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

[donoteattheweeds]

Desta can't be more than a foot tall, and, were Dedue standing, she wouldn't even come up to his knee in height. Even kneeling, she's tiny compared to him, her little arms unable to wrap entirely around his leg. Dedue puts a gentle hand on her head, careful to avoid the thorns there, to comfort her as she cries. He doesn't remember her, but he isn't so cruel a man as to let her cry without at least trying to console her.

It is... strange, to have real evidence of someone else relying on him like this. In the past, there had really only been Dimitri-- while Dedue would have readily come to the aid of any of the Blue Lions in battle, he was not the person that they would reach out to for softer kinds of support. The kind that didn't require him to rout an enemy, to take a blow. Only His Highness' emotional state had ever mattered in that manner. One more strange thing in the sea of strange things that is this brave new world.

"I have not devoted much attention to this new world," he says. "For the eight days that I have been here, I have thought of little else but returning to your side."

It had been his sole driving force-- the need to find Dimitri and return to him. Five years of searching for him, chasing after a ghost who left a trail of destruction for him to follow, and he was so cruelly wrenched away from him again after less than a full month in his presence. How could Dedue have given much thought to anything other than chasing Dimitri down before he slipped between his fingers like smoke? He couldn't bear another extended hunt.

Dedue is tired, and Dimitri's eye is clearer than he has seen it in so long, and this garden is beautiful. It seems almost too good to be true, that he is here and His Highness is here and there is no war to be fought, no enemy to raise an axe against.

"I would like that," he says softly, "if you will rest here with me."

[nastyboy]

Of course Dedue sought only to find him Dimitri is not particularly surprised at this bit of knowledge. If he had been a little more - in control of himself, maybe, if he had simply been able to think more clearly when he first arrived, Dimitri imagines he would have tore things apart brick by brick in an attempt to find those he left behind.

Those left behind for better or worse, really.

But such frantic desperation is not needed here. This peaceful world asks for so little while offering so much. Dimitri wants to give everything he can to Dedue, who has been by his side for so long, fighting against the same thing that robbed them of better lives. Nothing but relief goes through him as Dedue agrees to rest.

A part of Dimitri still thinks he deserves no such thing, that he should serve an eternal penance for so many wretched things he has done and not done. Possibly that part of him will never really leave. But Dedeu deserves this and a lot more. The entire world, in Dimitri's opinion. So he nods without hesitation, and gently takes Dedue's free hand. "I will," he promises Dedue. "Let us rest in the shade, then - the summer heat must have been unbearable on the way here."

There are a lot more incredible things in Johto that could help with this goal; the hot tub is only a short distance away from them after all. Yet there is a sweetness in simplicity, in the things they know, and so Dimitri guides Dedue towards a comfortable patch of shadow offered by some of the trees. Dimitri lays down so that just enough of his body is covered by it, enough for him to close his eye comfortably while the rest of him takes in the sun.

His hand does not let go of Dedue's. This is not the longest they have ever been separated from each other... But that does not mean he has to care for those moments.

[donoteattheweeds]

Dimitri takes his hand, and the callouses across his palm that he gained from endless hours of wielding a lance are familiar, but... softer. A man living a gentler life. Dedue rises when prompted, careful so that he doesn't disturb little Desta as he goes, and lets himself be led over to an appealingly shaded spot. It's cooler there, away from the summer heat, and pleasantly sun-dappled, and when Dimitri lowers himself to the grass, Dedue follows him, as always.

He lays down in the grass, his hair a spill of pale gold against the green, his eye closed, his face relaxed. His vassal sits next to him, still holding tight to his hand-- reassurance that he is solid and real. Reassurance, perhaps, for the both of them. Dedue stays like that for a few moments, watching his lord rest as he has rarely seen him do before. It's... good. It's good to see him rest, to have a little peace and stillness in a life that is so often filled with violence, and Dedue wouldn't deny that it makes him glad to see him this way.

