hashtagafreakingghost

Oh, good. I'm glad he's been helpful.

Falkner is pretty easy, honestly. His Noctowl and Pidgeot are weak to Electric, Ice, and Rock, and his Honchkrow has an additional weakness to Fairy. Don't use Ground on any of them, Psychic on the Honchkrow, or Ghost on the Noctowl or Pidgeot.

He's basically a pushover, though he kind of laughed at me when I told him I was a bird at home.

okay I'm going to address everything else after this but
when you say "I was a bird" you mean that
change into animals thing you told me about
right?

Um.

Yes.

I mean it seemed kind of bad at first but it was better than what I had in a lot of ways?

[There's a pause.]

I didn't mean to send that I'm sorry I don't need to dump all of my issues on someone. Open mouth, insert foot. Or open beak, insert talon. Whatever.

No no it's okay I just

oh WOW when you were talking about that time-limit thing
I am SO sorry I didn't realize that was from experience and I said absolutely NOTHING then about it. You don't have to apologize at all, misunderstanding and all that.

Yeah, the two hour thing. I kind of got trapped during our first mission and everyone got out and I was hiding and didn't have a chance to demorph, and I didn't have a way to keep track of time, so... yeah.

Oh my gosh Tobias
I am so incredibly sorry I had no idea

No, really, it's okay. I've just... you know. Spent most of the past three years at home being a hawk.

Or if you meant sorry about the mission thing yeah.

I mean.

... It was kind of a war. Stuff happens.

Both
I meant both.
When you mentioned aliens I just
I don't think it all sunk in until now.
You were at war? But you can't be older than me.
And as a bird
I'm just very sorry.

I was 13 when we started. All of us were. Ax was about the equivalent of that age. (He's an alien but a different species than the ones we were fighting.)

It was the six of us against an invasion, yeah. It was a slow invasion, where the aliens hide and try to take over quietly. For the most part. They were - you know what a slug looks like, right? Imagine one of those, except it crawls into the ear of another creature and takes over their brain.

I mean I can't say that it was fun. Some good things came out of it, but a lot of bad things, too. It's just... you know. It was a thing. It happened. A lot of things happened.

But I'm not sorry, I guess. I mean I'm sorry that it happened, I'm sorry that everything happened, but like... I'm glad that there were at least a few people who could stand against it. (Though I think the deck was stacked so we'd end up there anyway.)

[Give her a few minutes to respond, Tobias.]

That is positively and entirely horrifying. Jesus if I found something like that out I'd never want to sleep again or go out into the world at all. I mean, I'm already scared about a lot of things and all traumatized and all that but it would be even worse.

I can't believe
You like it right?
Being human again?

[That's fine, he'll just be here with his head in his hands because he didn't plan on having this conversation today. He was just trying to be nice and then he opened his big dumb mouth.]

Yeah, but if you and a few other people were the only ones who could stop something, wouldn't you at least try? It was either 'run away and doom everyone' or 'fight'. It's not like we didn't want to have normal lives.

[There's a long pause before he responds.]

I don't know. I mean thumbs are handy but it's a lot simpler being a hawk. We got the animal's instincts when we morphed, so if I wanted to I could just kind of turn off my human brain for the most part and go on autopilot.

[Huh. Well isn't that...]

I don't know what I'd do.

[Just leave it at that.]

That all sounds so.
God I can't even imagine. Being human and then suddenly

We don't have to talk about this if you want to. If it's too weird or anything.
I didn't mean to make this some big real serious talk.

It's okay. I didn't mean for this to be a big serious talk either. You can tell me to shut up if you need to.

I'm definitely not glad that the Yeerks (that's the bad aliens) tried to invade, and it was definitely horrifying and nightmare-inducing, but I at least found some family? Like... Ax, one of the ones I mentioned earlier, turns out to be my uncle.

(His brother was my dad, who morphed human and trapped himself like that and had me with my mother, but then got put back in space and time in his original body by what's basically a semibenevolent alien god thing. And then got shot down and was the one who gave us the power to morph.)

And I found out my mom wasn't dead, she just had amnesia from a car accident, and we fixed her blindness. So... I mean. That part's good, I guess.

It's just... you know. The other things. Flying's great, being a dolphin was fun when I wasn't busy being grumpy that one almost drowned me, I've gotten to swing through trees on an alien planet... but we still had to fight.

This is all so much Tobias.
When you said your life was weird, you were right.
I believe you of course but
You REALLY were right.

I'm sorry you had to fight. You're a nice kid. You shouldn't have had to.

... Thanks.

