this is not a spaceship

[allforthehive]

The Hiver Warrior Tk'tlz expected to continue being on a spaceship for the next nine days, then serve on the personal guard of Princess Hllzt, a very prestigious position. It doesn't understand the gates work, it just knows that they take ships across the black sea in an instant. This is the first time it will experience gate travel, so it is waiting attentively, curiously, at the moment of transfer.


This is not a spaceship.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"Ha," says Larry, "see, it's coming around, mostly, wanna match, Bella?"

"It might not even really be a Pokémon! What if whoever you're fighting overshoots and it dies?"

[allforthehive]

"Death in a good battle is better than any other fate that awaits me outside of a Hive."

[the_very_best]

"Whoa, let's not get crazy, now, I can't replace you if it turns out you're not as tough as a regular 'mon," says Larry. "Maybe you should be a show 'mon instead, that's safe -"

"Aaaaaaaaugh!" exclaims Bella.

[allforthehive]

"I still do not know many words. Do you wish for me to fight, or not?"

[the_very_best]

"I don't want you to die. 'Mon can usually fight a ton and not die but Bella thinks you're a weird 'mon."

"Or not one at all! It could be an alien or something!"

[allforthehive]

"I am probably not a Pokémon. I have never seen any before today. But what else could I do? I am not a scientist. I could not return home even if I were. I am a stray, without a Hive. Fighting show-battles is better than no purpose at all."

[the_very_best]

"It's some kind of alien!" insists Bella. "If it wants to fight I guess that's fine, but at least give it to a ranger or a city perimeter or something, not shows or tournaments -"

"I'm not going to give it away!"

"Trade it, then, I'm sure you could get anything off any ranger's belt for it, and then it would be doing something useful!"

[allforthehive]

"How do Pokéballs work?"

[the_very_best]

"We don't understand the details, we aren't scientists either," says Bella.

"You throw it at a weak 'mon and then it goes in and you take it out later," Larry says.

[allforthehive]

"This discussion is moving in a circle. Where can I find more water?"

[the_very_best]

"Get it more water, Larry."

"I gave it a whole -"

"And now it needs more, it's huge, what, did you think you could feed it like your Luxray?"

"Ugh."

"And leave the poor thing out, it doesn't like the ball and you've got everybody's fire-types prowling -"

"Stop bossing me around!" Larry stomps away with the emptied water bowl.

[allforthehive]

The Hiver follows, so as to learn where water may be got.

[alicornucopia]

The water can be got out of a faucet in a room too small for the Hiver to enter.

[allforthehive]

That is irritating. It asks Larry, "Is there a water I can get to myself? At the moment I would be comfortable with at least four bowls."

[alicornucopia]

"All the plumbing in the building's in here. Quit complaining." He hands it a filled bowl.

[allforthehive]

The Hiver gulps it down and hands it back and waits.

[alicornucopia]

Larry fills it up again, as many times as the Hiver wants.

[allforthehive]

The number of times is four.

The Hiver starts asking him what this or that Pokémon is called and what 'type' they are.

[alicornucopia]

The 'mon that are out in the room at the moment are all fire type, but some of them are also other types. "I'm pretty sure you're Bug but you might be a combo and all I knew from the way the Houndour were chasing you down was that you're weak to fire, so when you were running away everybody got out fire types. Bella's not helping anymore with her Rapidash though."

[allforthehive]

"I might also count as Steel. My exoskeleton is largely composed of a steel-based alloy. The idea of types is very foreign. I was strong against fire before I came here. Hiver Warriors are supposed to be strong against everything. I wonder what a... Scientist who studies life, from my Hive, would think of types."

[alicornucopia]

"Bug/Steel, huh? That would totally explain a fire vulnerability. Maybe you had an accessory for it or something before I got you."

[allforthehive]

"We do not well understand each other. I think this world turned me into a Pokémon. I was not one before."

[alicornucopia]

"That doesn't make any sense," says Larry.

[allforthehive]

"To me Pokémon make little sense. As does how I can be successfully contained by a sphere the size of a light snack."

[alicornucopia]

"It's some complicated physics thing."