Sinnoh Catch-all log | both open / closed prompts

[schachmeister]

Who: Armin & all you fine people
Where: All over Sinnoh
When: From August 10th to August 24th
Summary: Catch all log for Armin's many Sinnoh shenanigans.

Comments

Airplane prompts - August 9th/10th

[schachmeister]

While the short trip through the airport and the prospect of riding a plane might be fairly ordinary to some, perhaps even boring, to Armin it is incredible. Technology like this absolutely does not exist where he is from, and even in the four years he has been here, he's never been able to experience something like this. Fly on the back of a pokemon? Yes. Fly in some sort of giant metal tube at speeds that dazzle the imagination? No.

Armin has managed to obtain one of the window seats. Maybe he was just quick about this. Maybe nobody wanted to say no to those big baby-blues. In any case, he has settled in quite nicely (leg-room is no issue when you are short) and excited enough about the prospect of the upcoming Sinnoh journey that he has no intention of sleeping through this flight.

At various points, Armin can be found with his face all but flattened against the tiny window, peering at the scenery below. He's had some experience with soaring over things, but never at this height. It's utterly incredible, both how small everything looks down below, and how the clouds look from this height. Especially once dawn starts coming on and the light starts illuminating the world below, you might find yourself tapped on the arm or hear him mutter softly to himself: "It's all so beautiful."

And when he isn't staring out of the tiny window, Armin is curiously examining everything within reach. The small display on the back of the chair in front of him is particularly of interest. He has no interest in the offered entertainment, but the screens with information about Sinnoh and other flight details are far more of a hit with him. And if you are sitting close to him, don't be surprised if you are bombarded with a question or two like: "What are your plans when we land?" and "Are you going to challenge the gym leader?" and even "How does this machine fly? It must be incredibly heavy, right?"

So. Enjoy.

[brokencode]

Between the lack of sleep the night before from excitement, and the sheer terror of take-off, Angel finds herself tapped out relatively quickly energy wise. She doesn't really intend to fall asleep, and even as she realizes she's slipping under, promises that she won't stay asleep for long.

She absolutely doesn't plan for her head to come to rest against Armin's shoulder, either.

As night gives way to dawn, some mix of Armin's mutterings and her own restlessness gives way to consciousness. She blinks awake, rubbing at her eyes before shooting an apologetic glance at her companion. She starts to form a much more wholehearted apology, but... Whatever words she's forming leave her just as soon as she sees what Armin's looking at.

"You're right. It's amazing."

[schachmeister]

When Angel first starts dozing off on his shoulder, Armin goes quiet and still. It's like having a kitten nap on your lap. You'd have to be an utter bastard of a person to even think of waking them up.

But when the sun slowly starts coming up, the first rays of light starting to filter through the massive towering clouds, illuminating ocean and islands below, glinting off far-away mountain peaks, he cannot help but have a few awed words slip from his lips. He has seen sights like this in pictures, but never with his very own eyes. It's incredible. The world is so incredible and beautiful.

He's so enraptured with the sight, he doesn't even notice Angel stirring. Or her lifting her head off his shoulder. In fact, he doesn't realise she is awake until he speaks and then he instantly feels a stab of guilt. He hadn't meant to wake her! "I'm sorry for waking you up."

[brokencode]

Angel is quick to shake her head. She flashes a soft, reassuring smile as she leans in close to him, then past him as she tries to get a good look at the scenery below and beyond them. She places a hand against his arm even as she does, keeping herself balanced as her position becomes more and more awkward.

"I should be thanking you." She puts her hand up against the window, just for a moment. As if she might be able to reach out and touch the scenery. "Imagine missing something like this!"

She leans back after a moment, careful not to hog the view entirely. The hand on his arm drops, fingers seeking to interlace themselves with Armin's own.

[schachmeister]

Instinctively, he squeezes her hand when she interlaces their fingers, though his attention is still fully on the window. "It's really beautiful, isn't it? The world is..."

The ocean might hold a special place in Armin's heart, but as a child, it wasn't just the ocean he had dreamt of seeing: lands of sand and ice, burning mountains, he had wanted to experience it all. And this world is allowing him to do so. Allowing him to experience things he had never even thought possible before.

It's enough to make you feel very grateful and more than a little emotionally touched.

"Just look at it. It's hard to imagine that the world is this huge."

He doesn't know if his own world is as big as this one is, but the thought that there could potentially be this much out there beyond the walls (though from talking to Jean he knows that it is certainly not a welcoming, peaceful world) and that they had all grown up confined to such a tiny part of it... how caged they had been.

