route_1065 | oblig line from the theme song goes here

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Who: Gou Matsuoka and Makoto Tachibana (and anyone else in NBT)
Where: New Bark Town
When: Aug. 3rd
Summary: Two (or more) dorks run into each other and figure out how to pokemon
Rating: G
Log:

"YOU'RE NOT MY REAL MOM, ANYWAY!"

Normally, that kinda thing's really melodramatic and said before slamming the door in someone's face. In this case, however, it happened to be one hundred percent true. The slamming the door part happened, too, but that's because the person shouting it got hounded out the door with a "Dear me! It's about time to start your adventure!" It was a little difficult to hear through the door. And also on account of the shouting.

A kick was attempted and bounced off the door frame. Gou raked her hands through her hair and muttered a couple swear words she definitely picked up from her brother.

"Now what am I supposed to do?!"

Her cell phone probably couldn't get a signal from here, right? Or whatever weird cell phone might be lurking in the backpack she'd dropped when she kicked the door.

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Somewhere not too far away at all in New Bark Town, Makoto's head snapped up like a puppet who'd suddenly had its string jerked. Was that--?

"Gou-chan...?!"

He scanned his surroundings quickly, sure that his mind must be playing tricks on him - after all, what were the odds that Gou would be here too? Was this a sign of some kind of mysterious kidnapper targeting high-school swim teams?

(Well, maybe that was a little far-fetched, but then again so was everything about this morning so far.)

There was no mistaking that particular shade of red, though. Makoto blinked, and rubbed his eyes a little to double-check, but there was no mistaking it - that was definitely Gou. Scrambling to rush across to her, he called out, properly this time:

"Gou-chan! Over here!"

Yes, Makoto's inner monologue. That is exactly what is happening. Although, why the kidnappers went through the effort to pipe in background music and give them backpacks, that's anybody's guess.

Luckily, Gou has a pretty distinctive yell. Also: it's pretty hard to miss a six-foot tall doofus with a back that could put at least a dozen girls in the hospital-- uh. Right. Focus. Focus.

"Makoto-senpai?!" She swung the backpack up onto her shoulder and attempted a short run. It didn't end much better than the kick, but there's less pain in her shins, more awkward swaying arms, so that's a plus. And thus, before you know it, there she was, over here. "When did you get here?! Did--" Easy, Gou. Breathe, girl. "Did she try to pull that Mom thing on you too?"

"Huh--? Oh, you mean the lady who gave me this?" He held up the backpack as if to demonstrate. "Well, yeah..." He gave a small, nervous laugh. "Pretty weird, right? I tried to correct her, or ask her - well, anything, really, but she just kinda shoved me out the door."

And honestly, he still wasn't sure what to think about that. Robot? Actress? Pod person? With the way things were going, Makoto wasn't prepared to rule out even the weirdest of explanations, and the way she'd brushed off his (admittedly, kind of embarassing) freaking out as "pre-adventure nerves" definitely had him leaning towards robot or pod person right now. In any case, he was kind of relieved to see a familiar face - not relieved to know that someone else he knew had been... whatever this was, of course not! But at least they could stick together.

"Are you okay, Gou-chan?" Aside from the obvious, anyway... "You haven't seen any of the others as well, have you?"

"Yeah, the same thing kinda happened over here!" Only with more shouting, probably.

She's definitely voting pod person, for the record. Maybe when this adventure is over, she could come back and really stir up some trouble. But... who knew how long that could take? What kind of adventure did the pod person mean, anyway? She had some vague memories of playing... one of these games a really long time ago, and the music sounded a little bit familiar in that "Oh It's Video Game Music From The Nineties" way...

Oh, yeah, and there's an entire backpack she hasn't opened yet, either. Might wanna get on that. Eventually.

"Yeah, I'm okay! Well, I did kick the door a bit, but, eeh," a little sheepish about it. Still not regretting it, mind you, but sheepishness on the rise, yes. "And no, I haven't yet... Is there a way to call them?"

Edited 2014-08-04 00:36 (UTC)

Makoto would definitely agree that the background music is both unsettling and weirdly familiar. What kind of town has music playing outside of places like shopping malls except in video games or something?

He chuckled at hearing about the door, though - that sounded like typical Gou-chan, alright.

"I'm not sure..." He frowned thoughtfully for a moment, folding his arms and cocking his head to the side. "My cell phone doesn't seem to be getting any signal..." Suddenly, his eyes widened. "--Ah, wait, there might be something!"

Reaching into his pocket as he spoke, he kept talking. "I was going through that backpack to see what was in it, before I found you, and I think I found something that looks a lot like a kind of phone...? --Ah, there!"

Finally tugging it out of his pants pocket, he held up something that looked a lot like a larger-than-average flip phone. "If our backpacks both have the same sort of things in them, I'm guessing you might have one too?"