He feels the weight of his long march, now that he's off of his feet; he is deeply tired, as could only be expected of a man who took a five hundred mile march in just over a week. He is here, and this Dimitri that lays before him is a far cry from the one who haunted Garreg Mach, who led them implacably forward to either doom or victory, a bloody end regardless. Long moments pass where he does no more than study Dimitri's patrician face, as though if he looks long enough, he could etch every plane and curve of it indelibly into his memory. As though if he looks away, even for a moment, all of this might disappear like a mirage.

After those long moments, he lays down, their hands still clasped, eyes still on Dimitri. Dedue can't remember how long it's been since they laid like this, side by side-- not since they were boys, probably, before the Master of the Royal Household took him aside when Dimitri was at his lessons and told him in no uncertain terms that it was unseemly for a prince's vassal to spend the night in his quarters. It was a battle that he couldn't afford to fight; his position at court was always tenuous, even with Dimitri's favor, and he couldn't risk being sent away.

At that age, the thought of spending five years without him would have been unbearable. It truly nearly had been, and only the knowledge that Dimitri had escaped Fhirdiad and the desperate hope that the man hunting Imperial soldiers was his prince kept him moving forward.

And now, he is resting peacefully. He lives in a house with his close friends and their creature companions, with pictures on almost every surface of their happiness.

If Dedue closes his eyes, will all of this be gone when he opens them again? Will he open them to find himself in his tent the night before they march on Gronder, and Dimitri still ruled by his darkness?

He keeps his eyes on his lord and holds on tight.

[nastyboy]

Sometimes, Dimitri cannot trust his own senses. In fact, he has often felt that he cannot almost more than he can, at least in the moments that count.

His taste abandoned him long ago, leaving behind only a blank nothing broken up only by heat or texture or its distant cousin of scent. During battle of the harshest kind, during Sreng and so many terribly bloody battles after that, it felt as though his sight ended up spirited away too. How many battles did it feel as though he were not himself? That he could not remember the details clearly of?

Once upon a time, he used to think that at least his hearing served him well. In fact, it served him better than well, because couldn't he hear the voices of his lost loved ones? Couldn't he hear them clamoring for justice, for vengeance, for wrongs to be righted? They kept him such company for so many years, too, even if their words were not always the kindest.

It still hurts, when he remembers his realization. When he remembers that they were never really there at all. It hurts even more when he sometimes has that brief and quiet lapse into believing their presence true, and comes out of it.

But smell has not failed him. Touch has not failed him. At least, not yet. And so as he lays there in the gentle shade, Dimitri keeps his eye closed and focuses on Dedue's hand.

Back when Dedue first appeared, almost a ghost given physical form and so different from the bitter voice in his head, Dimitri had been too overwhelmed to take him in properly like he feels he should have. There was too much relief, too much confusion, too much in general for him to have done so. And then Gronder had been looming so immediately on the horizon, Edelgard's presence like blood in water, and...

None of it should have been an excuse. He should have done then what he does now: hold on tight, rubbing his thumb along the soft skin of Dedue's hand and finding scars marring what should be a smooth surface. How many scars are there, that he never got to see, but that he knows how they came to be?

Dedue deserves so much. He needs to get started on giving it to him, as soon as he possibly can.

Slowly, Dimitri opens his eyes, turns his head just enough to the side. It isn't a surprise to find that Dedue is looking right back him. Touch and sight keep them connected, at least for now, when so much seems ephemeral. "There are many fish dishes here," he murmurs. "Allow me the chance to spoil you with them for tonight, Dedue. I feel.. I have much to make up for."

If he started, he wouldn't know where to stop.

At least the Pokemon seem to be adjusting better. Desta does not seem inclined to leave Dedue's side at any point, curled up against him as though to make sure he will not disappear without her again. At Dimitri's own side, Nicholas has settled down as well, and the Delibird seems absorbed with digging through the strange bag that makes up his tail. Dimitri hardly pays him any mind, honestly. All of his attention is on Dedue.

[donoteattheweeds]

For a few moments, they are both quiet, and there is just the sound of their breathing, the gentle touch of Dimitri's hand on his, as though he is trying to map Dedue's skin by blind touch alone. In the five years of their separation, he has had many opportunities to get new scars, though most of those are not on his hands. The one that Dimitri traces over now is very old-- the thickened, uneven stretch of a burn scar, one of the many marks left on him before he met His Highness.