[runicfeathers]

Unlike Armin, Willow isn't as on board with the excitement. In fact she's feeling a bit anxious about the flight and it's visible, even having gotten herself a murkrow stuffy since she was not able to have Lythie out of her pokeball on the flight, practically clinging to the fake bird. Being tapped on the arm is met with quiet nods and soft confirmations that it is beautiful. "Y-yes it is, quite beautiful."

Unfortunately for Willow, the anxiousness is clear in her voice, even if she wholeheartedly agrees that the view below is breathtakingly beautiful. Ironic that a bird is nervous of flying.

[schachmeister]

There really is no hiding Willow's anxiety. It bleeds into her voice, her posture, the way she is gripping her little stuffed animal. It makes Armin feels for her --he certainly knows what it is like to be afraid-- though it also makes him wonder why he isn't feeling afraid. It's not like he has ever flown in a plane before. Or even 100% understands how it works --that is something to look up when they land-- and yet, he feels no worries.

Perhaps it is because he's used to using the gear. Once you get used to propelling yourself through the air at breakneck speed, maybe a comfortable steady flight like this is nothing.

He gives Willow a sympathetic smile. "Not used to this sort of thing?"

[runicfeathers]

As much as she'd wish to deny it, she can't deny this. It's too obvious and even she can see that about herself, after all, she knows better than anyone how her own voice sounds at the moment.

"Not like this." She's used to flying in her own true form or on another creature's back at home, or now being powerless: on the back of her Staraptor or Corviknight. "It's not something we have back at home, not like this at least." Her speech has become different in her time here as well, more casual than her arrival.

[schachmeister]

"It's the same for the world I come from. Technology like this... it's probably centuries before we'd be able to make something like this. If we ever could." If they could ever stop fighting the titans and each other for long enough to focus on building amazing things like this.

"We do have our 3DMG though. I wonder if this sight doesn't bother me because I am used to that." He gives her a wry smile. "I was absolutely terrified when I first started learning how to use it. Actually, I don't think I ever fully got comfortable with it. Not like some of my friends were."

[sleepallthewayhome]

Newt has also managed to snag a window seat and is enjoying the leg room that comes from being tiny. She does however listen to all the safety advice given to her before she starts to look out the window with wonder though.

Yes she's from a place with spaceships but still.... Hearing Armin in the seat in front of her she'll peak ahead to see him staring at the windows too.

"We're so high up!"

She's so excited.

[schachmeister]

Armin cranes himself around in his seat so he can catch Newt's eyes over the headrest.

"Isn't it incredible? I never thought I'd ever be up this high. Not even birds fly at these heights."

Some people might be embarrassed about being as excited as a ten year old when faced with new experiences. Not Armin though. Many things embarrass him, but not the joy of new discovery.

[sleepallthewayhome]

"I've been in space but I've never got to fly in the normal air this high. You can still see things!"

And none of it's on fire either. This world is the best.

[schachmeister]

Things not being on fire is always a major plus.

"Couldn't you see anything while you were in space? Things like stars, I mean."

[insidescoop]

"How does i- EH!?"

It takes a moment to realize what Armin is asking. "Y- You're asking me how the plane flies..!? I- I mean I'm no engineer you know..!"

[schachmeister]

"It's all right if you don't know. I was just-- your world has technology like this, right?" He had gotten the impression that Carly came from a world that was fairly similar to this in terms of technology. "I was hoping that maybe it was something that people from those kinds of worlds would just know."

[insidescoop]

"Yeah! It's common stuff. The tech here is...mmm. It's not really exact, but there's a lot that's pretty similar I guess. Planes...there's a lot about lift and how the air moves over it, and turbines...."

She's muttering.

[schachmeister]

"This machine must weight tons and tons though, right? It's all metal, after all. So how could air move all of it?"

He knows a bit of flight and lift. Some from his training and some from waiting birds fly. But birds flap their wings. And their bones are hollow to decrease their weight. Meanwhile this plane... Armin's wouldn't be surprised if it weighed as much as an Onix.

Inn hot baths - various evenings

[schachmeister]

Staying at the inn is interesting, to say the least. It is certainly not anything like home (the islands) or his own world, but there is something about the calm simplicity of it all that does strongly appeal to Armin.

That and there are the baths.

It turns out that trying to do all the things, digging up fossils, seeing the sights, making trips to every which way, leads to some pretty sore muscles. Pleasantly sore, but sore nonetheless.

During various evenings on this trip, Armin can be found in the Inn hot baths, practically sank into the hot water to the tip of his nose, allowing the heat to leech any aches out of his arms and legs. It's hot, yes, and it makes his cheeks flush tomato red, but it's so good.

But he certainly isn't opposed to some company either. In fact, if any other guest joins him, he sits up a bit to give them a nod, a smile if he actually knows them. And any friends will definitely get a greeting.

