The Loophole Files (just an idea... one-shots)

[Mouse Tourmaline]

Mods, feel free to move this if it belongs elsewhere.

Well, I was reading the posts at the Authors' Café recently and noticed several people comment on one thing:

Things keep getting put in fics that wouldn't make sense if the Pokémon world was real.

For some idiotic reason, I saw this as a challenge. Somewhere, I thought, there must be a logical reason for each of these blips, these flaws in reality. So I'm going to try and build a one-shot loophole for each one I come up with, to make it plausible in some way. (If you have a least/favourite blip, feel free to suggest it.)

Here's my first attempt, to show you what I mean... later ones will be better, I promise/hope.




Trainer Kids

Evening, Joy. Still working late, I see. You should really get someone to cover this shift for you. I’m sure the Chansies wouldn’t mind.

Yes, you’ve got it in one. Another battle. They need some care and attention. Thanks.

No, it was actually quite a close one this time. First in weeks. She was a bit over-confident, I nearly took her down about halfway through. Man… why do I always feel like it’s me that’s been doing the battling? My shoulders ache. I think I’m going to close down for some training time and take a rest. No, this girl—she ended up flattening me, of course. But I like to think I might’ve got her if she’d been a bit more off her guard.

Oh, yes, thanks, I’d love one, Joy. You’re an angel. No sugar, please.

Where was I? Oh, yes. This girl. I tell you something, she can’t have been more than eleven years old. Trainer’s leave from school, of course. Already had one fantastic team, one of the best I’ve seen. If she’d known how to use it properly I’d have been down here before you could say Snorlax, but she’s still a relative beginner.

Y’know, Joy, I think the kids today are growing up too fast. That’s just my opinion.

No, I know, but you can’t deny it. At her age I was still studying long-division and wearing frilly socks. Me, I was nineteen years old before I got my hands on a Pokémon that didn’t belong to either of my parents.

Well, I’m sure they didn’t mean to be cruel. I was their only daughter, and I think they thought I’d be safer not getting involved. We girls… we weren’t exactly meant to travel on the road. Either I was meant to end up like you, working at a Pokémon hospital—no offence, Joy, it’s a great job, but not for me! I fainted at the sight of blood—or I was meant to raise beauty-contest Pokémon and look pretty until some guy came along to win my heart. Yeah, you’re right. Change doesn’t come fast to this part of the world. For all the new technology we come up with, we still seem to hang onto our traditions. I’m not saying that’s always a bad thing…

Oh. Sure, get it, I'll watch the desk.
That was quick. Who was it? Wrong number? Fair enough.

Did you know they teach Pokémon training at school now? Not like when I was a kid. After I got my first Pokémon, I was still a bit hopeless. Did I ever tell you how I wanted to catch a Rattata and I ran out of Pokéballs? I knocked it out then carried it in my arms as far as the next town. No kid these days would have come up with that. It bit me, of course, when it woke up, but it came to like me after a while.

I gave that Rattata to my little cousin in the end. It’s cute to see them together. Come to it, she's barely twelve herself, and as sweet a kid as you ever saw on a soppy TV show. I must bring her picture down here to show you.

So, yeah, where was I? I had to make my own way in the world, really. I’d bet a whole box of Rare Candy that those kids think their League’s been around forever, but twenty years ago—less’n that, actually—there was no such thing. Wish I could say that all the trouble I went to made me a better trainer than them, but to be honest… Why am I babbling on like this? You look as if you’re sick of all my talking. Sit back and I’ll handle the record-marking for a while. Yeah, of course. I’ve seen you do it lots of times.

You know, Joy, sometimes I feel like I’m just going to call time on this whole thing. Maybe hand the gym over to the next kid who knocks me over. Don't look so shocked. Don't tell me you haven't thought about quitting your job. No, I thought not.

But then I worry they wouldn’t know how to run things, how to make it work. I didn’t build my place so that kids could boast about their badges, really. I built it so no-one would have to train all by themselves like I did. If anyone comes here in need of some practice, I’m happy to help out, whatever age they are.

