ohmyarceus | Test Drive Meme

Before he could probably call out his name, she nearly flung her purse at him before the barking of the Seel stopped her in her tracks. She looked down at the little creature, her eyes wide as she found herself becoming a bit more stabilized by everything. It was only when the man before her continued to speak, stating his name that she dropped her purse and looked at him with complete and utter shock. By now the Butterfree had flown off, only to sit idly in a tree, watching the scene unfold before it.

"Henry?", she said, her voice loud and terrified. This man looked nothing like the young man she knew, with his short brown hair and only a ghost of a beard on his face. Yet the voice was the same and there was a gentleness coming from him.

It was her Henry.....it was him.

She immediately began to wobble towards him as she looked at him closer, trying to discern a recognizable feature in him somewhere but once she was close enough and looked into his eyes. She knew it was him. "Henry you...you look so different, what happened?"

He lifts his hands to guard himself against her deadly purse. What did girls keep in there? Bricks?

However, Eileen soon calms and he sees the recognition in her her eyes. A gusty sigh of relief escapes him and he lowers his arms. Then, perhaps unconsciously, he opens them in a welcoming gesture. His voice remains gentle, but it's hard to mask his growing excitement. She's here! She's free of Walter's otherworld full of rust and ghosts and monsters with bodies that crawled with hell.

"It's...don't be afraid, but it's been ten years. At least." Time was strange here. He was here for years at a time and while his own age may have rubber handed back and forth, time in Johto marched onward. "I've been w--hoping...that you'd appear here too."

Henry feels his throat tighten.

With her eyes wide and full of confusion and fear, Eileen remained still for a moment despite his opening arms towards her. She wasn't sure what to make of any of this and while it had only been a few moments since she last saw Henry, he looked like a decade had truly gone by. It was only when he said he had been hoping she'd appear there too, that she finally dropped her bag and began to move forward, pulling him into a tight embrace. She was never afraid to hold him, especially with how often she told him all he had was him but this....This felt as if she truly hadn't seen him in so long.

"Henry, I'm so confused.", she sad softly, burying her face into the crook of his neck. He looked so different and this world was strange, how could ten years truly have passed.

"How is any of this possible, I mean these weird animals and you....you look so different!"

Henry hugged her back, harder than he'd hugged anyone upon his arrival to the wonderful world of Pokemon. Sure he hugged his friends, his adoptive sister, but this was Eileen. A piece of his world that had been missing for over a decade.

He holds as much of her as he physically can, wanting to heal her wounds and take away all the horror Walter had unleashed on them. At least he could offer her some first aid from his backpack.

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asks softly, not letting her go, not opening his eyes. He's a little afraid that if he does, she'll have disappeared.

Her comment on his appearance gets a weak laugh out of him. "I'll be honest, I didn't change up my look until recently. Just...trying something new. Eileen. This world is--it's not perfect, but it's safe. There's no war. People live in harmony with these creatures--they're called Pokemon."

Henry pulls back only long enough to look her in the eye. "He can never hurt you again. It's over."

The tightness of the hug came as a surprise to her, but all she could do was smile gently as she realized this was truly Henry. She probably could never truly understand just what the hell happened to him for him to end up here, but since she was now here too, in a selfish way she was grateful. Especially when he pulled back and began to speak about the place. It all still felt like some strange dream to her, and while the fear of Walter still had her rattled up, at least she was in good company.

"I remember Walter dragging me to that room....that thing to sacrifice me and you came in, and before I knew it, I had woken up here.", she said softly. As he pulled from her, she looked up at him gently before she tilted her head to the side. She didn't want to ruin this moment but....

"Are you sure? I know it's been ten years for you, but if I was brought here, whose to say he won't be brought here too?"

Henry can feel his heart throwing itself against his ribs. There's so much to explain. So much to catch her up on. So many things he wished he had known when he first started out here.

"I killed him with a shovel." Henry wasn't always this blunt, but he thinks perhaps in this instance he should be. Then he adds, "I ran out of swords."

Most days, he tries not to think about that final encounter. It's a huge blur in his memory--a blur made of whirring chainsaws, squealing metal, and the roar of a god struggling to be born.

