Fire", "Ground", and "Fighting" moves, but none of the other types of moves that the Pokémon with me tried did much.

Everything here seems to lay eggs. Even if they seem to be made of metal, they're still alive, so of course they would be able to reproduce.

[Apollo has the "observation" part of science down, but has little interest in the "figure out why things are the way that they are" part.]

Golurk looks kind of like it could be a machine. When it hatched it was bigger than the egg that it came out of, which was really strange to see.

[For responding to comments, Dimitri properly shows himself. Apollo will be greeted by a guy who looks like he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in years.

He's writing down notes as he responds.]

Thank you for the information; I truly appreciate it. I will do some research on Magnemite's evolution soon, but for the meantime, can you tell me more about this Golurk?

And as for your comment on the laying of eggs, while it is true that these machines appear to be living, it seems strange that they would be equipped with a means of producing offspring. Unless they are able to construct one, but even then, why put it in an egg...

[He's honestly getting to the point of giving up on trying to answer some of these oddities.]

I can show it to you. [The camera moves as he gets up and he keeps talking as he walks.]

I've never seen living machines before, so I don't know how else they would reproduce. I know that Golurk and Magnemite aren't male or female though. I'm not sure how you talk about a genderless Pokémon. I call Golurk "it" and it doesn't mind, but other people call them "he" and say that calling them "it" isn't nice to do.

[The background has been changing from the inside of a cave to a short tunnel, then to a cave entrance, then whipping around to show a forest clearing instead of Apollo. It wobbles a bit as he pulls out a Pokéball off-screen, then a ball flies through the air and pops open to reveal a Golurk. A Golurk who's at least 12 to 13 feet tall instead of the usual 9. It fidgets slightly and gives a soft "Lurrr". It's body language is unmistakably that of a shy person who's just become the center of attention and is trying to be uninteresting. Apollo's voice comes from off-screen.]

This is Golurk. When it hatched it was a Golett who was a little shorter than I am but came from an egg the same size as the one that Magnemite came from. It's a Ground- and Ghost-type Pokémon, so Normal-, Fighting-, and Electric-type moves don't do any damage at all to it. It likes punching things, and it has five different punching moves. It's really strong, but it can't move very fast. We've been training so that it can move faster. It can learn Fly, too, even though it doesn't have any wings.

[There's a brief delay, then Golurk's hands and legs retract into its body and its thrusters come on, kicking up a cloud of snow that blocks out the image for a few seconds. It hovers in the air for a bit, then turns off its thrusters, extends its hands and legs again, and drops a few feet to the ground with a loud thud, shaking the camera slightly.]

Ssspace-time? How interesting.

[And bioengineering too? How diverse.]

When you sssay small projects, how small do you mean?

[Cobra's not interested in having something made at the moment, but he does like to know what people are capable of.]

[Experimenting on animals on the side is the best, man.]

You are not the first to say that. I admit that it is a magnificent field.

By "small", I mean creation of simple devices, brainstorming and researching, or assistance with an existing project.

And when you sssay simple devices, what would those be? I realize that thisss may seem like a strange question, but given the rather...different backgrounds of the science department, one member's idea of sssimple might not match another's.

...Does that thing have magnets attached to it?

[Even for how long he's been here, he actually has never seen this.]

It does. They appear to operate like arms.

If I could hazard a guess, I would say that is why it is called Magnemite.

[That last bit was said a little sarcastically, but hey. Not everyone might know its name.]

Well, I guess they're kinda in trouble if they get into a metal factory, huh?

[Oh, sorry, are you looking for some snark? Here's some snark.]

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