And I guess that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it? Shouldn’t be whether the kids are ten years old or thirty. Just as long as they’ve got a good trainer’s heart somewhere in them. And I can’t say they haven’t got that, I guess.

Oops, here comes trouble. You’d better get back on the desk, Joy. He looks like he’s been in the wars all right. Will you look at that Linoone!

See you sometime, Joy. You always manage to make me feel better, do you know that? It’s why you’re in this job, I suppose. G’night. And say hi to Lance if he calls.

------

Reality Blip: All the greatest trainers in the world are children under the age of twenty.
Status: Verified.

 

[Seijiro Mafuné]

Heh, that was an interesting read. And interestingly, I reply first.

Was that Whitney?

 

[Flaming Lip]

Huh? That was an interesting read indeed. A bit unorthadox in style but I kinda like that.

I did not see any mistakes, and description isn't really anything to worry about in this kinda story.

I'll be watching for other fics you write.

 

[Saffire Persian]

Interesting style choice you have here. Pure dialogue, with no quotation marks or description about what's going on. Still, you manage to convey it all through dialogue. Kudos. I love dialogue, so it wasn't a draw off for me, though some people might think so.

The topic you brought up about child trainers is indeed one of those loopholes that everyone will just wonder about. Still, you bring it up well, and show how it, perhaps, came to be, and it makes sense that way, as our now compared to our parents now was so radically different, I can connect.

Awesome job.

 

[Mouse Tourmaline]

Thanks everyone. I am using this idea as an opportunity to experiment a bit with my style: I've never really done a monologue story before.
Anyone any ideas what sort of reality blip I should try next? (Nothing on the lines of "How do ten-year-old kids constantly fall in true love at first sight", because [1] I already part-answered it, they're growing up too fast and [2] I want things EXCLUSIVE to Pokémon fanficdom.)

 

[Seijiro Mafuné]

I'm not sure, but an idea would be to write about how Pokémon seem to obey trainers just after being caught or something.

And was that Whitney?

 

[High Commander Solomon]

You could do one on how intellectuals always come up on the short end of the stick. Apparently emotion, with all its turblence and randomness, is way more potent than preparing based on actual knowledge.

Team Rocket seems to love kidnapping kids to make morphs, which will only turn on them in the end anyway.

Where do the Joys and Jennies keep coming from?

People are quick to use Pokemon battles, with all their violence, to settle their stupidest, pettiest arguments. Isn't someone going to get REALLY badly hurt?

Criminal gangs have no guns. Why?

 

[katiekitten]

That was an interesting piece of writing, Mouse! I enjoyed it alot, its a neat way of telling a story.

For ideas, how about:

Why are the so-called evil dangerous teams that foil government and the police are easily caught and defeated by a ten year old child?

 

[Eternal Daydreamer]

I liked thisd. I wish to submit a question:

Why is the main "rival" a bad-behaved kid?

I hope this gave you some ideas.

 

[Act]

I figured I'd give you a bump.

I really enjoyed this. It's not too often I read something around here and actually *enjoy* it.

At first I thought each paragraph was a new speaker, and it was going to be the different things Joy heard throughout the day, but by the third or fourth paragraph, I caught on. It was definitely a refreshing thing to read, and I actually found it quite funny... not in a bad way, but I could hear an older woman just going on and the Joy putting up with it because she hasn't done much interesting all day...

IMO, the speaker sounded more masculine to me for some reason. I'm not even sure why, and I'm perfectly aware of the fact that it was a woman.

As far as ideas go, meh. The second one is going to be harder than first of these, I imagine, because for the first in a one-shot series you usualy have inspiration, and then you're trying to make yourself write it and it isn't as pleasing. Then you get aggravated because you have a standard now, and...

Anyway, this is probably one of the less insightful reviews I've ever written, written mostly because I think this deserves to be bumped. The hierarchy of SPPf is a cruel thing. I was going to say something rather nasty about being stupid, but I think this sentence conveys the general idea, ne?