Despite still being in his arms, she closed her eyes tightly before letting out a soft sigh. The Butterfree from before began to circle above them before resting right on the ground next to them. With its curious eyes looking at them, Eileen finally opened hers and let out a deep shudder. It was difficult to hear such things even if the desired outcome―

Henry had become a close friend to Eileen in that short time and she hated the thought of him having to do that. It was a terrible burden and she couldn't help but feel for him. With a stillness in her voice, she simply sighed.

"Oh Henry....I'm sorry and thank you. This place...has it been good to you at least?" With the cute Pokemon about she could only hope so.

"It has. It'll be good for you too."

He thinks, perhaps, he will not tell her about the Weird Weekends that plague them a couple of times a year. This is a happy moment and Eileen does not need to wrap her head around the idea of the literal actual Koolaid man bursting through any nearby walls.

He lets her go and stoops down to grab his backpack.

"You're hurt..." He says, as though he needs to remind her. "Let me...see, I think I have some things in my bag. I don't hike much, but I should have some bandages left...some Neosporin. There's a place in town that sells shoes."

He refuses to let Eileen walk the trail to Cherrygrove in heels.

Before he could let her go for real, she sneaked in one last hug across his shoulders to comfort him about the things that happened. There might have been more time between his actions and now, but it still must have been so difficult for him. When they finally did release, she looked at him with soft eyes and watched his movements.

"You know I had forgotten about it, everything here is just so....distracting.", she said softly. Her arm was still broken and in a sling, and her body was still covered in bruises and wounds but she couldn't quite feel it. It was mostly like the rush of everything happening.

"I'll take the medicinal cream, but what I really need is a bath.", she said, before bending down to pick up her purse. "And shoes, good idea. Actually I think I need a whole new outfit." It was clear she stuck out like a sore thumb in her clubbing outfit.

"I know what you mean," Henry replies. Pokemon World can be a lot to take in when you first arrive. And even sometimes it's still a lot. There's so much he doesn't know about this world he's called home for so long now.

He fishes the ointment out of his bag and passes it to her.

Meanwhile, his Seel had grown impatient with this whole reunion and lets out a grumpy little bark. Henry blinks at him, as though he only just remembered he was there. He reaches out to pat the little sealicorn on the head.

"Don't worry, I didn't forget you. We'll have time to train on the way." He's already making road plans. A couple days to Cherrygrove, and then...no, wait. They won't be able to warp. Eileen doesn't have warp clearance to get back back to Goldenrod.

Henry stands back up and takes on a sheepish look. "Eileen...how do you feel about flying?"

Once he fished the ointment out of his bag and handed it to her, she held onto it a bit tightly as she looked at him more closely. It was difficult to accept that they were now both in this strange and unique situation, but all Eileen could do was just focus on how much Henry had changed. Aside from the obvious physical differences, he looked and felt older and she wasn't sure what to make of that. At least it seemed his story was true—

but before she could focus very long on all the things about him that seemed different, the grumpy little bark from the Seel snapped her back into the moment and made her look down at the creature. Surprisingly? She found it to be a bit cute despite looking odd. In fact she even smiled at it softly as she watched Henry pat its head.

"Flying? As in a plane? Helicopter...", and as she said that, the Butterfree from before seemed to swoop down, flapping its wings in front of them both before flying off for good. "Oh no Henry you don't mean on one of these creatures do you?"

The little Seel watches the Butterfree go before starting to scritch at his neck with a flipper.

Meanwhile, Henry scratches his own neck, that sheepish look still in place. "Sunny's a safe flyer, she's never let Heather down. But...we don't have to! We can walk. These routes are pretty safe if you've got strong enough Pokemon."

The Seel barks. Strong like him!

Maybe he's getting ahead of himself. Henry looks back to town and offers a hand to Eileen. "Let's find somewhere to sit and rest. I'll get you something to eat..." He looks back at Eileen, worry threading its way through his expression. He's waited so long in hopes of her arriving, he hopes he can be a good guide to this strange new life. He's...a little embarrassed to tell her that he's just been sitting around and getting stoned for a decade while she's been fighting for her life in Hell.

