Could you be more specific?

[spiritcrystal]

[Keeping Up With the Next Generation: An All-Purpose Guide to All That Stuff Those Kids From Other Regions Keep Talking About.

That's the name of the book Kris is reading in some weird and strangely specific library. Some other hits she sees in the shelves are How (Not) to Deal With Meddling Kids in Caps, It's Not All Black and White, The Series of Guys That Cramped My Style And Messed With My Social Life, and Hot Enemy Problems: Part 1.

But it's a large library. A huge library. The possibilities are endless... and very specifically tailored to everyone's needs.]

[ooc: Aaaand mingle post! Go ahead and comment/tag around!]

Comments

[illegalteendad]

[shit shit shit nope he's noping out of here bye silver

BUT NOT WITHOUT A CALL BACK

sorry he's grinning being caught by yellow was not at the top of his most wanted list but holy shit he cannot resist]

Looks like we'll have to continue our little 'chat' later, Silv!

[illegalmarriage]

Yellow-

[This is going downhill quickly.

Gold's remark only barely registers. No. Yellow, it's okay, they were just-

they were just what?

-Doesn't matter. He heads over and reaches to- to try to grab and hold hands. Not pushing her away, not getting between them, just trying to get her attention and make her take it easy.]

[aintseennothin]

[Yellow intended to grab a book and throw it at him, as she's not quite mad enough to forget her last promise to Silver, but GOD DAMN IT.

She instead grips Silver's hands hard enough to convey her anger at him.]

He's scum! You could date literally anyone else and I don't care but why him?? He can't keep his eyes and hands off of Blue, spent so much effort trying to touch me when he thought I wasn't me-me, he's some filthy horn dog and worst of all, he wants to take you away from us!!

1/3

[illegalmarriage]

[Yellow that wasn't what they- that's not- they were just--]

[illegalmarriage]

[...Man, he.

He really fucked up, didn't he.

Dammit.]

[illegalmarriage]

[Yellow.]

He's not taking me away from you.

[He's not taking him away from his family.]

[aintseennothin]

Good! Because that's all he wants, you know, he'll never let you stay with us!

[She lessens her grip on his fingers, but more securely holds his hands.]

That con artist! I'm going to put itching powder in his shoes! Tell his Pokémon to eat his hat!!

[Since you told her she can't do anything severe - she'd much rather leave toxic spikes in his shoes or get a wild Pokémon to try and eat him altogether.]

[illegalmarriage]

Stop it, Yellow. I'm just as responsible for that as he is. [...If not, moreso. He's the one that started that, wasn't he?

What were they even talking about before that?

You're pretty bad at being bad, aren't you?]

[aintseennothin]

I know you are, but I love you, he's just some street urchin!

[illegalmarriage]

I know. I was gonna pick a fight with him.

[He's actually not sure how that even happened instead or where that even-

bad decision dinosaur]

[aintseennothin]

Come on!

[She paps Silver's face!]

You're too good for him! You deserve someone that's going to do good for you not someone who's inevitably going to force you through something painful.

[illegalmarriage]

That's exactly what he's doing. I just happen to be one of the bad guys. [So he is doing good for him, just-]

He's just a- [f...]

...He's my enemy, first and foremost. I know that.

[aintseennothin]

It's not about "good guys" or "bad guys" that's so black and white.

[HUFF HUFF]

Normal people aren't saints either. There's manipulation and control and violence without Team Rocket, the only difference is that we're organized.

[illegalmarriage]

He's protecting his region. I'm trying to take it over by force.

Have you even been to Johto?

[aintseennothin]

Then stop trying with force and do it subtly! Get them dependent on you, provide something for them they can't get anywhere else.

And yeah I've been to Johto, so what?

[illegalmarriage]

[I don't want to talk about it, Yellow

Do I have to talk about it? I don't want to talk about it-]

[aintseennothin]

Look. Everybody's got some set of priorities. We don't want to actually kill anybody if we don't have to - that's not actually going to help us. Obstacles need to be removed, but it is important that people are alive and doing well, or else we don't get to skim the top of the milk so to speak, just skimming off the top of what people get to benefit us.

That's nature. Even Pokémon are like that. The strongest survive, but the smartest absolutely thrive.

[illegalmarriage]

Stop prettying it up.

[aintseennothin]

I'm not prettying it up, I'm telling you how it is. It's the truth.

[It's her truth. Not just one forged by her legacy in Team Rocket, but by all of her life experiences.]

Humans act helpless, but if they really wanted, they could band together and get rid of us. If they weren't so scared for their lives even when the odds are technically in their favor - think, just how many of them are there compared to us? - they would have gotten rid of Team Rocket themselves long ago. When Lance rose, people cowered, without realizing that he couldn't take all of Kanto on if they had organized into an army. Thousands would die, but their fears overpowered them. Instead, they counted on me, on Team Rocket, to protect them. Because it's in our best interest that they are alive and feeding us the profits we need.

You saw the papers. The reports on what happened in Hoenn. Do you think people really didn't notice the radical terrorism happening before those ancient god-Pokémon were released? No one did anything. They went on with their self-absorbed little lives, thinking "someone else will handle it, I don't have to sacrifice anything, what about those that depend on me?" Whatever excuses they want.

People are walking corpses until there's the select few that have the spark of heroism in them. And they're never heroes. They're martyrs.

[illegalmarriage]

This isn't about other people. This is about us.

[He. He doesn't want to hear that. It will sink in later, but for now...]

We're cold, harsh, and cruel. You wouldn't bat an eye at killing anyone. I'm perfectly content to comfortably sit in an office and decide the fates of countless people and Pokémon with a pen before watching cartoons.

Own up to what you do. At least acknowledge that it's wrong. Fear and ignorance isn't some excuse you can give to say anything we do is okay.

[aintseennothin]

As far as I'm concerned, I'm no worse than Pokémon that kill anything that encroaches upon their territory. It only makes sense. Humans have such an inflated idea of "right" and "wrong", but don't have any gumption to back it up. The day that someone makes sense of it to me is the day I consider it.

[illegalmarriage]

...Until you consider it, you won't see why I put up with Gold.

[aintseennothin]

Unless he can explain to me why morality and heroism is important even though Pokémon don't have it, I'm not interested. You know who else wanted to save the world? Lance! He was so certain that he was right to destroy all of humanity to save Pokémon... and the handful of trainers he deemed worthy of living with them.

Everybody has such a different interpretation of morality. It's so subjective. I know I'm "wrong" and "bad" and "evil". But those words don't mean a thing to me.

[illegalmarriage]

[That's wrong. That's wrong and he can't explain why. He doesn't want to deal with this. He wants to walk away.

But that would hurt Yellow. That would hurt Yellow and leave Yellow to hurt Gold.

...He doesn't trust Yellow. That's it, isn't it? Right now, he doesn't trust her.

A sinking feeling fills his stomach.]

Believe what you want. I don't care.

[aintseennothin]

Just think about it, alright? You've given Gold's words so much thought, at least give mine the same effort.