But I mean... man I don't mean to turn this into a 'my life sucks' sort of made for TV movie thing. But my life did suck? Like, I kept getting shifted between coasts from an aunt who hated me and was just nasty and an uncle who hated me and was an alcoholic. I was the kid who doodled in class and got swirlies because no one liked me.

And then this happened, and I could leave my life that sucked, and even if it was terrifying and everything, even if it was a war with horrific death, and even if the person I cared about the most died, it mattered.

It had to have mattered. We saved people. And if what we went through was enough to save everyone and to make a difference, then... maybe it's a little more okay. I mean, it doesn't do much for nightmares, but... I have to hope that it makes things a little more okay.

Like it gave it...meaning? All the things you went through and
everything else?

That's a really enlightened way to think of it, Tobias. You're brave. And smart. And I'm glad that you can find comfort in it, even now.

... I mean. It had to. I'm not all that brave, or smart. We were all just kind of desperately running around, trying to come up with plans.

If that didn't mean anything, then what was the point? Why did we get thrown into that stuff? I know there's things... not gods, but just really powerful things, and we were just kind of... the pieces that got moved into play. If they had to play us, then I'd like to think that we had a reason to be played. That whatever we gave up... I don't know.

I just don't want other people to have to be scared anymore. I don't want them to have to be in danger. So that even if their life sucks, at least they're not being forced at the point of a laser gun to give up their own ability to do things.

... Okay I'm going to totally show how much of a loser nerd I am, but the quote's appropriate. 'You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.'

I mean... we had to do what we had to do. Even if other people think of us as heroes, we didn't. We were just... there. Fighting. No time to stop and think, not much time for morals, just... fighting. It's hard to explain unless you were fighting, too. We kept thinking 'well, either we'll die or we won't, and if we don't we can think about what this means later'. Usually we were just trying not to get shot.

... This place gives me too much time to think.

Edited 2016-03-05 18:33 (UTC)

[She takes another moment and then.]

'Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.' One nerd to another.

You say you aren't smart or brave, but to have faith after all you've seen and been through. That has to count for something. And to still care so much about others. You did so there and you're doing that here too, aren't you? Checking in on me. Offering people Munna to keep their nightmares at bay. Whatever you say about yourself, I've only recently met you and I think you're an extraordinary person, Tobias. Even if it's something you had to do.

[She's not going to touch on the idea that it has to mean something. She's not going to address that; what was the point, what's the reason- if she starts thinking about things like that again, then...that won't do anyone good. Especially Tobias.

But this? This she can say with confidence.]

'Courage is found in unlikely places,' after all. Is it not?

Heh. Yeah.

... That's really nice of you to say, Ashley. I mean... I've just been trying. I can't really run away here. I can't fall back on animal instincts to just... hide. So... I don't know. I found that helping other people seems to help me, too. And maybe that's a little selfish - doing it so I feel better - but you do what you can, right?

And sometimes you fall down, but you seem like a pretty nice person. I'm sure you've already made some friends who can help you up again, right? A lot of us seem kind of messed up here, and a lot of people don't mind helping out. So it's really nice here, since that kind of thing exists.

Me? Oh, I try my best. And just between you and me? A lot of people keep telling me it's alright to be a little selfish. So I'm telling you the exact same thing.

So, in the interest of helping out. You were talking about what Falkner's Pokémon are weak to? Mine are mostly Psychic or Ghost, with one Electric. A few Normal. Any recommendations from the bird expert?

Ghost is okay for the Honchkrow but not for the others, which you can use Psychic on just fine but not on the Honchkrow. Really, just lay on the Electric-type attacks and you can get him down pretty easily, and the other types aren't bad they're just not exploiting a type weakness. If your Pokemon are having trouble with it, you can pick up a Pachirisu or Shinx on... Route 31, I think? There's probably a Geodude in the Dark Cave, too.

Edited 2016-03-06 02:24 (UTC)

I have a Shinx, actually! I've been raising her up as best I can. Electric strong against birds. Flying type, right? Electric, Rock, and Ice. I'll see what I can rustle up.

What types should I AVOID, besides the single Pokémon recommendations? What's Flying strong against?

Oh, right, duh. Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

Flying is strong against Bug, Fighting, and Grass.

Don't let Falkner fool you, he's not as great as he likes to pretend he is. He sometimes goes on about his dad who was some great Flying-type master before him. He thinks he's the best Flying-type trainer after his dad and that he's so cool and handsome and smart and ooh look at my airshow it's the best that could ever be.

... Sorry I uh. I don't like him very much.

You're passionate. It's cute. :)

I bet if you tried hard enough, you could be a more well-known one. A Flying-type master. With your experience and all that. I'd cheer for you.

And I'll be sure to thrash him and tell him you sent me. ;)

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[Text] wheee Animorph spoilers

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