ohmyarceus | March-April Test Drive Meme

[Good, Sasha, good. You've made the right choice. If you had devoured those berries, why you might go from potato girl to berry girl. Not an upgrade at all, huh?]

I do. We've been here for a while now so I have several now. In fact, I had one like yours too, though he has evolved now.

[Armin doesn't look exactly smug, because Armin doesn't do smug. But he does look very pleased with himself.

Really, he ought to show her. He goes through his pokeballs for a moment, before selecting one, and releasing the creature inside. Where Sasha's deerling is only a foal, his sawsbuck stands a proper adult. Honestly, with the dark coat and white fluff around his neck, he looks downright regal.]

I got him as a gift and he evolved several weeks ago. This is--

[He yelps when the big sawsbuck, really not to concerned with looking regal, sticks his snout down the back of Armin's shirt, snuffing at his neck and licking it.]

S-Sandy, don't!

[Look, as long as Jean doesn't see her eating said berries, no one will call her Berry Girl, alright? You wouldn't do that, Armin. You're too nice.

Once she nudges the foal out of the way, Sasha peers at the amount of Pokeballs Armin's collected. She only has two of the five balls she started out with, the rest gone on failed Pidgey captures. She isn't surprised he has that many Pokemon, though. Armin was always good at strategy.]

You have a lot... Which means Armin's been here a while, right? How long have you been here?

[Though she doesn't immediately expect an answer to her question once she sees the Sawsbuck go against its regal appearance and make a salt lick out of Armin. Besides, she has a better question to ask now.]

You named it Sandy?

[One look at the foal next to her and Sasha has made a easy decision. ]

You're not a horse, but I'm going to call you Jean.

[Someone please tell Sasha that this Deerling is a girl. She hasn't had a chance to check the undercarriage.]

[Ah, his neck. It's so cold, so wet, so covered in slobber right now.

Armin awkwardly fends off the sawsbuck's affections with one hand.]

It's-- his name is supposed to be Xander. But he doesn't listen to it very well.

[As a small deerling, it had been so easy to nickname him sandy based on the colour of his coat, and, well, Xander-- no, Sandy liked the sound of it a lot better than his full and proper name.]

And we've been here for... half a year now, I think. It's not just me either. Bertolt, Jean and Eren are here as well.

[She feels your pain, Armin. The back of her shirt is damp too from Pokemon spit.]

They probably just don't listen at all.

[Excuse you, Sasha. Jean 2.0 listens very well. Like right now, she's listening to you and Armin talk as she shoves her nose into your ear. Multitasking. It's a great skill.]

Half a year... That doesn't make sense.

[But then again, nothing does. There are so many things Sasha wants to ask Armin, knowin he's the best person to pump for information. It'll all fly over her head anyway, so Sasha goes for something simple and easy.]

Where are you all anyway?

A lot of things in this world are a little hard to understand at first.

[Like the fact that everything hatches from eggs, food is nearly free, and nobody is living in despair.

Thankfully, some things stay the same too. Jean having a crush on a girl is still a ridiculously embarrassing sight to behold.]

I can try and explain it to you later.

And right now we are on the Sevii Islands.

[Let's not forget they both suddenly have a mom. That's still throwing Sasha for a loop. A mom who made her a lunch. That's something she could easily get used to.

She pulls out the paper map from her backpack and unfolds it on her lap, trailing her index finger across it.]

Sevii, Sevii, Sevii...

[She continues mumbling until she pinpoints the islands in a little box in the corner.]

That's so far away.

[Is she whining? A little bit. She needs her 104th people!]

Well, we travelled for several months to get here, after all.

[Though, that was several months with some detours, some extended town stays and a lot of good ol' laziness. They could probably have made it there sooner if they had really lit a fire after their asses.]

Let me think about it, all right? There might be some way of getting you here without making you walk all that distance [There is the poke-ride system! Or maybe he can ask one of the friends he has made with pokemon that actually know fly.] I'll try to come up with something.

[That's not the kind of answer she wanted to hear. After spending years with these people, being separated from them--in a strange world at that--is a little disconcerting. Nothing she can't truly handle, but not something she'd prefer. ]

Okay.

[She nods, knowing Armin will find a way. He's a smart kid with all that fancy book learning.]

What do I do now? I ate the food that lady gave me and I tried to catch one of the birds, but Jean keeps scaring them away. I don't have my gear or my bow. Do I go back to the house?

[Or she can love on Jean who thinks that is a much better course of action and prepares to force Sasha's hand by laying her head on her lap and giving her actual doe eyes.]

[Armin ponders that.]

I think it would be best if you kept following the road to the nearest town. It's called Cherry Grove and shouldn't be hard to find.

