victory_road | Just a life-affirming side-trip [closed]

Entry tags:

Just a life-affirming side-trip [closed]

Who: Armin Arlert (

schachmeister) & Jean Kirschtein (

notvaljean)
Where: Route 24 & 25
When: 09/06 until 13/06 or 14/06 roughly
Summary: Armin goes pokemon catching, Jean tags along. Magikarps and serious talks happen.
Rating: Gen. Maybe some talk about traumatic canon events and self-loathing.
Log:

It's Holly who first notices they are being followed, and she reaches up to tug on the hem of Armin's shirt, gesturing behind them with one of her little paws. It is enough to pull Armin from his thoughts --which are all on the next route and the pokemon he intends (hopes) to catch-- with a soft noise of surprise and he turns to squint back behind them at the slightly blurry figure making its way towards them. A friend? One of the others?

(ah, but wouldn't one of them just have contacted him via the gear if it was important? He had told them where he was going, after all.)

Or someone else entirely? Maybe just someone going in the same direction as them?

Really, there is nothing for it to just wait and see. Kneeling down, Armin digs through his bag to take out a fresh bottle of water, giving some to Holly. He'll be depending a lot on her on the next route and these coming few days; it wouldn't do to let her get exhausted.

It's with a little bit of surprise that Armin realises it is Jean following them when he is finally near enough for him to properly see, and he waits patiently for him to fully catch up. "Jean. What are you doing here?"

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"Hi."

For once, Jean isn't accompanied by his rolling ball of death, or any ball-shaped Pokemon. Today, he's accompanied only by a red and white Lycanroc who's looking awfully down on his luck, moping and whining along behind him, and Spookycheeks, who is riding on top of his backpack and peeking out around Jean's head. She waggles her ears and chirps cheerfully when she sees Armin. Hello, Small Yellow!

For someone who just chased Armin down, Jean is awfully reluctant to meet his eyes, and scuffs his feet on the ground a little. "Can I tag along? I left Blitz and everyone noisy back at the camp."

Blitz is on guard duty, which he takes very seriously, so he won't be following them.

Armin arches a brow in surprise, while Holly waves her own hello at Spookycheeks. "I don't mind but..."

He lets his words trail off for just a moment as he studies Jean. He doesn't really seem like his normal self. Armin can probably count the times he's seen Jean reluctant on one hand, and that would be including right now. "Are you okay, Jean?"

For a split second Armin wonders if he had a fight with Eren, but then quickly dismisses it. No, if Jean had fought with Eren, he'd be standing here fuming and ranting, all sharp gestures and harsh words. So it couldn't be that.

Nah, a fight with Eren probably would have made Jean feel better, not as low as he's feeling right now. Maybe he should go back to the camp, walk right up to Eren, and slug him in the face?

"I can go back if you want to be alone." Maybe Armin had a weird weekend too? He hasn't seemed that different from normal, but then, Jean and Bertolt have been mopey as hell lately so they might have missed something.

Jean shrugs, which is about as much of an answer to whether he's fine or not as Armin is going to get. "Are you going out to catch something? Want a hand?"

Yeah, how about we don't do that.

"No, it's fine. I don't mind the company." All things considered, Armin's weekend hadn't been that bad. So much of his time had been taken up by dealing with Eren in his titan form, he didn't really have a chance to meet anyone else. But some of the revelations and conversations he's had since then had been enough that he was quite eager for some time to process it all.

He had intended to do that alone, but ah, Jean's company wasn't so bad. He usually let him think whenever he wanted to.

"Mr Pines' birthday is coming up. There is a pokemon on the next route that I think he'd like so I'm going to try and catch one for him."

"I can help you with that." A search for a specific Pokemon is something that will take Jean's mind off things, and he falls in step beside Armin.

"Do you know that he makes me call him Doctor Pines? What are we trying to catch for him?"

Something weird and probably creepy, Jean assumes.

"Really? He's never objected to me calling him Mr Pines." Armin knows Ford is a doctor --he didn't get twelve Ph.Ds not to let people know, you know?-- but he had never been asked to call Ford by his title. Was Ford playing favourites?

"Ah, it's--" Armin retrieves his gear from his pocket, and with a few taps and a quick search, he brings up the entry for Solosis. "We've been talking about cells, and this pokemon is supposed to look like one, so I thought he might like it. It is supposed to be pretty rare, so that's why I'm hoping Holly will be able to lure one near."

So, for once, not too weird and creepy. Just nerdy.

Ford is totally playing favorites, and soon, everyone will know! "He was pretty insistent that I call him Doctor."

