nostabbing | 011 | Goldenrod City

[It's a legitimately beautiful day in the neighborhood when the video comes on — the skies are partly cloudy but there are streaks of sun in places, and there's no snow on the ground. Rather, a bunch of probably incredibly confused plants have evidently decided that spring has arrived egregiously early this year, and are already starting to bud; the grass around is turning greener with every passing day, and ordinarily Parker would probably approve of that because green is objectively the best color, but today, she's...

Well.

From the looks of things, she's sitting against a tree in black jeans, a T-shirt, and a flannel hoodie over; her hair is long and a veritable mess, because she hasn't bothered to tie it back and she certainly hasn't bothered to brush it lately. And she's not really looking at the camera, despite being the one who intentionally turned it on. There's an equally tired-looking Eevee (one that, strangely, seems to be wearing a little white uniform with red trim) snuggled against her chest, and flanking her on either side are Nate the Mightyena (still in his dapper fedora) and Sophie the Ninetales (still in her diamond necklace collar), snug against her sides as though they're standing guard.

The camera angle is haphazard and sideways — not quite a Myspace angle, but clearly chosen without a whole lot of care for how the picture ultimately comes out.

Probably because it's a good reflection of Parker's mood right now.]

It's sixty-five degrees outside. In January.

[When she speaks, her voice is dull and flat — almost robotic, in the way she's just sort of pushing the words out.]

In January.

[A pause.]

Is the world ending? Maybe the world's ending.

[There's another pause, and this time when she speaks it's under her breath, more to herself than to the camera.]

Yeah. Maybe that's it.

[For a brief time, she doesn't say anything more, and then just when it's starting to look like she's forgotten she's still recording, the camera jiggles as her hand moves, and almost as an afterthought she switches the feed off.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

_{[That was a good question. Sometimes resets worked and sometimes they didn't. Sometimes things got worse. Or you got a blue screen.]

[It starts to sink in that Alice isn't her peppy jump-across-rooftops self today.]}

Not necessarily but...I don't think the world's endin'.

Too bad.

[It would be really nice to just see the whole thing burn right about now.]

_{[That gets his attention!]}

Woah, hold the phone. Who're you and what have you done with Alice?

[You know, if this were anyone else she probably wouldn't give two rips about telling them to buzz off, but this is Ralph, and so she gradually makes the effort to flip the feed over into private, because she's not stupid.]

Something happened to my brother. A couple days ago, he...he just didn't wake up. He's not waking up.

_{[Ralph tenses up when the feed swaps to private. He's expecting Rocket Stuff but instead gets something else.]

[He's quiet for a beat. That didn't sound good.]}

Oh...you want me to come home?

Uh-uh. We're all just...sitting with him.

He just lies there.

That's all he does, just. Lies there.

_{[Ralph rubs the back of his neck. How did you deal with this? He'd had someone go home on him, but never just...blacking out.]}

Well...I gotta come back soon anyway because I have a dentist appointment, but if he's not better by then, I'll come by. Is he, uh, breathin' okay?

_{[He didn't know how stuff in this game was supposed to work. He wondered if he would have picked up anything in past conversations about randomly going unconscious.]}

Yeah. I check, all the time.

[She kind of holds up the Eevee on her chest, who makes a soft noise but otherwise doesn't protest the handling much.]

Eeveemaru watches, too. He's good at it. You're a good boy, you're good at it.

Nobody you've talked to knows anything about it?

I met a doctor the other day, I could get you his 'gear contact.

We took him to the nurses at the Pokemon Center but they didn't wake him up or anything. They just...I don't know. Took him away for awhile and then gave him back and he was still asleep.

_{[The wrecker frowns. Some use they were. He knows he wouldn't be a great deal of help even if he were there, but he still wishes he were.]}

You want that doc's number then? He's one of us--stuck here, I mean.

Yeah. If he's okay, then...yeah. Yeah, okay.

Let's see...'gear says the guy's name is...ah... Yukio Okumura.

_{[He butchers the pronunciation but man, does he try.]}

He's a good guy. Sent me painkillers for my tooth free of charge.

You think he's really okay? Like he's a good doctor, not a creepy evil one?

He didn't seem creepy or evil to me. Kinda nerdy lookin', actually.

_{[Ralph, don't judge people.]}

I guess maybe I'll call him, then. And see.

Maybe.

I've got an open ear if you need me, Alice. Y'know that, right?

...

[...]

I just...want him to be okay...

I'm sure if this was bad news the nurses would have seen it before, right? I mean, folks have been coming here for a while now.

_{[Ralph still wasn't sure if those years were real years or game years but either way, a lot of the people he met seemed to waver between being Pro and 100% done with everything.]}

Somebody always has to be first, though. What if he's first?

_{[Somebody always did have to be first, didn't they?]}

He's not gonna be first.

You don't know that.

[It's not accusatory, just...sad. She doesn't know that, either.]

Neither do you. Hang in there, Alice.

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