Dimitri's eye opens again. How could Dedue ever look away, when that eye regards him with fondness instead of pain or sorrow or rage, or some sick combination of them all? Peace suits him far better than war ever did-- Dimitri had always been too kind, too compassionate for the terrible role that fate had thrust upon him. He deserves a kinder life and a better world than the one that he would born into. It is a testament to how good a man he is that, in lacking such a better world, he seeks to build it himself.

Who would not follow him unflinchingly into the Eternal Flames, knowing him as Dedue does?

"Between us, there are no amends to make," he says, and it's true. Any transgression that Dimitri has ever done against him was forgiven in the very same breath. "Being at your side again is enough."

Even if he died today, tomorrow, yesterday, being at Dimitri's side will have always been enough.

Also, getting food would require him to get up again, and Dedue isn't entirely sure how easily he'd be able to rise now that he'd laid down. Eight days straight of a fast marching pace would be hard on any foot soldier, and Dedue has covered probably more distance than would be demanded of even the most harried regiment. His feet have certainly seen better days. It's not that he isn't hungry, he's fairly certain that he could give Raphael a run for his money at the moment, it's just that... there's something of a cost-benefit analysis going on, and his stomach hasn't quite won out yet.

"Tell me more about this place," he says instead, "and the creatures you have with you."

[nastyboy]

Of course. Dedue asks for so little, sometimes. Some of it, Dimitri knows, has had to do with the politics of the land they lived in. Maybe some of it was because the two of them were working together for something much grander, something that might very well take a lifetime to properly make right.

Dimitri sometimes suspects that a bit of it is just Dedue being stubborn.

There's no point in really bringing up more of that, not when Dedue is so tired that he can be coaxed onto the grass again like they were children, and with this place being so overwhelming as to put a tidal wave to shame.

So he nods, hair catching in the grass, at the request to talk more about Johto and all its incredible qualities. "It is incredible, Dedue," he murmurs. "There is no war here, despite such a fondness for battle as simple sport. No one is left wanting for the things they need to live. To have a roof over one's head, to purchase food for one's stomach, even the ability to help prevent illness and fix injuries... It is all so easily available, even for those who roam so constantly."

For a moment, Dimitri pauses, feeling a twist of shame in his gut. "When I first arrived... I thought it were the afterlife, for that reason." Disappearing without explanation, on the eve of a great battle? Dimitri had felt so sure... Even now, he sometimes still wakes up and feels that it must be true.

He never voices it, of course. Not where poor Chip could hear, not where Felix could bristle at it. Usually, with the help of some of his Pokemon guiding him, he manages to make his way through it, stop thinking such thoughts again.

But no. It is real. "One day... Even if I cannot make it happen in my own life, the entirety of this sort of place, I will provide the foundation for this to happen in the future, for Faerghus and Duscur both." Maybe even for Fodlan as a whole, although even a single step towards any of the things present in Johto would no doubt send the nobility into an uproar. Well, him refusing to let go of Dedue's hand did that to start with, so they can roar all they like.

"As for the creatures-" And that is around the time that the small bird laying against his stomach finally seems satisfied with his searching. Nicholas the Delibird straightens up with a soft noise of triumph, and pulls out a small paper bag out from his peculiar tail. He crawls across Dimitri's stomach, sliding down to settle in the space between both men, before he holds out the bag to Dedue.

Inside is a large muffin - no longer warm but still soft and moist, filled with crunchy nuts to break up the texture. Nicholas has decided that Dedue seems like the kind of guy to like nuts in his muffins. Time will tell if that assessment is right or not.

Either way, Dimitri smiles slightly, and carefully pets the bird's soft feathers. "This is Nicholas. These countries place great value on the bond between the companions they make." Pausing, Dimitri shifts upwards just enough to look around the garden, towards the house. What he's about to say... He doesn't want to say it while in earshot of Chip, and so he has to make sure that they are not about. "They are called Pokemon, here," he confesses to Dedue quietly as he sinks back against the grass. "But a child that I travel with, Chip - they call them Paliens, based on something quite similar in their own homeland, and it makes them happy when I use the same phrasing."