"Heather?", she said softly, before her eyes widened at his comment. Of course they were going to fly aboard one of these Pokemon and while she dreaded the idea of doing so, all she could do was simply shake her head and resign herself. She was in a new world and Henry knew far more than she did, so she had to trust him. He was all she had, even here.

"I appreciate it, but what I need more than anything is a bath.", she said, sighing a bit. Somewhere to change and shower, clean up her wounds and the like. It was starting to weigh on her, her feet becoming sore from the heels she was wearing, and her skin in pain from the lacerations.

"Let's just get to where we need to, okay?"

"One of my roommates. She...knows about the Otherworld." Understatement of the century. He winces at Eileen's pain. "I don't know if there's anywhere in this town you can shower. There are some vending machines for snacks, but...there's not more to New Bark. It's more like a neighborhood than a town."

An idea floats to the front of his mind.

"I have Clam with me...he knows Watergun. I'm sure if he's gentle we could wash off your face and arms."

Henry tips his head to finish the question. He doesn't want to put too much on Eileen all at once, but he wants to help her.

There isn't much for her to say as all of this information was still so new and shocking to her, leaving her with a concerned expression on her face. Someone else knew about the Otherworld? Though experiencing it or just Henry telling them about it? Additionally he was suggesting a Clam of all things spray her down in the middle of what was a neighborhood as if it was nothing?

It was all very difficult for her to handle but she decided to just push through and try her best to tolerate the way things were. She'd just have to wait in her current condition until she could finally find someplace to just unwind from everything. So with a sigh she shook her head and held her hand out, the tube of cream still in it. "No Henry it's okay, it's better if I just wait until I can find a proper place to rest. So let's try and get going then alright? I don't really want a clam shooting me with water....", she said, voice a bit tired. Besides how would she get dried? But she's sure things would work out in the end.

"Besides I have a lot of questions for you, we need to take sometime to properly talk."

Henry looked at the tube of medicine. He couldn't blame her. That was...kind of a weird suggestion. He winces internally. Somehow all his years of becoming a more normal guy seemed to disappear when he's back with Eileen, his thoughts of the Otherworld so close to the front of his mind.

He puts the cream away and shoulders his backpack.

"I'll tell you everything I know," he vows. Henry nods for her to follow and begins walking toward Route 29 with slow steps. Maybe they can find a quiet tree to sit under.

Thankfully for them both, she had gotten used to how he was and the way he conducted himself. Whatever progress he had made would have probably been a bit too much for her to handle given her already confused state— and given she was in a completely new world with zero knowledge as to why the animals here looked so strange, in a way his behavior was comforting.

With a smile, she began to follow after him, one foot after the other with her handbag swinging to the side. "It's okay you know? I get it, even if it is still so confusing for me I.....I appreciate that in the time you've been here, you're still so kind. Thank you Henry, really."

A wobbly little smile makes itself at home on Henry's face. Her compliment touches him in a way he hasn't been touched before. Couldn't have been before everything happened. The otherworld. The ritual. The apartment. They were connected in a way Henry hadn't felt with another person now that he'd had time to stand outside it and look in.

His bond with Heather was unshakable. She was his sister. They had both fought God and won. But this still hit different. For the first time in ten years he could talk about his horror with a person who had been there.

Then, in an award winning show of Being Good and Normal at Words, Henry says, "I like being nice."

It was always strange to reflect upon the horrors she had gone through and to compare them to the way the rest of her life had been. Unbeknownst to her, many years ago as a child she had indirectly planted to seed to her own torture through being kind to Walter when she saw him in the streets. It was a terrible sight to see someone like him looking so sad, and she had shown him that same kindness as an adult later on [to his child, ghost self]. While she didn't want to say she regretted being kind, she certainly hadn't been expecting for it to be repaid so brutally.

Thankfully though there was Henry who had also known such a thing and had gone though the horrors. She didn't want anyone else to have suffered like she had, much less Henry who had gone through it first but much like himself, they both had gone through it. They could understand each other in a unique way.

So with a soft smile and a bit of a laughter to his words, Eileen held her hand out towards him and nodded. "You are, and I'm grateful you enjoy it. Let's go Henry, I want you to tell me all about this world and what you've been up to the last decade."

Test Drive Meme - Spring 2025

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going to wrap this up/handwave from here ♥