[None of them had gotten lost on that road and Sasha was better with following paths than any of them. He figures that if he is going to find some way to quickly get Sasha to where they are, it'll be much easier to do so from Cherry Grove.

Though while he further ponders that, there is something--]

... are you really going to call your pokemon Jean?

[That road's not too far off to the west of her if the setting sun tells her anything. If there's a town there, there should be someplace to stay there like an inn. And where there's an inn, there's food. And luckily, she has that funny money in her pocket to carry her through, so much more than she's ever had in her life.]

Yes. [In those golden eyes of hers is the look of one very determined child soldier who has no intention on changing her decision.] It acts just like him.

[Stubborn? Check. Annoying? Check. Weird hair? Check. Lovable? Eh... she'll come back to that later.]

Might it not get a little weird when you've joined up with us?

[But then, Jean called his walking, farting trash bag Eren, so perhaps he needs to experience what it is like.]

[Sasha shrugs. What's weird in her world? Everything. Including her. A thing like this doesn't faze her much.]

Maybe, but he won't stop calling me names, so he can get used to this, I think.

[This is the most mean thing Sasha has done and probably will ever do.]

[Sounds like Jean will reap what he has sown. Armin should not interfere. He might keep Jean from learning something.

Though that does remind him of something he has to ask her.]

Sasha, this might sound like an odd question, but what is the last thing you remember from back home?

We were on the expedition out of Karanes District.

[That mission, that horribly failed mission where they lost so many lives and got no closer to reclaiming Wall Maria. Sasha probably doesn't have to say much more if Armin remembers how that ended. She doesn't want to have to say it anyway.]

[That is roughly in line with the rest of them, barring Eren who doesn't seem to remember the mission at all. It's something Armin files away inside of his head, just in case it ever comes up.]

Do you remember all of the mission? Coming home as well?

Yes.

[Sasha looks incredibly reluctant to talk about it. Nothing new for the kids who were dragged into this mess. Sometimes it's easier to shove it to the back of her head than ruminate over what they did wrong and how one mistake could ruin the lives of so many.]

They were getting ready to take Eren away.

[All right. Yes. That seems to be in line with everything that he and Jean remember. Bertolt seems to recall a full day more, but it hadn't added a lot of relevant information.]

I'm sorry. I know it isn't easy to talk about, but I had to check. This world... the people that come here don't necessarily all come here from the same time. It's hard to explain and we don't know why it happens, but even when you find people here that you know, they might know a lot more or a lot less than you do.

Ah, it's not a concern with us though. It sounds like you, Jean and me are all from the same time. Bertolt is a little ahead of us but not by a lot. Eren lags a bit behind, but I've... already told him what will happen.

[It had not been a pleasant conversation, but Armin had felt it necessary to tell him. He figures it would be easier to tell him than to try and keep it from him with Eren potentially overhearing something and coming to the wrong conclusion.

He hadn't told him about his suspicions about Annie though. As long as they weren't proven, he saw no need to tell him.]

[Not coming from the same time explains, well, everything. That television thing, the Pokedex, the lights that aren't candles or torches and are so much brighter. Someone had to create all these things, someone not from the time the 104th are from.]

Was he mad?

[She's probably asking the obvious here, knowing that it's probably less Eren being mad and more him taking the entire failed mission to heart. Guilt is a nasty, nasty thing in their world.]

It was... not an easy thing to hear about.

[And that is all Armin is going to say about that. He feels it's rather intrusive to talk about whatever had passed between him and Eren in private, especially when it is not something Sasha needs to know. He's always tried not to be a gossip.]

We didn't really get much of a chance to see each other after the mission. Are you all right? You didn't get injured, right?

[If she is injured, he might need to revise some plans!]

[She won't pry, not for the explicit details. Sasha is still far too polite to do that, but she will ask how Eren is doing. He's her friend, one of the few she's ever had even if they aren't especially close, and she will always be concerned about her friends' wellbeing. It's not gossip when you just want to know whether or not your bud is a hot mental mess.]

No, I'm okay. See?

[Sasha holds out her arm (and the the camera by extension) and wiggles her other arm and legs as if Armin really needed physical proof. This, in turn, disturbs the Deerling on her nap who snorts in protest of being removed. It was about to take a nap, Human. Could you not?]

Are you okay? And what about the others?

We are all okay.

[Really, only he had been injured on arriving here, and he has enough braincells to lose a couple to a minor concussion.]

After all, from our perspective, that mission was half a year ago.

[And they have been thriving here. Sasha might note that even Armin looks like he gained a few kilo. He's even sporting a somewhat healthy tan --or as much of a tan as Armin is ever going to sport-- from his time in the sun. It's true, they've also gotten a little lazy here without constant training and drills, so their stamina might have lost out a little, but there has been much to gain in the 'good food and fun' department.]

March-April Test Drive Meme

TEST DRIVE MEME

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