2nd gear | video + action to goldenrod city

[paishodown]

[It's around midday, and Asami's 'Gear is propped up to record her sitting at a small table in the park. Her Riolu sits quietly beside her. The worn table is inlaid with a chess board, and the seat across from her is empty for now.]

Where I'm from, we have a game called Pai Sho.

[She speaks while she reaches into her bag to pull out a newly purchased chess set- mainly, the directions.]

It's a game of careful thinking and ruthless strategy. There doesn't seem to be a real equivalent here, but someone did point me toward this. Chess.

[Asami begins taking out the pieces and laying them out on the board.]

Anyone know anything about it?

[She'll be here for a while, reading over the rules and trying to teach Teruko how to play with her.]

Comments

[paishodown]

[PIP PIP.]

...Nobody even knows?

[She looks more than a bit disappointed at that.]

That was one of the things I wanted to look into!

[enjoymyatelier]

Believe me, that's likely one of the least frustrating revelations I've encountered here.

[HEAVY SIGH.]

Kurt in Azalea is a master craftsman and constructs them in a more traditional way than the mass produced ones, and he's the one I asked about them in the first place... but that was roughly the response I got from him. Perhaps you'd have better luck?

[paishodown]

What kind of master craftsman doesn't even know how his craft works?

This all smells shady, to me.

[Asami plz this is Pokémon World don't go trying to sniff out corrupt businessmen.]

[enjoymyatelier]

...it smells something, but while he doesn't know how they work, but they do work.

It's more... well, the old adage about never attributing to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity applies here even more than usual.

[paishodown]

I guess you have a point, there...

[No offense to Bolin, but after spending so much time with him recently, she's starting to realize that some people just don't... think about things.]

Especially given the kinds of people who live around here. Maybe it's just the 'small town' feeling, but it's definitely... simpler, in a way.

[enjoymyatelier]

No, it's... definitely simpler. Honestly, other than the Gym Leaders and the odd Nurse Joy, you're going to get better conversation out of your Pokemon than most of the people here.

Unless, of course, you're absolutely riveted by the saga of Joey's Rattata and how it is, indeed, in the top percentage of all Rattata.

[paishodown]

[Asami lets out a bit of a restrained laugh at that.]

I think I'd go crazy if I were the only one here.

[enjoymyatelier]

Wouldn't we all? It's not as bad when you have people to commiserate with, but it's still utterly baffling in every way.

[paishodown]

I've wondered how they even manage to keep their industry afloat, to be honest. It doesn't even seem like there's enough people to run everything or build the cities they do.

[enjoymyatelier]

Well, you could assume that it just does work... or you just assume there's a shadowy Illuminati-type organization making sure everything functions and, most importantly, tells us where the meat's actually coming from.