silph_co | if we can call them friends then we can call them on their telephones

if we can call them friends then we can call them on their telephones

Who: Steven Durante + the other Rockets
Where: Various places in Goldenrod City + over poke-Skype
When: Late March/Early April
Summary: Steven has a few emotional conversations with his co-workers
Rating: PG-13, with the inevitable likeliness of some threads going up to R in terms of language and conversational subjects. ~~Anything too wicked goes to an inbox.~~

[This is a catchall post for various inter-Rocket threads with Steven taking place at the end of March/first half of April, with the starters for those threads in their own comments inside.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Wait wait wait wait-"

Oiiiiii oOIIIIIII!

"Back up to the part where we're apparently stealing from Armin? Steven you need to remember I've been back in Goldenrod maybe three times, for a day or two at most, and a lot of it really hasn't been in the lab..."

"Oh," Steven says, removing the hand and putting his glasses back on. "Right. Right, of course. But you do know about Dirk's giant Lapras robot he's been building, right? The one that Jack's helping him with? I don't know all the details yet, but Tyler and I sometimes pop in to feed and otherwise bother him and-- well. They're building it so they can steal a shitton of Lapras. From someone who sure as fuck sounded like Armin from the description and then when Dirk and I were bouncing ideas for possibly weaponizing the head a couple weeks ago, I mentioned Armin as someone we'd have to get past and he didn't contradict me."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "And I gave Dirk good advice then too. Because I had no fucking clue I'd actually start to care this much about Armin. But-- fuck, Carly. He's just-- god, he reminds me of Charley, that's what he does. Brilliant, curious, that love of games and speculative fiction, caring... and god, so good. He honestly cares about people in the abstract--that's fucking hard, Carly. People say they do, but a lot of the time they really don't and they just want to believe they do. But he really does."

"The robot, definitely. I sort of assumed we were going to be stealing from an aquarium, or similar...At the very least I figured he'd ask me to get involved..." Ahem.

Anyway. "Okay walk me through, word for word, how Dirk described Armin and also didn't apparently deny you would have to get past Armin... Just so we can make sure it. IS him, first..."

...

"And take a deep breath while you're at it! Do you have a tea? You should get a tea, calm down! We aren't fixing anything if we're stressed!" Like she will be, in t-minus two minutes.

"I mean, I think the idea is that anyone he can pull in is coming," Steven says. "Like with the fossils. And-- I mean, he mentioned an Aurora League guy is monitoring the pod of Lapras we're going after and the general direction we're heading to is in the same direction as where Armin actually lives. And Armin made it to the Aurora League. And I know he's got a project he's working on involving Lapras. I figured if I ever got lucky enough to catch one, I'd send it to him, like I did with Success Whale and his Wailord pod."

He takes a deep breath. "And. Okay. My exact wording when we were talking about what would complement Dirk's Greninja in the giant robot's head was, more or less, something like, 'Another way would be to target what you're likely to have to fight with its elemental weaknesses. Armin's primarily a water trainer, right? Do you have anything grass?' And he didn't blink. Didn't contradict me. Just went on to explain why his grass pokemon wouldn't work."

Edited 2020-04-08 23:28 (UTC)

"Aurora League huh..." She sighs. "Well, that's definitely him..."

Oooof. Okay. "Alright. Well, with how far along this is we definitely can't just cancel. At the very least, he'd do it anyway, so that...would be a thing. But Armin's from the Aurora League right? So he's nothing to sneeze at..."

She trails off, an idea slowly forming. "So...likewise, it wouldn't be especially surprising...if after all the paper work was in, he was able to steal them back..."

"Yeah, no, and I wouldn't-- I wouldn't particularly want to cancel anyway, if it were anyone but Armin--I mean, even with it being Armin, I don't entirely want to cancel because I know Jack's been looking forward to this shit? And his happiness is super important to me? Hell, if it were just someone from this world, I'd full speed ahead on this, Carly--we get to ride in a giant robot and steal Loch Ness monsters, it sounded so goddamn amazing at the time."