Good luck with these

 

[Mouse Tourmaline]

Interdependence Syndrome

Not dead! A new one-shot loophole file... now.

-----

Interdependence Syndrome

“Do you remember?” Danika asked.

The boy at her side considered for a moment, staring out across the crowded campus. Rain still scattered on the paving in black drops, frightening young ones even now as they gazed in apprehension at the sky. He tore his eyes away. “Remember what, Dani?”

“The day it changed…”

“Of course I do,” he nodded. “How could I forget that?”

*

As the clock struck ten, Danika sat back in her chair and took out her notebook and pen. The little book levitated out of her satchel, to the height of her knees before setting itself neatly on her lap. Dani grinned at the admiring glances of her classmates. Being the first of her species at Blackthorn Hall, the country’s most forward-thinking university, certainly had its advantages as well as its problems.

The lecturer, a tall, bearded human in a scruffy suit, entered the room and undid his briefcase. “Good morning,” he addressed the students briskly, “and welcome to the… um… lecture on, er, Interdependence Syndrome.” Dani breathed a sigh of relief: she was fairly fond of this lecturer, who seemed too absent-minded most of the time to notice whether he was addressing a human kid or a young Kadabra.

“Who here has heard of Interdependence Syndrome before?” A few hands went up. Dani’s was not one of them; the subject was a new one to her, and she began scribbling busily in the notebook. “Good, that’s quite a lot of you. For those who haven’t, a short introduction.

“Interdependence Syndrome, as it was christened by the scientist who first identified it a century and a half ago, is a serious condition that affected Pokémon across the world until the end of the 22nd century. However, since the causes have been properly recognised, various preventions and cures have been available, and there is no need for any Pokémon to be afflicted by I.S. in this day and age.

“Can anyone here tell me the principal cause of I.S.?” the lecturer finished. Various hands and paws waved in the air. “Yes, erm… you there?”

Simon, a quiet, intelligent human boy, lowered his hand. “Um… energy emitted by minerals naturally found in the inhabited regions, sir, creating an unnatural effect of subservience.”

“Right. Go to the top of the class,” the lecturer beamed. “No-one in past ages could have guessed that the same materials they’d been working with for millennia were having such a marked effect on the Pokémon. The minerals were used for storage boxes, tools, traps, computer equipment, even decorative jewellery. It’s a matter of written record that the celebrities of various regions would give out attractive souvenirs made of some of the highest-concentration metals to those who impressed them. As humans collected more and more of these items, the Pokémon’s I.S. just got worse and worse. Even older, stronger Pokémon became vulnerable.”

“Excuse me?” A prim-looking Vaporeon pressed buttons on her speech-creator, making the room echo with her artificial Interspeak voice. “I’ve read about the effects of Interdependence Syndrome in my class textbooks, and I was wondering why you described it as a problem.”

“Miss Vriina,” the professor replied, looking sternly over his glasses, “independence is one of the most important rights of any Pokémon or human in this world. I.S. compromises that independence in a way that modern civilisation can only imagine. A Pokémon afflicted by Interdependence Syndrome is little better than a slave.”

Dani made notes, scrawling facts across the blank page. She wrote and wrote, happy to be learning more about the phenomenon.

Suddenly the professor stopped. The telephone was ringing on the other side of the lecture hall. Dani obligingly lifted the receiver over to him, and he put it to his ear.

“Yes? Hello?” he answered, frustration hanging on his words. “Oh, good morning, Ms. Gordon… What?”

For a while, there was silence from the professor. The voice of the unheard person on the other end of the line was an incomprehensible scratching buzz to the students sitting around the hall. Meanwhile, the lecturer stood with the telephone held to his ear, the colour seeming to drain from his cheeks.

“I… yes, ma’am… I’ll tell them…”

He dropped the receiver on the table, staring at nothing.

