Back on the islands

[schachmeister]

Who: Armin Arlert & ???
Where: Island four, Attack on Voltron house, Marine research centre
When: Backdated a bit to stretch from the last week of July to the end of August
Summary: After two months of Scavenger Hunting, Armin has returned home. Various open prompts inside, closed prompts in the comments.
Rating: Gen.
Log:

[a. the marine center]

[What is a trip to the Sevii islands without a dive down to the reef? Whether you want to go there to enjoy the sights, try and find a new water pokemon to add to your collection or you'd like to learn more about the pokemon living on the reef, the Marine Research Center is there for you. Not only can you rent diving gear and a friendly Wailmer there to take you down, any water pokemon related questions can surely be answered by the employees.

The center itself is pretty small and cosy looking, a large cheery sign inviting you in for equipment and Wailmer rentals. Inside, the walls are covered with bright posters of various Water pokemon and pictures of the reef. A pamphlet stand stands next to a small counter, as well as a rack of small souvenirs. Hey, who doesn't want a keychain to remember diving in the Sevii Islands? A blond is shuffling around the room --It's ya boy, Armin-- straightening and refilling various informational pamphlets. A badge on a lanyard identifies him as an employee of the center, and when he notices you, he stops with what he is doing.]

Welcome.


--


[b. the beach]

[Armin had plenty of fun the last two months travelling and seeing parts of both Johto and Kanto. He didn't manage to find everybody on the list, but that's all right. What he did miss though is, well, this. The island. The Beach.

Finding Armin on the beach is easier than finding a zubat in a cave. You might find him reading a book (or two, three). He might be there training a few of his pokemon or he might just be having fun, playing with them in the surf. Either way, if you want to run into Armin, or perhaps, challenge him for a battle, the beach is the place to go.]


--


[c. the house]

[If at any point you walk into the kitchen, you might be treated to an interesting sight. It's the sight of Armin, slightly hunched over, his brows furrowed, as he works really really hard on figuring something out. No, he isn't trying to get through a thick and complex book. Nor is he trying to figure out the logistics of breeding his Lapras pod without turning it into the Habsburgs part II, return of the chin.

No, Armin is frowning, glancing from a book --some sort of instruction manual with a large Porygon on the front-- to... a laptop.

Before he had left to travel, the people at the research center had told him that it was possible for him to start taking online classes if he wanted once he got back. All he would need was a laptop. So, when he had been gearing up to return home, Armin had made a last stop in Goldenrod City and bought himself a laptop with the money he had been saving up.

But it turns out just owning a laptop doesn't mean you actually know how to use it. Especially not for someone who, until two years ago, didn't even know what electricity was.

And if that isn't enough, there is a Meowth sitting on the kitchen table, 'helping'. Because parking her butt on Armin's instructional manual while his eyes are on the screen, or trying to walk across the keyboard when Armin shoos her off the book, or batting at his hand when he actually tries typing is definitely helping. Luna is the very best helper, yes she is.]

Luna, don’t.

[Come save him? Or maybe help him out?]


--


[d. the ditto]

[Picture this: it’s early in the morning. Or maybe afternoon. Or it could be night. It could happen to you at any time. It could happen to you in the kitchen, it could happen to you in the bathroom. It might even happen to you in the living room. Wherever you are, whatever time it may be, you might find that that object you just picked up —-be it your coffee cup, the remote control, the toilet paper roll— suddenly turns squishy and malleable in your hands. Also, it has a face. And is a Ditto.

Congrats. You’ve just met Armin’s newest team member.

Please don’t wipe your ass with him.]


--


[e. July 30th]

[On July 30th, Armin can be found on the beach. This is not particularly unusual, but he isn't there alone. He has shooed away all the rest of his pokemon --except his Poliwag who seemed very interested and in sitting on his lap-- and a little ways away from him, nestled on the warm sand, lays a pokemon egg. And not just any kind of egg. It's got a few large cracks running along its shell, and occasionally it twitches and vibrates. It's an egg ready to hatch, and knowing what it will hatch into, Armin took it outside. After all, nobody wants a Lapras hatching on their lap.

Armin's come prepared. He's got a backpack with some food and water --who knows how long it will take, after all-- and he's got a journal laying open and ready to record a few more things. This will be the first Lapras he'll add to the pod, the first one he's hatched himself, and he's trying very hard to do it exactly right. Feel free to come across him. Maybe he won't mind sharing this moment.]