He sighs. "But. It's someone I actually fucking care about. Which is-- just really fucking annoying. I hate feeling guilty like this. I thought I was done feeling guilty about this shit. But I guess..."

It's at this point that Carly's inferences sink in.

"Wait. Are you suggesting we wait until the rewards are in, then anonymously contact Armin to help him get his Lapras back?"

Steven smiles. Leans forward towards the screen. "I'm in."

Carly takes a moment to equate Lapras to Loch Ness. It's hard. She knows what he's getting at, but Lapras is cute.

It's very hard.

But still, the woman beams. "Heheheeee~"

Ahem. "We'll have to do a lot of planning, but considering Dirk hasn't asked me about anything just yet, we probably have a lot of time...and oof, don't worry, I completely get it. It being someone we know just makes it...way way different," she mutters, waving a hand. "But! What we need to do, is look into where Dirk will be keeping these, and on the timeframe expected for everything to be processed. From there, we can space out the breadcrumbs needed to make it look like Armin has been searching the whole time, instead of just getting a huge tip-off."

...

"Which is...really important if we're going to pull this off!"

"Yeah, no," Steven says. "They're a lot further than they were on the robot a month ago, but it's still gonna take a little longer. And Jack's got another distraction too, what with getting his bar and nightclub set up with me and Lydia--I'll tell you about that in a sec, it's going to be amazing. Anyway. I doubt it's going to happen until the end of April. So. We've definitely got time to plan.

"But yeah, shit, timing is going to be everything here." He gets thoughtful. "It's too bad this is coming so soon off of Connie's fight with Dirk. Otherwise we could pick her brain for advice on countering him. I mean, I figure she's the most likely other person to help with the rescue out of having principles."

Edited 2020-04-09 00:04 (UTC)

"Perfect then! We're going to need it, if it's just us two...we'll probably have to consider if the others could be involved through to the end..." Probably wouldn't be around when it mattered, but still.

Aaaah... "Don't count her out just yet- she might have taken some time to herself, but we're looking at as long as a month almost before this happens! Even if she doesn't join the heist, she might be back into things enough that we can get her help on this!" ... "Though we...should, plan for just us," she coughs.

"We probably should," Steven admits. "I can't think of anyone on the team who would help. Steve P just listens to whichever authority figure is loudest. We barely know Spinel. Lydia's great, don't get me wrong--she's one of my favorite people--but she's utterly amoral and self-serving. And Tyler...

"I was-- wrong about Tyler being, uh, 'a decent person,' although in my defense his Normal Person game is amazingly strong. I stand in awe of it. Though, uh, it probably helped that he was fairly normal before he was kidnapped by fairies too. Different kidnappers," he clarifies. "Honestly, I think his was worse. But, well, we're not the same people when we come back as when we left. And the shit that happened to him... he's got some pretty strong problems with, like, empathy and shit."

Steven sighs and rakes his long fingers through his short hair. "Which I kind of wish he'd told me sooner or I wouldn't have-- I mean, normal people usually... I mean, sharing confidences with them usually works as like a bonding thing? I wanted to bond with Tyler. He's the only person here who's been through the same shit I was. I wanted to-- actually be his friend. But that's not possible, and I wish I'd known, damn it. I'd have handled him so goddamn differently. I didn't realize that I was just burdening him with things that reminded him of everything he had trouble with. I wouldn't have-- god, I don't know. Tried for emotional intimacy.

"Like, I get it! I really do! It's hard to tell people when you're broken inside, especially when you're broken that way. I was born different. I get it. I just... I'd have understood. Even if he had no reason to know that. Not nearly to the same degree, I can care about people and even love them, or at least I think I can, but. I'm, uh, definitely closer to that end of the scale than you or Connie are. Honestly, a lot of us on the team are. Maybe that's why the space llama god sent us to where Team Rocket could grab us."

He sighs. "And... I'm going off track. I just wish I'd known that, I guess. I wouldn't have fucked things up so much with him. Or, well, I'd have done it differently, anyway."