“Ladies and, um, gentlemen… that was Professor Gordon… I have to tell you… a freak storm is about to hit Blackthorn. I don’t know whether you had better stay in here or try to get home…”

There was panic in the auditorium. Some students grabbed their belongings and ran for the door. Others bolted down the stairs to the lower floor. Dani sat in her chair, blank confusion overwhelming her.

Somewhere far above, the roof was beginning to shake.

Danika closed her eyes.

I am in a place of peace and tranquillity, in the haven of my innermost mind. I have no fear. I have no emotion. There is only knowledge, the things I can be sure of.

When the whole auditorium shook around her, Dani, in a glow of violet light, never even felt it.

Her eyes opened, slowly. She saw overturned chairs, collapsed furniture. But she was alive.

As she picked herself up from the floor, Dani became aware that something was jammed into a cut on her arm, hurting her. No time to think about that. Someone seemed to be trapped, down in a hole between broken floorboards. Dani ran across the room and reached out an arm, sending waves of psychic power to try and lift her classmate.

It was Simon. Reaching up, he grabbed Dani’s arm in the exact place where it was hurt, making her wince.

“Come on,” she urged him, helping him climb up. “C’mon, be all right.” He couldn’t stand up. Dani lifted him gently and carried him to the doorway.

Suddenly, the roaring overhead began again. “Eye of the storm,” Simon gasped. “It’s gonna hit us again.”

Slamming the door, Dani pulled her classmate into a sheltered corner, not knowing if she was doing the right thing or if there was a right thing to do. The noise grew louder. As if in a trance, Dani stood over Simon and raised her hands, creating a Lightscreen over the young human’s body.

“Dani. What are you doing? Danika!”

The Kadabra girl continued to protect her friend, unable to control or understand the new emotions that rushed through her mind.

You must be safe. For you belong to me, and I belong to you.

The storm hit.

*

“Do you remember?” Danika asked, her psychic speech echoing in Simon’s mind.

The boy at her side considered for a moment, staring out across the crowded campus where local storm-refugees were being housed. Rain still scattered on the paving in black drops, frightening young ones even now as they gazed in apprehension at the sky. The storm had been weeks ago, but it would be a long time before they forgot. He tore his eyes away. “Remember what, Dani?”

“The day it changed…” Dani fingered the cut on her arm, still jagged and raw where the ancient metal badge had cut deep into her skin.

“Of course I do,” he nodded. “How could I forget that? I mean, that’s the reason for this…”

He gestured towards the suitcases he’d packed. Now that his leg was better, they had to leave the campus. If anyone from the university were to see them, they’d be an internationally famous scientific phenomenon, studied and pitied alike. Besides, the arrangement Simon had made to smuggle Dani off-campus was so outdated that it was probably an arrestable offence.

Interdependence Syndrome, Dani thought as the two of them prepared to head for their new future. Such a long and scientific word, for a thing so simple that, long ago, could be described in only four letters.

Simon glanced around to check no-one was looking, then held out the ancient artefact in his hand. “Dani?” he whispered. “Return.”

As no Pokémon in a hundred years had done, Dani surrendered, lost in a glow of red light.

Reality Blip: Pokémon idiotically obey trainer kids' orders.
Status: Verified.

 

[Flaming Lip]

Hmmm... I'm not to sure I like this one as much as the last one. The part of the storm seemed really rushed. I understand why, but I would've perfered more detail.

Anyway, it does offer a good explanation.

Good job! ^^

 

[katiekitten]

I quite liked that, Mouse! It did give quite a nice explanation for why the pokemon always immediatly bond with their trainers, and was quite nice. Although, like Biz said, you could expand a little on the storm scene, but that is fine.

 

[Seijiro Mafuné]

Interesting. Hope something cool happens next.

 

[Astinus]

Finally! An update! I had this saved on my favorites, and the one time that I'm gone for a day, an update happens.

I like the fact that you called it a syndrome for the automatic obey from Pokémon. Like others above me, the storm was rushed. Perhaps it works better the way it is now? Don't really know. It is your story!

Keep it up!

-;052;