bottlebay | AUDIO

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yugioh: seto kaiba

AUDIO

I want to take a general census. No one has to participate, but input would be valuable.

To anyone who hears this and decides to participate, how long have you been here? Has there been any indication of being able to return, or is that something we all just avoid talking about?

And have there been any improvements on technology or general infrastructure besides what is powered by Pokemon abilities? Or are we really all going to remain living at the mercy of some Psychic types who can screw with our dreams whenever they choose?

At this point, I can't think of any reason why there's such an over-reliance on using powers that we can reasonably assume put strain on living beings, rather than to build external utilities that can renew themselves in order to allow for proper technological advancements.

[There's a reason he's rather sparing with his Grumpearl usage.]

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Fun question for you: for those of us who died before arriving here, what would returning mean? Some of us avoid that discussion because this beats oblivion.

Anyway. I've been here since September.

Well, where I was before there wasn't a way to escape either. But we have been improving things! Parvati led a huge plumbing project, and a couple people have gotten their cell phones back.

I got here in September, I think.

[Seto "Death is Not An Excuse" Kaiba has about twenty things to say to that, but he should probably exercise tact.]

The dead can simply consider that question "not applicable".

[There was an attempt.]

That's an improvement, and reacquiring cellular devices is also very important, provided they can be properly charged.

Can they, or is that also reliant on Pokemon power? Furthermore, I doubt they're useful without requisite towers.

[He squints for a moment at what was said before all that.]

Explain how you were trapped somewhere. Obviously you don't mean the afterlife if you phrased it that way.

And I will.

What sort of ideas do you have for these external utilities?

[She came into this world seeing no issue with using powers that put strain onto individuals. She put strain on others to fuel her own everything, back home.]

Almost six months, and if there was: you'd have heard Akechi screamin' about it now. And I built a filtering pump for Oran. Surprised you missed that.

Edited 2026-02-12 23:16 (UTC)

It's been 84 years...

[This voice definitely sounds like a teenager and not at all elderly, but her tone is almost long-suffering enough to be convincing.]

And other than the plumbing project everyone else has already oh-so-helpfully told you about, Tadbulb lights are pretty much the best we've got around here. Granted, pearls that let you literally read minds are pretty high-tech in my book. Even considering the horrors.

[Where she's from, you have to be dead to pull that off!]

Just Pokémon power right now, but there's nothing stopping us from getting a generator together! Well, I really only know software, not hardware...

[Kinger drifts off, realizing Kaiba's second question.]

Oh! I was trapped inside of digital simulation. [Kinger says, non-chalantly. Perfectly normal place to be trapped.]

Ah, well...I do not really know what you mean by technological improvements. This place is really not so different from where I came from!

[ There's some things back home that don't exist here, but a lot of them wouldn't, he supposes. Humans and Pokemon have different needs. ]

But I have been here over a year, now. I was among the first of us to arrive.

Adding actual infrastructure for telecommunications so that I don't have to use a mind-connected network. I'd rather have service outages than shared head space with dubious division. Maybe everyone else is comfortable with the idea of opening their minds to others, but what's on my mind is no one's business, and unless I expressly ask, I don't care about anyone else's drama.

In order to expand the level of technology, we would also require an electrical grid that is capable of independent operation, rather than having someone feed into it with their elemental powers. Arguably, in this setting, self-sustaining utilities are not out of the question.

I'd rather use my own neural network than someone else's. Especially such a flawed system as these pearls. It's embarrassing.

I am skilled in both. I could make something better if I had the supplies, but at current, there's no way to power any ideas I might have.

[There's a pause of uncertainty, brief as it might be, then:]

That's vague. Explain better.

I'm not on the up and up for everything going on here. The winter is screwing with my levels of alertness, sue me.

But your point is taken: He would have made a big deal of it indeed.

[Ha ha very funny. Whatever, hyperbole isn't the worst right now, so long as they're still having a useful interaction.]

That's not acceptable. We can do better. We should do better. And as for the pearls, I don't care if it seems high-tech, it's not, because it's dependent on the powers of other Pokemon, and I didn't consent to have my brain put into a mindshare that I don't get to opt out of if I want to have conversations like this.

[He prefers being the one in control, thanks.]

Sue you..? [ whatever that means. ]

Besides, if we had a way to go home, I think most folks woulda left by now.

Yeah, well it's different from where I came from. This whole operation is frustratingly primitive, and there's no reason it shouldn't have improved since you arrived, if you were the first.

Has it not, even minimally?

Of course! But Miss Parvati could speak to the new plumbing system better than I - she is the one who created it!

[ Really, everyone else in here has already spoken to all of that better than he could. ]

Edited 2026-02-13 15:31 (UTC)

A real go-getter, aren'tcha?

When you say "we", you do know that you're referring to a bunch of magic animals who don't even know what a phone is, right?

The Industrial Revolution wasn't built in a day, you know.

As for me, I was stuck in The Amazing Digital Circus. The way you get there is you put on a virtual reality headset, and then... you can't take it back off again.

[Kinger definitely knows he knew more at some point about what happens in between, but he just can't remember...]

You'd have hated the Archivist.

Anyway, if you can make any of this happen, go ahead. If you need help with it, let people know on the questboard.

[If Kaiba was paying much attention to the pearls, he probably saw the floorplan Emporio was working with. ...But he probably wasn't, so the last time they interacted was probably that huge ethics debate wayyy back, so, eh.]

In terms of getting back home, I don't think there's been headway. I know it's one of the priorities at the archives, but they seem to have a few projects like that...

I'm...one of the ones who actually asked about staying here though, so it could be Polteageist doesn't think I need to know? I mean I don't even have a universe left...

[hey wait no what the fuck was that last bit???]

Oh, I've been following the development of the light posts in Skull Town though! They seem to be thinking the same things. The ones in Bottlecap are lit manually by Tadbulbs, but right now they've been constructing them with these sparking, glowing rocks from Downmoor.

...I don't think they've been using them to power other things though...Actually it's probably worth looking into if Electric type Pokemon being present is contributing to a lack of work in that direction. I know some people got their phones back, and were able to charge them just by having them near another Pokemon, so imagine having to figure out surge protection on anything bigger!

[Kaiba has been presented ~~enrichment~~ a challenge-]

[ The Grumpearl has been freed from its Poffin Jar prison as Dolly decided to social on it for a bit and... ]

I'll cut to the chase as you already know when I arrived, but, if we were to set up an alternative way of telecommunications, I think a rotary dial phone system is a stronger possibility. I'm not entirely sure about radio, but it's worth a shot in testing as well.

[ Dolly is purposefully avoiding the talk about possibilities of ever getting home.... ]

I've been working on roads and housing. We've all been working on building up the town. You'd know that if you weren't sleeping all the time.

At the mercy of some psychic types. As if that's something to discriminate by. Not all psychic types, fuck you.

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kaiba doesn't understand how kinger works. rip to him

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you're getting video sucker

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im so sorry for him