babel_hacker | Day 43

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Day 43 - [Text]

[One day, something shows up on the screen. It looks like a pixel sprite of something.

In the background, there seems to be falling poffins of many different colours. After a while, text begin to show up and a small Porygon is bouncing around at the corner of the screen.]

Poff Poff Poff!
Poffin!
Poff Poff Poff!
Poffin!
Press the BUTTON! Poke the Poffin!
Make more Poffins!_

[It seems like someone wants people to make more Poffins. And that someone is Fortran, Atsuro’s Porygon, who’s hijacking its trainer’s PokeGear. It has been a while since it did it.]

How many will you make?
But don’t cheat or I will know, you jerks!_

[It can totally make better stuff than whatever Atsuro’s making for that programming business.

After a while, his trainer may show up...]

(OOC: Poffin version of Cookie Clicker by Fortran. Warning: it’s easy to waste time on Cookie Clicker. Just let me know if you want Atsuro to pop up.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah, with all the cultures represented around here seeing the same name twice isn't likely.

Definitely. It would be interesting to find another person with the same name as you, but the odds aren't all that great. Or they're somewhere on the other side of this world.

...If that's the case, wouldn't it also mean that people we know from home could also be somewhere on the other side of this world, on a different network?

Edited 2014-03-31 21:32 (UTC)

[Atsuro stares at the reply. That is a possibility, but he doesn't know if he should have any hope for it to come true.]

It's possible. We also have no ways of travelling out to other regions I heard about, so it's hard to confirm it.

This place needs planes. Plaves, foreign television channels, and the internet. Then we'd know for sure.

We need someone to start inventing planes. To be the Wrights of the Pokemon world.

Or we could skip the planes and go right for atmosphere-compatible spacecrafts. More impressive, more practical, and I could take care of the piloting, no extra training needed.

With how their technology development seems to go, that's just as possible!

...Are you going to offer lessons to any aspiring pilots?

Maybe, if I have the time. And if the aspiring pilots can be trusted not to get anyone killed on their first try.

That's what training is for. Simulations as well, if we can get that as well.

Why bother with training and simulations when you can just dump the potential pilot into the cockpit, preferably during a battle?

Which can either be a disaster or shows that our potential pilot have an unexpected skill in battle.

Bonus points if they somehow end up in a special model.

It's not a bonus, it's a necessity. The difference in maneuverability is important enough that super pilots are wasted on anything less than a custom unit adapted to their needs.

Right. And the army or organisation would do whatever it takes to keep the pilots on their side. But it usually depend on the pilot and possibly the unit they use.

Usually either out of necessity, duty/honour or debt. (Bribery/blackmail is an option, but that's not the most heroic reason to stay)

Why would the military bother with all of that when they can simply employ the pilot, pay their paycheck and finance their research and technological upgrades? Barring extreme ideological differences, that's plenty enough.

The main problem would be ideological differences. Or maybe a strong case of being too scared to fight.

[Skilled or not, no one would want to die anyway.]

Which can be ironed out via training or some experience on the field.

People that are scared of fighting don't get any braver if they're manipulated into doing it. It has to be a personal choice, for the sake of something important.

If that's always the case, yeah. But sometimes, people can end up being forced into fighting.

They shouldn't be. It just screws them up in the long term; even those who do wish to fight at first often end up changing their mind.

Yeah. Most of the time, they would snapped if it went on long enough. Or they snapped very quickly if the stress and situation is horrible enough.

And people who snap don't always fix themselves before it's too late, so all of that might be for nothing anyway.

Yeah... That's why if they snap, they need people to support them.

[That makes him think. What if they didn't get to Keisuke in time? Or reach to him before he's too far gone?]

Good thing those can be found relatively easily, unless they're particularly isolated. But it's not always enough.

Not always. We can give them all the support they need, but in the end, it's up to them.

Still doesn't stop us from feeling bad when it goes wrong, though.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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