Jerk. These kids are on to you now!

Jean looks at the picture on the Pokedex and nods. "It looks like a butt inside a green circle." Which, hey, if that's what Ford wants, then that's what they'll catch! It matches his theme of weird, round Pokemon, after all.

"It does not." Armin huffs slightly, pulling the gear back. For a moment he studies the pokemon on the screen, but no, it definitely does not look like a butt. Not in any shape or form. "It looks like a cell."

Edited 2017-06-13 10:42 (UTC)

For the first time all day, Jean smiles a little. "Okay, if that's what cells look like, then it looks like a cell."

A pause.

"And cells look like butts."

The things Armin has to deal with!

(He doesn't allow his brain to dwell on the fact that it is great to talk about these sort of things with Jean, even if he is being purposely frustrating right now, versus the sort of conversations they'd have back home. Assuming they'd ever even have a friendship like this.)

Tucking his gear back into his pocket, Armin goes for his bag next, withdrawing a book. It's a biology book aimed at children. It is clearly meant for a slightly younger age group than they are part of, but there had been no avoiding that with how little they seem to know about, well, everything. Back home, Armin had liked to think he was reasonably well read, but everything he knows seems paltry or hopelessly outdated to what is known in this world.

Paging open the book, he holds it up so Jean can see. It's open to a page that has a simplified diagram of a human cell. "This is a cell. Every living thing that exists is made up of these, you know?" A pause. "And they do not look like butts."

Edited 2017-06-13 19:42 (UTC)

Yes, yes, poor Armin, he suffers so. And yes, this is definitely preferable to how they used to talk to each other back home, when they'd talk to each other at all. Jean has realized that he'd miss this relationship, were it to suddenly go away.

Jean waits patiently while Armin flips through his book--he could comment about how nerdy it is to take a book on a Pokemon hunting expedition, but considering he has his copy of Pokemon Redwall, book three, in his bag, he can't really say anything--and then takes it when Armin has found the right page. His brow furrows as he looks down at the page, studying the diagrams, before handing it back. "So that's the thing we're all made out of? Pretty neat. How'd they figure that out?"

Another pause. "Figure out that we're all made of tiny butts, that is."

You wound him, sir. It's not-- yeah, okay, it is pretty damn nerdy. But Armin had expected to go on this journey alone. He'd need something to fill his evenings with. And the book is interesting (to him). How many more things must be out there in the world he doesn't even know anything about. He can only imagine how squad leader Hange would react to learning about any of this.

Armin huffs a little at Jean's words, but he is suppressing a smile. "Well, you are definitely made up of butts."

Cause you are an ass, Jean Kirschtein. And let that be known.

But of course he wouldn't be Armin if he didn't also actually answer Jean's question. "You can see them under a microscope." He flips back a few pages to where there is a picture of an electron microscope. "We've microscopes back home too, but not like this." He shakes his head a little, his hair dancing around his ears. "I'm not entirely certain how they work, but see, they can magnify things incredibly well." He points at some of the pictures accompanying the illustration of the microscope. "See, those are pictures taken with one. Of actual cells. That is a human cell. And this one is from a plant pokemon. And that is a bacteria."

Squad Leader Hange would be in a constant state of elation in this world, with so much to learn about and discover. If she didn't have Moblit around to calm her down, she'd probably work herself into exhaustion within a week.

"Only the finest butts made me."

Amazing. Who would have thought that Armin would ever be able to get Jean out of a funk so easily? It's a little uncanny how much better Jean feels already. The miasma will certainly descend again later, but for right now, he's feeling a bit like himself again.

Jean duly examines the pictures, particularly the one from a plant Pokemon. "Is that why they're called cells?" He points to the neat, orderly border around the cell. "Because this one looks like a box, or a prison cell."

"As you were made by your parents, wouldn't that just imply your mother and father have the finest butts?"

You know, just talking logically here. And also possibly just messing with Jean a tiny fraction. Armin has noticed he has been cheering up since they set out together, and he wonders if it is something back at camp that bothers him. They've been travelling at such close quarters and Jean did have a perchance for picking fights with people --he really was too honest-- so perhaps that was the issue?

Jean's second comment has Armin beaming. "Exactly. The man who discovered these thought they resembled the cells monks live in, so he named them after that."

"Which they passed down to me."

Jean can certainly get hostile and prickly around camp, but that's not his problem today. He's been avoiding Eren, so there haven't been any shounen understandings recently, and he and Bertolt have worked out an understanding regarding needing space.

"Why aren't the animal ones square?"