Edited 2014-08-04 17:19 (UTC)

So, maybe once they beat the boss, the doors'll open and they can get beat a hasty retreat to the exit. That's how video games work, right?

She dug her cell phone out of her pocket and-- yep, no service. "We're probably out of range..." Argh, this was super annoying. Well, and bad. But also annoying.

"Oh!" Right, that backpack. "I forgot all about it." Rummaging ensued. Beneath the changes of clothes and other stuff she figured you'd bring on a camping trip, there was a strange looking flip phone and--

Oh. Was that a--- "Makoto-senpai, look!"

Yeah. That's. Totally a pokeball. Right?

Edited 2014-08-04 17:32 (UTC)

Yes, this is clearly an excellent plan with no flaws. (As expected from their team manager!)

He leaned over to get a better look, his jaw dropping slightly when he caught sight of the red-and-white ball sitting innocuously in the bag. How had he missed that?

"... is that a pokeball?"

He'd already pinched himself at least twice this morning to check he wasn't dreaming, but he was getting the urge to do it again just to make absolutely sure.

"It's gotta be!"

Oh no, now it sounded like she was getting excited. Stuck in a horrible place with creepy people pretending to be your mother? No, not okay. Having adventures with pokemon? That. Might not entirely suck. Granted, she wasn't thrilled or anything. But things could be worse.

"Hey, check the phone to see if Haruka-senpai or any of the others are here!" Somebody's gotta take a little charge around here. It's what team managers do. "I'm gonna figure out how to get this thing to open up!"

"Uh, okay!"

Makoto flipped open the phone - was it really a phone, if those were pokeballs? - and patiently waited for the thing to boot itself up.

"Don't you just throw it?" he said to Gou, peering over the top of the screen. He was pretty sure that was how it went - it'd been difficult to tell, back when the graphics on video games weren't so good (hadn't those games been in black and white?), but he was pretty sure the pokemon had come out of the balls in battles by throwing them. Or something like that, maybe.

"It might be different when you're actually holding one!" She shrugged. Still, it seemed like a good enough idea, so. "Whoever you are, come on out!" And have a toss. Not the best toss, mind, but. Pokeball definitely hitting the ground and then bouncing back to her. She almost fumbled the catch, too.

Not that it matters, because a tiny red pikachu looking thing was peering up at her. Okay, she was pretty sure they weren't all called Pikachus. But definitely cute, with plus signs on it, and definitely red, and definitely probably not a dream. "Oh! It worked!"

Yes!!

"It was only a suggestion!" he said peaceably, holding up his hands in the regulation please don't kill me, Gou-chan position.

At least, until they were both stuck staring at the small, yellow mouse thing in front of them.

"It did work!" he exclaimed in agreement, for lack of anything else better to say. "Hmm, I don't think I've ever seen this one before, though. It looks a little bit like a Pikachu, but not exactly."

Maybe it was some kind of distant cousin? Or maybe, because this was apparently real and definitely not a dream, maybe none of the Pokemon he remembered from the games actually existed?

"Haaah... we could really do with a Pokedex or something right now," he mumured, half to himself.

"Maybe it's just a red one..." But that didn't seem likely.

It's tilting its head now. It looked a bit eager to get in a fight, and now it had nothing but grass to fight, so it waddled back to her from where she threw the ball.

"Oh! You might have one too, Makoto-senpai!" If she ended up here with a strange backpack with a pokemon in it, then it seemed pretty likely that so did he.

Edited 2014-08-05 14:18 (UTC)

"Huh-- oh, you're right! Gou-chan, could you hold this while I look?"

He held out the open Pokegear, which was now proudly displaying some kind of menu screen, with one hand, using the other to try and fumble his bag open again. An actual, real life Pokemon of his own? Anyone would be excited!

She yoinked the Pokegear and started flipping through the menus.

"Oniichan, oniichan..." She mumbled as she started scanning what looked like a contact info page for names she recognized. "Nobody else is here!" she shouted when she got to the end of the line.

She kept thumbing through the options screens, just in case she'd missed something.

Makoto jumped at the shouting, half-wailing back, "I'm right here, you don't have to yell!"

He breathed out a little the next moment, relaxing. "Well, in any case, I guess it's a good thing that nobody else is here, really..." He was a little torn, honestly; travelling along with the rest of the team sounded like something that could be a lot of fun, but the greater part of him was just relieved that at least everyone else was still safe at home where they belonged.

His hand froze as it reached for the pokeball he'd finally managed to dig up. On the other hand, oh god, did that mean that everyone still at home was going to spend forever wondering where they'd gone?

Feeling a little sick at the thought, he decided not to mention that to Gou. "Oh, I found it," he said, holding up the pokeball and trying to inject some of the excitement of five minutes ago back into his voice.

"Whoops, sorry!" Maybe that was a little louder than she meant. Ehehe.