[donoteattheweeds]

Dedue has seen a fair bit of this country, albeit briefly, when he walked across it. He never spent much time in any one particular place, not when he was so intent on finding His Highness again, but what he did see was peaceful and kind and almost impossibly welcoming. He was a stranger every place that he went, yet was treated with neither suspicion nor hostility. There is no hatred for him here as a man of Duscur-- it is almost unsettling to be regarded as any other person who might walk through town.

Dimitri has had the time to become more acquainted with this world, and he speaks of it all with such quiet admiration. There is much to be admired, of course, in a country that can take care of its citizens so well, ensuring that even those among them who choose to wander can have full bellies and good health. Fodlan could benefit, perhaps, from lessons learned here; even in the capital of Faerghus, disease ran rampant for many years despite the best efforts of its governance, and regions like the county of Galatea are still plagued by hunger. Magic can do much to aid the suffering of the injured, but it's not something that's widely available to the common man. There is much that could stand to be improved, especially for those who aren't so fortunate as to be born into a powerful noble house.

Doubtless, trying to implement such radical changes in Faerghus would invite backlash from the traditional noble families. But Dimitri is already planning to change so much, what's a few more things added into the mix? The nobles will always wail and gnash their teeth at any slight indication of a disruption to their comfortable lives. But with good friends supporting him, even that will not be so insurmountable an obstacle. What's there to fear from the mewling of discontented old men if Felix is with him, with his tongue sharper than anything the old nobility could ever muster and a spine like steel? And Sylvain, who has enough charm to sway any room and wits enough to know when to use it? And Mercedes and Annette, Ingrid and Ashe-- Dimitri will not be changing the world alone. And Dedue, of course, always, even if he has no power in court. They had all followed Dimitri into war, and surely they would all follow him to a better future.

"That is a dream that I would be proud to help you realize." Even if they can't do it all in their lifetime, if they just plant the seeds for a garden that they will never see-- it will still be an incredible achievement. It's a worthwhile fight, to be able to hand a better world to your children.

"But, Your Highness, if you should have those thoughts again, that you have mentioned," the worrisome ones, thinking that this place is the afterlife, "please remember that I am here for you."

Dedue has never turned him away when he needed him, no matter the time of day or night. It's never an inconvenience when it comes to Dimitri.

He also speaks about his companion creatures with fondness, even as one of them, the odd looking bird-creature, climbs across his stomach with all of the courtesy of a cat that's decided that every one of your organs makes for a good stepping-stone. It has retrieved something from its... sack? tail? and presents it to Dedue. He takes it, of course, with thanks, in part because he wouldn't know quite what else to do when a bird hands him a paper bag. Inside is an appetizing looking pastry, which is a surprisingly appropriate gift considering Dedue's current state. He distracted from any suspiciously fortuitous pastry contemplation, however, when Dimitri sits up to briefly survey their surroundings; he settles back once he's satisfied, but it's an odd action considering the topic of conversation.

He shouldn't be surprised at the explanation. Dimitri has always been kind to children, and that fact remains true even now. It's... sweet, that he would use the word that this child prefers simply because it would make them happy. It's a small thing, really, but to children, even small things can be important.

"I will remember the term," he says, because what's the harm in using it? Though something bothers him-- "This child, however. Are they here alone?"

Because where did Dimitri find a child?

[nastyboy]

"Oh, thank goodness no," Dimitri says immediately, with an absolute flood of relief washing over him as he can contrast the reality of the matter to this much more disastrous hypothetical. He adores Chip, of course he does...

But he has also seen them buy bags full of candy to devour immediately only to curl up in pure suffering. He has been told tales of them climbing into dangerous areas, on unsteady terrain, to challenge dangerous individuals. Chip is still learning to swim.

And that's not even talking about what happened at Prom, the things that pose a danger to a child even in a place that does not know war.

