ohmyarceus | Test Drive Meme

[Because dogs are not cats, Rio's perfectly content having it in her face for doggy kisses, though she finds it's quite heavy for something of its size. But then she hears the almost accusatory exclamation, shifts her attention... and huffs.

Of course.]

I do have a name.

[Gently easing the Rockruff away, she pushes some hair out of her face and stands up, crossing her arms.]

And I think you should remember perfectly well what it is.

[Of course he remember it.

Of course!

Because how could IV ever forget the name of the girl whom he has burned alive and disfigured for life, on the ever less likely chance that she should wake up from her nearly one year-long coma?! How can she ask him something like that, when he wears the marks of his crimes and his shame so clearly carved into his face?!

But the more he looks, the more he is convinced that this is really her: Rio Kamishiro. The ice duelist who had challenged him to clear her ridiculous brother's name, as if it somehow were his fault Ryouga hadn't been able to resist the temptation of looking into IV's cards and being foolish enough to be caught while doing it to boot! The sister he'd - ]

You....

[There's a high-pitched noise inside his ears that keeps getting louder and louder. For a moment IV can hear the crackling of the flames and the groaning as the building around them succumbed to the inferno he'd unleashed again. There's also the memory of his father, only chiding him for not managing to finish the job and failing to kill the girl for real, when IV had finally come to in that hospital. For a moment he feels the burning of his skin and the stench of his clothes and hair being singed into a melting mess again.]

You are....

[His hand twitches. She is alive. He had so often thought of how he could possibly meet her, ever look her in the eyes again, in a face that couldn't be any longer be protected by bandages-- Her face! His eyes widen and his head snaps up as he realizes what's wrong with this picture with a sudden jolt.

Not even the power of his Crest had been able to fully shield IV from the raging inferno! Rio didn't have a Crest, and she sure as hell had looked a lot worse than he ever has the last time he checked on her! So how the ever-living Hell can she stand right before him now, all proud and bossy and intact when even he---

The right side of his face more numb and damaged than ever as his eyes narrow in an angry blaze and the corner of his lips curl into a snarl. How DARE she appear before him like that, when he's been marked and damaged for life?! How fucking DARE-?!?

He very nearly orders his monster to attack her this very moment. If she's awake and alive again that means that she can run around. That she will tell people about IV and what he's done. She's going to ruin his life!!]

[He will have to get rid of her again. More properly this time. Smarter.

Jerking his head to the side, IV huffs, startling his pokemon.]

I have no clue what you are talking about. Come, Attila, we're leaving!

Ha--

[For a moment, Rio is stunned by the rejection, but is quickly reminded of who she's dealing with once again. Of course he'd want to run away. Of course.

But she's not about to let him go, so she climbs to her feet and springs into action, marching toward his back with long strides and reaching to seize the back of his collar once she's in range. If only he weren't taller than her... she'd be sure to lift his sorry hide off the ground just to rub it in.]

You are not leaving! We need to have words. Now.

[~~It's not running away, it's a tactical retreat before he does something in his high of emotions that won't be good for either of them. (It's running away.)~~]

Gkh!

[For once IV absolutely regrets always wearing shirts that have a high neck collar nowadays. Hiding what little scars the fire left on his neck does not justify being nearly strangled by Rio's grip!]

Let go! [Swinging around, he slaps her hands off before IV grabs her roughly by her wrists. Pulling her closer, he bares his teeth an in angry growl] And while we're at it: Leave it! I don't know what you're hoping to gain, but I know that you aren't her, so don't even think of continuing this farce any longer!!

[Wait, what? He thinks--?

Ignoring the grinding protest of the bones in her wrist, Rio is unafraid to glare right back at him, leaning forward just a little.]

Of course I'm me, you dolt! I wasn't going to stay in the hospital forever, you know. Though you did set the whole area on fire...

[She yanks her wrist free and crosses her arms, making a face at IV.]

What do I have to do to prove it to you? Spill all of Ryouga's deep, dark secrets? Or my own? But knowing you, you'd be much more interested in his, I'm sure...

[He refuses to back down, even though part of him wants. Instead, IV keeps holding her glare with a heated one of his own. He lets her tear herself free without trying to further grab her, though.]

Hmmmph!

[Everybody could claim they knew what she just said to him. He knows there are crazy fan theories out there claiming he secretly murdered her. The fact that she's in hospital is also not all that hard to stumble upon. So what's the game this one's playing... ?

Standing back, he crosses his arms in front of his chest. Next to him, Attila gives a concerned but alert look. Like any good hound, it's good at picking up on its trainers' mood.]

Like I would care about either of you. You're virtually strangers, how the hell would I be even able to tell whether what you're saying is the pure truth or just a bunch of fancy made-up lies you're pulling out of your ass the very moment you're speaking of them? [He scoffs. There's only one way to really make sure it is her, even though that means talking about the things he least wants to.]

Tell me about what happened that day. Why were we there? Where exactly were we? What happened to cause that fire, and how did you get out?

[Rio inhales in, then exhales after a pause. She doesn't want to talk about it either, but as long as he's going to go there...]

...It was before that one tournament Ryouga got disqualified from. You challenged me, and I accepted. We ended up in some alley between buildings, where not a lot of light filtered through. Then you played... something, and the whole alley caught fire. The rest is a blur, but... I do remember someone carrying me out.

[By process of elimination, she's already figured out it had to be him, but she doesn't say that just yet. She grimaces, staring him down in a way that indicates she's wondering why he's jumping straight into the trauma talk. But perhaps that's part of his "fanservice," too...]

Is that enough detail for you?

[So she knows that too. IV's lips press into a thin line as his thoughts race. Could it really be? But that's impossible! Rio was critically injured during that fire, yet the one in front of him doesn't show any signs of having been harmed at all! He needs something more, a detail that only those directly involved could know.

So he shakes his head, eyes troubles yet still hard.]

Not quite. Tell me one last thing. [The tip of his tongue darts out to wet his suddenly parched lips. Those are all things he's been trying to forget so hard for so long, yet which he knows he'll never be able to forget.] The card that I played - was it a Spell Card or did I activate a Monster Effect?

[It had been a Spell. Flaming Hell Blessing had been a Spell card, played in the misguided assumption that it had been a token of familial love and faith from his father. Ha! What a joke! Looking back on it, IV can only ask himself how he could have ever allowed himself to be so blue-eyed.

But for now it's good enough.

The card can be a trap again, helping him to tell the real from the fake, because for all that it'd been a simple Spell card, it had also been hellishly easy to mistake for a Trap or even a Field Spell for anybody who might have been just watching. Not to mention that questions like that usually omit the right option for an answer, so if she's just guessing, she'd also be wrong.]

[Rio hesitates, then bites her lip.]

I did say it was a blur, didn't I?

[Huff.]

But if you must have an answer... it couldn't have been a Monster or Trap because you had just played it our of your hand when the fire swept over us. So it had to have been a Spell card.

[She glances at the ground, then back up at IV, expression softening a little.]

...I'm just lucky medical technology in Heartland has advanced as far as it has. If not for the hospital treatment, I'd be covered in burns still.

[IV merely holds his head a bit higher at her pointing it out, since that's no explanation he's willing to accept in this particular case.]

That's true.

[It doesn't explain anything and only confuses and scares him more, but like hell he's going to let her on on that. His right hand slowly curls into a tight fist, but that's all IV allows his body language to betray him.]

Bull. Shit! I've had the best medical treatment money can pay and my face still looks like this!

[Approaching into her personal space, IV lowers his voice.]

What is it really? Another interdimensional fuckery?

[Did you really? she almost wants to ask, knowing he probably could have gotten rid of that scar, or at least reduced its prominence on his face, if he really wanted to. Without flinching, she remains calm in the face of a boy older than her all but outright declaring he'd love to flatten her on the spot.]

Why are you so angry at me? I'm not threatening you at all. I've answered all your questions. So what is making you so mad?

[It's clear he didn't expect to see her out of the hospital... which means he probably doesn't know the circumstances of her discharge, or anything that happened after it. It could be that he's not the same person who stuck with Ryouga and pushed him forward through that poisoning incident, or who tried so hard to bring him back after they returned to being Barians.

And that would explain a few things. That, and the fact they never even had a chance to speak one-on-one throughout it all. Maybe it's too early for him to reconcile with her existence yet.]

But that might be an explanation, yes. You clearly aren't the same person Ryouga told me about, either.

[~~Maybe a part of him had decided to though it out because he'd felt that he'd deserved whatever came out of that night.~~ IV hates those scars. He hates how they make people look at him, stare, even if they somehow happen not to know who he is. But more than that they are a brand, a constant reminder of what happened that day - the whole truth and nothing but the bare, naked, ugly truth of it. In a way it was only those scars, the bland obvious, physical marks, that had truly made him IV rather than Thomas, a bumbling angry fool who'd pretended to be something he's not, for reasons he only thought he understood.

Needless to say, there's a lot more that goes into those scars than just the damaged substance they're made out of.]

Why aren't you angry at me?! The last time I've seen you, you'd have liked nothing better than to eat me alive! Now you're acting like we're- what? Friends?!

[The nothing is so hilariously absurd that it gets a half-strangled laugh out of him.]

What did he tell you about me? Ryouga hates my guts, so it must've been all the bad he could think of.

Edited 2023-04-06 19:50 (UTC)

The last time you saw me, I was unconscious, you idiot.

[Okay, this is starting to get annoying. He's so determined to project his own opinion of how she should feel onto her that he's blind to how things really are. Though not knowing what unfolds afterward probably doesn't help much... From his perspective, Ryouga should hate his guts despite honoring his request.]

In all honesty, yes, he did tell me what a massive jerk you were to everyone around you. All about the "fanservice" thing you did with people who genuinely admired you. He even cautioned me a few times to avoid you if at all possible. You're nobody's idea of the perfect best friend, obviously, but...

[She remembers thinking about the poisoning incident, and how hard it must have been for Ryouga to focus through all of it. It was all she herself could do just to stay conscious enough to hear Kotori's gentle assurances that everything would be all right from the hospital bed. But that IV managed to pick Ryouga back off the ground and get him to finish the fight... it was either a testament to how annoying he was about it, or how their relationship had changed. Maybe both at once.

But a part of her thinks she should save the intrigue for a time when he can handle it. When he's not on a hairtrigger to knock her down for lying or whatever else he wants to accuse her of.]

Something in the both of you changed at some point. I know what happened with Ryouga, because I know him, but I don't know you. So I'd like to get a better gauge on that before I tell you more of what happened. Or what's going to happen, more like.

Yeah! But-! [He fumbles and visibly trips over his words before IV tosses his hands down in defeat. Don't call him out like that, Rio!!] That's not what I meant and you know it-!!!

[IV has spent so much time imaging how she might act if she were to really wake back up from that coma against all odds that the sheer opposite of what's sgoing on now if blowing his mind. At least she has managed to perplex him enough to make him forget any notions of violence at this point?

He listens with a face that keeps growing increasingly more calm and closed off as she calls out each of his flaws, but then she goes on and his eyes grow wide in disbelief.]

Okay, wait, hold on! Are you questioning whether I'm I right now?!

Oh, not at all. This all fits quite well with what I've heard of you.

[Her eyebrows twitch toward the middle of her forehead.]

What I'm saying is, you're not the person Ryouga came to know, the person he told me about. Clearly. I can't just spill everything to you here and now, but know that the things you don't know yet are... sensitive. To the both of us.

[That they were forced into a position where one way or another, they were going to lose something? To be enemies to people they loved no matter what they chose? Yeah, sensitive is a word for it. At that statement, Rio glances away from him, the irritation softening.]

...But if you want, I'd be willing to humor you with some sort of acquaintanceship. For what it's worth, I know for a fact you're capable of better.

[Whoa, hey, did she just insult him again just now- Wait, friends?! Or acquaintances, whatever she wants to call it?? Is the girl that has every right to never forgive him really just decided to hold out an olive branch to him?]

....

......

...........

Thanks, but no thanks!

[Squint. Two people can play at this stubborn game.]

Too bad. You're getting it anyway.

What the- I already told you that I don't want it! You're just as bad at listening as your damn brother!

I'm worse than him. [A brief quirk of her lips.] But if I'm bad at listening, you're bad at taking the hint. I don't want to fight you, I don't want to hold a stupid grudge against you, and--

[She's about to say "you repaid your debt in blood," but then realizes that would be telling, so she changes her addendum at the last minute before it can leave her mouth.]

Well, you don't get to play tough guy. Hmph.

What? [He raises an eyebrow, surprised that that's the first thing she's bothered by. But then his lips quirk into a smirk as well.] Somehow I find that hard to believe. You'd have to stuff that ridiculous bird of yours into your ear to be worse tham him!

[Her hesitation and lame finish just have him laugh - genuinely laugh, with all the rough, nasty-ish inflections his natural laugh has.]

Then I guess I shouldn't just play at it anymore, huh~?

Oh, I can absolutely be worse than him. Watch me. And not even your beloved fanservice will deter me from it.

Besides... I'm here now whether you like it or not. If you think we're not going to cross paths again eventually, you'd be sorely mistaken.

[IV just stares at her.

Then he withdraws a pokeball from his bag and lets his Meowth kitten out.]

Meow!

Ack! What the--

[She jumps back, then glowers at him. He wasn't supposed to have one, too...! Instead of letting loose on him verbally, though, she grabs one of the empty balls from her bag and tosses it at him. IV does not have the ability to shrink like Pokemon do, but that's okay, because she's aiming squarely for his face and the point is revenge anyway.]

Maybe you'd like to be crammed into one of these godforsaken capsules yourself!!

Test Drive Meme - March & April

hewo <3

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