"Maybe I missed something...." She wasn't as... thoughtful as he was, really. She sorta wanted her brother. Someone had to keep an eye on him, right? And it's not like she can do it from here. But she guessed being home was better than being here. Oh, man, she wondered if this counted for school absences...

"Oh! I think..." The pokegear beeped a little. "I think I just found the pokedex." She pointed it at the red pikachu, currently rolling around in the grass, and learned that it was really called a Plusle. "Yep! Definitely a pokedex!"

"Oh, good! So, it's a pokedex and a phone... I wonder what else that thing can do?"

He straightened up from where he'd been bent over the bag, cupping his pokeball in one hand and sparing a chuckle for Gou's pokemon's antics. How cute...! "What does it say about your little guy?"

"Can you call a cab...?"

She summed up from the screen, "Uh, hmm. Looks like he's a cheerleader pokemon. Says it can make pom-poms, too!"

The Plusle perked up at that and wandered over. "How 'bout it? Gimme a G!" G! "Gimme an O!" O! "What does that spell?!" GO!

"Oh, wow!" Way cooler than she expected. Holy crap a cheerleading pokemon. This would come in so handy during prefectures....

Edited 2014-08-05 22:26 (UTC)

This is it. This is what kills Makoto Tachibana. That was the cutest thing he had ever seen in his entire life, what the heck.

He beamed widely, unable to hold back a sound of impressed surprise. "Gou-chan, that was great!" He laughed. "If only we had a whole team of them for next season."

"--Oh, I guess it's my turn now, huh?"

She wasn't one for squeeing over cute things (unless those cute things are deltoids), but even she can admit that was really, really cute.

"We'd need to learn a lot more cheers before we're ready to challenge Samezuka's squad!"

Not that she wasn't thinking it over. There may or may not have been a training schedule already developing in the back of her head.

"--Oh! Yeah! Go for it!"

"Ahahaha, you've got a point." Honestly, now he was just imagining Rin's face if Iwatobi ever really did show up with a whole crowd of Plusle as cheerleaders. Would that even be safe, that many of them near a pool--?

--He was getting distracted.

"Right, okay. Let's see who's in here!"

He tossed the ball - not as far as he could have, but far enough that it had some space - and the next moment, both newly minted trainers, plus Plusle, were faced with about eight feet of blue, plesiosaur-looking thing.

"Whoa!" Holy shit. "I - I think I know this one. That's a Lapras, isn't it?!" And this was his? Playing the games when he was a kid definitely hadn't prepared him for how huge it was...!

Yeah, they'd probably end up banned from the pool. Still, it'd almost be worth it.

Oh, and they also had a blue dinosaur, which Gou backed up a little from. Getting crushed by a flipper didn't seem like the best way to start.

"Oh my god, it's humongous!" they couldn't enter him into swim competitions, could they? Lapras was probably too big to even fit in the pool---

"He can probably swim, right?" Her memory for pokemon was pretty dim, but she remembered a few things.

"Well-- yeah, yeah, Lapras can swim! They're one of the pokemon you can ride on the back of to cross the ocean, I think!"

Makoto's voice was a little higher-pitched than normal - half from excitement, and half, it must be said, from shock. Lapras, on the other hand, was intently watching the two talk, tilting its head in curiosity. Noticing, Makoto took a few steps closer to the pokemon, looking up at its huge, placid bulk.

"I guess the Pokedex could tell us for sure," he mused, hesitating before he reached a hand out to the creature.

"Oh! I think we'd need a badge to learn the move... that's how it works in the game, right?"

This wasn't the game, though. Maybe it worked differently once you were in it.

"What does the dex say?"

Sooner or later, her Plusle was gonna end up climbing onto that Larpas' shell and hang out. Right now, though, he boggled just like everybody else from the sheer size.

"I think so?" He pulled a slight face. "It's been a while... mostly I just remember Haru managing to beat me in link battles every single time even though he only had a team of water types that was at least half Vaporeons."

Seriously. How Haru ever beat the Elite Four with a team of just water types is forever a mystery for the ages.

"--Uh, anyway, let's see! Uhhhh... yeah, it says 'ferries people across the sea on its back' here, so I guess that part must be true-- whoa!"

'Whoa' being Makoto's reaction to Lapras lightly headbutting his outstretched hand.

"That sounds like something he would do..." Somewhere between laughing and facepalming, that's where Gou was.

"Maybe there's a way to test it out!" She started looking around for a body of water, uh, big enough to hold that Lapras. Sure, there were some puddles, and mud -- must have rained earlier, and pretty hard -- but maybe they'd hit a lake...

"Oh, I think it likes you." Definitely a giggle this time.

"Ahaha, I guess so...!" He couldn't help grinning, a little pleased, as he gave the pokemon a few tentative pats.

"Mm, but when it comes to testing it out... ah, maybe there's a map function in this thing as well as the phone and the Pokedex? We could see if there's any water nearby!"

Let's get another look at that menu screen...

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