FIRST CURSE: video/action

[cawsforalarm]

public gear video - location unclear

Oh, hey! It did a thing!

[Two faces pop up on the screen, against a beautiful blue sky; the framing makes it clear that the Gear is on the ground, and neither of the two figures are making any attempt to frame their shot whatsoever. One is a young man who is smiling at his incredible achievement of turning on a Pokegear; the other is a rather exasperated-looking Vulpix. The latter reaches a paw out, puts it on the screen, and begins chittering to the human… who actually seems to understand.]

When the red light is on, it’s recording… okay, got it.

[The Vulpix squeaks again.]

“Say something”? Alright… [The young man rearranges his position in front of the Gear a little bit. One can see that he appears to be wearing purple-and-tan robes with really creepy eye designs on the collar.] Well, people in there, my name’s Henry and I’m from the country of Plegia! My interests include dark magic, nature walks, explosions, murders, explosions with murders— what?

[Henry looks down. The Vulpix can be heard screeching angrily, probably telling him to stop before he gets himself turned in to the police on day one. There is a short scuffle for control of the PokéGear; flashes of amber fur and claws can be seen, the audio becomes nothing but extremely staticky wooshes, and eventually the feed cuts out.]

action - goldenrod rocket hq

[Good morning, Goldenrod Rocket Base. How’s your day been so far? Woke up, stretched a bit, eaten breakfast? Picked up the cup of dirty water that passes for coffee in this joint? That’s good. Everything you’ve just done is normal, and in here, normalcy is a valuable commodity.]

[A commodity that won’t last for much longer, because Henry the dark mage has just woken up in the building.]

[This morning, yet another Grunt seems to have joined the ranks. It’s a young man who can’t be much older than twenty, with snow-white hair and a standard issue uniform. ...Well, “standard issue” except for the part where he has some kind of cape thrown over it. (Uniform regulations? What uniform regulations?) By his side, a Vulpix is walking and grumbling bitterly, and if one looks closely they might see a Murkrow making herself comfortable in the Grunt’s collar.]

[He’s also going around touching things. The walls, the furniture, his Pokemon, your face…]

Ooh, your skin feels nice! It’s super soft!

[Look, just bear with him. He hasn’t had a working sense of touch for quite a few years.]

Comments

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Your body's energy... gee whiz, that sounds pretty handy! We mages have to draw our magic from outside sources. ...Kind of. It's complicated.

video;

[venturesomely]

Really? We have to train our bodies a lot to learn nen. Only really skilled fighters have been able to master it.

What kind of magic do you do?

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Well, most mages learn elemental magic, which is where you study lots and then you're able to manipulate fire, or lightning, or wind, or whatever. I mean, some people will never be able to cast a spell ever, but most people with any magical competence can manage elemental with the right training.

But me, I'm a dark mage! Dark magic is kind of different because you really have to be born with an aptitude for it, and it doesn't rely on earthly stuff like elements. It's more like... if elemental controls the stuff you can see, dark controls the stuff you can't! Like illusions, mind control, dreams, insta-death, stuff like that. But it also takes way more effort to set up and cast.

video;

[venturesomely]

I don't really get it, but... does that mean you can use things like air, and water to use magic? [ Huh... ] Sounds cool!

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Yeah, basically. The elements are already there, our magic just lets us manipulate them, mm-hm.

video;

[venturesomely]

That's even more amazing than I thought! Your powers sound really limitless.

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Ah, I wouldn't say that~! It's really easy to mess up! Plus you have to study for years and years to even approach being good at it.

video;

[freecssgonwild]

If you say that, it might have more in common with nen than I thought. ... Killua and I mastered it pretty quickly, but it takes some people a really long time. It's was difficult, but fun.

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Yeah! That's how I feel about magic too.

So did you learn from a tutor, or a school, or...?

video;

[freecssgonwild]

It was Mister Wing, our tutor. It was the last part of a big exam we took!

How about you?

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Ah, I had a billion teachers! Don't remember any of their names. It was super hard, but in the end I turned out all right!

[...No you didn't, Henry.]

And right after that I was enlisted into the Plegian army, so I basically got to use magic every day.

video;

[freecssgonwild]

That sounds complicating, and really hard. You sound like you're really amazing to keep all of that up...

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Pbbt, no I'm not! Everyone does it if they want to graduate, I'm not that big of a deal.

video;

[freecssgonwild]

No, I think it's amazing. ... Training with nen is fun, but it's nice to get a break, too, so I think that you must be really great if you can keep doing that sort of thing for so long.

video;

[cawsforalarm]

Heh heh.

[He's not saying it outright, but he's thankful for the praise, Gon. Really.]

video;

[freecssgonwild]

Hey, are you going to try to get the badges?

video;

[cawsforalarm]

...The whazza-huh?

[freecssgonwild]

You haven't heard about the gym battles yet?

[cawsforalarm]

I heard Cynthia talking about gyms before, but I didn't really know what she was talking about!

[freecssgonwild]

They're trainers who you take on in most cities. When you defeat them, you get a badge. Once you get all eight, you can face off with the Elite Four, and become the next champion if you win!

[cawsforalarm]

Oh, so it's like a tournament-type thing! That sounds fun.

[freecssgonwild]

Right? I'm setting off soon to start collecting my own!

[cawsforalarm]

Cool, cool! I gotta wait a little longer, but maybe if she'll have me I can go along with Cynthia when she does...

...ah, Cynthia's my daughter, by the way!

[He looks no older than twenty.]

1/2.

[freecssgonwild]

[ ... Huh. Oh-- ]

[freecssgonwild]

I'd like to meet her, too, then. [ One of his teachers was about 50 or so and she looked her age. This kind of things doesn't surprise him... ]