JULY - AUGUST TEST DRIVE MEME

[indigo_events]

➞ Post with a character you wish to test drive in this game's setting.
➞ Tag other people's starters and thread out shenanigans!
➞ Invite your friends! Try out new characters! Come play with us!
➞ Have fun!

NOT SURE WHERE TO BEGIN YOUR TEST-DRIVE JOURNEY?
CHECK OUT ALL THE LOCATIONS WE HAVE AVAILABLE IN:

JOHTO | KANTO | SEVII ISLANDS

Feel free to make various prompts in multiple locations!

✭ ✭ ✭


OTHER USEFUL LINKS:
NAVIGATION | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS

Comments

Cherrygrove

[worthallthis]

The Soldier has been watching from another table at the outside eatery, without making it obvious he's watching. What even is all that? He hasn't actually had ice cream, either, that he can remember, and that is a lot of it.

Going over and asking isn't going to happen.

Thankfully, there are pokemon for that.

Stevie, the little baby Absol who hasn't managed to grow more than a couple inches in the couple weeks since his hatching, stumbles right over on his little stilt legs and asks plaintively of the Ponyta, "Absol?" Are you sharing, big colorful friend? That's a lot of good-smelling stuff.

[cutesneeze]

Catra turns at the plaintive sound and looks down at the...thing. Tiny thing, which she can't even begin to put a name to, aside from the entirely-too-broad 'probably a pokemon'. "Where did you come from?" she asks, reaching with one hand for her PokeGear in hopes that it might enlighten her as to what exactly she's looking at.

The (still-unnamed, the better to pretend she's not getting attached) Ponyta appears to have no such reservations, as she whickers a greeting and nudges the bowl towards the juvenile Absol before lapping carefully at her side of the ice cream. Yes, small friend, you can share.

[worthallthis]

"Absol!" Stevie says excitedly, and gives the Ponyta's nose a friendly, dog-like lick before digging in.

Because of the direction he came in, and the angle he's sitting at, Catra's table is blocking him from the Soldier's sight, which means a moment later when he realized Stevie is no longer sprawled out by his boots to accept morsels of his own lunch, the guy is shooting to his feet and looking frantically around.

"Absol," says Grace soothingly, who can see Stevie just fine and isn't concerned in the slightest.

[cutesneeze]

Catra notices the man shoot to his feet out of the corner of her eye and stiffens, shoulders going rigid as she tenses in preparation to fight or flee. "You'd better not get me in trouble," she tells the little fluffy monster, then spoils the admonishment by setting down a second bowl of ice cream, this one the same shade of purple as her Ponyta's mane, for the two pokemon to share. She doesn't even taste this one first - she doesn't trust anything that colour to actually be proper food for people.

Pastel horses and little horned fluffy things, on the other hand...

[worthallthis]

"Stevie?"

The little Absol looks up. "Absol!"

Over comes big metal-armed guy, hovering just out of Catra's reach, looking down at Stevie with a mix of relief and apology. "Sorry, ma'am. He seems to think everyone will share with him." Though in this case, he appears to be right. Really, in most cases he appears to be right. It's weird, how much people share around here.

Still, one must ask: "Is he bothering you?"

[cutesneeze]

Catra looks the large man up and down, then shrugs, rigidity seeping out of her posture as she adopts an air of nonchalance distinct from actual relaxation. "If she wants to share her portion," she says, cocking a thumb in the direction of the Ponyta, who looks up from her snack just long enough to bump her trainer's hip with the side of her head in question - challenge?, "that's her call."

Admit she finds the fluffy thing intriguing (and charming) enough that she might've fed it even if her companion hadn't decided the matter for her? Never.

"What is he?"

[worthallthis]

"An Absol," the Soldier says. "A baby one."

"Absol!" Stevie says cheerfully.

"They always say their species name," the Soldier explains. "It's the only word they can speak. Though they understand us all just fine."

[cutesneeze]

Her brow furrows slightly in thought, and she leans down to get a better look at the little creature.

"So do they learn what they are as babies, or are they named that because it's the only thing they can say?"

[worthallthis]

"Think it's the second one, but I'm not an expert," the Soldier admits. "Stevie is from the first eggs Grace gave us. First batch I'd ever seen. But he knew the word right from hatching. No time to really learn it unless he learned it through the shell." But then why only that word and not every other word spoken around him? It has to be hereditary, and then humans picked that for their names. Has to be.

Stevie finally seems to realize that his person isn't eating anything, and noses his bowl the Soldier's way. He blinks, then nudges it back. "If you're enjoying it, you can keep eating it," he tells the little one gently.