Interlude: Pokemon and the Imperial Officers who Love Them (chapter 2.5)
Califf, Jennifer (jcaliff@nsai-petro.com)
Thu, 3 Jun 1999 16:21:11 -0500
Interlude: Pokemon and the Imperial Officers who Love Them (chapter 2.5)
An intermediate sequel to Legend of Galactic Pokemon and Flight of the
Valkyries (Macross7 x-over which can be found on my homepage; LoGP is
not there yet and probably won't be until either tonight or after A-kon)
by Jennifer Califf
After Reinhart departed and all the other members of his staff finally
awoke from their pokemon-induced slumber, Seigfried Kirchies was left
alone to speak with Mecklinger.
"Well, that went over better than I expected it would," Kircheis noted.
"Yes, I'm happy that it was received with such enthusiasm," replied
Mecklinger happily.
"I'll admit that I was a little surprised myself," Kircheis added, "When
you first told me about your pokemon, I really had no idea what to
expect. For some reason, I imagined that a creature with such a
powerful voice would be, well, a little bigger. And I never thought it
would be so incredibly cute." Kircheis smiled at the thought of the
little pink pokemon with the huge round eyes.
"There are those who consider cuteness to be a powerful weapon in-and-of
itself," Mecklinger answered. Kirchies started to laugh, but caught
himself when he quickly realized that Mecklinger was serious.
"You saw Bittenfeld's reaction," he continued, "There are those who are
violently repulsed by cuteness. And on the other end of the spectrum,
there are those who will steadfastly defend a cute creature on the
merits of its cuteness alone, despite the creature's otherwise
destructive or dangerous behavior. You'd be surprised what strong
reactions the presence of cuteness will arouse in humans."
"You speak with a great amount of authority on the subject of cuteness,"
Kircheis said, trying not to laugh at how stupid he might sound, "It's
easy to see that you are truly a pokemon master."
"Believe it or not," Mecklinger continued, oblivious to Kircheis'
amusement, "I was once a primary lobbyist of a group that was trying to
get the Pokemon League to recognize cuteness as a measurable
characteristic of pokemon. We came up with a scale, called the
kawaii-scale, which ranked cuteness as a factor of emotional response in
humans. We wanted to create a new sub-classification of Pokemon."
"Sub-classification?" Kircheis asked, immediately regretting that he had
done so. Mecklinger took the opportunity to explain to Kircheis all
about the different types and classifications of pokemon. Kircheis
patiently listened, chalking it up as an educational opportunity.
Thinking back, he realized that he'd never heard Mecklinger speak so
much and with such enthusiasm before.
"So," Kircheis finally asked, "do you have any other pokemon with you
here besides Jigglypuff?"
"Of course! I have six pokemon. Would you like to see them?"
Mecklinger answered eagerly.
"Yes, I would," Kircheis returned, wondering at the same time how
Mecklinger managed to feed and take care of six animals without anyone
else in the fleet finding out about them. Mecklinger pulled out six
balls, some red and white, others blue and white. One after the other
he pressed the buttons on each, releasing their contents.
"Of course you remember Jigglypuff," he said as the balloon-shaped
pokemon appeared once again, calling out its name as it did.
"Jigglypuff," Kircheis addressed the ball of cuteness, "thank you for
helping us to win the next battle. I know you'll do your best."
"Jiggly!" it responded, bouncing up and down happily.
"And this is Chansey," Mecklinger continued, gesturing to another pink
pokemon. This one was slightly larger than Jigglypuff, and it carried
an egg in a pouch at its midsection.
"Chansey!" it answered, calling out its name.
"This Chansey is a pokemon that trained with Nurse Joy at the Pokecenter
in Veridian City. There aren't any medical facilities for pokemon in
the fleet, so I have to be prepared to take care of my own pokemon.
Chansey helps me."
"I'm pleased to meet you, Chansey," Kircheis said, bowing slightly to
the egg-shaped pokemon.
"And these are my other pokemon: Clefairy, Lickitung, Slowbro, and
Ditto," Mecklinger said, gesturing to the other 4 pokemon who called out
their names in response. Kircheis decided that Clefairy looked a little
like a cross between Jigglypuff and Chansey with little wings on its
back. He was more taken aback by the other three pokemon. Lickitung
was a strange looking creature with a hideously long tongue, and Slowbro
was a bear-like pokemon with some kind of shell attached to its tail.
As for Ditto, well, Kircheis wasn't sure WHAT to make of the amoeba-like
creature with a little smiling face.
"Very. . . . interesting," Kircheis said hesitantly. He silently
wondered just what kind of food creatures like these ate.
"When I first started training pokemon and trying to become a member of
the pokemon league, I tried to capture the most powerful pokemon so that
I could win battles easily," Mecklinger said, bending down closer to his
pokemon so he could pet Lickitung on the head. "But like many people, I
eventually decided to concentrate my interests on a specific type of
pokemon. Some people prefer fire pokemon, while others collect water
pokemon or grass-type pokemon."
"So what type of pokemon are these?" Kircheis asked, wondering if he
hadn't been listening closely enough during Mecklinger's earlier
lecture.
"They're pink," Mecklinger answered.
"Pink?" Kircheis asked, perplexed. No, he definitely didn't remember
"pink" as a catagory of pokemon.
"Yes," Meckliger stated matter-of-factly.
"I like pink."
"...."
"Well," Kircheis finally spoke, "that's very, uh, interesting. I guess
I really should be going," he continued, heading towards the door.
"This has certainly been . . .educational. Jigglypuff," he addressed
the little pokemon, "we'll be counting on you." With that, he escaped
out the door.
After a moment of silently contemplating the door behind which Kircheis
had vanished, Mecklinger stood up and looked at his pokemon.
"All right, everyone return to your pokeballs," he said, holding up the
balls one at a time while each pokemon vanished in turn until only
Chansey remained. Mecklinger realized that his pokemon was staring
strangely at him.
"What?" he asked.
"Chansey?" Chansey asked, cocking its head.
"Don't start that again," he responded, holding out Chansey's pokeball.
"I don't want to talk about it. Chansey, return," he finished, and the
little pink egg-pokemon disappeared in burst of light.
"There's nothing wrong with the color pink," he assured himself as he
prepared to return to his ship.
Meanwhile, in the Alliance fleet, a young musician named Basara sat in
the center of the dining hall playing his guitar, oblivious to the
sometimes snide comments that floated around the room. He only had one
thought in his mind.
*Next time, they WILL listen to my song!* he thought to himself.
Coming soon:
The ultimate battle between jpop and cuteness! Who will win? Is Basara
really a pokemon in disguise? Will Jigglypuff write all over Reinhart's
face if he falls asleep? And what's wrong with liking the color pink?
Stay tuned!
Jennifer
jcaliff@nsai-petro.com http://www.topher.net/~jcaliff/iserlohn.htm
Broken mirror, a million shades of light
The old echo fades away
But just you and I can find the answer and then
We can run to the end of the world
-"Small of Two Pieces" lyrics by Masato Kato, end theme of Xenogears