Edited 2020-04-10 15:32 (UTC)

"Eh?" Carly is nodding through the list to start- she's never Met Lydia, but she'd believe it based on what she's seen of the woman online. But then Steven starts talking about Tyler...

...and then he keeps. Going.

And going.

'Sharing confidences usually works as a bonding thing', echo the words in her mind, and it feels somehow as if there's a pit in her stomach.

She finds herself quiet through the words, and it helps far less than Steven undoubtedly thinks, when he adds that she's on the caring end of the scale. Not so much because she doesn't think of herself as being there, but instead, perhaps, because of the implications of what would have to be shared or listened to in order to be capable of it.

"...A reason we were sent to Team Rocket huh..." she mutters despite herself, before swallowing and glancing away from the screen.

"It's...alright. I won't press into things, and I mean...honestly it seems like you might have said a little much on his part just now?" Nervous-, ahem. "Bonding works differently for different people. Understanding and caring for people, that comes out in different ways... ...I think for now, the best way to be a friend would be to...maybe let him forget what he wants forgotten, and so on..."

...

"I'll keep an eye out for what can help for this plan, okay? For now we need to sort out how the heist itself is going."

She seems alright. Seems her usual self, if a little subdued.

But there's something off, and it probably won't be fixed by the end of the conversation.

Steven winces. "Yes. Fuck. You're right. Can you just-- not ever tell him I said that much? I mean, he didn't say it was in confidence, but we were both completely stoned at the time, so god, I don't know, it was probably meant to be. I just-- god. I don't know. I shouldn't have said-- well, maybe I could have said something, but I could have said something less than that. Fuck."

He pinches the bridge of his nose. "But yeah. Yeah, we need to figure out how the heist itself is going. Beside that we're heading in via robot and that he'll probably have Peaches and SIN in the head as weapons pokemon."

"Frankly I think he'd be equally upset with me if I hinted anything before his knowledge." Which. Is going to suck if there's any way he'll be able to tell the next cool magic weekend but.

Hm.

"Peaches is troublesome, given that she has transform...but that's nothing someone with disable wouldn't be able to fix~! But realistically we shouldn't be fighting Dirk anyway. All we need, is the date, the escape route, the hide-away...and an estimate on the paperwork timing. ...hmmm I don't think any of us are in Data entry though..."

"Tyler is in Data Entry," Steven says. "Or. Wait. No. Data Collection, damn it. Connie would have been Data Entry, but she's busy with the gym challenges and her new crush."

"Maybe let's see if I can't ask Connie about things later this month, then. Obviously we plan for having to run on an estimate in the meantime...hmmm how long did it take to get results from that heist on the safari..."

She appears to be muttering.

"Before my time," Steven says, although there's a fond expression on his face as he watches Carly try to come up with the estimate.

"Aha, oh, trust me I knew that~ That was the heist Dirk and I put together...well. Mostly Dirk at the end of things, he does get...particular about his plans."

Ah well.

"We'll be fine though. After all, half of how this is going to work will come down to knowing how he does!~"

"And you've known him longer than the rest of us," Steven confirms. "And I've been talking to him about... philosophy? Metaphysics? I'm not sure what's the best word for it."

"I've definitely had a lot more time in the same room with him for that matter..." Union Cave sure was a thing.

"...Metaphilosophy maybe? I know what you're saying at least."

"Yeah," Steven says. "About how real this all is. And about how scary powerful he is when he's not being nerfed by the space llama god."

"Mnnnh yeah that sounds about right. ...You know, I hate to say it, but as rough as it is...this...might be a good thing for him? ...At least in the long run."

"Remind him that he can never control all the variables here?" Steven shrugs. "Yeah. Maybe. It certainly can't hurt."

"Ahhhh...I mean that too, but mostly that it...it's okay to not do that. To not have control of everything."

"Oh," Steven says. "Right."

He can understand the temptation to want it, though. Just to have that little bit of surety.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

if we can call them friends then we can call them on their telephones

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject