Test drive meme - July & August

[indigo_league]

➞ 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

[schachmeister]

I'm--

[Is he doing okay? He hadn't been for a while. Those first weeks after she had gone had been rough. Things had slowly gotten better, but only as long as he didn't think about it too much. Whenever he did, the pain flooded back in fresh as ever.

But, did that matter now? She is back now. She is back. She is here now and she remembers and--

Armin has always teared up far too easily for his own tastes, but right now, he's absolutely not even trying to fight the tears brimming in his eyes. Instead, he smiles through them, wide as can be.]

Better now I can see your face again.

Welcome home.

[brokencode]

[Every time she's come back to this world, she's felt a pervasive sense of guilt. It wasn't, couldn't ever be her fault for leaving, but she can never seem to shake the weight of it. It's exceptionally true now that she's left Armin behind. How could she not feel that way, when she'd agreed to tie her life to his and then simply... vanished.]

I'm home. [If nothing else, the warmth of that word combats the heaviness of her shoulders. She is home. And while she doesn't believe for a second that she won't ever leave again, she can rest easily knowing that she has time. That they have time.

Nevertheless, there is one thing that still needs to be said.]

I am sorry. I'm so sorry. You should not have been left here alone.

[schachmeister]

No-- No, don't apologise!

[It comes out in a rush.]

It's not your fault. Please, I don't want to hear you apologise.

[Being the one left behind is not easy, but it had never been Angel's choice to leave. And each time she did, she had as much to lose as him. Armin might have mourned, but at least he had still been here. He had still been alive. Each time Angel was pulled from this world, she went back to non-existence; and each time she was returned, she had to rebuild so many things all over again. To hear her apologise for something that was so far beyond her control -- it gave Armin no comfort.]

I wanna see you. Are you-- New Bark Town, right? Please, I'll come as quickly as I can.

[Even if he has to switch between several flying pokemon and take so many warp pads he's puking up his kidneys, he's going to get there!]

[brokencode]

[Angel knows he'll rush to get here, and part of her manages to feel guilty even for that. She feels for his poor Pokemon, is all. Never mind how dizzy and disoriented he'll surely be by the time he arrives. But the moment Armin volunteers it as an option, she finds herself nodding almost frantically. She hasn't exactly missed Armin in her absence, but that was only by virtue of not feeling much at all in that time period.

Now that she's here, though... That's a different story.]

Please. I will wait right here.

[She pans her camera around, showing off the space where New Bark ends and Route 29 begins. She's almost certain something similar had happened the last time she had arrived as well.]

Just... be careful, okay? Don't go falling off of any Pokemon.

[schachmeister]

I will. I'll be there as soon as I can.

[He's too close to being able to see her again, touch her again, to go and break his neck falling off a pokemon. It wouldn't kill him, but it sure would put a crimp on their reunion.]

I love you.

[Definitely not the first time he's told her that, and if he has his way, it won't be the last time she'll hear it in the coming days. He's gone too long without being able to tell her. He needs to make up for lost time.

Tre trip there is as chaotic as it promised to be. Armin doesn't take any neck-breaking risks, but its certainly a far cry from the more sedate pace he usually flies at. Instead, he pushes his flying pokemon to their limit, apologising against their feathers the whole way there. He switches between them too, allowing them some time to rest while the other flies, until he gets to the first city where he can take a warp, and take them he does. Thank god for dramamine because else he'd probably be too dizzy to do anything.

Finally, just the last leg of the journey remains, the last flight along Route 29 to New Bark Town. He directs Amadeus down when he spots the familiar shapes of the buildings, nearly tripping in his haste to get off his pokemon. For a moment he just stands there, wildly looking around until he finally spots a familiar shape.

Oh, she is so thin again, her hair choppy once more. And she is still the most gorgeous sight for sore eyes.]

Angel!

[Between the half a dozen warps, the way his muscles had locked up slightly during the flight and the tears blurring his vision, he stumbles more than he runs, knocking both of them over into the grass when he tosses his arms around her in an embrace.]

[brokencode]

[It doesn't matter how long it takes, Angel rarely peels her eyes from the sky. She paces this way and that from time to time. Occasionally, she even offers tales of Armin and her other friends to the Mawile that toddles after her. But for the most part she waits in anticipatory silence.

Eventually, she's rewarded with the steady sound of wingbeats, and the sight of a bird coming into view. Most people don't have reason to navigate back to New Bark, and so she thinks she's pretty sure she knows who's coming her way. That suspicion is confirmed as she just barely manages to pick out the faint features of what is almost certainly a Noctowl. She follows his descent, and isn't far from Armin when he lands.

If Armin hadn't been the one to tackle her, she would have done the same in reverse. It probably would have had less of an impact, more akin to a kitten attempting to pounce, so really it's much better this way for the drama of it all. She falls back into the grass, oscillating between laughter and tears as she cards her fingers through his hair.

She might be weak, and tired again. Her hair might be in dire need of a cut. But it doesn't matter. She's home, and Armin's here too.

So naturally she steals a messy, teary kiss. It doesn't last long, because she's winded from her efforts, but she thinks it's plenty.]

I missed you.

[schachmeister]

[Once they are in the grass, Armin at least has the presence of mind to roll them over so she is sprawled out on top of him. He might not be the heaviest guy in the world, but compared to Angel's slighter frame, this is still going to be far more comfortable.

His fingers, meanwhile, run ceaselessly over her face, through her hair, brushing away her tears before mapping the contours of her cheeks again. He can barely believe she is here again --in the back of his mind he wonders if this is just a good dream, but if it is, he doesn't want to fret about it and wake himself up-- and touching her helps. She feels real under his fingers, warm and soft and everything that he remembers.

He steals a kiss. Then another one. Then just settles for pressing light kisses to ever inch of her face, across her forehead, her nose, her eyelids.]

I missed you too. So so much.

[He's crying and really doesn't care that he is.]