If Dimitri ever finds out who is behind that - or perhaps even so much as speaks to the arrogant man who had insisted that the masks and only those were necessary to a simple masquerade, he's going to pull their intestines out from their nostrils.

...Anyway.

Dimitri lets out a breath, gently petting Nicholas as the bird continues to dig through his bag. "At the same time I first arrived in this place, so too did Chip, and their father, Grant," he explains. "We became traveling companions, when Chip became eager to explain this world to me." Nicholas pulls out an apple, this time, and Dimitri doesn't think twice as he accepts it when it's passed along to him. "And Grant... helped me a great deal, when I first arrived here, even though he did not have to."

Frankly, it would have no doubt been easier for Grant to leave him to his own devices. He had his hands full, just watching after Chip, and adjusting to a land that was very different than his own.

And yet regardless...

"I owe him a great deal," Dimitri says quietly. "I think you will like him. He has a good temperament and kind personality." Or perhaps that is just Dimitri's own desire to have some of his most loved people get along. Felix and Grant's awkward start had been enough of a distant worry, some months ago. He'd like it if that weren't the case here.

...Although, now that he thinks about it, he still might have to deal with Felix and Dedue being a bit - stiff with each other. Sure. That's the phrasing.

[donoteattheweeds]

The child has a father-- good. While he doesn't doubt that Dimitri will-- one day-- be a fine father, that doesn't necessarily mean that that day should be today. And, of course, it's for the better that the child has their father here to look after them; it's a frightening thing to be alone in a strange world with no parents to guide you.

Dimitri speaks more than just fondly of this parent, Grant, who traveled with him when he first arrived. He feels a stab of something in his gut that isn't far from guilt when His Highness speaks of arriving alone, needing aid and only able to rely upon the kindness of strangers. Dedue didn't have a choice in being separated from him, but it pains him nevertheless that he wasn't able to be there when he was needed. He's a poor shield for His Highness if he isn't there to aid him.

Even so, it is encouraging that Dimitri has come so far as to be able to make friends again. This would have been an impossible feat for him before Gronder, when every fiber of his being was dedicated to taking Edelgard's head from her shoulders. When the voices of the dead were louder than those of the living.

"If he is as good of a man as you say, than I am certain that I will." Since Grant is important to Dimitri, Dedue would make all attempts at being decent to him, as well. If he can manage civility towards Felix, he ought to be able to get along with anyone, really. "And I am glad that, in my absence, you have been among friends."

And speaking of friends, stiff is an understatement when it comes to Dedue and Felix's current strained relationship. Dedue can barely walk into a room without Felix, at the very least, becoming irritated, if not outright combative. Back in their proper world, there was an entire monastery for them to be on opposite sides of if necessary; that's not the case in a house, or in a traveling party. They will have to, somehow, through likely titanic efforts, learn to tolerate each other.

[nastyboy]

Among friends... Dimitri drifts into a momentary silence as he considers that, and recalls what he can of his early days in Johto. Some of those days are, admittedly, something of a blur, where they exist at all. Robbed of what he felt was his purpose, believing himself to be a spirit of the dead, he had lost so much of his fire that had carried him through five miserable years, and made him such unfit company when their old class reunited. Those days in Cherrygrove... He had worked, and avoided sleep, and adjusted to such peculiar creatures and technology quietly.

The first step of change, when things first started to become clear regularly...

"I was truly fortunate," he agrees quietly. "Thanks to Grant's efforts, I began to sleep again - first in short bursts, and then for much longer when he managed to meet a creature that agreed to help me. Ah - actually, Nicholas, could you go retrieve Kent's Pokeball?"

The bird looks up at him when he speaks, head tilted to the side, before chirruping and sliding off of him. As the Delibird begins to trot off towards the house again with his short little legs, Dimitri turns his hattention back to Dedue. "The creatures here are truly incredible... and they also have helped me in recovering. I will be glad to introduce you to all of them, and hope you find stalwart companions that suit you as well. Desta will help make such a task easier."

The Roselia in question seems to have finished sniffling for the time being, and seems to have drifted into a state of content... and maybe the kind of drowsy state one gets into after crying too much, considering how she rests against Dedue's body.