--


[Anything else? Wildcard me.]

Comments

[schachmeister]

[Armin is a... decent typist. He's fairly good at typing without errors, he just... types like a grandpa. Hunt and peck, hunt and peck.

He fills in his name, then eyes the password prompt.]

Can I use anything for a password?

[shiro2hero]

[Okay well... that's not bad. Actually. There's definitely been worse.]

Yeah, you can. Long as you're going to remember it later.

[schachmeister]

[Armin's got a good memory, but this sounds very important.]

Should I write it down somewhere?

[He's got like twelve notebooks at this point, it's cool.]

[shiro2hero]

You can, yeah. There's usually password recovery options too if you forget.

But I don't think anyone's going to be going into your notebooks... so go ahead.

[Why would anyone want to break into Armin's computer anyways.]

[schachmeister]

[Armin thinks for a moment, before inputting his password: his grandfather's name. He doubts he'll forget that.

and you never know. They might be after his stash of Wailord pictures.

With username and password chosen, the computer moves onto the next option of possibly retrieving data from a back-up.]

What do they mean by back-up in this case?

[shiro2hero]

Mm... it means make a copy, basically. In case something happens to the way this computer stores its data.

I don't know if we have a back-up drive anywhere, though.

[schachmeister]

That makes sense.

[And is actually a pretty good idea. Armin will have to look into this when he... actually has some data worth storing.]

Well, I never had a laptop before, so I can skip this question, right?

[shiro2hero]

Yeah, you can. For now anyway. You can always back up your data later on.

[Heck, later on, Pidge might know exactly where to find a spare hard drive.]

[schachmeister]

[Pidge could probably put him together a server array like this world has never seen. Before breakfast.

Armin clicks past the back-up message, then a few other ones, and with another soft ding, the desk top loads.]

Is it... is it ready to be used now?

[shiro2hero]

[That's... probably very true. And very terrifying at the same time.]

[He grins, though, nodding to Armin.]

You got it. When you boot it up, it'll show the log in screen first -- where you put your name and password. Then it goes to this screen here.

[schachmeister]

[Okay, that sounds manageable. Armin can remember that much.]

All right. How do I turn it off when I am done? Do I just close it?

[You know, like a book.]

[shiro2hero]

Yeah, just close it and it should go into sleep mode.

Kind of like turning it off without powering it down all the way.

[schachmeister]

What is the difference, exactly?

[shiro2hero]

You've seen us pause movies right?

It's... a little bit like that. "Sleep" is like pause mode. Shutting it down is like turning the whole thing off altogether.

[schachmeister]

So I should put it to sleep when I intend to use it again soon and shut it down when I am done?

[At least, that is the reasoning behind pausing a movies vs turning it off.]

[shiro2hero]

That's about right, yeah. If you do that, you'll be just fine.

[Armin you're so smart. He's so proud of you.]

[schachmeister]

[Shiro, he just figured when to shut down his laptop, he didn't get a Nobel prize.]

So, how do I shut it down completely?

[shiro2hero]

[Accept his pride.]

Same way you turned it on. Either hit the button, or... there's a shut down option on the desktop, usually.

[schachmeister]

[Not until he gets a Nobel prize.]

I don't see it.

[Armin is starting at the desktop, trying to find this shut down option. Of course, he is expecting there to be a big button labelled shut down somewhere. Which... not so much how it works.]

[shiro2hero]

Ah... here.

Click on this.

[He doesn't want to just take the thing away from Armin and show him that way. That's not how you learn.]

[schachmeister]

[Armin clicks and up pops a list of possibilities. And he can see shutdown at the bottom of the list,

He moves the little arrow to the list, hovering it over (but not clicking) the shutdown button.]

Oh, is it this?

[shiro2hero]

There it is! You got it.

[You nailed it, Armin. Way to be.]

So when you want to shut it down, you just click that. It should do the rest.

[schachmeister]

[Oh. That sounds pretty simple. Armin thinks he can remember that just fine.]

What about all these other options? What do they do?

[shiro2hero]

A lot of these are display settings. How bright you want the screen, what colors to use... which photo you want as a background... That kind of thing.

[Display is probably important to Armin, since he can probably put a photo of his Wailmer herd up there.]

[schachmeister]

[God, Shiro, are you a mind reader now?]

You can change the picture? Can it be anything?

[Can it be a whale.]