silph_co | (no subject)

Who: Tyler Huang and OTA
Where: Goldenrod Rocket Base
When: Early March!
Summary: Baby Rocket. baby
Rating: PG-13, with some casual swearing

Log: It's a fucking blessing that he's already met Steven, and gotten a hand from him with all of the training stuff. Sure it makes things about twice as long as they probably would be otherwise, but at least he actually comprehends all of the pointless mass speeches he's being dunked into. Which, uh. It's not nice but at least he's not going to get punished for really basic, stupid shit.

It does also mean, though, that so far he's making very little attempts to appeal to the good will of the other Rockets. From what Steven's told him, the only ones worth actually caring about are the other ones who got sucked in from other worlds - but since he's only gotten names, not faces, he has no idea who they're supposed to be.

He's easy enough to find in the mess halls - big guys stand out a bit, especially when the Natu sitting on his shoulder hops up onto his head and starts sending random people evil(? it's hard to tell) looks around the room. But usually, whenever he gets a free chance, he'll be back in the training halls, working on hand signals with his Houndour. If he can train it well enough now, then it'll be smart enough to fight in future without needing to glance back at him every few seconds.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

While Tyler's sitting at the table, a familiar notepad will slide in front of him, which reads Got you something.

If he looks up, he'll see that Steven's there (as suspected by his handwriting) and he's holding out a bag that says GOLDENROD DEPARTMENT STORE. Inside is a warm wool peacoat in navy blue.

There's a gift receipt too, in case he got the size wrong.

Edited 2020-03-04 10:01 (UTC)

He really has to get his own notepad. Or at least Steven's phone number or something, he's such a fast texter.

The notepad gets him to look up, and before he meets Steven's face he's already spotted the department store bag being offered to him, and takes it with a note of hesitation to pull it closer and open it up to inspect.

Isis also hops into the bag as he does, nestling into the collar of the folded coat immediately, and Tyler manages to find the tag around the fluffball watching Steven from inside the bag. That... if it works like sizing he's used to, that ought to fit him just fine. (And if the pricing works how Yen does, then he owes Steven a lot.)

He looks back up at Steven with a pleased, somewhat bashful grin and lifts his hand to his chin to tap thank you at him, before he goes for the notepad. You didn't have to do that. Even if he's still smiling warmly as he hands the pad back.

Steven smiles back and shrugs.

De nada, he writes. And don't worry. Team Rocket's footing the bill. I did the paperwork and everything. Besides, I had to get Lydia something that wasn't a uniform, because she'd come in with only a cloak, so it's only fair I got you something too and it's unnecessarily cold these day. And I hadn't seen a winter coat when I was getting the last of my stuff from your room.

Edited 2020-03-04 10:27 (UTC)

It was autumn back in Melbourne. It seems like I might need this here, though, if it gets closer to zero at any point. Tyler does not do all that well in above- or below-average temperatures.

While he writes, Isis hops back out of the bag and, with a frantic flapping of her tiny wings, back onto the table so she can stare at the notepad, then stare at Steven some more for good measure. She still hasn't blinked yet.

Is there anything I can do in return for that? I'd feel bad having such an expensive gift without being able to pay it back. Or forward, or what have you.

Nothing yet that I can think of. Why don't we just say you'll owe me a favor down the line?

He nods courteously at the little bird.

It was September back in San Diego. And it only snows in the mountains where I come from, so being here was a shock.

Isis... blinks.

Tyler's hand hovers for a few seconds before he commits to his sentence.

I don't think I've ever seen real snow. It's not like Melbourne doesn't get cold but it's coastal. Too low down.

Edited 2020-03-04 21:42 (UTC)

Same with San Diego. But I've been to the mountains a couple times. I even went to Tahoe once. Goldenrod is coastal too, but if you go inland for whatever reason, there's more snow than you'll ever need to see.

This will be great for places that snow all year round. He knows those are a thing, he just. Hasn't encountered them personally.

He shifts the bag in his lap to keep it from falling out, and then watches as Isis hops back in to snuggle down. He adds a fresh line with a wry smile: It must be good if it's Pokemon approved, right?

Steven smiles back. Should be, he writes. It said it was made from imported Dubwool... wool.

Edited 2020-03-05 11:37 (UTC)

He frowns at the reply note. And takes the pen to circle the word 'Dubwool' and adds a question mark over it.

I think it's a foreign kind of sheep pokemon. Like Merino? Not necessarily a direct analog, though.

He pulls a face at reading that. It'd be a sneer if it wasn't closer to 'look at that bad pun you made, you should feel bad'.

There's going to be a lot of semi-analogous shit like that, isn't there?

Yep. Like I mentioned, before we got caught up in realizing we're from the same world, there's weird versions of pop culture from back home here. Like the Smashing Pumpkaboos or Seismitoad And The Wet Sprocket or Counting Murkrows or Hootie and the Qwilfish...

... or in an attempt to not date me horribly, Taylor Shiftry. The song 'Trouble' in our own world doesn't have actual goat screams in it, does it? Because the Gogoat samples are definitely the weird part of an otherwise catchy song.

The second paragraph scores Steven one (1) incredibly dry look, and when Tyler writes his next sentence he holds the notepad up with both hands for Steven to read in the air.

I don't know how you expect me to tell the difference.

He holds it there for a few seconds, before he adds another line beneath it.

Allegedly it was human singing and the goats were just a meme.

Steven drags a hand down his face.

Fuck. I'm an idiot sometimes. Thank you for clearing that up.

He holds up Yeah you are. with a broad smile on his face.

On the plus side I now know that most of my memes will be perfectly functional for you with minimal translation.

Great. Amazing.

But he's smiling a little too. Someone Tyler's age who 'speaks' in memes? It's what his life was lacking.

I feel so privileged to be in touch with the youths.