Armin's shoulder companionably bumps into Jean's as they walk, his fingers skimming over the page to point things out. "Plant cells have a cell wall surrounding the cell membrane." He points at the thicker outline. "Animal cells don't have one. Because of the cell wall, plant cells are a lot more rigid than animal cells and end up in a fixed shape. Plants don't have anything like a skeleton to provide support, so they need to get that sort of thing from their very cells. It's also how they move water throughout the whole plant." Armin glances up at Jean, a bright smile on his face. It's the 'I've been learning so much interesting stuff' face. "That's why plants start to wilt when they don't get enough water. Without enough water, the cells can't maintain their fixed shape very well and everything starts to droop."

Edited 2017-06-16 15:47 (UTC)

"Huh." Jean has followed most of that, and can't help smiling back when Armin beams at him. What a damn nerd, getting all excited about this science stuff. He's going to end up being Hange's little protege back home--if they ever go back home--or Jean will eat his hat.

"Do they have any pictures of ghost Pokemon cells?" Spookycheeks chirps happily from her spot on top of Jean's bag. Yes, please, show them the ghost pictures!

"Here." Armin turns a few more pages, pointing at an illustration on one of the pages. "Those are cells belonging to ghost pokemon. They are fairly similar to other animal cells just with a few special features."

Which we shall not discuss because how in the world do pokemon genetics even work? How do ghosts work? Who even knows, man. Who even knows.

Now those are some weird cells, and they have a long and detailed discussion about Pokemon ghost cells and genetics, much to Spookycheeks' delight.

Eventually, though, the conversation starts to wind down, and Jean gets quiet again, scuffling his feet on the dirt path. "Are you trying to catch anything besides the butt Pokemon?"

Armin makes a soft and thoughtful noise as he considers that question. "Well, I suppose if something interesting crosses my path I won't say no, but I have no specific plans. I guess I kind of want a solosis as well, but with how hard they are to find, I first want to focus on getting one for Mr Pines."

His eyes flick to the side. "What about you?" He catches his lip between his teeth for a moment before adding. "I don't mind you coming along, but you haven't told me yet why you so suddenly wanted to. Is there something you want to catch out there?"

Is it embarrassing? Armin won't laugh.

"Maybe if you can just catch the one, you can ask Bertolt if he can breed you an egg from it." Bubblegum seems dtf with just about any Pokemon, so it'd probably bang a butt/cell Pokemon too.

Jean shakes his head at Armin's question. "No. I like where my team is at right now, and I've had too many eggs and babies recently to think about catching other stuff." Jean looks away, and Spookycheeks pats his head with one shadowy claw. There there, you can tell Small Yellow, he won't laugh! "I, uh... I found out some stuff this last weekend. Weird stuff. And I guess I kind of wanted your opinion."

Which means that he values it, which Jean hopes Armin can infer.

Weird stuff?

Armin's eyes flick to Jean once again. And at first, his mind immediately goes to Bertolt and the things Bertolt had told him. Those things certainly could be classified as weird, and Armin suspects that Bertolt had quietly, in his own way, told everybody. Was Jean struggling with what he had been told by Bertolt? Made uncomfortable? They did share a tent after all.

"Is this... about Bertolt?"

That was quite the leap to make, and Jean is reminded again of how smart Armin is. Of course, Bertolt has probably talked to Armin too, but Jean also doesn't want to betray his confidences if he didn't. He remembers how Bertolt had called him one of his best friends, and that's a fragile thing, something Jean isn't entirely sure how to take care of, and he doesn't want to damage the new--to him--relationship.

"What did Bertolt tell you?"

"He let me know where he was during that strange weekend."

Armin deliberately phrases it vaguely. If Bertolt had talked with Jean already, Jean should know what he is talking about. But if he hadn't and Bertolt had only told Armin this stuff, he wouldn't be betraying Bertolt's trust in him.

Besides, Armin doesn't exactly what to break the news to Jean that Bertolt is.... like that. It feels too gossip-y. He wouldn't enjoy people talking about his private business and relationships behind his back, so he can imagine that Bertolt, taciturn, withdrawn Bertolt isn't exactly a fan either.

"Did he tell you who he was with? And what they did?"

Jean has to assume that Bertolt told Armin too, at least about Reiner showing up, but he still wants to be vague about it. Bertolt is a better friend than he gave him credit for, and he doesn't want to give him away.

This is stupid. Why are they talking about Bertolt, anyway?

"But no, it's not about him. Not really. Bertolt and I are fine."

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imagine it's the side eye icon that I'm using here

they both side-eye each other. Do you know about... The Thing?

depends on which Thing Armin is talking about!