Fifth (lack of) sleep note. Actually in the morning. LET'S PLAY POKEMON GO.

[11calls]

[Alex actually looks awake and happy and downright cheerful today. Someone should probably be afraid or take the coffee away. But she's got a new project that she can throw her work into, and nothing tends to energize Alex like a new project or a new lead.]

Hey guys, I'm Alex Reagan. Today I want to talk to you about Pokemon Go. I know it's probably not as sobering as it should be with the holiday going on, but I wanted to get working on it sooner rather than later!

[Alex kind of went slightly off the rails for a little while, but she's back on them which is why this has taken so long.]

So back on my version of Earth, and other versions to apparently, there's this game called Pokemon Go. It's played using a cellphone and GPS and allows you to go out and collect computer generated pokemon from random places, and you can then train them and battle against other players with them. I know we have actual pokemon here, but these don't require you know, actually catching them and caring for them and stuff. [Alex thinks it's cruel because she doesn't know any better!] Back home, a lot of people do it as a family activity, or just as physical fitness because you actually need to go out and go to the places where they are.

When I was talking with someone, it struck me that this could be a good idea for here. It's kind of a low-stakes just having fun being out and doing something sort of thing. When I was talking with Tony Stark, who reversed engineered the app and is my hero for doing so, but it's not as simple as just having the program. And that's where you guys come in.

[Alex is grinning a bit, and she's got her best convincing face on. It's a good convincing face.]

So, in order to make the game go, we need to have a good virtual map of Riverview Quarantine and the places within the settlement that we shouldn't have people be going, unless you know, they're a trained person or know what they're doing. Where this app can be helpful, not only as a community based effort, or something we can do together, is that it's something we can take the info from and use it to show newbies where not go to and everything like that. Simple, right?

Now, I'm a runner, and I'm out there putting in my three miles or so every day, and I see other folks who run, walk, just go exploring, do perimeter sweeps with the guard and that sort of thing. You guys can help with the rending, all you need to do is go about your daily lives and just click the app open when you come where we have a blank spot in the map. I definitely want people to be safe as possible when doing this, so know your own limits.

[Alex takes out her own device and shows the areas that she's filled in just by doing normal stuff.]

It's really that simple and that easy, and it honestly can be that fun the more people we get to play it and work on it! Thanks!

Comments

video | un: undertaker

[somakemelaugh]

[He might... be interested. Not that he has any interest in capturing animals or not and training them, but help with mapping? He can do.] I like to stretch my legs now and then. Does this involve a standard map, looking from the top down, or do you intend to climb to the top of buildings and such as well? Not too safe for some people, but I think I could manage that.

[11calls]

[For a moment, Alex just considers, and she touches her chin for a minute before she replies.]

I think that it just maps things from the ground up, but I honestly didn't think to ask. I mean, if that's something you can do and don't mind doing, I'd appreciate it!

[somakemelaugh]

I can try it, if nothing else. Do you think it's any different, mapping the up and down, just by tapping the area? [He pauses to reconsider.] Perhaps I ought to just try it and see.

[11calls]

That's probably a good idea. I came up with doing this but I'm definitely not a tech expert like Tony is.

[somakemelaugh]

In that, we are alike. I still can't believe you call this thing a phone. [He lifts his device, jostling the view just a little.] Stranger things have happened, but this is bizarre even for me.

[11calls]

Yeah, everything seems a thousand times weirder when you've been kidnapped to a moon.

[There's a laugh in her voice.]

Thankfully this thing isn't all that much different than what I've been using at home.

[somakemelaugh]

Hm. From the future then, are you? That seems to be a common theme with this place. It'll just be a little longer for me to get used to the app you want me to use. [He can be taught!] It doesn't sound hard, but nothing with this does until I try to use it.

[11calls]

Can I ask when you're from?

[somakemelaugh]

Oh, around the end of the nineteenth century. Eighteen eighty-nine, to be precise. What year are you from, if you're from Earth? We never can be too certain these days in this place.

[11calls]

Oh wow. I'm from Earth in 2017. September of 2017.

[somakemelaugh]

Earth, I know. Maybe we have that much in common. Seems like most everyone else I've met here comes from somewhere around that time, or very near to it. [He puts his chin against a palm and watches the screen.] What's it like where you live, then? Other than the technology, I mean. It's a royal mess, I think. Convenient, I'm sure, but such a mess.

[11calls]

Yeah, it definitely can be. But we're also more a global community than ever before because of the technology.

[somakemelaugh]

[He nods.] True enough. We'd take days to even get a letter to someone on the other side of the city. It has its uses, I'll grant it, and I am glad to have it. [In a way. But he won't argue the benefits, especially when it helped him to save his Earl's life just a few months back.] Very glad.

[11calls]

[Alex can tell there's a personal reason there, and it's in all of her investigative journalist instincts to ask, but she's trying hard not to be full on reporter when doing something fun like this. So instead she asks:]

Have you tried anything fun on it? Your phone, I mean.

[somakemelaugh]

[It was a different time and a far different age.]

Fun? I might have. These photographs have been quite the adventure all on their own. [He may have blown his memory up a time or two and had to figure out how to delete things after taking too many pics trying to see the world as it is, not as his eyes see it.]

[11calls]

They really are. Selfies are a thing I love to do, honestly. But I meant more things like games?

[somakemelaugh]

Games? Oh, no. [He grins, thinking on his few and frustrating attempts with those.] I fear my hands just aren't made for those.

[11calls]

Is it an accessibility issue? Because I'm sure there's some for people with those somewhere on this thing.

[somakemelaugh]

[Accessibility? He's not sure, but he can guess.] Not quite. I'd just rather keep these [He lifts a hand to show her his long, dark fingernails.] than play something on so small a screen. There are so many other things I can use to keep busy.

[11calls]

Oh yeah, my friend Amalia has nails that long. I know that it's possible to get used to it, but it's totally a pain in the ass to do it too.

[somakemelaugh]

Indeed, it is. I've lived all of my recent life with them like this, but things were much easier without the technology you have. Quills and paper, that was what we used. Much more nail-friendly, to be sure, though it'd take days longer to get the message across. But I've had to be used to this as well now. No going back.

[11calls]

I can definitely understand that. Has anyone looked into maybe getting you a stylus? You could write on your phone with that in certain apps. Then you've got the best of both worlds, really.

[somakemelaugh]

They might have. I don't know what it is, so I couldn't say for sure. If you mean that penlike thing that has no ink, I've looked into it myself, but passed it by. The screen on these phones is so small, I couldn't make a good use of it either way, but a good suggestion still.

[11calls]

Yeah that's what I meant by one. I'm sorry it doesn't work for you! I was hoping it'd be a good compromise.

[somakemelaugh]

[He's taking this in stride. It's not as if his lack of clear sight is a disability, not to him, but he's intrigued nonetheless.]

Oh, no need for apologies. I appreciate the thought. Tell me, do you ever use one of them? This stylus thing?