leftinbasketforfbi | 1st Genius α Video/Action for New Bark Ω

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1st Genius α Video/Action for New Bark Ω

[It takes him a bit to figure out how the hell to start the feed. When he finally does, all PokéConnect is treated to the sight of a deceptively calm man dressed in purple pants and a white shirt tied with a gray obi, the traditional psychic’s outfit. An Absol keeps pacing behind him, as if expecting him to fall over at any moment and preparing itself to catch him. Honestly, that’s because it is, since its new Trainer has had a massive panic attack that caused him to pass out once already, and Absol can sense that there will be more to come. This is going to be a long partnership.]

Morgan, if this is a prank, alright. You got me. You win the war.

[The man holds up his hands in defeat, still unnaturally calm.]

I don’t know how you did it, but you can stop now. I get it. You can make the Pokémon go away. Once again, I have no idea how you did it…

[His throat gets tight. He struggles to keep his breathing even.

Please, Morgan. Please oh please make this stop.]

But you can stop it now. I have a lot of work to do, and giving me strange clothes, asking a woman to pretend to be my mother, and trying to make me doubt my own sanity is not helping.

[Please let this be a prank. Please say he’s not completely insane.]

And you can turn off the music while you're at it.

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[Well, at this point, he's realizing it's not a prank. Now he knows he's schizophrenic. This is extremely upsetting for him, so he's settling for going numb.]

It does? Well, at least that, I guess. Does the music ever change on its own?

[His voice has gone flat. He's crazy. He's crazy. He's been so scared for so long, and now it had happened.

And there had been nothing he could do to stop it.]

...So, do you mean there are speakers everywhere?

I dunno. But it's better than saying in your head, right?

[No. That is not helpful.

But yes, neutrality. He wants it. He just starts answering the question at a little more length than he would normally, but he needs to talk to think properly and he's provided him with an opportunity to talk.]

Paperwork. We just finished a case in Ohio and I need to finish my end of the report. If I don't do it, then my boss will do it, and I don't want to give him any more work than he already has. So I need to do it soon.

No, you didn't.

[They have AGE MINIMUMS, Reid, what are you even, your life makes no sense to Albert's late-80's FBI sensibilities.]

Nine years in the BAU plus multiple degrees by age thirty? I don't think so, kid.

[Yes, it is, but this isn't much better.]

S-so you're saying that no one knows where it's coming from?

[Raises an eyebrow. Okay, Hope's seen people shutting down a lot of times in his life, but this has got to be one of the most extreme reactions he's seen on a newcomer.]

It changes when you enter a new area, such as a city or a route.

... I have to stress this again-- it's all real. I don't know what you're thinking, but I can guess. Having a breakdown will do you no good, and your Pokémon may not know what to do should you indeed panic or shut down.

_{[Yeah, sorry about that. But his backtracking seems to have worked well enough - and if Reid needs to talk, Coop will absolutely let him. In fact, it'll work both ways. Learning about the stranger is a good first step in helping him.]}

What kind of case?

No, I did. [He's gonna need to give the spiel again, isn't he?] I'm, um, provably a genius. I graduated high school when I was twelve, so I already had two Bachelor's and a PhD when I was recruited into the Academy. Technically they were bending the rules for my age, but they still wanted me.

[He doesn't want to give the AND I HAVE AN EIDETIC MEMORY AND MY IQ IS 187 AND LOOK AT HOW SMART I AM talk because it always makes him feel like he's bragging when really he's just trying to provide an explanation for his position relative to his youth.] You could say I had a head start?

[Nobita and his own Absol appear on the screen. Tamashii raises a paw to wave at Reid's Absol.]

It's not a trick! Or at least it's not one by your friend! Because I don't know him, so he couldn't be playing this trick on me. I'm sure lots of us don't know him.

And the music can't turn off. But it sounds nice!

[Hey, man, it's cool, Albert was first in his class at Yale, BEING SMART IS NOT A PROBLEM WITH HIM. He's more just facepalming at "LOL LET'S BEND THE RULES" because come on, Bureau, there is a way and a manner of doing things and that's not it.

...On the other hand, he comes from a unit that occasionally investigates supernatural crimes, just recently dealt with a case involving a guy possessed by what is apparently a personification of evil as old as the beginnings of time, and has a best friend who regularly conducts his investigations through the assistance of prophetic dreams. So maybe he's not one to talk about bending the rules.]

Any of them from Yale? There's brownie points in it for you if you say yes.