So, come join him! The water is great

(And let's not pay any attention to the sounds of girls on the other side of the divider. Or try and peek. This isn't some anime hot springs episode!!)

((or is it))

[angewiesen]

When Jean heard that the Underground was full of valuable evolution stones, he made a point of scheduling out a whole day during the trip to go spelunking. While he would have been happy with anything, since they could still be sold for a good price if he didn't currently need them, he really wanted a Dusk Stone to evolve his Doublade.

He worked his butt off from dawn to dusk (pun not intended) both digging and asking around the with other miners where the best spots were for digging up the stone he wanted. He found a lot of stuff he wasn't interested in that he tossed aside or gave to people around him, until finally, finally, he found what he was looking for.

Absolutely satisfied with how he spent his day, he returned to the Inn pleased as punch. He washed up, had a good dinner (although some of the stuff served here was totally foreign to him-- what was with all the raw fish?) and was recommended a hot bath afterwards. Eh, why not? If everyone was making such a big deal about it...

He gave himself another rinse off and headed for the hot springs. He didn't really care about being naked around other guys, so he wasn't shy about walking right in with nothing but a towel around his waist.

He especially didn't care when he saw that the only other person in the bath was Armin. They've seen each other naked out of practicality more times than he could count.

"Hey," Jean greeted him casually as he got in. Everyone who had told him about it was right, the springs were pleasantly hot. "You look beat. Long day?"

[schachmeister]

It's true. They had all seen a lot of each other's bare asses (and other assorted body parts) during their training. Privacy was one of those things recruits didn't get to have, along with sufficient food, and long term life plans.

When he heard someone come in, Armin sat up for a moment, just to see who it was, but upon seeing Jean, he sank back into the very welcoming water again, murmuring a greeting as Jean joined him in the bath.

"Yes. But the good kind of long." Armin had headed towards Mt Coronet that day. He hadn't explored the inside --that seemed like it was a recipe for getting lost and spending who knows how long in there-- but he had walked one of the paths that ran alongside the mountain's slope. It hadn't been a particularly difficult hike, but it had been long. Of course, the pictures he had been able to take, and the sights he had seen had made it well worth it.

"My feet feel like I've been one of Shadis' infamous death marches."

[angewiesen]

"Yeah, I'm glad those days are far behind me," Jean replied with a smirk. "Though, building orphanages and laying down railroad isn't that much easier. You'd be surprised how much manual labor you get roped into in the Corps later on."

There was plenty of room in the springs to stretch out, so he rested his arms back behind him on the ledge of tub, and leaned his head back a bit.

"It's too bad there's nothing like the Underground back in Kanto or Johto. I don't know how I would have been able to get my hands on a Dusk Stone otherwise. You finding a Dawn Stone at that castle and me finding something you wanted to trade for it was a real stroke of luck."

[schachmeister]

"It sounds a lot more rewarding, at least." At least if you were building orphanages or laying down railroads, by the end of your working day, you'd be able to see some progress. And by the end of the job, there would be some physical testament to all you had accomplished. When it came to Shadis' killer marches, there had never been a physical pay-off. Unless you counted blisters. There had been a lot of blisters, especially at the start when they had all still needed to break in their boots.

There was a slightly lazy drag to Armin's words. It just... the warm water was so nice. It made everything feel slow and relaxed. At Jean's comments that it's too bad there is nothing like the Underground back in Johto or Kanto, Armin nods, almost ready to point out the fossil fields on the Sevii islands when Jean mentioned it had been a dusk stone he was after.

Like. Exactly the same sort of dusk stone Armin had back home in his chest of things gathering dust.

"You needed a Dusk Stone? Jean, I have a Dusk stone. I've had one for... more than a year just gathering dust."

Re: Inn hot baths - various evenings

[cometkin]

"Ahhhh, this is the life," Greg says, sinking down into the deliciously warm water. "We'd have been cool in that capsule hotel, if Rose had fit... but I'm kinda glad she didn't. Free bathrobes, ping-pong, and fancy baths... the only thing nicer would be if they let us share with the girls."

What? He wants to take the fancy Sinnohese bath with his wife.

[schachmeister]

"I think that sort of thing would put a lot of people in an awkward spot."

Armin understands what for Greg, sharing a bath with his wife would be ideal. He doesn't even begrudge them the experience (just as long as he doesn't have to be anywhere near it.) It's just that if Greg and Rose could share, well, that would mean all the men and women would have to share right? Armin might be okay being (mostly) nude in front of other guys, but girls? He'd die!

Well, maybe if it was--

Do not even dare think about that.

[cometkin]

"Oh yeah," Greg admits. "That's probably true. But maybe they could have a handful of small baths for couples?"

... Armin looks maybe a little redder than usual. Huh. Is there a girl he likes? (Or heck, maybe a boy?)