A family annihilator who moved from killing his own family to killing the family of other men. There were layoffs in his company and he lost his job. He felt like he could not provide for his family, and since he saw them less as a group of separate people and more as an extension of himself, he killed them when he couldn't be the ideal provider. Then to justify what he did to himself, he went on to kill the families of other men who were laid off, thus sparing them from having a 'failure' for a father and a husband.

[...Yep. Yep, he just said that all clinically. Just another day at work.]

_{[... Reid, you are going to fit right in.]

[Needless to say, Coop is momentarily stunned. Maybe not so much the details in themselves, because Cooper's seen a lot of things (even if not quite to that extent), nor how matter-of-fact they're said, but that he hadn't expected something like them here.]

[Because, you know. Johto. And it's kind of rare for him to get colleagues, even if only by profession.]

[So given the nature of what Reid just described, he'll go ahead and take a guess.]}

Violent Crimes?

[Yeah. At least he's not using psychics to figure things out. :| Speaking of, pay no attention to the little green and yellow bead bracelet he always wears on his wrist.

...Yale was his safety school. No, seriously, it was. So he decides to be tactful and just smiles sheepishly.] N-no, not at the time. Sorry. Is that where you went to school?

[Yep. That's actually pretty tame compared to some of the stuff Reid's seen before. It'll be really weird to be in a place where murder is technically impossible.]

Behavioral Analysis Unit. We specialize mostly in serial and spree killers. [Yeah, the kid who looks twelve is working in possibly the most intense unit in the Bureau.]

[And by pay no attention you mean TOTALLY NOTICE because DETAILS. Come on, this is what he does.]

No, I just picked it out of a hat.

[SARCASM.]

All right. Are you calmed down enough to hear the rundown on this place, or do we need to keep making chitchat about what we did on our summer vacation for another twenty minutes first?

[Normally, he has very measured reactions to things, Hope. When his sanity is blatantly called into question? Ehhhh, he doesn't react too well to that.

The Absol dubbed Yang nods at Reid's side, trying to stress that it really sucks having to deal with a Trainer having a nervous breakdown. Even if Yang somehow found a way to deal with Reid during the first panic attack and subsequent passing out (Mom had to deal with a lot of that too).]

I don't know, Yang seems to have been handling himself so far. [He rubs his temples, squeezing his eyes shut. He needs to process. He needs to think about everything.] Saying it's real doesn't make it real.

Hmmm. Not really.

_{[Yeah, well - Coop himself started with the violent crimes task force when he was twenty-three, and he looked like eighteen at the time, so he's not going to question this guy's abilities. (Word of advice, though, Reid: slick your hair back. It actually makes a world of difference when you want people to take you seriously.)]}

That started out as the Behavioral Science Unit, right? I've been in touch with them on more than one occasion.

_{[1989 over here. Not quite the same terminology.]}

[Hope's not some doctor or psychologist but he is a scientist and engineer and a damn good one at that. So that's what he uses.]

What would make something real for you? Sight? Sound? Smell?

... Not home. Don't say "home", because while it can be an answer for most, we're definitely not in our home worlds right now, and you may not have any of your friends here.

[It's totally not a religious token from a Palo Mayombe Babalawo meant to give him protection what are you talking about

As the reality sinks in again, color drains from his face, but he keeps his breathing even.] ...I think I need to lie down, to be honest. [He's had no time to process. He needs to find a bed and curl up on it and just think. And then nap. Because panic attacks are exhausting and he's still convinced he's crazy.]

[For the love of god what is it with you doe-eyed baby agents and needing protective charms from your assorted spiritualities of choice. SIIIIIIIGH.]

No, what you need is for someone to spoon-feed you the reality of what's going on in small bite-size portions that you can chew on one at a time and make the situation look manageable instead of overwhelming. You can't explain what's going on here, and all lying down is going to do is give you the peace and quiet to start internalizing, obsessing, and ultimately concluding that you're either dreaming or crazy. Which you're not.

[Pause.]

Take a deep breath. Right now, you focus on two objectives. You go through your backpack and take inventory of what you've got, and then you find the road that leads west out of town. Got it?

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<font face=Courier New">What sorts of phenomena are you prepared to accept? If you're only used to the mundane, I doubt you'll react very well to what I'm about to tell you.

I used to travel a lot, so that's kind of a difficult question to answer. What about you?

_{[The voice crackling in over the feed is a little smoky-sounding, but sympathetic. And young.]}

Sorry to be a bearer of bad news, but it's not a prank.

Pretty sure your friend wouldn't be able to pull something like THIS off in the name of messing with somebody. Unless he was like... the god of pranks or something.

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1st Genius α Video/Action for New Bark Ω

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